How to read 20 minutes a day in your target language(s)
Why you should do it?
Story time: A few years ago, I had to prepare an exam that was quite hard (it takes you 2 years to prepare it, and you basically study more than 12 hours a day). I had to study around 10 different subjects, among which English and Spanish. So when our English teacher told us that to make progress we had to read in English for 20 minutes every day, we felt like it was going to be impossible. However, most of us decided to give it a try and we didn’t regret it: the results were super good and we all made a lot of progress very quickly ! (I guess the key here is immersion) So here’s how to read in your target language for 20 minutes every day :)
When to read ?
Finding 20 minutes each day to read can be quite hard. You can try to do it at night before going to sleep, which can be a good idea for some of people, but you might be tired, not very focused on your reading or want to watch a movie instead. And if you’re a party animal you might miss a lot of days ;) What I did was reading while I took my breakfast, for maybe 5 or 10 minutes. But I often didn’t have the time to read or to take a breakfast at all so I found out that the best method for me was to read while I was on the bus. I had 25 minutes of bus every morning so that was the perfect time to read some English. I would just download a few articles on my phone, sit down and read :) Sometimes I would also read on the way back. Some other methods that might work for you could be reading while brushing your teeth, waiting for the bus, waiting for your episode to download, waiting for the water to boil, during lunch or dinner etc. If you can find only 5 minutes four times a day, you’ve done it ! :)
What to read ?
I personnally mainly read newpapers articles because I had to focus on the news for my exam. But it’s even better if you vary what you read: it can be a book, a magazine, some poetry, lyrics, browsing social networks in your target language, fanfiction... whatever you like :) For example, I really love surfing so I still read the World Surf League articles in English and Portuguese almost every day. The more you vary your resources, the more vocabulary you’ll learn and the more you will be immersed in the language !
Also an alternative that my English teacher gave us was to read for 15 minutes and then listen (to a podcast, an audiobook, the radio, the news etc...) for 10 minutes.
Good luck and trust me you should try it! :)