'Microlearning' and 'Hidden Moments' in Language Learning

As a busy working father with full-time job responsibilities, there are not that many days when I have long periods of free time to spend on language learning. However, I still have a surprising number of small ‘hidden moments’ in my daily life – gaps which I can use to engage in microlearning my target language.

In his inspiring, engaging, and fun book on language learning called How to Learn Any Language..., polyglot Barry Farmer encourages readers to take advantage of ‘hidden moments’.

“What do you normally do when you're waiting in line at the bank, the post office, the airline counter, the bus or train station, or the supermarket checkout counter? What do you do while you brush your teeth? You could be listening to a language cassette. What plans have you made for the time you're going to spend waiting behind your steering wheel at the gas pump? Or waiting for the rinse cycle? Waiting for the school bus? You get the point.”

Most likely, you probably are not listening to language cassettes – but you probably do have access to some type of portable listening device – and the modern-day smartphone acts as a great tool to help with microlearning.

It is not the only app that you can use, but we do want to encourage you that Lingocard was designed to make use of those ‘hidden moments’. Instead of mindlessly scrolling through social media while waiting at a cafe, why not connect with other language via our social network? Sitting alone waiting at the dentist’s office? Try scrolling some new vocabulary words or reviewing some recently learned terms that need a refresher. Stuck in traffic? Play through your vocab words on listening mode so you can hear the flash cards in your target language and your first language.

Over time you will find that a little bit of practice every day will end up building up to something far greater...

In Japanese, there is a famous proverb that conveys this idea:

塵も積もれば山となる

“Even dust, when piled up, becomes a mountain!”

So, take your small moments, those spare seconds and minutes, and add hidden hours of study to your life.

As a personal example, this is how I find ‘hidden moments’ in my day:

• While walking to the bus or the train station, or while browsing around in a grocery store, I listen to podcasts or some other audio. This is sometimes a podcast in my target language – sometimes a podcast designed for language learners and sometimes a general podcast. I also listen to vocabulary lists.
• While waiting for the bus or train to arrive – or while sitting in some other place, I practice with flash cards – reviewing expressions that I need to review or new vocabulary items (either on Lingocard or another app). I do this on the bus or train too.
• While riding the train or sitting and waiting, I watch TV shows, movies, or documentaries in my target language using a video streaming platform.
• With a little down time during a lunch break, I will write down a text or a note in my target language.

These are all options available to me. It is time that would otherwise be ‘lost’ to my commute or to boredom, but instead I have taken advantage of small moments of microlearning to build up my general competence. Over the course of days, weeks, months, and longer periods of time, these small moments really do add up to something greater.