But this is not something that works in my life. I don't have the time or desire to binge watch TV. I get bored listening to the same thing over and over. I can do it a little bit, either in short chunks or spread out over several weeks, but not on constant repeat. So what can go wrong here is that we expect to be able to start understanding a lot by listening to a 15-minute podcast episode every day. But reality is, this jump may happen over dozens or even more than 100 hours of listening to the same or similar content. We can speed this up by listening and reading at the same time if transcripts or subtitles are available, but again, dozens of hours. So when we aren't making the fast progress we expected from all this input, it can go south really fast. We start telling ourselves that there's something wrong with us, we compare ourselves to what we think others have achieved, we feel like failures, and we give up. And this is exactly what happened to me. I decided to give this advice a try. Told myself I was going to listen to German all the time, every chance I got. I had the resources, queued up the podcast episodes, the music, the videos with subtitles, kept the interesting blogs up on my browser, borrowed graded readers from the library. I was going to input, input, input until I couldn't input any longer, which turned out to be pretty quickly because I really just couldn't. The amount of time I needed to dedicate to all of this input just wasn't available to me. And when it comes to listening, I get overstimulated pretty easily and anything I have running in the background is going to be drowned out by my kids. If I were to listen to hours of content, even just in the background, I would be a mental disaster by the time the kids got home every day. I simply wouldn't have enough of myself to give to them. And that's just the idea of listening, like the actual act of hearing noise, not even considering the fact that it's in another language, which requires more brain energy to process, even if listening passively. When it comes to learning a language through an abundance of input, it can go wrong, in the sense that it just doesn't work if we don't realize the time investment required to make great progress. The third way in which this advice can go wrong is that you don't get the right balance between interest and level. A lot of times, especially if we're doing this as beginners, if we find material that matches our level or just slightly above what we understand, it's not very interesting. And if we find something interesting to us, it's at a much more advanced level. Both of these, in my experience, can lead to burnout, especially if we're trying to use this as our main or only method for acquiring a language. Listening to and reading hours and hours worth of content that's boring, well that speaks for itself, it's boring, it isn't very motivating. Listening to or reading hours and hours worth of content that's interesting but too advanced feels frustrating. It's hard to do something that we don't understand. The one caveat to this one may be if you're learning a language that's similar to one you already know. For example, I've recently started learning Spanish and I might be able to strike this balance and find interesting input that's appropriate to my level only because Spanish is closely related to Italian. I can passively understand a good amount of Spanish just because of Italian. But in situations where we're learning a totally unrelated language, that balance is hard to find. Not impossible, there are a lot of people making great content at all levels, it's still one way this method can really go wrong. Like I said in the beginning, input is extremely valuable for language learning. It's such an effective method for internalizing grammar, learning how to understand when you don't understand 100%, and for learning new words and phrases. So what can you do to work with this good advice so it doesn't go wrong? I've got three tips to get you started. The first is to couple your extensive input with other methods and resources. Of course, this isn't for everyone, but it's something that's worked really well for me. Instead of relying on only or mainly tons of input for learning language, I couple it with other tools and methods I enjoy, like grammar books, apps, Italki Listens, and even flashcards. I would argue that we should always choose a couple tools or methods to use together, so not really new advice, but something to think about if you want to focus on getting tons of input. When we couple a lot of input with other resources, we're adding a layer of active learning to all of that input. For example, we do pick up on grammar patterns when we engage in input activities, and we can even start to use those grammar patterns when we output. But adding a layer of actively learning the grammar we come across, whether through a book, teacher, YouTube video, app, or whatever, can deepen our understanding. I know everyone isn't like this, but I feel much more confident using grammar when I understand the rules, or at least why it works the way it does, not just when I pick up on the patterns. For me, the rules are kind of like the cement that holds the patterns together in my head. It's similar for vocabulary. When I'm reading a book or listening to a podcast and I come across the same word that I don't yet know over and over, oftentimes I really want to know what it means. As in, it's clearly an important word to the context if it's repeated often, right? Not always can I figure it out in context. Or maybe I get the gist of it, but I can't quite tell what a verb means. This happens a lot when reading intermediate and advanced level material where the verb usage is very calculated and precise. Like, I know the main word for to hurry in my languages, but a novel is more likely to use a verb like dash, bustle, sprint, zip. And when taking this in via the context of the sentence, I would likely be able to understand that the person is going quickly, but if I read it over and over, I'm going to want to know exactly the precise meaning of the word. learn and internalize words much faster. So coupling all my input with translation to know what the word means, then creating and using interactive flashcards with context, as I talked about in episode 67, speeds up my process of active recall of words. Using the extensive input method with other resources has been very effective for me, so I highly recommend taking this approach if you're wanting to increase or overload your input. And really, when I'm taking in a lot of content, my curiosity leads me to looking up explanations or translations for what I'm taking in anyway, so for me this is just a natural thing to do. Which leads me to my next tip for using the tons of input method, And that is to use it as a baseline for targeted study. I love the idea of listening to and reading in your target language as a learning method. I really do. But for some of us, we really like to study a language. We enjoy sitting down and learning things. And when we self-study, meaning like not inside a classroom where a teacher is guiding us, a lot of times we can easily get stuck spinning our wheels, not really getting traction on any particular topic. I've talked this season about letting curiosity guide your language learning, and extensive input is a great baseline for this type of pathway. When I focus on getting a lot of input, I walk away with a lot of questions. Even one tiny little word can spark a question of, huh, why is that there? What does that mean? Why did they use that preposition? Why are they speaking in this verb tense? Why did they use the subjunctive? That's a new conjunction. I wonder what it means. And off I go on an online adventure learning about the thing or things I picked up on. This has been a very useful method for me to hone my grammar usage and understanding. It's a great method for diving deep into the input you're getting and get the satisfaction that comes from a solid study session. Getting tons of input is such a wonderful baseline for learning new things and for figuring out what to learn next when you're feeling stuck. The last tip I have for getting the most out of your extensive input without it going wrong is to activate what you're taking in. And this step goes for every single learning method out there. Again, I mention it in episode 67 about flashcards as well. We can take in all the language all day, every day we want, but if we aren't activating it, if we aren't practicing the output, then it's not doing us a lot of good. The exception to this is for those who are learning a language for the input.