You may be soaking up the rays on the beach or savoring your last summer holiday trip, but we can all feel it – fall is around the corner, meaning school is coming. If you’re like me, you find the switch from “summer mode” to “school mode” challenging. After weeks of warm, languid days, the thought of studying, completing projects, and preparing for tests can feel jolting. For us language learners, we may fear we’ve lost our ability to speak or even our aptitude for remembering new vocabulary. Before you panic, though, check out these tips for making the transition back to school as painless as possible.
After a long vacation, our brains can feel a bit fuzzy. To help clear this fog, take 10 to 30 minutes to sit down and write out your goals. What are your goals for English this year? Do you want to review the basics so you can feel confident while traveling? Do you want to improve your pronunciation? Or maybe you want to pass an official exam to receive a coveted certificate.
Start with a big goal that might take you all year (like holding basic conversations or passing the Cambridge C1 exam, for example). Then write down smaller goals that will help you reach that big one. If you want to improve your vocabulary, you could try writing a blog in English each month. Perhaps you will meet with a language partner once a week, or try to learn three new words a day. Setting goals can help bring your mushy summer brain into shape and get you excited about the coming school year.
I’m a big fan of the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you want to start a new habit, he recommends you start by doing that habit for just 2 minutes per day. You may be thinking: Two minutes?! I won’t get better at English by studying for 2 minutes a day?!
A goal of studying two minutes per day is great not only because you are very likely to meet it, (2 minutes is a very short time) but in the process you are establishing the work-reward pattern that is crucial to sticking to a habit. In just two minutes, you will experience the enjoyable practice of language study AND get a feeling of accomplishment. After studying zero minutes all summer, it is daunting to all of a sudden require ourselves to study an hour every day (and the chances of us establishing this habit are small). Start with two minutes per day, get the reward system in your brain working, and increase your daily study time from there.
Another hack Clear writes about in his book is making desired habits enjoyable. How can we make studying English enjoyable? The first step is to make it easy. After a summer holiday, maybe you shouldn’t jump into trying to read Shakespeare. Start by reviewing an old textbook or your old vocabulary lists. Watch a TV series you’ve already seen, but in English.
Don’t just start with easy content, but make your space and your time conducive to the habit. Clean your desk, add some ambient lighting and perhaps a few plants – anything to make you feel good when in your study space. Also, plan your language study time at a point in the day when you can easily focus (in the morning when you’re fresh instead of in the afternoon after a big lunch). Another idea is to incorporate something else you enjoy with your study sessions. You could drink your favorite coffee drink and snack on a small treat while you study. Or add five euros to your travel fund every time you stick to your study habit. The more fun and pleasant you make your study habit, the more likely you’ll stick to it.
When I was a kid, we had loooong summer breaks, lasting almost three months. Every year when September got close, my mom would have us start waking up early in the morning (as in, before school even started). This was so our bodies could get into the routine of waking up so that when school started we wouldn’t be in as much shock. We can do the same thing with our English routine. We don’t want to start the school year in shock, so start putting together a plan now.
We all know from experience that long-term goals like improving your English can easily take a backseat to more immediate goals like finishing your work, buying groceries, and meeting up with friends. If we wait for “when we have time” to study English, it will never happen. Set a time and place to study every day. Maybe it works best to do it in the morning after breakfast, or after you go to the gym, or as part of your lunch break. Figure out what works best for you and get into it.
Holidays, vacations, disconnecting, relaxing…they’re so important, especially for learning. Hopefully you’ve gotten some downtime this summer and feel renewed energy to try something new and perhaps explore new opportunities. Take a few minutes to let your mind wander and imagine what success looks like for you. Are you traveling to new places and navigating your way in English? Are you applying for that job that requires a high level of English? Maybe you’re watching some favorite TV shows in English and understanding almost everything.
Whatever your goal, get inspired by getting an image in your head of yourself already having accomplished it. What feelings do you notice? Excitement? Pride? Joy? Now use that feeling to catapult you into action. Here at Breathe English, we are extremely excited about this year, and think you should be, too. So let’s do it: set a goal, start small, make it enjoyable, set a routine, and imagine success!
