When I was a high school student, my teacher told me that learning a new language is a marathon, not a sprint. I didn’t truly know what that meant until I started teaching English abroad.

Most students want to learn English as quickly as possible, and they treat their lessons like a sprint. They memorize as much as possible, do a lot of work, and then become tired very quickly. Eventually, if the student pushes himself too hard and too fast, the lessons become overwhelming. Just like a runner who develops leg cramps, a student can become brain-tired, which makes it more likely that he’ll simply give up. He’ll stop the race.

The trick is to be steady, not fast. Mastering a new language is a long process, and it takes a lot of small steps. I always advise my students to be consistent. Choose a daily goal, even a very small one, and they can continue this race without giving up. For example, a language learner can start a journal and write one entry every day. It can be as short as a sentence or as long as several pages. He shouldn’t be too ambitious, and he should know exactly how much he can reasonably manage.

The same goes for new vocabulary. Set a goal for, say, one new word a day. Or five. Or fifty. Don’t choose the biggest number you can think of, just the biggest number you can stick to every day.

It often helps to write down this daily goal, and adjust it if it’s not working. If a student aims for twenty new words a day, and he finds himself lagging behind, he can change it to ten a day. Or five. These small activities are like single steps in a marathon. Sometimes they’re exhilarating; sometimes they’re painful. The end result, though, is that the runner keeps going, the learner keeps learning.

Thankfully, modern technology has made this concept much easier. A site like Duolingo encourages short, daily practice. It keeps track of everything the student has done, so it’s easy to see if his daily goals are too easy or too difficult. The daily goal feels more like a game than a job, and students stay motivated.

Always remember that goals are useless unless you stick with them. The best way to do that is to be honest with yourself. Give yourself a challenge that you can accomplish, and adjust things if it’s not working.

In short, just keep running the race.

LINK: http://www.duolingo.com