Instagram. Sigh. What a time suck when you should be learning that language, right? Not necessarily. Here’s some tips on how to not waste time on Instagram when learning a language to help you get the most from this potentially game-changing app for your language learning.

I’ve written before on the blog about using social media for language learning, and even specifically about using Instagram. Click through to take a look. But this is a little different. In this post, we’ll be focusing on how to ensure you’re not wasting time on Instagram when you should be language learning.

Practical steps to start:

Before we begin to delve into the language side of Instagram, let’s start with a bit of a spring clean of what’s already there. Click the 3 dots in the top right-hand corner of any profile to access blocking or muting, and click the same 3 dots next to someone’s name in the main feed to mute or unfollow.

Blocking

Remember that person that you followed ages ago who is actually really rude and annoying and you kinda can’t stand? Yeah. Block them.

Unfollowing

But if that sounds a little harsh, which on most occasions it is, you can unfollow accounts that don’t interest you or don’t help you out with learning that language. This means you’ll no longer see their posts when you log in and they will be able to see that you’ve unfollowed them.

Muting

A great alternative to unfollowing or blocking is the relatively new addition to Instagram: muting. This is great, because it means you can still follow people but clean up your Instagram feed so you’re only seeing the things that interest you without risking any awkward conversations next time you meet that person you blocked or unfollowed because when you mute someone, they don’t know this as you’re still following them.

Consider two accounts – personal and language

If you do use Instagram for personal use and are finding it hard to separate your personal stuff from your language learning, consider setting up a separate account for your language. I know lot of people who have done this and seen great improvements with their language progress as a result.

Go your own way:

Of course, you don’t have to use something that already exists. Go it alone and use Instagram to share your language progress however you wish whenever you wish!

#correctionswelcome

This growing hashtag gives you a chance to share videos of yourself speaking the language or photos of your writing and ask others for corrections.

#languagepractice

If you just want to connect with other language learners but not necessarily get corrections on a particular post, this hashtag will help to indicate that. If you don’t want corrections anytime, be sure to mention it in your caption too.

IG Stories + save as highlights

Sometimes the thought of permanence can make sharing your language learning on social media kinda scary! Well, with Instagram Stories that’s taken away by the fact that they only last 24 hours. Speak away to your heart’s content!

If you do want to save them, you can add them to your Highlights so you’ll always be keeping a record of your language progress.