In fact, if you want to be a successful learner, using the right method is the key to mastering any language. Many students are looking for simple and easy ways to learn languages. In this article, we will briefly explain the 80/20 rule, explaining eight simple steps to learn how to apply it.
First, let’s get to know what the 20/80 rule is
The 20/80 rule goes back to the thinker and scientist Pareto, which states that 80% of the results are caused by 20% of the causes. The beginning of this rule began from the belief of the Italian scientist Pareto that there are only 20 percent of the people rich in the world and that the other eighty are considered at the bottom or the bottom.
This theory that he reached made him develop it further and he reached the conviction that everything that a person uses does not benefit from it in full. For example, we buy a lot of clothes, but in reality we only wear twenty percent of what we buy.
You may wonder how this principle can be applied to entrepreneurship or language learning by understanding that you get 80% of your results with only 20% of your effort.
Read:Top 8 Tips to Help You Learn a New Foreign LanguageTo apply the 80/20 rule to language learning, we need to look at the way we learn languages and ask ourselves: What is my 20%? Determining that 20% can be a bit tricky, but if you know that 80% of what you do will have little impact on your results, it is essential to identify the other 20% that really matters and focus all your energy on that.
Eight Ways to Do Your 80/20 Strategy
1. Focus on the Word Frequency List
If you are a beginner, you can start with the word frequency list in the language you are learning. You should focus on what will have a quick, tangible benefit. The most common words in the target language are a great place to start. This is the point to make about the 80/20 strategy, that you should focus on the quick, tangible ways to get there.
2. Set Short-Term Goals
With any long-term project, you need to have more tangible short-term goals in order to stay motivated and excited. So ask yourself, what is my language learning goal for the next month?
Because you can’t determine the success or failure of your attempts if you don’t have clearly defined goals, so set short-term goals on paper and only then can you determine the steps that will bring you 80% closer to achieving your big goals, for example set a goal that you will memorize 100 or 200 new words in the next month and so on over time you will find that your vocabulary has become large enough and you are close to achieving your goal of mastering the language because you cannot master it before you know enough words to understand everything, so as a beginner the 80/20 rule shows you that you need to prioritize something important which is vocabulary.
Read:Top 8 Tips to Help You Learn a New Foreign Language3. Learn from others’ experiences
In order to make smart decisions and implement an effective language learning strategy, you need to read a lot of experiences and methods, so read about other people’s experiences in learning the language, where enthusiastic language learners talk about their experiences, where you can benefit from the most important practical methods and apply them to your own learning style, and find effective methods to enrich your 20%.
4. Try to benefit from your previous experience
Think back to your previous experiences related to language learning, whether in private classes or at school. Can you identify anything in particular that really helped you? And can you repeat that action now?
Also, identify the practical steps you took last week that had the greatest positive impact on achieving your goals. Try to practice these steps more next week, put them on your list of priorities, and allocate time for them in your schedule.
Read:Top 8 Tips to Help You Learn a New Foreign Language5. The importance of study habits
Look at your study habits. How much time do you spend speaking, writing, reading, and listening? If your time balance is tipped towards one skill more than others, focusing on that skill for a period of time may really give you progress in the language.
6. Face your fears
Is there something that really bothers you or that you are afraid of? For example, learning Chinese characters or reading your grammar book, dealing with the things you fear often gives the best results in life and certainly this will enhance the 20% that is useful for you and will reach your goals when you find yourself overcoming what you fear in learning the language and have come a long way, so facing fear is often useful in many cases.
Finally, you should reduce the time you spend thinking about doing something and start doing it immediately, if you spend 80% of your time thinking and 20% of it doing, then you should definitely reverse the ratio. Always remember that nothing is impossible with determination and persistence, all you have to do is just start!
