Sometimes, I feel guilty about how much time I can spend on learning my target language. Because it's fun! But sometimes, other things are more important. But then I miss getting better in my TL! On that note, it's Ramzan (or Ramadan) right now. I always* felt guilty practicing French or Spanish in this month. Since I could / should be so much more (spiritually) productive.

However, I came up with a way to have your cake and eat it too. And it is, frankly, a stroke of genius because it is something I now repeat outside of Ramzan because it is SO effective!

*before I realized this one amazing trick (now it's just mostly or sometimes)

Listen to religous sermons in your target language

Not only will you get to benefit from spiritual gains, you'll also get target language practice in. And it will be excellent practice.

Why it works

Sermons of imams, pastors, priests, rabbis, and religious speakers in general, all have a few things in common.

1. They are (generally) very clear, and often also engaging and interesting
2. They repeat information for emphasis
3. They vary speaking styles for different sub-topics
4. They use a certain shared religious vocabulary that helps you navigate the entire sermon
5. They cover a LOT of information (you can find what you are interested in)
6. They are almost always free
7. They mostly have captions / subs already

Honestly, it's amazing.

Where to look

Just translate whatever you want to learn about. I'm Muslim. So my examples will lean towards Islam, since that's what I'm most used to. But honestly, you can do whatever. Religous types sure like to talk and share what they are talking about! So there is lots of material. And most material in major languages will have subs/captions.

For example, for Ramzan, here's a few prompts in French and Spanish:

• les dernières nuits du Ramadan (the last nights of Ramzan)
• Historias de los sahaba (the stories of the companions (of the Prophet SAW))

For Chinese, I haven't had much luck in finding good material on Youtube (tell me if you do!). But on Tiktok, I just put in "穆斯林“ (Muslim in Chinese) and found lots of engaging stories about Chinese speaking Muslims in Malaysia and China. And Chinese media is typically always subtitled so that's even better.

Why you should do it even if

Even if it's not Ramzan, you can still benefit. Even if you're not Muslim, or religious, you can get to practice your listening by engaging with well-delivered sermons and listening to well-crafted stories from all over the world. Even if you're not interested in religion or spirituality, it's good to get fresh perspectives and new vocabulary.

It also ups your understanding of various cultures. Religion, while less important in the modern world than historically, is still very important to billions of our fellow travelers on this planet. Wouldn't it be nice to understand them a bit better, too?