Personal Finance Blog
  •  About
  •  Best Posts
  •  Products
  •  Budget
  •  Invest
  •  Books
  •  Minimalism
  •  Help
  •  Contact
Home › Ask Sherry › Ask Sherry: Where do I find time to learn a new language?
Ask Sherry, Life

Ask Sherry: Where do I find time to learn a new language?

You asked, and I am answering every Friday once I have enough questions!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1DKFg6SD0Kmb_0U5yb4OTNfkvfmsf5dWxJJbZTzUtH7M/edit

You can ask any question using the form here.

When do you carve out the time to learn a foreign language and read books?

Honestly, when you want to do something badly enough, you find ways to do it.

For learning Spanish, I take mini breaks.

I go and grab a tea, while it water is boiling, I do a mini Duolingo lesson.

While I take a bathroom break, I do a lesson before coming back.

It takes 5-10 minutes.

For learning a language, I also eavesdrop on conversations in Spanish to pick up their accent / feel for the sounds, and then I practice in my head silently of what I’d respond to each person, trying to match the words and verbs together, then checking in Google Translate if I am correct.


Any time I hear Spanish or French, I tune in and focus on what they’re saying to practice as if they’re talking to me (when they’re not). It’s creepy.. and not creepy because it really has helped me.

For French, I also ask for a lot of help.

Today I read an email that said: “Feel pas“.. I asked my Team Lead: WTF is “feel” in French?.. He replied it’s an English word but they’ve used it here in Quebec to mean exactly that — to feel. So you can say “Feel pas” to mean “I do not feel well / I am sick”…. LOL It’s not French, it’s FRANGLAIS!

My partner said you can also say “File pas..“… but it was not spelled like that in his email, so it was not what the guy meant.

But in Spanish, I am searching out Spanish folks to make friends with so I can practice as well.

I’m ruthless…. I practice in my head all the time, what I would say, how I would describe something in Spanish, based on what vocab I have learned so far from Duolingo.

For reading, I get ZERO reading done with Little Bun at home, on me like white on rice, unless he is occupied with something new and shiny… so I do a lot of my reading on my Mommy Time Off on weekends while I am out running errands. I head into a cafe, I sit there, grab a hot overpriced frothy milk latte, and then I turn on my book and tune out.

And do you do these things every day or do you allot time for certain things on certain days?

I like to take some lunch breaks when I don’t go to yoga (laziness or don’t like the teacher), and I stay inside for lunch, and read instead of socializing.

I also have to mention that I am a very fast reader.

I have always been since I was a little girl and the world of books opened up for me. I used to devour about 20-30 young adult books a week, which surprised everyone, but I read very quickly. Some call it “skimming”, but I actually do read the words, I just read them whole rather than sounding out each syllable.

“Altogether” for instance, in my head is not “all-to-get-her..”.. it is “altogether” mashed together as one word, one feeling, one thought.

I don’t need to sound out words, I just recognize them as images. I hope Little Bun picks up this trick too because it made school VERY easy for me.

The only stuff I take time to read carefully is technical things like math, science, or anything very tricky.

I should also note that I play a few instruments, and I can read in three musical clefs, so I suspect that it has helped my reading abilities because I see the whole picture — what clef am I in? Bass? Treble? Alto?.. and then playing the piano for instance, lets me read two clefs at once with two hands… all of this has FOR SURE helped my reading skills advance to be as fast as it is.

So.. that’s how I find time to read. I make time. I carve it out.

I don’t let anyone encroach on it when it is Mommy Time.

But I also really love just sitting there and vegging out on videos… I have so much to catch up on in my queue that I am DYING for a day to watch them (not this week, I’m booked solid).

Still have a burning question?

You can ask any question using the form here and all of my previous Ask Sherry posts are here.

Love this? Please help me share it!

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Pinterest (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Tumblr (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to print (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email this to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related

Disclosure: Save. Spend. Splurge. uses affiliate links from Shopstyle and Amazon. If you click on a link, I could get a small commission, typically a few cents. Thank you for your kind support!
Ask Sherry Career Language Learning New School Time Work

Post navigation

  • ← Week of Money: Where I go crazy on sweets and desserts and pay for it
  • In the world of Save. Spend. Splurge.: Imagine if you just found out your future spouse had a trust fund →

Related posts

Ask Sherry: On buying a 1-bedroom apartment with 1 child and living arrangements

Why do I even bother giving free career advice to people who don’t listen? Feeling the frustration of it all.

Ask Sherry: How to begin investing

4 thoughts on “Ask Sherry: Where do I find time to learn a new language?”

  1. Dudes says:
    April 20, 2018 at 9:57 PM

    Sometime is hard to find time to do something, we really have to organize our days and weeks, just with that we can do more things (better things too) and stop losting and wasting time.

    Reply
    • Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge. says:
      April 28, 2018 at 9:34 AM

      TV is #1 time waster.. I have it on my laptop lol

      Reply
  2. PP Gal says:
    April 20, 2018 at 6:29 PM

    This might help during bathroom break. https://youtu.be/kEU9q1LOcI0

    I’ve been watching Lucy to improve my communication skills in Canada, a country influenced by English culture and language. (And to sound like Hermione.)

    She became fluent in Spanish which is somewhat influenced my native language: Tagalog. So I also want to learn Spanish. Maybe I should spend time in a province in the Philippines where the language is similar to Spain. A part of me wish I was born there though. 🙂

    Good luck with the lesson.

    Reply
    • Sherry of Save. Spend. Splurge. says:
      April 28, 2018 at 9:34 AM

      Thank you!

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes:

<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

Stay in Touch!

Products by Sherry

Ebates.ca

In a nutshell…

Save. Spend. Splurge.
[ wealth. style. minimalism. ]
WHO: sherry at savespendsplurge.com
MOST DEBT: cleared $60K in 18 months
FAVOURITE DAY: payday
HATES: being late & lazy people
EATS: pho, fried chicken, sashimi
DRINKS: homemade matcha lattes
SLEEPS: on a 100% authentic cotton Japanese futon
SHOPS: Style & closet for sale here
WRITES: Author of Books on Amazon.
BEAUTY: raves about Paula's Choice
WEBHOSTS WITH: BlueHost
...but you can read more about me here, read my best posts here, or get in touch with me here, and of course, Ask me anything here

Disclosure

Save. Spend. Splurge. uses affiliate links from Shopstyle and Amazon. If you click on a link, I could get a small commission, typically a few cents. Thank you for your kind support!

Keep up to date with me!

Reading Matter

Money
Style
Minimalism
Career
Life
Travel


SUBSCRIBE

Be the first one to find out when we have new content posted!

Stay in Touch

Site: Privacy Policy

The Budgeting Tool

About Me

I am a wealth-obsessed, style-focused, minimalist.

I got out of $60,000 of debt in 18 months with The Budgeting Tool which I now sell online and donate its net proceeds to charity, along with The Investing Tool.

I've also authored two books: Start a Blog Like a Boss - Making $1000 USD a month & Invest your Money Like a Boss - In 4 Hours a Year.

I earn like a princess when I work but am trying hard to live like a duchess instead by not spending all of it.

The rest of the time I relax and enjoy the time off by traveling, although traveling has been on hold lately with the arrival of Little Bun, my rambunctious, ever-hungry little boy.

Welcome.

©2019 Save. Spend. Splurge.. All rights reserved.
loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.