Busy? 10 Ways to Learn a Language in 10 Minutes a Day

Are you too busy to learn a language? Think again! You can start learning in just 10 minutes a day. There are plenty of fun activities to build basic language skills, and you don’t even have to open a book. In this article, I’ll tell you 10 easy ways to learn a language in 10 minutes of practice each day.

1. Watch Clips of Your Favorite Shows with Subtitles

Hearing how your favorite TV characters sound in your target language can be entertaining, but also very beneficial for your skills. Try watching a clip of your favorite scene in the language you’re studying and see if you can recognize any familiar lines. Even if you don’t understand anything at the beginning, it won’t be long before you start to pick up the most frequently used words. Plus, it’s always fun to see how your favorite punchlines translate to other languages!

2. Learn the Lyrics to Songs in Your Target Language

Learning through music is easier than simply memorizing words. Look up the lyrics of your favorite songs, sing along, and use the translator to discover new words. This way, you can increase your vocabulary and exercise your memory and comprehension of the language. And, if you dare, you can surprise your friends with your new language skills at the next karaoke night!

3. Practice with Flashcards 

Flashcards aren’t just for tests. You can also use them to build your own vocabulary arsenal. Use flashcards to train your memory and learn a new set of words or phrases every day in less than 10 minutes. Some language apps and websites will let you use their flashcards for free. You can learn vocabulary for navigating the city, ordering at a restaurant, visiting the museum, and many more common scenarios.

4. Explore Social Media Creators in The Language You’re Studying

Let’s face it, we all love spending time on social media. And, you can benefit from the time you spend checking TikTok or Instagram just by looking for content in your target language. Discover pronunciation tips, learn conjugation tricks from native speakers, and listen to how the language is really used in the real world. You can even roleplay a conversation with a native speaker to practice using your language knowledge in different scenarios.

5. Listen to Language Podcasts

Podcasts are one of the best resources for busy language learners. There’s a wide variety of podcasts in every language, and you can listen to them for free on platforms like Spotify. One of the benefits to podcasts is that you can listen to them while doing daily activities like shopping, riding your bike to work, or cooking a meal. This is an excellent way to exercise your comprehension while you continue to learn a language—and you don’t even have to break up your current routine!

6. Read Short Comics

What’s great about comics is that they tend to have short dialogue lines, which makes them easy to translate. You can read them to test your vocabulary knowledge or use them to learn a couple of new quirky phrases. Even if you can’t understand everything that’s being said, you can always get a hint from the characters’ expressions. I especially recommend you do this if you’re learning a language with a different script like Japanese or Arabic.

7. Change the Language Settings on Your Phone

Did you know you can use scrolling on your phone to practice your target language? Change the language settings on your phone and use different apps like the weather app, maps, or even your calendar to get used to the language you’re studying. You’ll be surprised by how many common words you can learn just by using your phone.

8. Browse Recipes for Tasty Dishes

Take your language studies to your kitchen! Find recipes in your target language and learn food terms while you choose your next big meal. You’ll pick up essential cooking verbs, discover how to use different tenses, and – what’s best – savor the results of your language journey.

9. Look for Memes in Your Target Language

What better way to learn the way native speakers use a language than exploring the meaning behind the most common language-specific memes? While memes were created to express ideas or feelings on the internet, they’ve now become part of everyday speech. It’s not weird to hear references to memes in daily conversations. 

10. Play Language Games

Who said learning a language isn’t just a big game? Dive into online word puzzles, trivia, or apps that turn practice into play. From trivia to word puzzles, there are hundreds of websites and apps with interactive games to boost your skills and help you remember what you learned. It’s a fun way to spend 10 minutes of your day while you learn more about your target language.

10 Ways to Learn a Language in 10 Minutes: Final Thoughts

Learning a language doesn’t have to be a huge time commitment or feel like a chore. With just 10 minutes a day, you can have fun, discover new words, and start building your language skills little by little. Whether you’re belting out tunes, laughing at memes, or whipping up a tasty international dish, every small effort counts. So, why not start today? Your future multilingual self will thank you.