Many aspects of our lives are ruled by that which we simply cannot control. Try as we might, our fervent honking has no noticeable influence on traffic jams on the way to work; shouting at the television does not, in fact, sway the football match in our favor; and as our unfortunate would-be weekender in the comic above well knows, there’s remarkably little we’re able to do about the weather.

As such, there are many times when we must simply shrug our shoulders, smile, and wait for our luck to improve. No sense in sweating over what we can’t control, right? Right.

But in language learning, there are no rainy days!

You might not be able to keep up your daily workout if you’ve got a cold, or if you sprained your ankle. You won’t be able to practice your guitar if the E string broke and the shops are closed. It’ll be hard to go camping in the woods if that forest fire hasn’t abated yet.

But no Act of God is going to be able to keep you from developing your skills in a new language! You’ve got no excuse, I’m afraid. It’s 100% in your control.

Rainy day? Phone up a foreign friend or snuggle under the covers with Skype! Sore throat, can’t talk? Read that book of original language poetry you’ve been putting off! Stuck in rush hour traffic? Listen to foreign radio! Condemned to solitary confinement in the local prison for bad behavior? Scrawl those conjugation tables on the padded walls! Practice makes perfect, after all.

The point is, there’s always some way you can be working towards fluency, come rain or shine, hell or high water. You may be able to devote three hours a day to drilling adjective endings, or it might just be a coffee with a tandem partner for half an hour. Every little bit helps, trust me.