Meet T! T is a busy working professional who has long workdays. The commutes to and from work on the subway allows T to squeeze in short amounts of time to practice his chosen language. T is motivated by the idea of being able to speak the language fluently and more deeply immerse himself in the culture when he travels. Even though he has free time to learn the language more deeply in the evenings, T is often too exhausted from work to do extremely dedicated and focused work learning the language. Tools like Duolingo serve as a useful reminder and low effort way to practice.
| Drawing | Name | T |
| Activated Role | Busy Consultant | |
| Goal | I want to achieve fluency in a second language | |
| Motivation | There is a place that I love traveling to. I would like to be able to speak the language of the place better to be able to converse with people and engage with the culture more intimately. I would also like to eventually be able to move to this place and live there like a local | |
| Conflict | He works long hours on the weekdays. By the time he is able to sit down and dedicate time to learning the language, he lacks the mental energy to engage in deep learning. Feels hard to stay consistent and gain momentum on learning | |
| Attempts to Solve | Tried to stay consistent with Duolingo streaks but felt like the motivation was shallow. Watched tv shows in the foreign language but found it requires too much concentration. | |
| Setting/ Environment | Try to squeeze in a short session on the subway, in uber, waiting for flights, or after dinner. | |
| Tools | Headphones, phone, laptop, Duolingo software | |
| Skills | Very good at planning and scheduling ahead of time. | |
| More | Has a routine of doing language practice on the subway to and back from work. Unwinds after dinner by watching tv. |
| The morning commute | The work day | Evening Commute | After dinner unwind | |
| Say | Need to keep Duolingo streak alive | I’m swamped and overwhelmed, I’ll do it later | I just want to go home | I wanna watch something that requires no thinking |
| think | The subway ride gives me 20min to do my daily language learning | I’m so exhausted I can’t think about anything anymore | I’m too tired to learn anything right now | They’re speaking too fast for me to follow unless I’m really concentrating |
| do | Puts headphones in and does 2 lessons | Meetings all-day and a lot of tedious work building slide decks/excel | Opens duolingo on subway home but can’t bring himself to focus on the lesson | Puts on a tv show in the language of interest |
| feel | Productive and disciplined | Stressed and preoccupied | Frustrated, guilty and mentally slow | Defeated and passive |
