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I did my languages in the coach on the way to Fukuoka International Airport. All I did was listen. I’d loaded up Mami’s mp3 player with some German, Japanese and Spanish (all Happy Rotter).

Having the audiobook play like that was very interesting. When you combine listening with ‘window gazing’, you are able to relax a lot more. Quite regularly I would drift off—in terms of both attention and dozing—but the language was there in the background all of the time.

You catch what you can, and the rest of it passes from one ear to the other.