#i just struggle with sentence structure ;; and other language apps just teach words

[motionpicturesforcarrie]

put tagalog on duolingo im serious

[5thmarauderwrites]

Apps, Texts & Wizardry — The Marauders x Reader | Request.

Requests are: OPEN.

Requested by Anonymous: “Helooo💛 could you write a modern au where the reader is teaching the marauders how to use tech? Have a nice day :)“.

Pairing: The Marauders x Fem!Reader [platonic].

Word Count: 2,4K

Warnings: None, it’s basically all fun and teasing and friends being friends.

A/N: Hope you like this! I had to refrain myself from the dialogues a bit because i had lots of fun remarks and teasing moments in my head as i imagined how the teaching process would be, so it would end up being very, very long if i hand’t stopped myself. Also the title SUCKS because i literally couldn’t think about anything good.

“L/N!” James yelled your last name in the middle of the library, shaking a brand new smartphone clutched in his hand; Sirius and Peter on his trail. Remus walked a little further, an apologetic frown on his features as he looked at you.

“Potter!” Madam Pince shrieked. “Out! Now!”

“But I’ve just got here!” The boy with unruly black hair protested.

“I do not care! Screams and loud tones of voice are strictly forbidden in my library! Go on – out! Out before I hex you!” The witch brandished her feather duster at the boy as she gesticulated for him to leave.

James grimaced, pushing his glasses higher up on the bridge of his nose, “I just need to talk to my friend, please! She’s right there!” He pointed to you, who watched the unfolding scene with a look of pure terror, in fear that Madam Pince would banish you from the library for good after James’ antics.

Madame Pince sent you a death glare before turning back to the Marauders with a fulminant look on her face, “out, all of you! NOW!”

“We haven’t even done anything!” Sirius shrugged with a frown, trying to defend himself.

The older witch gave them a last warning glare and, getting the message; Remus mumbled an apology and dragged the other three boys out of the room. Madam Pince waited until they were completely off the library’s limits to walk angrily to the table you were sharing with Lily, Marlene and Alice in the quieter corner of the study room.

“L/N!” She spat as she approached your table. “You know you’re one of the few students that I actually tolerate in this school, but this better not happen again because next time you’ll be kicked out with them!”

You widened your eyes in horror and nodded vigorously, afraid to make any noise and irritate the librarian even more. Madam Pince huffed satisfied at your acknowledgement of her threat before turning on her heels and leaving you with a dumbfounded look on your face.

“I don’t know how you and Remus can be friends with those twats,” Lily said in a belittled tone of voice whilst rolling her eyes.

“They’re not that bad once-“ you started to defend the Marauders but trailed off as you looked in the direction of the closed window by the side of the door and saw James and Sirius with their faces glued to the glass, waving for you to come to them.

“You were saying?” Marlene frowned disgustedly at their behaviour.

“Come on, they’re nice people, girls!” Alice chuckled, defending the boys as the sweet and kind person she was.

“They are! Thank you, Ali!” You wrapped your arm around the girl’s shoulders in a gesture of appreciation.

“Sure,” Lily teased with a frown as she studied the boys, whom were now making silly faces at your group from behind the glass window. “I’m sure if you google stupid twats their names won’t come up as soon as you hit the search button.”

Marlene high-fived Lily at her remark and you couldn’t help but smile, even though you rolled your eyes at your redhead friend, “you know you and James have a lot in common, don’t you?” You teased, getting up and grabbing your phone and laptop.

“Where are you going?” She asked amidst a blush, purposely ignoring what you had just said.

“To see what they bloody want before Madam Pince spots them and forbids me to step a foot into the library for good of course,” you shrugged with a lopsided grin and walked away from your lady friends, heading to the boys in the corridor.

 -

 “Y/N, I’m so sorry! I told these idiots that you were studying and they should not bother you!” Remus said as soon as he saw your moving figure approaching the door, his arms up in an apologetic gesture.

“That’s okay, Rem. I know their stupidity is uncontrollable,” you chuckled, squeezing the taller boy’s shoulder.

“Hey!” Sirius exclaimed, offended, as he ran a hand through his thick dark locks.

“She’s not lying,” Remus said with a light shrug of his shoulders, pressing his lips together to contain a smile.

“What do you bloody want from me anyway to barge in the library like that?” You winged your brows, specifically scolding James.

“Sorry about that, little one. Madam Pince really needs to learn how to relax,” he frowned, recalling her unpleasant screams. “Anyway, we got ourselves brand new phones and this muggle box you call a laptop and we were wondering if you could help us out with those… things.”

You lifted a brow as you crossed your arms across your chest, “you got phones? And laptops?” You repeated his sentence with a surprised tone of voice.

“That’s what I just said, yes,” James frowned.

“I reckon you saying something like,” you started, raising your hands in the air and mimicking quotes as you tried your best to impersonate James, “’I will never trade my owl and parchments for these bloody muggle things with these annoying noises.’”

“I’ll admit I may have spoken too soon,” he shrugged with a grimace. “Blimey, it’s hard not to surrender to those things when the entire school and even the Professors are using it!”

You gazed at James with an amused look on your face.

“So, will you help us out, love?” Sirius steadied himself on you as he wrapped his arm around your shoulders and stared at you with puppy eyes.

“I could use the help of these things to improve my studying method and have easier access to books,” Remus said shyly, putting his hands into his pockets.

“I want to try those games the lads have been playing, they’re even talking about doing championships and starting clubs,” Peter’s eyes twinkled as he nodded excitedly.

You heaved a sigh as you looked to the pleading faces of the four Marauders. “Fine, I’ll help you idiots out.”

 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 You had been helping the Marauders with the muggle technology for a few days now and it wasn’t getting any easier. As wizards born and raised into wizarding families, the boys never had any sort of familiarity with technology nor muggle devices before, which hampered the task in hand considerably. Even Remus, who was unquestionably the cleverest among them, was struggling to learn how to properly use a phone.

Beginning with the smartphone was your idea, because you thought that after they mastered this complex device, learning how to use a laptop would be a piece of cake. You just didn’t imagine that it would be so bloody difficult.

“Wait, wait, and wait!” Sirius interrupted your explanation about the Face ID for the third time with a confused frown as he threw his head back heavily into the back pillow of the Gryffindor Common Room sofa. “How am I supposed to make my face unlock this thing? Will I have to hex it?”

“No, you daft dimbo!” You huffed, annoyed. “I’ll get there if you just stop interrupting me!”

“Sorry, love,” he smirked satisfied at your apparent annoyance, resting his elbows on Remus’ and James’ shoulders. “I’ll admit I have a liking to piss you off; and apparently I accomplish that even when I’m not trying to.”

“You sure do!” You smiled wryly at him, curling your legs on the seat of the stuffed armchair you were occupying, leaning yourself a little in the boys direction. “Anyway, you’ll access your phone settings right… here,” you said, showing them with your phone where to tap. “To register your face, you’ll need to hold your device between 10 and 20 inches away from you. With your face centered in the circle, you’ll move your head around until the scan is complete.”

The boys quickly followed your instructions and registered their faces, finally completing the basic configurations of their phones as they did so, allowing you to start teaching them how to use its apps and download other ones.

“There’s a camera in this? Cool!” Sirius exclaimed excitedly once he unlocked his phone screen. “What?” He added with a smile when you chuckled at his reaction.

“I’ve always thought that if you were a muggle, you’d sort of be an edgy photographer,” you answered with a lopsided grin.

“I could be one to,” James shrugged uninterested. “I’d definitely be edgy.”

“You, James? Come on!” You rolled your eyes, laughing wholeheartedly. “You’d be an annoying influencer jock.”

“A what?” He asked, utterly confused as if you were speaking in another language.

“You’d definitely be an overachiever high school athlete who were not only famous at school but also on the internet,” you winged your brows at him, resting your chin of your fist.

“You’d definitely be like that, mate!” Remus laughed, pointing his index finger at James.

“Yeah? And how would all-mighty Moony be?” James teased, crossing his arms across his chest and bending his head a little so he could playfully stare at his brown-haired friend.

“Rem would be a total hipster!” You shouted excitedly, clapping your hands. “He’d definitely be an outsider to the cultural mainstream, he’d have an online blog where he’d review books and would definitely be vocal about structural issues in the muggle society.”

“Why would he be the coolest among us?” James frowned, a little annoyed.

“Because he already is,” you shrugged, winging your brows.

“I can totally see muggle Moony being like that too,” Peter nodded vaguely from his seat on the arm of the sofa, picturing what you had just said inside his head.

“Can we focus on the tech again?” James said, swinging his phone in the air.

“Yes, we can, you pampered berk,” you answered, the ends of your lips curling up into an amused smirk as you got up of the armchair and motioned to the sofa, squeezing yourself between James and Sirius.

Slowly, you started to explain to them how to use the iMessage service and how to text someone and read the texts you receive. The boys seemed awestruck by the fact that you could get in touch with someone so easily and get an instant response back.

“Wicked! Now I can ask Lily out without putting myself in danger!” James exclaimed excitedly, the blaze that crackled in the fireplace lighting up his features. “Can’t I?”

“Well, she can always block your number, you know…” you frowned mockingly at him, earning amused laughs from Remus, Sirius and Peter.

The four of you teased James for a while before you and the boys got back to the teaching process. An hour or so later, you had already covered all the phone basic apps and they were already familiar with their functions and how to properly use them.

“Now, to the fun stuff!” You announced excitedly. “Let’s introduce you lads to the wonderful world of the trending apps.”

“Are there more?” Sirius widened his eyes as he rested his head on your shoulder.

“Indeed, my dear Black!” You quirked your brows satisfied, tilting your head so you could look him in the eyes. “There are tons of apps you can download to improve your experience, apps that match your likings such as, in your case, dating apps.”

“Dating apps? Can’t you just charm the ladies through texts?” He asked confusedly.

“You sure can, but these apps are basically made for people who want to engage on… knowing someone a little bit better, if you know what I mean,” you chuckled. “With the dating apps you don’t have to ask yourself if the other person is somehow romantically interested in you, because when they swipe right and the match is made, it means the interest is mutual.”

“And how would you know all this?” He asked, lifting his head and smirking mockingly at you. “Y/N L/N, do you use dating apps?”

“I don’t see how that’s any of your business,” you retorted, blushing furiously. Sirius’ smirk grew wider.

A sudden silence fell among the five of you as you and Sirius stared at each other with narrowed eyes; he holding a teasing look whilst you held a deadly one. James and Remus watched the scene with delighted expressions whilst Peter monotonously scrolled through his phone screen.

“Ahem,” Remus cleared his throat with an amused smile, dragging you and Sirius back to reality. “Are there any good apps to download books and to read them?”

You slowly tilted your head in Remus’ direction and, nodding, started to show him the apps you had on your phone for reading purposes and which ones you thought would fit his needs better. Remus avidly listened to your tips whilst downloading each and every app you had mentioned on his own phone.

The day quickly faded into night as you and the Marauders went on and on about the technologies and its functions and soon, the five of you were the only ones in the now silent Common Room, the light coming from the fireplace and the displays of your phones being the only things shining in the almost complete darkness.

“And done!” James exclaimed, getting up from the sofa and stretching himself. “TikTok is already downloaded and ready to be used! Tomorrow we’ll pull the ‘Dance Like a Hippogriff’ prank and Y/N here will film everything so we can upload the edited video on our TikTok account later.”

“Excuse you?” You frowned, crossing your arms across your chest.

“It’ll be fun, I promise!” He joined his hands pleadingly. “Come on! Please?” He added at the grimace you made.

“Fine!” You rolled your eyes with a smile after a few seconds. “Now I’m going to bed before another brilliant idea pops up into that twat mind of yours."

Saying goodbye to the Marauders, you walked to the stairs that led to the girls’ dormitory and took a quick look over your shoulder. Before you climbed up the stairs, a smile formed on your lips as you saw the four boys talking excitedly and laughing whilst scrolling through their phones.

[taylorlearnsjapanese]

How did/do I learn vocabulary?

How did/do I learn vocabulary?

This is a question I’m asked quite often and I usually have a different answer each time. The reason is because I have no set way I learn vocabulary. This post will focus entirely on my experience and journey with vocabulary. Grammar will be a topic for another day. ;)

In my opinion, there is no set way to learn vocabulary. I can’t stare at lists and lists of words and suddenly they’re memorized, but I have! I can’t use flash cards because they take too much time, but I have! Kind of see where I’m going with this? I’m the perfect example of an informal or unstructured learner/studier. 

I am a lazy learner. THE LAZIEST. I’m all for fast and easy ways to learn without so much as lifting a finger. Insane, right? Totally. Extremely insane for a beginner like I was. Butttttt, I did it though. Was it smart? Probably not. Did it work? Well… kinda?

I also want to point out that I’ve never studied Japanese in a classroom setting nor have I had tutors to teach me. 

Okay, what I did:

I started learning Japanese on June 11, 2018. I’m going to list the resources I’ve done roughly up to this point in time that this is posted. 

Please don’t take my views on the apps and resources listed as final say. Everyone learns differently and I suggest you try all of these resources out! Things that don’t work for me, may work for you and vice versa.

DuoLingo. It was the only app I really knew of that was credible. I drilled the crap out of that app! That’s how I got my foundations in kana, my first words, and first kanji! 

DuoLingo is good in some ways, but bad in others. It’s perfect for repetition and getting you to think about those words over and over. But that’s also why it’s bad. Each step makes you go through like, what?, four or five tiers or whatever they’re called? By the time you reach that fourth of fifth tier, it’s just annoying to do that pattern over and over again before you can move on. This is just my opinion though, some people thrive off of that. Don’t knock it till you try it, ‘kay? I’ve heard the app has changed some since summer of 2018, so I’ll have to check it out again. 

LingoDeer. Gosh, I love LingoDeer. I really need to use it more. It is the best app ever to introduce you to grammar when you have no idea where to start. 

Workbooks. I got my first workbooks (not textbooks) at the end of June 2018 (I had been learning for roughly 3 weeks by that time). It was Learning Japanese Hiragana and Katakana and Learning Japanese Kanji Volumes 1 and 2, all published by Tuttle. As I worked through the kana book I managed to learn many vocabulary terms from the exercises in the back with the writing exercises (all spelled in hiragana and katakana, there is no kanji in that workbook). I tried and dabbled lightly in the Kanji Vol 1 book, but I wasn’t ready for that just yet back then.

I ONLY used those resources until the end of August 2018 and added Memrise too my list of apps during that time. I gained A LOT of vocabulary knowledge (and some basic grammar but that’s a post for another day) just from using three apps and a kana workbook over two and a half months. 

It was nothing fancy like some people tend to think? I didn’t somehow learn all these words over night.

Textbooks. Genki 1 and it’s workbook was my first ever textbook. This is one of the most widely known textbooks out there for learning Japanese from scratch. Most people know how vocabulary works for that resource. Each chapter introduces vocab and you learn it as you study the grammar and do the exercises.

Um, so, I’m gonna be honest for a second. I HATE TEXTBOOKS. I hate them with a fiery passion. *clenches fist* I stopped using Genki after completing half of the book because I felt like I learned nothing. It just wasn’t the resource for me.

At this point you’re staring hard at your phone, tablet, or computer like WHAT? Yeah… I didn’t hate them at first!! But because of my laziness and informal learning style, I grew to haaaate them. Textbooks are too “cookie cutter” in my opinion. But Taylor, don’t you use one right now? Yes, and let me explainnnnnn. I find that textbooks don’t give you freedom to expand! 

Remember when I asked on Instagram what were some things you’d like me to discuss or talk more about? One user messaged me and wrote,

“How [do] you apply grammar and vocabulary? Because I try to come up with sentences on my own then look up examples of its usage but I continuously use the same type of examples. But when I look at other example there is so much vocab and other grammar structures that go into play that I don’t understand, so it’s hard for me to find a balance that will make me push myself but also know that I can decently understand…”

That’s EXACTLY what I struggled with, with Genki! Textbooks only provide examples for that lesson and the grammar it teaches at that point. So you only know those words (and grammar) in those contexts only. You try to make your own sentences but you end up only using those words and those grammar points over and over. 

There’s simply no opportunity to expand.

Then when you look up other examples you see other new words (and grammar) and it freaks you out because suddenly you don’t feel like you’ve learned anything! This is the e x a c t reason I hate textbooks. 

My answer? For me, I don’t depend on textbooks anymore for vocabulary. They’re amazing for referencing vocabulary and pulling grammar structures, but textbooks only give a limited amount of vocabulary and if that’s all your rely on when learning grammar, it’s going to be rough. It stagnated my learning when I did that. 

When I make my own sentences now, I pull vocab I've been learning from apps, social media, reading, etc. I could go on and on about this, but that’s not the point of this post. I’ll discuss my more of my hatred for textbooks later. Same with grammar and how I make my examples and such. I’ve already gone off on a tangent long enough, hehe. (I hope that answered the above question though! If not, I hope future posts will! Or just message me, lol.) 

Other textbooks I have used after Genki for vocabulary gain is Basic Japanese by Tuttle and the にほんご90日 series.

YouTube. Japanese Ammo with Misa is my love. I love her videos and her personality. Her teaching style is relaxed, but she gets the job done. She has a wide variety of grammar videos along with lots of other videos related to Japanese and Japan.

After my downfall with Genki 1 and some discouragement that led to a nearly three months hiatus of studying, I started using her videos to get the grammar knowledge I needed in January 2019 (I have been learning (counting the hiatus) for about 6 months at this point). 

It’s the perfect things for a lazy learner like me, hehe. I could sit down at my desk and watch one of her videos (they can be anywhere from 8 to 40 minutes long) and watch, pause, and rewind as much as I wanted to write notes with ease. I was learning the grammar I needed to know and learned SO MUCH VOCABULARY. 

She uses common words you find in textbooks, but she also throws in culturally relevant words. She references Pokemon, manga, TV/anime, music, etc, vocabulary all the time! She even teaches the informal/casual variations of words along with formal/polite variations and that’s where I gain so, so, so much vocab! I still use and reference those videos to this day!

PRESENT DAY:

Okay, I just explained what I did to start learning vocabulary from the beginning to about ~5 months ago. I rambled a lot, I know… But did you kind of see the point I was hoping to make? I did not stick to one resource for learning vocabulary (and kanji). 

I didn’t not, nor do I still, learn vocabulary in a “traditional” way. There is no one way to learn everything you need to know. Over that course of time I learn about ~35-40% of my current vocabulary knowledge. Wait… Taylor… You learned ~35-40% of your vocabulary over the course of 10 months, but you’ve learned the other ~60-65% in less than 5 months? Yes, and I’ll explain below~~~

What I mainly use now, app wise, to gain vocabulary knowledge is Memrise, Quizlet (rarely though), Kanji Tree, and LingoDeer. I even use Instagram to learn new vocab too! I follow users who teach vocabulary (and grammar) with their posts. Yes, you will see lots of repeated terms but that’s exposure and review! 

Here are some profiles I really like for introducing vocabulary (new or review): boxofmanga, japanesepod101 (Instagram infographics only), japanese_language_mlc, j_aipon, blue_aoi, and _urabanashi_. 

I also suggest you find native Japanese Instagram users. Not just celebrities or idols. I mean average natives who use Instagram the same way we use our private accounts. I follow larger profiles (500+ followers) for the fact that I don’t want to be a creep and follow someone who only has like 100 or 200 followers. So, I follow some “mommy blog” Instagram's because they tend to use simpler vocabulary when referring to their kids. I also follow some book reviewers, writers, and one guy who loves camping! You get to see lots of natural Japanese this way and it shows common words that are used. I don’t understand a lot of it, but I’m being exposed to the language!

And by now you’re asking, “Okay, but how do you learn vocabulary NOW?” I’m going into N4 if you’re going to look at this from a JLPT stand point, but I don’t only learn strictly N5, N4, N3, etc level material. (That’ll be another post too, lol. Pssst… it’s another “cookie cutter” issue with me.)

Well, those apps mentioned above, obviously, but those only make up about ~30% of my vocabulary gain now. I use my textbook にほんご９０日 Vol 1 as a reference and gain some vocabulary there and I have a couple JLPT related vocab/kanji lists I use too, so that’s like another ~5% of where I get my vocab. 

I get the other ~65% from reading. Yup. Reading. Literally that’s it. I read all the time. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to learn Japanese! 

I have a short story digital bundle I read often from TheJapanShop.com and it’s aimed at beginners and becomes “harder” as you move to the next book and so on. I read through them and when my brain sees a word I know I’m like, “Cool.” But when I don’t know a word I see, I either look it up quick and write it in the margin or I continue on. I learn a lot through context clues. 

Here’s an example sentence from Story Two in Book One of the Japanese Reader Collection offered from TheJapanShop.com. 

「この傘は、雨が降るといつのまにか傘が開き、晴れると傘が閉じている…」

Roughly translated to “This umbrella opened unnoticed when it began raining and upon it becoming sunny the umbrella closed…”

When I read that sentence, I knew all the vocabulary except いつのまにか. The stories have lovely vocabulary guides, so when I looked it up, it said that it meant “before one knows; while unaware” and I took what I knew from the rest of the sentence and managed to learn that new word as a result! This is the best way I could explain how I use reading to expand my vocabulary… ^_^” Just taking what you know and expanding on it over time. I use this same method for grammar, but that’s saved for another post, lol.

I also use NHK New Web Easy to read articles about current events in Japan. It’s set up for native elementary and middle school students so they can read within the kanji and vocabulary they’ve learned so far in life. Guess what? That’s PERFECT for a language learner who has an okay-ish foundation with vocabulary. I learn so much everyday vocabulary that way.

Lastly, I read books and manga. Yup, manga. I don’t use these resources much right now because they’re bigger and more intimidating. I haven’t “officially” started a book but I’ve opened and read passages quite often to sort of test myself. Manga is simpler since there are fewer words than a novel, but they’re bigger than a short story or a news article. You’ve seen on Instagram that I’ve begun reading よつばと！ and so far I’m having a blast! I’ll talk about specific things I’m reading later.

Sooooo…. That’s basically it.

Most of my vocabulary gain now is through exposure to Japanese through social media (bless the internet), reading, and some usage of apps like Memrise and LingoDeer. I use no formal education or study plans or any structure at all. 

My word retention grew to be nearly double these last ~5 months because I built on what I knew and it grew easier and easier for me to learn and retain those words over these last few months. I never believed it, but there is definitely a language hump. Once you crawl over that, things simply become easier. It just takes A LOT of time and effort (and tears) to get over that hump. But, I believe anyone can do it, you just have to be determined and eager enough.

One tip I like to give is to learn through context. Don’t just learn lists of words and kanji. What’s the point? You can recite them, but can you USE them?

Oh, quick thing, I want to point out about how I personally learn vocabulary. I failed to realize this right away when I started learning Japanese, but quickly caught on and now hold onto this belief firmly.

I learn vocabulary and kanji together. 

I do not separate the two. I do not have a separate notebooks for vocabulary and kanji. I don’t even have a notebook at all actually for them, lol. When I post on Instagram that I’m focusing on kanji today, it means I’m just learning vocabulary or reviewing it. The 1026字の正しい書き方 book I use that teaches “kanji” is mainly for vocabulary expansion and how to write those kanji (stroke order). I don’t study the individual meanings of the kanji character, I study the example words it lists. That’s one way on how I’ve been expanding my vocabulary so rapidly.

Kanji is vocabulary. 

Kanji should be treated the exact same way that hiragana and katakana are treated in my opinion. Jokingly, kanji is just fancy kana. ;)

If you “fear” kanji, you’ll have a bad time. I joke and say now when I see an insane kanji or a difficult one, “Damn, that’s some angry squiggles right there.” and it makes learning it that much more enjoyable. :)

For example, �� means “eat, food.” Okay, cool that kanji has a food related meaning. But I’m not going to do that for thousands of kanji especially since each kanji has multiple readings depending on how it’s used. It’s simply impossible! I found I personally learn better when I learn the kanji in it’s “true” form, aka, in WORDS. 

食べる - to eat / 食べ物 - food / 食事 - meal / 朝食 - breakfast / etc.

Holy crap, not only did I learn the kanji 食 effectively, I learned four words and THREE other kanji! (I’m over dramatic, I know, lol.)

Vocabulary is all interconnected. You can’t learn one thing without stumbling and learning other things by accident. Learning through exposure is the best in my opinion. It’ll be tough to begin with when you don’t know much and it will cause you to doubt yourself and your ability to learn this language. But, just be patient. Learning five, three, or even one word a day is progress.

Small progress eventually builds up to big progress as Yuta says. ;)

Words are meant to be strung together and form sentences for you to read, enjoy, and react to. That’s why books exist. You read those words and sentences and they make you feel warm and fuzzy or cry or laugh. Don’t keep them at an arm's length and treat it like it’s some delicate flower. Language is a not just lists of words, kanji, and grammar points. It’s a culture and way of life for people. Treat it like an old friend and play with it (or go get a beer with it, ya know, whatever gets this point across, lol)!

I tend to treat language learning like I’m a curious five year old. I’m constantly asking questions and discovering new things and it just sparks that fire that makes you want to explore more and more. 

I don’t take it seriously (from an academic view) and that’s why I find some stuff so easy. It only becomes difficult if you make it difficult. Everyone learns differently. There is no one way to learn Japanese and there is no one way to learn specific parts of Japanese. Also, don’t compare yourself! It only ends in self doubt and discouragement. 

Explore and try out all sorts of things. Try out the free apps, read articles online, watch YouTube videos, just do SOMETHING. Don’t look for the “perfect” resource or routine. Just. STUDY. You’ll find in time what works for you and what doesn’t.

Language learning is no race. There is no ribbon or trophy at the end for becoming fluent overnight. Take your time and enjoy the process, you’ll be learning your whole life, ‘kay?

I’ll talk further on how I review it in another post. :)

[fluentlanguage]

#clearthelist February 2019: Chinese App Reviews and Teaching Welsh in Edinburgh

Welcome to the January edition of my #clearthelist goal tracking post. Clear The List is a support and accountability blog group sharing monthly language learning goals, hosted by my friends Lindsay and Shannon.

I have now been tracking my goals using Clear the List for 9 months. It’s a fun process - a little cumbersome at times to write check-in posts but always worth it for the accountability.

Ever since I created the Language Habit Toolkit I have been aware of how important it is to build a review process into your language learning routine. When you step back regularly and write down what you did, it’s easier to feel accomplished and understand that any lapses are temporary.

What Happened in January 2019?

After so much travel in December (retreat and Christmas), my intention was to have a month of routine, perhaps even a little rest. Now at the end of the month, I do feel a little more calm. But I’m also wondering where January has gone!

The month was focused on planning my year and working on the first project, which is launching a fabulous German course for beginners and “false beginners���. I worked on this course for 7 months last year and can’t wait to open it up for my 2019 German learners.

If you want a free preview, hop on here and register your email address.

On the blog, I shared the 9 Best Websites for German Beginners

This month, I also started work on Women in Language 2019 by contacting over 40 potential speakers. And ended with a trip to Edinburgh to present a lightning talk at Polyglot Pub Edinburgh. More about that in the Welsh section…

The Fluent Show

The Fluent Show was super efficient this month, I recorded 3 awesome interviews, 2 solo shows and ran a survey of over 150 listeners. Listen out for the next solo episode where I’ll share results and plans.

My favourite episode of January was Ask a Linguist, where we got to meet our linguist podcast heroes from Talk the Talk in Australia!

Language Goals and Progress

Let’s start with Mandarin Chinese for this one! Last month, I came out of the Chinese prep phase and decided that yes, I do want to learn this language a little bit.

Studying Chinese

I have been playing around with a bunch of apps. In my mind this isn't really "language learning" in my usual style yet. I feel like “proper learning” will start for real when I get a notebook, set goals and start saying things to people.

Without repetition and a notebook, I only retain 20% of what I see and practice. So I guess this is high level dabbling, and I’m not finding myself particularly rushed to move forward. I spoke no Chinese for 35 years of my life, and now I’m ok if it takes 6 months to start.

Patience is a secret language learning weapon.

Reviewing Chinese Language Learning Apps

Here are my insights on the Chinese language learning apps I've tried so far:

Memrise @memrise is fantastic for teaching the kinds of phrases you'll want to say. The videos with locals are wonderful, and this grammar screen you see here is a delight. Memrise seems to understand where I'm at as a learner. Only downside: I'm not finding it helpful for character study.

Drops @languagedrops is fantastic for learning lots of vocab, getting the hand of characters, and hearing clear pronunciation. It's got the best character/pinyin system for me. I’ve been enjoying the #90dayswithdrops challenge.

Duolingo @duolingo is good at building up each lesson, and has an interesting way of introducing new words. I'm not finding it as enjoyable as the others. The lessons feel too short. That owl is cute, though.

Lingodeer @lingodeerapp is the most comprehensive and I can see myself using this as a study guide. The stories at the end of each chapter are awesome, though I feel thrown in at the deep end with the characters now and then.

Welsh Language Goals

In Welsh, I usually set goals in 4 areas: listening, speaking, reading and writing. In January I hit a special extra milestone by teaching a few words in Welsh to others. Wow!

You can download my notes and recommendations from the talk by signing up at www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/welshtoolkit

Listening

January was listening month and I tried my best to get more practice in. I listened to Nicky and Lara on Mynd am beint gyda. LOVE the casual feel!

I also listened to the radio a few times, but it didn’t stick. My radio time is the morning, and I’m just not into Radio Cymru’s breakfast shows. If you know any better ones, give me a shout.

Finally, I did listen to the Say Something in Welsh listening practices and parallel.cymru’s spoken news.

I don’t think I’m suddenly twice as good at understanding spoken language, but this listening focus has been a great reason for me to look for new and different audio sources. I’m more surrounded by Welsh audio, and that’s automatically going to add more of it into my routine. Neis!

Reading

I had no goals, but I did read quite a bit anyway. Encouraging!

Speaking

My goal was to advertise for a new Welsh language partner locally, and I can report success! I put a post into a local residents’ group on Facebook. You know the one: “what’s that noise on Jackson street?”…but lucky for me, one out of the many people who read posts in the group referred me to Welsh speaker Jane.

Now I have someone to meet for coffee on a regular basis, and I’ve felt exhausted, excited and abuzz after speaking to her. I can make myself understood on any topic we’ve covered, and her talking speed is definitely adding to that listening practice.

In addition, I completed Say Something in Welsh Level 2, Challenge 22.

Writing

I did have a goal here, which was to write 6 pages using writing prompts. Goal achieved…but I’m not sure how enjoyable I found the topics so far. I prefer writing messages to friends in Welsh, and luckily I do this 3-4 times a week now.

Contact Goal

Every month, I log my “daily contact” with the Welsh language using the Streaks app. January was excellent with 20 days of contact. It’s a habit!

If you’re interested in a printable tracking system for your own language routine, have a look at the Language Habit Toolkit.

Goals For February 2019

Exciting times! I think it’s time to set goals in Chinese.

My Welsh level is comfortable and I’m feeling secure enough to share some attention. I will not set listening, speaking, reading and writing goals in two languages for the same month. That seems like overkill.

Chinese Language Goals

While I get used to easing off on Welsh, my February goals in Chinese are simple:

Start a Chinese study notebook so I can play with sentences and practice a few characters

Spend 3 hours studying Chinese in total

Get a textbook or two out of the library to test drive them

Welsh Language Goals

I’ve been enjoying the structure of having specific goals, and for February I’ll still pick on specific areas out of listening, speaking, reading and writing.

Since I have set up a successful Welsh habit and made lots of friends who speak the language, it’s now fairly regular for me to read and write Welsh in texts and books. Yay!!

Listening is a weakness of mine. I can understand 60-100% of the spoken language now depending on dialect and speed, but I want to feel more comfortable. I’ll aim for 5 days of Welsh audio contact every week, using one of these sources probably:

Parallel.cymru Newyddion

Radio Cymru

Mynd am Beint Gyda

Spotify Welsh Music

Say Something in Welsh

Speaking is obviously a key to success at this stage. I want to chat with friends or meet my tutor at least 3 times, and I’ll work on Say Something in Welsh too.

I’d love to make a few videos in Welsh but am struggling for time this month.

Other goals:

Book a place on another Welsh residential course, this time at the higher level. What could go wrong!

Say Something in Welsh! I realised today that I’m 3 challenges away from FINISHING Level 2. I can do it!

WOW so there we have it - a big catch-up on my language learning goals and live documentation of how I’m starting to learn Chinese. It’s arguably my 9th foreign language to be studied in some level of seriousness.

What Are Your Language Goals?

It’s time for a new year - are you studying a new language?

If you have ambitions in German, don’t forget to visit www.german2019.com where my free course is launching next month.

How was your January? Leave a comment below and share how you got on.

[aroutineache]

What’s Your Favourite Language Learning App? ﹅ Discussing the FREE Language Learning Apps I’ve Been Using “pour le français

http://aroutineache.com/whats-your-favourite-language-learning-app-discussing-the-free-language-learning-apps-ive-been-using-pour-le-francais/

I want to know another language, and I want to know it now! (“Je veux savoir la langue française, et je veux le savoir maintenant !”) However, that has been the case all along… Maybe some other time I’ll explain all the reasons I why I decided to start with le français in my mission to become bilingual… and then, maybe, even multilingual—but let me not get ahead of myself, yet.

Unfortunately, learning a second (“… ou une langue nouvelle …”) isn’t as “facile” as downloading a second dialect unto your computer (“votre ordinateur”) or phone (“votre téléphone”), mais c’est une grande partie de ce qui rend l’apprentissage si génial, et si gratifiante et enrichissante. Aussi, there are apps you can download to help you get some non-native-language-data stored and computing in your brain. These apps include Duolingo, Memrise, and Babbel, all of which I have been utilizing pendant presque deux semaines, and all of which I will discuss further below (alongside some other options in Part 2).

Duolingo

Duolingo uses gamification to make language acquisition fun, personalized, and accessible! You earn points that translate to what they call “lingots,” by completing lessons or by maintaining 10-day streaks, and you can then spend these “lingots” at the Shop (perhaps you’d like to purchase a Flirting lesson, or learn some new Idioms and Proverbs; race yourself against the clock with a Timed Practice, or maintain your streak despite missing a day by purchasing a Streak Freeze…). You can also earn badges by completing specific tasks, such as earning 200 XP in a day, maintaining a 30-day streak, completing 20 lessons or practices without getting anything wrong, or “working overtime” (completing a lesson before 7 a.m., or after 10 p.m.).

What I Like About Duolingo is the Daily Goal chart! You don’t have to set big goals to play, and learn, with Duolingo; it’s up to you whether you want to set your Daily Goal to 1 XP per day (Basic, about 5 minutes/day), 50 XP+ per day (Insane, 20+ minutes/day), or somewhere in between, but regardless of what your goal is, the app will track your productivity on a chart in the corner for you. What sort of information does this chart host? Good question; Duolingo tracks (and clearly displays for you) how many points you have left to earn to complete your daily goal, how many hours you have left to complete your daily goal, and how many points you’ve earn today compared  to the last seven via an easy-to-read line graph.

Other perks of Duolingo include the include the introduction and repetition of numerous vocabulary words (especially nouns and adjectives, plus pronouns) and conjugations (verbs) ranging from categories such as “Basics” and “Plurals,” to “Phrases,” “Animals,” and “Weather,” all the way to “Medical,” “Politics,” “Technology,” “Economics,” and “Spiritual,” to name a few. As well as its facilitation of an acquired, natural understanding of grammar rules. At times, using this app, you may find yourself realizing you understand what seems to sound “right” or “wrong” without being able to pinpoint the moment you learned the rule governing such.

What You Might Not Like About Duolingo is it’s sometimes wrong. The female speaking voice struggles the words “tu aS” and “le porC,” pronouncing the last, should-be-silent letters, and “le singe,” and “un œuf” as her voice cracks, and, regardless of these examples, I find it to be a less effective app in terms of pronunciation (when compared to Memrise and Babbel). Lastly, at moments the app might feel a little dry. Sure, it’s gamified, but there are times when it seems more like a chore than a challenge to complete a category. Be careful when powering-through, though; it’ll be up to you afterwards to maintain the vocabulary you built by going back and hitting “Practice”.

On the bright side… You can conveniently report any errors you find within the app’s lessons, and have the option to discuss any specific question or task, and its answer, with the entire Duolingo community by leaving a comment.

You’ll Like This App if you are brand new to the language you are set on learning. I can personally attest that it provides a very good entry point—both simply and enjoyably! On the other hand, if you are not new to the language you’re studying, but are still looking to practice in a fun-and-easy way, perhaps further build your diction, or sharpen your grammar skills and understanding via observation Duolingo provides a placement test that adapts to your level by getting harder (or easier) based on your answers. I have provided the link for the French placement test (x), however some of the most popular languages on the app include English, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, and Japanese.

(tina’s tip) : As soon as you earn five lingots, head over to the Shop and place a wager, Double or Nothing. “Attempt to double your five lingot wager by maintaining a seven day streak.” This’ll keep you coming back daily for a week, even on that day you really don’t want to!

(tina’s tip) : To work on your fluency from beginning, practice saying the French meaning out loud, even when you are typing or reading the English translation. As well, try not to repeat playing the audio before you’ve finished typing your translation (and try to use the faster audio when you can). (For pronunciation reasons, feel free to utilize the ability to repeat and slow down audio!)

(tina’s tip) : To practice your pronunciation, slowly repeat a sentence word-by-word when individual audio is available before attempting to recite the entire sentence perfectly. It’s okay if you need to repeat difficult words or word-combos slowly, and over and over!

Memrise

Memrise is really interesting! Not only does the app gamify learning a new language, and thus incorporate fun and community, like other language-aid apps, it incorporates scientific research regarding learning and memorizing anything —the techniques utilized are not exclusive to mastering a foreign language. So what are these techniques? Elaborate Encoding: Memrise uses what they call “mems,” or images to help you learn and remember by connecting new knowledge with something you already know in a vivid and sensory way (you can even create your own, personalized “mems,” as well)! Choreographed Testing: Recalling memories is what makes our brain muscles flex. It’s one of the most powerful ways to make those memories robust, durable and cogent. (Ever heard of use it, or lose it?) Therefore, Memrise is created to make its users’ brains and memories work to recall what they are learning. Scheduled Reminders: Finally, the app isn’t just set up to make you continuously practice so you won’t forget. Instead, Memrise attempts —again using scientific research and algorithms— to remind you to review (i.e. ‘recall’) at optimized times. What are “optimized times,” you ask? Another good question; an optimized time is a moment that is precisely estimated to be the point at which you are about to forget what you have learnt. If you’re still interested in this topic, you can researching “forgetting curves” to find out more for yourself.

What I Like About Memrise is that the app focusses on not just teaching, but making sure I remember what I am taught, and, then, that I can go on and use what I have memorized in sentences and discussions, such as at a restaurant (French 1). As for memorizing, the app doesn’t just keep track on what you need to review based on timing, but, also, Memrise independently tracks difficult words for you, allowing you the option to solely practice the things you get wrong most. Need extra help remembering a thing or deux? There are yet more options; select a mem (image to associate with your new and tricky word) or create your own… Here are some of my mine!

Other perks of Memrise include how verbal the app is, including a variety of voices (always at least one male, and one female) correctly pronouncing the French. And, besides memorizing, the app’s creators obviously care about applying accurate audio to assist in developing its users’ accents and listening skills (which really does help). As well, it’s improving my spelling! At times using this app, you may find yourself realizing you know exactly how to spell a word, all accents included, without ever having had put aside any dedicated thought or time to know, “Is it i before e… and where do I put the apostrophe?”.

Speaking for myself, I also find the app does a notable job of keeping my attention, and, additionally, fuelling my motivation and excitement for learning the French language. … (So far, it’s my favourite for all of these reasons.)

What You Might Not Like About Memrise is you may need some background. Well, technically, you don’t need any background to start your new-to-you-language exploration on Memrise (they’ll go over the basics, bonjour, salut, comment ça va, bonne, bien, mal, oui, non, être, avoir, au revoir, … etc., etc), it might help, and I’d, personally, suggest it.

On the bright side… When I say I think some background in the language “might help,” I don’t mean much. A little junior high school experience, some other basic, introductory Beginners’ class or video series, or a few committed days on Duolingo should be enough to get you going, especially in terms of developing a très peu de understanding of the language and its structure, before jumping onto Memrise!

You’ll Like This App if you are ready to start exploring the different types of sentences you are able to say (but have yet to say), or if you’re looking for something a little faster than Duolingo. Alternatively, this app is also a go-to suggestion for anyone looking to work on their pronunciation, or up their verb vocabulary.

(tina’s tip) : Try to go on the app daily to continue hearing the language, learning new words, and prevent missing scheduled reminders. (It’s okay if you do miss a reminder, though; you can still always catch up on your practice later!)

(tina’s tip) : Utilize the mems for pronunciation (examples). I’d imagine that most of the words I know, I learnt how to say before I learnt how to spell ’em… Also, even when a new, foreign word seems ridiculous and impossible, there’s a good chance you already know how to say it, or at least some recognizable approximation of it, by breaking it down into sounds from other words you already use all the time. After all, the French word “au” is really just “oh,” and “des ours” (bears) “day horse” (horse with a silent h, of course). More of an approximation, but “brouillard” (fog) reminds my of “boyar,” as in, Chef Boyardee. Basically, don’t let the spelling of a word be what brings you down. Reference: Y E S spells yes. What does E Y E S spell?

(tina’s tip) : Pay attention to when you finish a course, such as French 1, and are ready to move on to the next, such as French 2—you will need to go back to the “Courses” from your profile to select the next one; otherwise, the app will only have you review the material from your completed course without moving you on to the next.

Babbel

Babbel isn’t set up like a game with rounds, but instead like Courses broken into lessons with the intention of moving users along the shortest path to real-life conversation. Progressive lessons are connected together as an interlinking framework, with each step building towards the next. The app utilizes mock discussions, so you can see and practice using what you are learning in action, as well as build your vocabulary both actively and passively. The app attempts to get users to actively use passively learned words, preparing them for genuine conversations! As well, the app provides images with its lessons, practices, and translations, allowing the user to connect what they are hearing and saying to what they are seeing (i.e. what is being talked about). Finally, Babble uses the “spaced repetition” method to strengthen memory—this is similarly based on “forgetting curves” research, just like Memrise is. All you have to do is hit “Your Vocabulary” for a daily dose of recall, or go to your Vocabulary and click “Review these items” so you can increase your average distribution of words by knowledge level from a 1 (lowest-ranking) to a 6 (highest-ranking).

What I Like About Babbel is it’s review options, and the ability to personalize your method of recall from day to day by choosing to either utilize Writing or Flashcards to check if you remember your translations. I tend to learn towards the Writing option, and appreciate that if I haven’t got a clue, I can always hit the “help” button providing me with the scrambled letters of the French word I must then unscramble. Hitting “help” is still automatically marked as an error, though, which in my opinion, is a good thing—it allows me the chance to come back and try, again, to get it things right “the first time” as you can repeat all the terms you got wrong at the end of the practice. Also, the unscrambling-foreign-word task is not exclusively used in practices, but lessons, as well. Plus, expect a lot of fill-in-the-blanks. Hint: The blanks are the correct size to fit the correct text necessary to fill ’em. Although I don’t know what fuelled the choices behind including the unscrambling and fill-in-the-blank activities, I will say that while completing these exercises, they feel like they are motivated, reasonable, and helpful (as they should be).

Other perks of Babbel include the Daily Challenge (find by hitting “Home”) that encourages both review and streaks like Duolingo, and the ability to hover your mouse over most words, sentences, and phrases that  you want to hear said out loud once again; like Memrise, Babbel is a good option for strengthening both your verbal and hearing skills.

What You Might Not Like About Babbel is there’s no option just to review words that are the most difficult for you, but this can be taken as both a con and a pro (use any opportunity you can, or have to, to practice, practice, practice…). Really “the big thing,” is that it’s only a semi- or barely- free app. If you’re not willing to pay, only the first lesson of every course will be available to you, and this is a bummer because each lesson and course builds on the last. But wait (attente), didn’t I say I was going to be discussing the free language learning apps I’ve been using—not “semi- or barely- free,” but FREE? To you I say, check out the bright side (below, next line).

On the bright side… You can try a week of Babbel FREE by registering with this invite.

You’ll Like This App if you’re serious about study a new language. Courses range from Beginner’s 1 through 6, to everything Listening and Speaking-related (“Pronouncing Vowels,” “Pronouncing Consonants,” “Travel Dialogues,” “Tongue Twisters,” “Dictation Course,” “Sound Twins”), to “Conversations au Travail” (Conversations at Work) and writing “Love Letters.” … For further reference, Babbel’s  French Intermediate Courses utilize intensive listening, speaking, reading and writing at the B1 level of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

(tina’s tip) : Be aware that if you close a lesson prior to completing it, the the lesson’ll re-start from the beginning! To save your progress, you’re going to have to finish the lesson; otherwise, be prepared to re-do some tasks.

(tina’s tip) : Read along with the speaker to assist yourself in breaking down a sentence into its individual words. (You’re going to need this skill to understand another language, regardless of what app you are using to get there!)

(tina’s tip) : Have fun, work your way up, and pace yourself (like you would with a game——even if you’ve got your notebook out for this one, it’s a good idea to try and enjoy what you are learning)!

In Conclusion

If I had to pick just one, it’d probably be Memrise, but I don’t “pick just one,” and that is purposeful. Doing so keeps me stimulated, and allows me the chance to see, use, and learn language in variety of places and ways. Obviously, this is a decision that I am hoping will prove to be effective… I’ll keep “vous” updated.

Merci to the featured image source et DanceTabs pour la image above ! (And, y’all be sure to stay tuned for Part 2 of Discussing the FREE Language Learning Apps I’ve Been Using “pour le français”)

﹅ How ’bout you? Est-ce que vous parlez français? Are you learning?

﹅ Do you have a preferred or favourite digital “hack” to learning a new, foreign language?

﹅ Got any French media suggestions pour moi? Feel free to comment what you know!

http://aroutineache.com/whats-your-favourite-language-learning-app-discussing-the-free-language-learning-apps-ive-been-using-pour-le-francais/

[eurolinguiste]

One of the greatest outputs of technology, for language learners at least, is the plethora of resources available to us. At the same time, however, one of the most troubling things about technology and all of our recent advancements is that we now have a huge selection of language learning materials to choose from.

Figuring out which resources work for you and which don’t can be a considerable enterprise.

I’ve found myself on both ends of the spectrum. I went through phases where I owned more language learning resources than I could reasonably use and I’ve also found myself with too few to really be successful.

Today, I like to think I’ve found a balance with the number of resources, I use. But it isn’t just the quantity I use with which I’ve settled into a groove. It’s also with the quality. Now that I have a few years of independent language learning under my belt, I have the experience needed to better discern the quality of a resource and thus, make better choices when evaluating new resources. 

If Your Goal Is Conversation, Stop Counting on Textbooks or Apps to Help You

Before I get into selecting physical resources, I want to point out one particularly important thing. If your goal is reaching a conversational level, you need to stop counting on course books or apps to help you.

Yes, they’re great for offering up new vocabulary and explaining grammar rules, but they will not help you get better at speaking the language. The only way you’ll get better at speaking is by speaking. 

I began learning my second language in school, buried in grammar books and vocabulary exercises. I was focused on memorizing words and conjugations that would be stored on my mental hard drive until the next test, only for that information to be dumped immediately after. Not a very useful way to study language long-term.

It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to use the language outside of school that I really began to see any significant progress. Suddenly, I had a reason to really hang on to the vocabulary and grammar I was learning in school.

What changed?

I went from learning the language in order to pass exams to learning it to communicate with friends and family.

It felt incredibly rewarding to carry on a conversation in another language and it drove me to continue my efforts. In just a few months, my abilities far surpassed what five years in school had offered me. And that was all the motivation I needed to keep going, and even take on new languages.

Now, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use coursebooks, flashcards, or apps. They’re a great supplement. But you shouldn’t use only those means. Personally, I use a number of resources to pick-up and develop vocabulary, figure out sentence structures, and gain insight into the cultural or historical features that influence the language. But the truth is, it’s the native speakers I converse with who steer me in the right direction. It’s with them that I really make the most progress.

That said, conversing isn’t for everyone. If your goal is to read or understand a television series, then exchange partners or tutors might not be for you. Which leads me to my next point…

Not All Resources May Be The Right Resource for You

Everyone learns differently and everyone finds enjoyment in the process of learning in their own way. But just because you enjoy learning a certain way, doesn’t mean you’re learning the right way.

There are a lot of theories about what the right resources are or what the right methods are for learning a language. In my experience, however, I’ve found that there are really two things that matter when it comes to choosing resources and methods:

You enjoy them and thus spend time using them or doing them and;

They help you move towards your goals in the language.

As long as a resource does these two things (or at the very least, the second thing), then it’s a good resource for you.

Just Like Coursebooks and Apps Aren’t Enough on Their Own, Speaking Isn’t Enough Alone Either

Just like coursebooks and apps aren’t enough on their own, speaking isn’t enough alone either. The vocabulary and grammar need to come from somewhere.

Using a language with other speakers is by far the BEST way to improve your accent, your grammar, your vocabulary and your overall skill in another language (there are other ways to do it), but only once you’ve set up a foundation on your own. You can’t expect to launch into a discussion of Russian literature or French politics without having learned the vocabulary to use in that conversation.

This is where online learning programs, podcasts, grammar and vocabulary books, audiobooks and flashcards come in handy.

Here is what you need to consider when you’re choosing a language resource:

Exactly what are you trying to accomplish in the language? Are you aiming for a conversational level? To use the language at work? To read a certain book or books? To understand your favorite tv show? To travel? What you aim to do with the language plays a big part in selecting the kinds of resources you use.

What level are you currently at? If you’re anything above the beginning level, most coursebooks won’t be the right choice. Instead, you’ll want to start focusing more on using the language, using audio resources, or finding a more advanced grammar. Someone who is completely new to a language will have to implement an entirely different approach than someone who is more advanced. 

Where are the gaps in your current abilities? Do you struggle most with reading, speaking, writing or listening comprehension? Find resources that help you fill those gaps.

What will you actually use? When all is said and done, the best language learning resources are the ones that you’ll use. You can have the “best” books and the “best” podcasts, but if you don’t work through them, it doesn’t matter. If Duolingo is something you’ll use, then go for it. If learning the lyrics to songs is something you’ll do, then go for it.

As I mentioned before, there is no one-size fits all approach when it comes to choosing the right combination of resources. The various methods and tools available are going to work differently for you than they do for me, so I cannot emphasize enough the importance of trying things out to find out what works best for you. I’ve spent several years playing around with different resources and discovering what works for me and what doesn’t. I would be remiss to suggest that you do the same.

Let’s break things down with a couple of specific examples.

You’re Aiming for a Specific Language Learning Goal

If you have a specific goal you’d like to reach, then choose resources that will help you get there. If you want to converse, don’t choose resources that don’t give you opportunities to speak. Or listen, for that matter.

If you aim to one day be conversational in your language, then the two most important skills you can work on are your listening and speaking abilities. For this, I would suggest something like Pimsleur – it’s call-and-response. That way you get the chance to practice both speaking and listening. Personally, I listen to Pimsleur lessons whenever I’m in my car for an extended period of time. They’re a great way to establish basic speaking and comprehension skills. When you’re ready to take things further, a tutor is your best investment.

Your Goal is To Read or Write in the Language

If a grammar-focused method works better for you, or you’re more interested in reading and writing than speaking, a grammar or vocabulary book may work best for you. As far as resources I recommend, I like Assimil, the Routledge Grammar Books, and if you like exercises, Schaum’s.

There are also dual-language books that come with one language on one side and another on the other (or one language printed immediately under the other). If you’re at the intermediate or advanced level, you can try diving right into foreign language books, translating words you don’t know as you come across them (or after you finish each passage). For this, my absolute favourite application is LingQ. It’s fantastic if you love reading.

Playing in the Language is More Your Style

If gamification methods work best for you (or you just enjoy earning points for your efforts or just playing games), some of the online tools available may work for you. I personally like Memrise, Clozemaster and Drops. Duolingo is another big player in this field, and for Chinese, I’ve enjoyed Ninchanese.

You’re Not Sure Where to Start

If you’re unsure of where to start, or what your learning style is, there are a few resources that serve as a great introduction.

The first is a coursebook that includes audio. The popular options are Teach Yourself, Colloquial and the aforementioned Assimil.

You can also go with a good phrasebook to help you build a foundation in any language. The Lonely Planet series is pretty good, but if you’re just getting started, almost any one will do.

If you’re looking for more recommendations and reviews, you can check out my favorite language learning resources here. I’ve also created resource pages for each language I am studying. You can check out the pages here – French, Italian, German, Mandarin, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Breton, Korean, and Croatian. 

What about you?

What materials do you use to study and practice the languages you’re learning? I’d love to hear about them in the comments!

For more language learning tips like this, check out my collection of articles on Pinterest!

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The post How to Choose Language Learning Resources appeared first on Eurolinguiste.

[rigelmejo]

Lets discuss Clozemaster:

It’s a free app. At least, I’ve only ever used the free version, and it’s perfectly usable AND useful to use free. The only noticable limitation is that when you click a sentence trying to copy/paste, you need to click copy and then paste into a dictionary of your choice outside of Clozemaster. Sometimes clicking a word for a definition is needed, since each ‘cloze’ is based on a sentence with one new word you’re ‘learning’. The translations given for each sentence once you give your cloze answer/guess, are not translated literally. So it’s necessary to copy/paste the word and look up the exact definition sometimes, to figure out what SPECIFIC word/meaning in the sentence, your new learned cloze-word really was. This is just something that happens when learning this way. It’s fine, and the app is still usable. It’s just I DO think with the paid version, if you click your sentence after answering/guessing the cloze word, the app gives you an exact definition of the cloze-word. So the paid version might be a second or two more convenient.

It has one drawback that is not something that changes whether its the free version or paid, and it’s understandable WHY the app has the feature. The positives the app gets from it, make up for the negatives the app gets from it in my opinion. I remember hearing, a long while back, that Clozemaster picked its sentences from Forvo.com, a website with a huge amount of native speaker submitted sentences with their language/other language translations and pronunciations in their language. Forvo itself is a WONDERFUL resource for hearing the pronunciation of words. It’s also a pretty useful site for people who want to make flashcards and try to learn using a kind of comprehensible input i+1 flashcard learning method.

The good thing about Clozemaster using Forvo as it’s source for it’s sentences: a huge amount of the Clozemaster sentences are natural language, sentences a real person would/has used, and Clozemaster for the most part orders the sequence of sentences it gives you based on most common words first. Then over time you cover less and less common words. With Chinese, it also goes by HSK level - so you only encounter sentences with simple grammar first, and HSK1 words, then each gets a bit more complicated as you progress to the HSK 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 etc sets. So, you can realistically use Clozemaster as a sentence mining resource, that will somewhat be in line with the method of trying to learn from comprehensible input where there’s only a little new challenging information over time. It is a really great thing. It makes Clozemaster super useful, for any language you’re learning, and if you like studying based on utilizing comprehensible and almost-comprehensible input, it’s designed great for this. The sentences are also generally real sentences people have used, when they’re from Forvo. So you rarely run into sentences that have the kind of errors in the vein of “teacher does not actually understand the language they teach, and is teaching you unnatural language/incorrect grammar.”

The main negative of Clozemaster stems from this same good thing about it: Forvo doesn’t define sentences literally. Forvo defines sentences as a whole - so something that literally means ‘leave now’ might be translated as ‘lets go’ in translated-version of the sentence, because the whole-sentence translation is meant to get the whole gist of the entire sentence translated. The translations for Forvo sentences is more about translating the full sentence chunk’s meaning/equivalent, rather than any word-for-word translation that might be less natural sounding. Since Clozemaster gets the content for it’s sentences from Forvo, it can cause the following issue. Clozemaster will give you a sentence, and when you answer regardless of if you were right or wrong, it will provide you the english translation. Sometimes, the english translation does NOT actually include specifically the translation of the CLOZE-WORD. A simple example might be a chinese sentence, saying in chinese “Wo xian zou” - lets say Clozemaster gives the sentence “Wo ___ zou” and asks you to answer what the cloze-word is. Once you answer, it tells you if you’re right or wrong. Then it shows you ‘xian’ was the correct word, and it shows you the english translation “I’m leaving.”

How big of a problem this is, will depend on how much it bothers you. If you study enough sentences, the other ways ‘xian’ is used will become clear in context, and it will be fine. If you copy the chinese word at this point, open it in a dictionary app, then you will get the literal definition and be able to compare it to how it gets used in this sentence. Xian means ‘first’ or ‘before’, so the more literal translation would be “I’ll leave first,” only in a slightly different word order. But the more natural sounding definition is probably... “I’m leaving.” That IS the translation a chinese drama show would probably pick, and the meaning of “I’m leaving” for an english speaker is about the same as how chinese speakers mean it when they say “Wo xian zou.” So as a full sentence overall translation, the clozemaster sentences are fine. But sometimes the lack of the actual-cloze-word being literally-defined in the english translation, makes learning from some sentences a little confusing. This would be an issue that would crop up if you use Forvo, or any whole-sentences to study from as your primary resource, unless you’re specifically translating literally for yourself. Now, there’s good things about learning this way too - learning as full sentences/phrases of meaning, might actually be more useful in some ways. There’s a great Chinese grammar book that’s all about how a lot of things literally NEED to be worded differently to ‘mean’ the equivalent thing as the english. Different ways of wording nationality, different ways of saying ‘i’m fine’ etc. So Clozemaster sentences as a whole are still useful. It’s just best to treat them as phrase-learning sentences sometimes, if you can’t figure out specifically what the definition of the new word was. That word will come up again in new contexts later, that will further help you understand the word.

Now, onto Clozemaster’s difficulty curve: even the most simple sentences, full of super common words, are still going to be difficult if you are an absolute beginner. If you want to learn using ‘comprehensible’ input, I’d really recommend either... realizing the first several times you’ll use clozemaster will be brutal on you, until you learn the most common words and can then rely on them to understand ‘most’ of the sentences introducing new words... or looking yourself up SOME other resource with at LEAST 100-500 common words, and drilling it before you start using Clozemaster. Whether that means reading an intro textbook, reading a wordlist, doing a memrise deck, anki deck, whatever. Just... Clozemaster is much more useful for learning new words in the context of sentences, if you’ve got a decent understanding of some super common words that tend to be in most sentences FIRST. Otherwise you’re learning ALL the words in a new sentence on Clozemaster at once, instead of ONLY the new cloze-word it’s supposed to be teaching you. In addition, if grammar is confusing the ever daylights out of you, even in the simple sentences in Clozemaster’s start, you might want to look up “X-language grammar guide” on google, find yourself a free one, and skim through it. Just so you have some idea of what grammar features to look out for - if word order is usually different than english, if verbs usually have Y kind of conjugations, etc. This will help make the clozemaster sentences easier for you to learn from if you were struggling - because it will give you more comprehensible details to look for (if you’ve seen a grammar guide, and can identify the nouns/verbs/adjectives, and guess at word order, then you’ll have a better idea of if the new word you are learning is a noun/verb/adjective and how it is related to the words in that sentence that you DO know). This will make it easier for you to learn from the context of the sentence in Clozemaster, with less need for any other tools. For me, I found that Clozemaster is MOST useful to me for rapidly picking up more vocabulary, especially in the stage where you CAN understand example sentences in your study materials like textbooks or example sentences for common words in a wordlist, but CANNOT actually read native materials yet. Clozemaster also progresses to less common words over time, so its a bit like reading a graded reader - except in sentence chunks instead of paragraphs/pages/books. If a graded reader is too difficult, it may be a little easier to use Clozemaster. If some graded readers are too easy, Clozemaster may have some challenging sentences to work up your vocabulary until you’ll feel ready to read a more difficult book. It’s super useful for late-beginner to intermediate skill level learners.

Lets talk about languages not very much like english in Clozemaster - Japanese and Chinese. I’ve tried both of them. For me, they were both brutally difficult even in the beginning, until I learned a lot of basics. Knowing grammar at least at a basic level was vital for me, in helping me figure out how the japanese or chinese sentence was structured compared to the english translations. Also, its very noticable in these languages that some sentences are NOT translated literally. They’re probably not translated literally, because the way an idea in some sentence might be expressed using entirely different words in english versus chinese etc. Now, I DO find these languages on Clozemaster still immensely useful. I’d just say the difficulty curve mentioned above, is going to be even more apparent than in say a romance language. So if you find Clozemaster unusable as a total beginner, consider doing the tips above, then coming back to clozemaster later to help you acquire vocab in context once you... have more of a basis to draw context from. Also, if you find kanji, hiragana, katakana, hanzi incompensible to the point you cannot even distinguish differences BETWEEN different characters? You may need to study one or multiple of those writing systems a bit more before using clozemaster. For me, I could not really learn new kanji words from Clozemaster until I AT LEAST knew some 100 kanji already and had a good idea of how radicals combine to build kanji, so that I could look at new kanji and tell myself “this new word X, pronounced Y in the sentence, matching this english definition, has radicals Z making it up” to help myself remember the new word specifically. And if I didn’t know katakana or hiragana I don’t think I would have been able to even TRY to interpret the sentences. The case was similar with chinese - I had to learn some commonly used hanzi for grammatical information, and recognize the radicals, before I could dive into trying to use Clozemaster sentences to learn new words. However, I will say, Clozemaster’s organization of sentences by HSK level is SUPER useful. As I’ve been steadily learning with my other learning materials, I’ve noticed that for the HSK levels I’ve ‘surpassed,’ the corresponding HSK level sentences in Clozemaster have become completely comprehensible to me (and are now just something I use to review grammar structure instead of learn new words). In Clozemaster, I can pick the next HSK level up to practice learning the new words at the level of HSK I am studying, along with grammar, and use it to learn with sentences for context in a wonderful sentence-mining kind of structure perfect for my learning level. If I DO want to challenge myself, I can pick ‘sentences at random’ and get sentences that are super easy all the way to intensely confusing (for me) complex sentences with a lot of new vocabulary. The way clozemaster is structured for Chinese is incredibly useful if you’re using clozemaster alongside a textbook or any other learning material that is progressing from most common words/basics to more complex. 

[rigelmejo]

Like to preface, I never learned a language to fluency so everything i say needs a million grains of salt but like i do think it’s true, that the more u study languages, the easier it gets. not in the sense that it will ever be magically fast, but in the sense you get a better idea of how to study proficiently. You get a better idea of how to do the most possible in the least amount of time.

Because like? Chinese - it’s objectively hard. It’s hard. I think it’s difficult. But I am making progress at maybe 50% the speed I made progress in French. Which is a LOT faster than I made progress in Japanese (which was about 30% of the speed I learned french). In French, I got to being able to read the gist of informational texts/forums at around 6 months - and maybe 3-4 months to start struggling through titles and simple texts. Then maybe 1-1.5 years for being able to mostly read simple texts, get the gist of historical texts and light novels, and struggle through pretty much anything else - but at least get the basic ideas. 

For Japanese? It took me 1.5 years to get the basic gist of BASIC things like titles/short captions. It took me 2 years to get to the point where I could read simple short dialogues in some slice-of-life daily-activity mangas, and sometimes be able to get the gist of the plot. I think right now, for Chinese, I would probably be somewhere slightly under that point - because I can read fanart comics and watch short fanwork animations based on things I know and follow the gist - but if I looked at something completely new its uncertain if I’d be able to get the gist at all. But like... that’s 3 months of chinese in comparison to 2 whole YEARS working on japanese.

If I’m going to be GENEROUS, I also had a 3 month-ish high school chinese class once upon a time, although i don’t remember much from the class. So that would be like 6 months total in my life studying chinese. Which is still a FAIR BIT faster than I accomplished things in japanese. It’s still slower than french, but french is definitely one of the easiest languages to try to read in if you’re a native english speaker (so many words are similar once you get some basic grammar and high frequency words learned). 

If I keep progressing at this speed, I might be able to start struggling through web-novels and comprehending the gist at around 1 year. And for me, reading is the easiest way (and my favorite way) to improve my skills in a language. So once I hit that sweet spot where I CAN struggle to read, I’ll just keep improving at reading more or less as I just keep making myself read. And if Chinese is anything like French, then I’ll just need to be aware of the need to listen to chinese as well (and shadow audio for pronunciation) if I don’t want my listening comprehension to lag behind. That could be... a relatively decent level of reading ability in a few years. If it’s like french, but half as fast, then maybe 3-4 years to finally get to the point I don’t need a dictionary to read the stuff I want to be reading, and probably 1-2 years to start being able to grasp the main ideas of the target-stuff I want to read.

But like - my point? Is just that I am CERTAIN part of why I’m managing to progress to something I consider useful at a speed I am happy with, is because I’ve learned how I learn best.

For me, I know that I learn fastest by USING a language. My brain does not like being hand held, it does not like going slowly. My brain likes being thrown into a problem and being expected to solve it. It likes learning from context. It REMEMBERS best by being given a real context to associate the new words and grammar structures to - if it has a memorable example, that will make me learn it faster than mnemonics or repetition or anything else. Secondly - my brain acts like it always wants to go slow, and the best thing for it is to push myself past where I feel comfortable and keep over-challenging myself. It learns faster than I think it does, but I only can see that progress if I push myself.

For me, the fastest way to learn is:

To look up that 200-300 most common words tumblr post, for being able to communicate one’s thoughts, and make that the first list I work on learning. My brain likes knowing how to say anything it would need to say, and that list is perfect for prioritizing usability of a language (versus textbooks, which often prioritize classroom/work/hobby words before sentences like ‘i hope that’ ‘i need help with’ etc).

To look up a grammar guide, and read through that bastard. I’m not kidding - read through it. Don’t wait, don’t slow down. If a grammar point makes sense, move forward and do NOT bother trying to memorize it. Grammar points WILL keep popping up again and again in other textbooks you look at later, and as you look up structures later in context - so first literally just prioritize EXPOSING yourself at least once to the grammar structures and the explanation of how they work. (My brain always, without fail, wants me to slow down here - but it never actually needs to, slowing down here just prevents me from making progress as quickly as I’m able to). It’s boring, but do it - this step is so the structure of the language will make some sense to you, and be something you can start to interpret when you see/hear it.

Now start engaging with native material - right now. It’s the biggest struggle in the world. You maybe know 50-150 words. Start engaging with native material and looking things up that keep popping up. It’s a painful struggle at first - but its the easiest way to get started on learning the rest of that 300 word list, and to get started on learning the most common words by frequency (because they’re the words pissing you off the most as you see them over and over but don’t understand them). At this point get a good dictionary app or website lined up (that has audio examples) to use. Bonus points if you are also LISTENING to native material. With Chinese, I started with watching shows from day 1, with chinese subtitles on - which made looking up new words really easy, and made attaching pronunciation to words really easy. Youtube videos are also good for this. Again, at this point EVERYTHING is an absolute struggle. You just live with it. This step is to throw yourself into the deep end and make your brain START LEARNING AND CARING - this is the problem it’s being given to solve: how to understand. The difficulty makes your brain want to figure out what things mean, and try to figure them out - and this is also the basis for context you’ll refer back to as you learn more. 

Once the absolute pain of the struggle finally hits its breaking point, find a general word frequency list of 500-2000 of the most common words in the language. You can either use a flashcard app (memrise/anki), literally just go through that list over and over, use a book focused on teaching them, use clozemaster if you want context around the words (which WILL be a struggle at first just like reading native materials, but if you’re improving it will become MOST obvious on that app when suddenly sentences go from seeming awful to get through, to seeming overly easy). This also might be where a textbook comes in - just so you can see those frequent words used in textbook example sentences, with explanations, over and over.  This step is so that the next time you dive into native material, it hurts less.This is about expanding vocabulary.

After a while, gauge your progress by going back to native materials. (To some degree, always be engaging in native materials - but during step 4 of expanding vocab you can just do it passively without actually trying to learn much from native material). But once you feel you’ve improved your vocabulary, go back to trying to read/listen and gauge progress. There should be some difference. What’s easier to read? What’s easier to hear? What are the weak points - is it certain grammar structures you now need to look up more in depth? is it idioms holding you back? have you been focusing on fantasy words too much and you need more business vocab? is the listening weak - do you need to listen while reading more? Whatever your weak points, that will help you plan your next specific learning goals (aside from the obvious long term goals of - acquire more vocabulary and keep re-looking up grammar points until they stick). Clozemaster, again, I think is one of the fastest ways to gauge progress - the short sentences make it clear if your reading is improving or not, without being overwhelming. Youtube videos make it clear if your listening is improving or not - can you understand more without english subtitltes/without ANY subtitles, or is it still the same? It’s pretty obvious if you’re in a ‘struggling’ stage, a ‘gist understood’ stage, or a ‘easily understood’ stage. This step is about engaging in native material intensively again, to see what topics you actually CARE about learning, to practice comprehension, to put all the hard work to use and feel satisfied at the improvements. 

Once you have noticed a jump in progress, take the time to look at your original high frequency word list again. Did you learn all of the 300 basic common words? If not, finish that up now so there isn’t a gap in knowledge. If there’s a real basic grammar point you didn’t learn, fill that gap now too. Then move on to the 500-2000 high frequency word list. If there’s a gap in what you know, work on filling it in now (by doing step 4 some more). If you noticed that you only understand grammar up to a POINT, then consider now diving into a new grammar guide or book and start reading into grammar more again - just read through it, don’t worry about memorizing. You just want to become more familiar with the parts you don’t understand, and get more exposure to other explanations for those grammar structures. This step is all about working in a more structured manner to fill in the gaps in your knowledge so you make sure the foundations you’ve build are solid. This step is all about finishing reading the actual word lists/pushing through flashcard or clozemaster drills/reading textbooks, and making sure everything you’ve learned is a solid level - whatever level that is. (Sort of like A1-B1 etc, you don’t want some reading ability at B2 then you get thrown a topic you forgot to study and suddenly you aren’t even A1 level comprehending anything). 

Now just keep repeating steps 3-6: (3) engage with native material and look up things when not understanding something that keeps coming up is frustrating/holding back comprehension, (4) find a word list of a higher size if you get too frustrated from too many unknown-words and focus on word drills, (5) go back to native materials once that gets boring and gauge progress again. 

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 Once you see a significant progress-jump in your comprehension of native materials, you can do step 6 again and make sure your newly-learned level of comprehension has all it’s gaps filled in - by scanning over the entire word list you’ve been using/scanning over grammar books for structures you’ve been struggling to understand/doing more listening practice if that’s what you need/etc. 

The key to studying efficiently, for me, is to first find word frequency lists and grammar guides and start reading those through. Then to throw myself headfirst into native materials and struggle horrifically - but it’s interesting material, and I know I’ll look up a bunch of the high-frequency words/grammar structures I encounter that keep eluding me (and the native content will provide context for those words/structures so I remember them more easily). Then once that is no longer efficient, diving into learning materials and just cramming new information quickly - again, because I’ll go back to native material later to get more exposure to those new things, and to get context to remember them better with. Then finally, as I keep cycling through this process, occasionally gauge my own progress and make more specific goals if I realize I have gaps in certain areas (which is almost ALWAYS in either certain topics of vocabulary, listening comprehension, or grammar points I haven’t read about yet and should read about once they start hindering my ability to comprehend things).

I know myself, and what I’ve learned is my brain loves to encourage me to study much slower and less efficiently than I know I’m capable of - because being thrown headfirst into challenging content feels HARD, but it’s also the way I learn quickest, because I learn the easiest when I’m just problem solving.

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I also know that for myself, the things that have made the most significant difference in how fast I learn are: 

Finding a frequency word list immediately and using THAT to prioritize which words to learn.

Finding a grammar guide and CHUGGING through that as fast as possible as early as possible.

Engaging with native materials immediately, and often, even though at first (and in waves throughout my progress) it can be an absolute slog. 

Doing listening early, often - listening to shows, listening to youtube videos, listening to audiobooks, listening to the pronunciation in the translators/dictionaries when I learn new words. (I did NOT listen to french often enough or early enough, and that still holds me back in french. In contrast, I did listening so immediately in chinese that even though my listening still isn’t as good as my reading, it is FAR CLOSER in comprehensibility then my listening-to-reading ratio in french is.)

Not letting myself slow down and try to stop and memorize things. Instead, trying to prioritize learning from context. Flashcards and word lists DO help me, but not nearly as much as context based problem solving - so they’re more of a crutch to push up my ability to comprehend or to fill in gaps in knowledge. I should use those things to be exposed to the new word/structure, and then instead of memorizing jump into REAL CONTEXT and then start learning it as I keep coming across it. This is the easiest, fastest, way for me to learn new words and structures. Mnemonics/flashcards/lists are just crutches for when learning from context needs some more building blocks to even be possible to do. I am NOT good at sticking to flashcard/list regimes, and they don’t help me as much as just forcing myself to dive into native material anyway.