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42 Things You Can Do In 5 Minutes To Improve Your Language Skills

Much like a baguette, language learning is easier to handle if you break it into pieces.
42 Things You Can Do In 5 Minutes To Improve Your Language Skills

Imagine how much more time you’d have in your day if everything you needed to do took just five minutes. Unfortunately, this isn’t true for a lot of things in life, but it can be true for learning a language! Breaking your study sessions into smaller chunks has been proven more effective than overwhelming yourself with information. And there are countless five-minute activities that can build your language skills in a variety of ways and an array of settings. Here are 42 of the many, many language-related things you can do in just five minutes (42 is the answer to life, the universe and everything, after all).

Things You Can Do In Five Minutes (Or Less!) To Improve Your Language Skills

  1. Read a short story in another language
  2. Sing/say an alphabet in a different language
  3. Find a recipe from another culture
  4. Compose a tweet in another language
  5. Order food at a restaurant in a different language
  6. Learn how to greet someone
  7. Listen to a song in another language
  8. Translate the most recent note in your phone’s notes app
  9. Watch a music video
  10. Read a poem in a new language
  11. Write a poem in that same language
  12. Take a quiz to decide which language you should learn
  13. Or to find your motivation for learning
  14. Learn a handful of cognates
  15. Listen to a short podcast
  16. (And be sure to subscribe to our podcast Multilinguish)
  17. Master food vocab in the language of your choice
  18. Sign up for a cultural event
  19. Follow some language accounts on Instagram
  20. And Twitter
  21. And also YouTube
  22. While you’re at it, subscribe to Babbel USA on YouTube
  23. Learn to count in a new language
  24. Send an email in another language
  25. Learn foreign language animal names
  26. Also, learn the colors in another language
  27. And, why not, learn the parts of the body in a new language
  28. Pick a foreign language TV show to watch
  29. Or pick a movie, if that’s more your style
  30. If you’re a reader, choose a book
  31. Switch your dating app location to another city
  32. Make a foreign language meme
  33. Master a foreign language tongue twister
  34. Discover the cultural history of your favorite food
  35. Meditate
  36. Sign up for a language exchange meetup
  37. Go for a walk
  38. Lovingly curse out a friend in another language
  39. Write in your journal
  40. Train your dog to understand the language you’re learning
  41. Change your phone settings to another language
  42. Register for Babbel
Start with a quick language lesson.
Dylan Lyons
Dylan is a senior content producer, overseeing video and podcast projects for the U.S. team. He studied journalism at Ithaca College and has an MBA from NYU. Before joining Babbel, Dylan managed social media for CBS News. His interests include reading, writing, politics, and anything sweet. Dylan lives in New York City.
Dylan is a senior content producer, overseeing video and podcast projects for the U.S. team. He studied journalism at Ithaca College and has an MBA from NYU. Before joining Babbel, Dylan managed social media for CBS News. His interests include reading, writing, politics, and anything sweet. Dylan lives in New York City.

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