Activities

Now that you have an overview of the resources available, let’s explore six key activities you can start using today to build your language skills.

Before we start, please remember there is no “correct” way to learn; I am trying to cover as many different preferences and goals as possible, but I can’t cover every preference or useful exercise. If something I recommend here doesn’t feel right, or you feel like your circumstances merit doing something more or less than the percentage ranges I give, go with your gut. If you need more guidance beyond these activities, head to Building Your Own Method for more info.

A reminder: we are trying to build our vocabulary, grammar, and the four skills. There’s overlap with each activity, meaning you can swap out or drop them. For each activity I will highlight what we are trying to do, so if you decide to mix it up you will know what you need to compensate for.

In the following sections you will learn:

How to do the activity
What it’s teaching you
Where in the guide you can find more info

The final section will give you an indication of how long to spend doing each.

The 6 key activities

I recommend you try to dedicate at least an hour per day to your language study. Split that time between these activities based on your own preference/interest.

The first four directly map on to the three core resources from the previous chapter. The next few are the key “extras” that will help you really take your language skills up a level.

Study with your course

There are two reasons we generally need courses:

They structure your learning
They teach you grammar

Courses vary greatly—whether you’re using an app, a teach-yourself book, or attending a class, each has its strengths and limitations. Here’s how to get the most out of your course:

Balance Strengths and Weaknesses—Identify what your course does well and where it might fall short. For instance:
- If your course focuses on grammar but offers little vocabulary, supplement with flashcards or input-based activities.
- If it lacks speaking practice, pair it with conversation sessions or a language exchange partner.
Stay Focused—Your course forms the core of your study routine, so ensure you’re well-rested and attentive when working through it. Progress here will reinforce other activities.
Diversify Over Time—While courses are a great starting point, relying solely on them can limit your growth.

Aim to spend about 50% of your study time on your course in the early stages and gradually reduce this as you expand into other activities.

Remember, your course is a tool—it’s there to guide you, but it’s not the only path to success. More guidance on grammar learning can be found in the Grammar chapter.

Flashcard study

At this early stage, think about using your flashcards for two outcomes:

Building a large vocabulary so you can understand content
Learning some key phrases so you can communicate

These will correspond to the two flashcard sub-activities below. How much of each you do will depend on what you enjoy and your goals.

If you’re not sure how to get the decks to show the cards the way you like, you may need to read the chapter Flashcards for more guidance.

Build a passive vocabulary

For this activity, find a shared deck online that has a lot of example words or sentences (I recommend sentences) in order of frequency. Use the target language side first, meaning you will see the word or sentence in the language you are learning, and need to understand what it means in English (or your native language) before you press good.

Learn key phrases

Similar to the above, find a deck online with words or sentences (I recommend sentences), but focus on the kinds of phrases you need, such as travel phrases or basic phrases. Use these with the English (or your native language) side first, and make sure you know how to say it correctly in the language you are learning before you press good. Some learners don’t do this activity, and rely on input and conversation practice to build the knowledge they need.

Mass input

As we saw in the resource section, input takes many forms: YouTube, TikTok, books, podcasts, etc. Whatever you use, make sure it is comprehensible and interesting to you. The mass input activity is simple: use the input while simply trying to understand as much as you can. Try not to pause or look things up until you’ve finished, and only do so if it feels necessary. This will give you the exposure you need to start building an intuition for how the language works, covering both vocabulary and grammar in one.

Input is critical for an effective method, but usually requires a bit of baseline knowledge to be much use. For that reason, beginners often don’t start off doing it. There is a huge variation in how much of this activity learns do due to different levels of interest, lifestyle, and learning priorities. The chapter dedicated to input will help you use input more effectively.

Conversation practice

One of the best language exercises you can do is conversation practice with a native speaker. It helps you activate the knowledge you already have, improves your speaking fluency, exposes you to new forms and vocabulary, and lets you get feedback in real time.

How to get conversation practice

The best way to practise speaking is to find a native speaker and start a language exchange, an activity in which you each spend time speaking each other’s language. There are a few options available to find native speakers:

Find someone in your personal life who is willing to help
Use the language exchange resources in the previous chapter
Use a community or group such as meetup.com

Similar to input, conversation practice takes a bit of baseline knowledge, so learners often don’t start with conversation early on. This is typically not a large portion of most people’s study routine due to constraints in accessing conversation partners. Use the Language exchange resources section to find a method that works for you. You can also pay for a tutor to get conversation practice, either online or in real life if available. If you need more help, the chapter Speaking provides more guidance on the topic.

Intensive reading

This exercise comes a bit later, once you’re already feeling comfortable with the basic structure of the language and know enough words to use some content. It is more common among intermediate learners, but is perfectly usable for beginners. This is a basic yet common form of this exercise. More detail and variations will be covered in the chapter Input.

To do this, find a piece of written content that you already understand 90–98% of. Ideally it won’t be long, but if it is, focus on a smaller section of it. You will then read your content multiple times. Each time you will read more carefully and try to gain new insight. Start just by skim-reading, then read again more carefully. Next, read again focusing on the parts that aren’t clear to you. Look up words and forms that are blocking your comprehension (don’t worry about anything else). Read it again one last time, and notice how the bits you have learned are now more clear to you. Aim to spend 20–40 minutes doing this.

Drill the writing system

If you already know the writing system of your target language, you can skip this section.

If your language uses a different writing system, I recommend you learn it well and early. It will pay off in the long run. You can use flashcards to learn, but there are also apps and courses out there that can teach you too. Choose based on your preference.

How much time to spend

The below table provides an indication of the percentage of their study time that experienced language learners typically spend with these activities. Use these as a rough guide, and note that it’s common for learners to not do some of them.

How much time to spend

Activity	Guidance on spending your time
Study with your course	Around 50%, gradually reducing as you expand into other activities
Build a passive vocabulary	Around 5-20%
Learn key phrases	Around 0-15%
Mass input	Around 0-10% at the very beginning, ramping up to 20-70%, depending on interest, lifestyle, and priorities
Conversation practice	Around 0-10%
Intensive reading	Around 0-40%
Drill the writing system	For characters (e.g. Chinese and Japanese): Around 20-40%; For scripts (e.g. Arabic, Russian, or Hindi): >50%, quickly reducing it once you are familiar with all the symbols

Here is an example split for a Spanish learner on day one versus day 60:

timespent

In this example, the learner made fast progress and rapidly reduced the time they spent with the course, utilising the extra time to diversify their activities and increase their time spent with input.

Moving forward

With these key activities covered, we’ll next explore how to build your routine. In the next chapter, we’ll look at some key ways to integrate your language into your life, keep yourself motivated, and spend the time necessary to ensure you succeed.