I always think that time management is one of the biggest problems in schools. Tim Ferriss’ new book “The Four Hour Work Week” ( which is just what it says, being razor sharp with how you spend your work time, so you can spend it doing what you really want to do.) may be taking things a bit far, but it certainly looks to have some great content.

Tim also applies the ideas to language learning. On his blog he has a great post about how he learnt Japanese in 6 months, Chinese in 3 and Italian in 1. I think Tim’s just about right with those time frames and it’s good to see an author practice what he preaches. ( Don’t get me started on all the authors and “trainers” who claim their method is the best ever for teaching English but haven’t learnt the language of the country they’ve been living in for 20 years!)

Tim’s methods are basically the same ones as I use with Genki English, but he has them written out very nicely for motivated adult learners, such as yourself, to use straight away. If you feel you’ve been holding back with your language learning recently, have a look.

If you happen to be one of the very lucky teachers who have too much free time during the week, the book also has a section on “how to fill the void”.

I’m going to pick up a copy for my flight to Dubai next week, I’ll let you know what it’s like!