Last week, we received a private message from Xiao Zhou, an admin worker who had saved English courses for half a year but only attended less than 10 classes. She said she could never find a whole block of time to study, and had been talking about learning English in fragmented time for months without actually putting it into practice.

"I spend 40 minutes commuting, 20 minutes scrolling during lunch break, and 1 hour on my phone before bed. But when I really want to squeeze time for learning, I end up doing nothing. Am I just not born to learn English?"

You are not lazy at all, you just use the wrong way to open fragmented time.

01The biggest misunderstanding of learning English in fragmented time: Don't wait for "enough time to start"

Many people think fragmented time is too broken to learn anything serious, so they have to wait for 2 hours free on the weekend to study. But as a result, they either have to work overtime or catch up on sleep on weekends, and all the time is wasted. To be frank, I personally don't agree with many bloggers' idea of filling all fragmented time, even memorizing 10 words while waiting for the elevator. It will easily make people feel annoyed when they think of learning English, and they can't stick to it for two weeks.

02Fragmented time combination scheme suitable for 25-minute short courses

We were actually quite torn when we made this decision. At that time, the whole industry offered 45-minute long courses, but we chose to cut into 25-minute short courses, just to fit the fragmented time of ordinary people. Look, almost every office worker can find these scenarios:

  • 25 minutes after arriving at the office early: Before your colleagues come and the work group starts blowing up messages, take a class quietly. Your mind is much clearer than when you are exhausted after work.
  • 25 minutes split from lunch break: Don't scroll short videos right after eating, take a class first. You still have 15 minutes left to take a nap, and you will feel refreshed without any guilt when you wake up.
  • Waiting gap for going out to work: For example, when picking up clients, waiting for meals, or picking up kids from school, you can finish a class in a quiet corner without occupying personal time at all.

If you need to learn English for daily communication, you can directly choose Everyday English courses, and you can use what you learn on the same day. If you have stepped into the pitfalls of foreign teacher courses before, you can also check out the frequently asked questions about online one-on-one foreign teacher courses we sorted out before, which can help you avoid unnecessary detours.

03Supplementary skills for fragmented time that even zero-based English learners can use

In addition to the 25-minute class time, those super fragmented time within 10 minutes can also be used without any burden:

  • 3 minutes waiting for the elevator or subway: Flip through the key expressions marked by the foreign teacher in the last class. You don't need to memorize them, just read them twice to get familiar.
  • Listen to the recording of the last class with headphones on the way to work. If you listen more, you will be able to blurt out naturally.
  • When you see common English sentences while scrolling your phone, save them in your memo, and ask the foreign teacher to correct your pronunciation in the next class.

To put it bluntly, the most fearful thing for zero-based English learners is "wait until I'm ready to start". On the contrary, if you learn little by little in fragmented time, you will progress faster than studying for 2 hours without thinking. Many students ask us how to maximize the effect of one-on-one speaking courses. In fact, the core is high-frequency classes + fragmented time review, and no talent is needed at all.

Finally, we have sorted out 3 implementation points that you can use right away:

  • Check your schedule for next week, mark 3 fragmented time slots that can be used for 25-minute classes in your calendar first, and reserve them in advance so that they won't be occupied by other things.
  • Super fragmented time within 10 minutes is only used to review the content you have learned, never touch new knowledge points to avoid getting more confused as you learn.
  • Adjust your time arrangement every two weeks, and replace the unused time with a scenario that more suitable for your schedule.

The above is the practical plan for learning English in fragmented time we sorted out. If you haven't tried our 25-minute one-on-one course with Karen teaching method taught by foreign teachers from Manila, you can book a free trial class now to experience it.