How To Learn A Language In 20 Minutes Per Day

Karoline Schnur, linguistics expert at Babbel

As you might expect in a language learning company, almost everyone who works at Babbel is multilingual. I say almost because I’m not one of them (yet). Like many native English speakers, my attempts to learn a second language in school were in vain. I have now reached an intermediate conversational level in German, but it’s nothing compared to my international colleagues. Every day I hear people walking around the office speaking dozens of different languages, code switching in conversations with different colleagues, and translating their funny idioms into English. But even among the serial language learners at Babbel, you’ll never find someone poring over French 101 textbooks, cramming themselves to fluency.

That’s because the central principle of the Babbel language learning approach is that people should spend about 20 minutes per day studying a new language. This is surprisingly short compared to the length of time university students are expected to study a language nightly (~90 minutes). So how are people at Babbel picking up new languages even though they’re putting in less time than I spent cramming Spanish verb conjugation in high school? I sat down with one of Babbel’s linguistic experts, Karoline Schnur, to find out how 20 minutes of learning per day is all you need to become proficient in a new language.

The Babbel Approach

Karoline started off by explaining the central principle behind the Babbel learning approach: “If you read a lot of information, you won’t be able to absorb everything. We call this information overload or cognitive overload.” She explained that the brain is a master at deciding what information in our daily lives is important and what is background noise. This background information is tossed out, and never makes it into our long-term memory. Great for guiding our day-to-day lives, but not so great for language learning.

Karoline was also keen to dispel the myths about cramming, or binge learning: “This is when you have a big test coming up so you sit down and try to learn everything that you need to know. But how much do you remember after a week? Probably not that much.” Instead of worrying about trying to do a lot all at once, it’s actually more important to repeat a smaller portion of information more frequently. She continued, “To get something into long term memory, you must make connections and repeat it. Repetition is really important in language learning.”

Fortunately, the Babbel App was specifically designed with the limitations of human memory in mind. Twenty minutes corresponds well with the principle of “chunking” in psychology — our brains work best at absorbing around seven new things at a time. As Karoline explained, “If you think about the capacity of your brain to digest around seven chunks of new information, the time is a clear limit. From our Babbel perspective, you could start with repetition: you repeat 10 items and you need less than 5 minutes for that. Then you can do a new lesson, which takes about 15 minutes. Now you have your 20 minutes.

Sounds easy enough, right?

Source: Babbel.com

About Author

Related items

  • My wife has abandoned our marital bed

    What you need to know:

    She no longer sleeps in our bed but in the sitting room, she does not like to get intimate yet when we do, I find myself on treatment for STIs

    Dear Heart2Heart, my wife and I have been together for some time now and we have a child together. However, of late, her behaviour has changed. She no longer sleeps in our bed but in the sitting room, she does not like to get intimate yet when we do, I find myself on treatment for STIs. Mind you, even through all this, I have never been tempted to cheat on her. I love my wife but I do not think she is faithful or in this marriage for the long-term. What should I do? Anonymous

    Credit: Daily Monitor

  • Speaker Oulanyah burial programme expected on Tuesday

    What you need to know:

    • The Speaker was first hospitalised at Mulago hospital and later at Nakasero Hospital before he was flown to the US. Earlier, he had been to Dubai where he underwent a surgical operation.

    Government has said it will issue an official statement about the burial arrangements of Speaker of Parliament Jacob Oulanyah on Tuesday.

    The minister for Presidency, Ms Milly Babalanda, tweeted on Sunday that the government will take charge of the Speaker’s burial arrangements.

    “Fellow Ugandans, it’s most unfortunate to lose our speaker. I commiserate with all Ugandans and Africa at large,” Ms Babalanda said.

    President Museveni on Sunday broke the news of the death of Mr Oulanyah, who had been hospitalised in Seatle, USA.

    Condolence messages then started pouring in, several of which were praising the deceased for his outstanding contribution as Speaker and deputy Speaker.

    The minister for ICT and National Guidance, Dr Chris Baryomunsi, said the government is scheduled to convene a meeting with Oulanyah’s family to discuss preparations for returning the body from the US.

    “We have to accord the speaker a decent burial. We urge fellow countrymen and women to continue praying for the members of the deceased’s family,” he said.

    About his sickness

    He said the deceased had been unwell for some time and had been to several hospitals.

    The minister said the Speaker was first hospitalised at Mulago hospital and later at Nakasero Hospital before he was flown to the US. Earlier, he had been to Dubai where he underwent a surgical operation.

    “He has been sick and the doctors and health workers have been attending to him but as to the cause of death, I think we shall wait for a postmortem report from the doctors who have been attending to him,” he said.

  • How govt will earn from oil, gas sector

    What you need to know:

    • Income. Government has provided a number of taxes under the Income Tax Amendment Bill through which Uganda will earn from the oil and Gas sector as a country.  

    Now that the oil development stage has started, it is easier to connect the dots on how the private sector will directly benefit from the resource. 

    A number of contracts have been drawn while hundreds or even thousands of others, are still in the pipeline. 

    However, beyond individual or company level benefits, the question is; how does Uganda, as a country, earn from the oil and gas sector?

    Pamela Natamba is the head of oil and gas division at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). 

    In her assessment, as a country, during the development stage, Uganda will mainly earn through taxes, given that there will be no commercial production until 2025. 

    Therefore, she notes, such earnings have been provided for in the Income Tax Amendment Bill, which particularly focuses on the oil and gas sector. 

    “That Bill has made specific provisions, but one of them which is very interesting is it introduces a Windfall Tax,” she says and notes that this tax will apply to licensees that have signed Petroleum Sharing Agreements, many of which have been involved in exploration up to the point of production. 

    These, she says, include large companies such as TotalEnergies, CNOOC and Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC), among others. 

    What the Bill puts in place, Natamba says, is that as long as you earn revenue in excess of a certain amount, you will be subjected to a Windfall Tax. 

    For instance, she explains, if international oil prices are expected to go for a certain amount you a company sells beyond what has been projected, the expectation is, the company will pay an extra tax over and above 30 percent. 

     

Login to post comments