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The Secret to Rapid Language Learning: How Many Hours a Day Should You Study?

Are 1/2 hours a day enough?

Kai Wenzel
4 min readFeb 14, 2023

Learning a new language can be a challenging and time-consuming process, but with the right approach and dedication, it can also be incredibly rewarding. If you’re trying to learn a second language as quickly as possible, you may be wondering how many hours a day you should spend studying.

Well, you’re in luck, because science has some answers. In this article, we’ll take a look at what the research has to say about the optimal amount of daily study time for language learners, and offer some tips on how to make the most of your time.

The Science of Language Learning

First, let’s take a step back and look at how language learning works. According to cognitive psychologists, the process of acquiring a new language involves two main cognitive processes: declarative memory and procedural memory.

Declarative memory is our ability to remember facts, such as vocabulary words and grammar rules. This type of information is stored in our long-term memory, and we can consciously recall it when needed.

Procedural memory, on the other hand, is our ability to perform actions and skills automatically, without conscious thought. This type of memory is responsible for things like pronunciation and speaking fluency.

When we learn a new language, we start by building our declarative memory through repeated exposure to vocabulary and grammar rules. Over time, with enough practice, we develop our procedural memory, which allows us to use the language more naturally and fluently.

So, how does the amount of daily study time affect these processes?

“The 10,000 Hour Rule”

You may have heard of the “10,000 Hour Rule,” which states that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to become an expert in any field. This idea was popularized by Malcolm Gladwell in his book “Outliers,” and has since been widely applied to a variety of fields, including language learning.

While the exact number of hours required to become an expert may vary depending on the field, the basic idea behind the…

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Kai Wenzel
Kai Wenzel

Written by Kai Wenzel

Let me inspire you by sharing my journey to the best version of myself.

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