Hello, everyone and welcome back to my blog! I hope that you have been having a nice month so far and that you have been staying warm during our cold winter days. For this week's post, I wanted to share my all-time favorite language-learning app. I have been using it for almost a year now for German, French, and now consistently for Portuguese.
LingoDeer is an app that I found out about from one of my favorite language YouTubers, Lindie Botes, who made an app review about it on her channel a while back. At first, I was not sure if I would like it, or if I could use it, given that I am not learning any Asian languages, but the more I learned about it, the more I started to use it. I completed almost the entire course for German in a few months, started using it for French, and have now completed 40% of the Portuguese course it offers.
What makes this app so great? Well, to start off, it is free, so you do not have to worry about spending a single cent to install it on your phone. It's also very practical, fun, and easy to follow. Unlike Duolingo that gives you very unnatural-sounding sentences and often robotic sounding voice recordings, I would say that the sentences you are asked to learn and then spell out, as well as the voice recordings, are very clear and logical. They are also made by native speakers, which helps you practice your phonetics and pronunciation.
It's a bit hard to describe how to use this app, so I decided to attach a YouTube video that shows you how to use it step-by-step. It also talks about many of the features that you can use that provide further vocabulary and grammar explanations that you do not get when using Duolingo. I am determined to finish the entire course for Portuguese within the next 3 months or so, which goes to show how much I love this app. I especially love how you can earn prizes after completing certain challenges, such as having a 30-day streak, or completing a certain level of the course.
This app offers courses in Korean, Japanese, Mandarin, Vietnamese, French, German, and Portuguese. I have to say that I have been very impressed with the non-Asian language courses, but have never tried the other ones. Most LingoDeer app reviews talk about the Asian language courses, so they seem to be very thorough and easy-to-follow from what I have gathered.
Have you ever wondered what polyglots do in
order to learn many languages more efficiently? Have you ever been discouraged
and have told yourself that you are simply “not as smart”, or “cannot retain”
as much as polyglots can? If you have answered yes to either of those
questions, I hope that you realize that anyone, and I do mean anyone, can learn
as many languages as he/she proposes as long as effective methods are used and good
time management skills are implemented into the language-learning process. For
anyone who has ever told me that I am simply smarter, or better at
language-learning than others, I want you to know that I have studied just as
hard if not harder than others who have gotten the same results. I have put
hundreds of hours of self-study in my spare moments throughout the year, which
I will admit are far and few. Either way, I will share 5 secrets that,
according to Lydia Machová, are why poyglots
are generally more sucessful than other language learners.
1. Polyglots do not wait for
languages to be taught to them and learn them themselves
What makes so many polyglots unique is that
they are generally very motivated and are dedicated to self-directed learning.
Instead of being passive, they are active in all aspects of their language
studies. For example, instead of waiting three years before they find native
Swahili language partners with whom to practice their Swahili conversational
skills, which may be hard to find depending on where they live, they may use
iTalki or other language-learning sites to pay online tutors to practice
talking to them. Instead of waiting to enroll in a beginner French class in the
city, which may be a far commute, they go to a nearby bookstore, buy a
French-learning book and start finding online resources to practice what they
have learned. The point being is that they do not let time, lack of resources,
or other factors get in the way from making progress and furthering their depth
of knowledge in other languages.
2. Polyglots have fun
This point may seem somewhat obvious to bring
up, but I believe that it is important to mention it. Too often do I hear my
peers say that they are bored with their language classes, or that they feel
like they are not progressing after months, semesters, or years of study in
another language. I will admit that I personally find learning grammar and
using textbooks to be boring, tedious, and oftentimes very frustrating, so,
instead, I find ways to integrate languages into my lifestyle (read below to
see what I mean). That way I enjoy the process and am motivated to continue
with studies.
3. Polyglots have a lot of contact
with the languages that they are learning
The expert in language-learning who is the
guest speaker in the video above says that she has met many people who have gone
to a lesson twice a week without ever reading a book in that language, or only
doing what their classes require them to do. To put it simply, there are many
language learners that make the mistake to not expose themselves to anything in
their languages, not even reading a book, and expect to become fluent in
another language by only going through the motions. I wish that doing so were
that easy, but unfortunately it is near impossible for that to happen.
The reason for which your college-level
language professor tells you “we always run out of time”, or “I wish that we
had more time to work on this” is because he/she knows that there is not enough
time to get in as much depth as he/she wishes in a paritcular topic in such a
short amount of time. At my university, the more advanced you are in a
language, the more that is expected of you, yet at the same time, the less
amount of class instruction you receive. Therefore, the most ambitious students
are the ones who listen to foreign music, read foreign books, and watch foreign
movies, not the ones who seem to know what they are doing, or who procrastinate
and try to mumble what seems to be a perfectly constructed sentence.
4. Polyglots do a little every day
Instead of setting unrealistic, big goals,
most polyglots take little steps every day and see progress in the long run. A
recommended amount of time to spend on a language is 15-25 minutes a day if you
are busy and cannot do more language study than that. By doing so, you are
constantly feeding and activating your brain to try to retain what you learned
three years ago, as well as what you reviewed the previous morning. By doing a
little at a time, you are more likely to retain information, you are engaging
with several aspects of a language (ex: reading, writing, or listening), and you
are training yourself to start thinking in that language, which is most of our
end goals. I have made the most amount of progress when I have done less, but
have been consistent and have followed a schedule (ex: by reviewing German
every other day) and have managed my time in a way that has made me be more
efficient in my studies. Remember the saying: “jack of all trades, master of none”?If so, that expression applies
to language learning a hundred percent.
5. Polyglots learn in a systematic
way
The last secret that we have is that we follow
a plan, as I mentioned above. Instead of saying that we are going to work on a
particular aspect of a language and putting it off by telling ourselves that we
will eventually do it, we do it. It is that simple. We try our best not to come
up with excuses, and if we find ourselves trapped and confused, we ask those
around us who have been able to do whatever it is that we want to do (ex: how
to pronounce certain kinds of words). We also prioritize what we believe is
most beneficial to us and practice on what we want to improve. As you can see
in all 5 tips, the general trend is that we follow a routine and have
self-discipline. Attitude is absolutely key.
If
you are interested in reading more about hyerpolyglotism and what that means,
feel free to read my posts:
~~“Tim Doner: The Hyperpolyglot That
Inspired Me” from 2/26/16
~~ “How To Learn Multiple Languages At A Time” from 3/23/16
~~“Taking Classes in Multiple Languages: My
Experience and Advice” from 4/17/16,
~~“How to Speak Multiple Languages Without Mixing Them Up” from
8/9/16.
There you go! These were just 5 methods of
many that polyglots use that most other language learners do not. I hope that
you became inspired to start implementing a few, or all of these methods in
your own studies. I wish you all the best of luck trying to better your
methodologies in your languages in this new year. Remember that a new year
means a new you. Which language goals do you want to set for yourself?
As many of you may have read in my last post, you may have realized that I had mentioned that I had been studying at a language institute. After 3 years of intensive study and dedication to my German studies, I decided that what I needed to eventually reach my goal of fluency was complete immersion in Germany. After a lot of research and looking up affordable language institutes in Frankfurt, I decided on did deutsch-insitut whose mission is to help as many international students learn German as quickly and as effectively as possible.
I learned that it is standard for any European country to accept a certificate from a qualified language institute. Traditionally, there are 6 levels: A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, and C2. The A levels are for beginners, the B levels are for intermediate learners, and the C levels are for advanced learners. It is most common for universities, master's programs, other professional institutions, and jobs to require a C1 level in order to be able to enroll, and or have a job position in your target language. In order to receive a certificate in any given level, you must take an exam on a particular date at a specific time. In order to be able to take the exam, you must talk to an institute that you are interested in taking it, as well as pay a fee. The overall process is much simpler and smoother than you would think.
Now that I gave a basic rundown as to how most European language institutes work, I would like to try to convince you that this is one of the best ways to make progress in another language. The main argument that most people have made for which not to go to one is that language institutes are too expensive and are not worth your money. Although this decision should not be taken light-heartedly, I believe that the experiences and the knowledge that you gain are unparalleled to anything that you could teach yourself in your spare time. Believe me, I have done self-study for years now, but have not been able to progress as quickly as I have when attending language immersion camps and did deutsch-institut. The reason is simple. It is neither because I do to have a good enough memory nor because I am not smart enough. It is because an artificial immersion experience is nowhere near as valuable and as effective as an authentic immersion experience with native teachers who have a lifetime worth of knowledge and experience in their mother tongues.
The first day that I arrived at the institute, I was told go to a room and was asked in which level I would like to try to be. I told the lady that I was hoping to either be in B2, or in C1. A little while later, I was given my schedule for the rest of the week with the times and names of my teachers and was thrilled that I had been put into B2. My first class was somewhat daunting, as I was asked to take the B1 exam, but it was over before I knew it. From then on, I saw the classmates that I would have for 4 weeks. Since our class exceeded the maximum number of students for a class, the owner of the institute felt that it would be best to not add more students to our class as new students arrived. Because of this, I was able to form deep bonds with my classmates. During our breaks, I would stay in our classroom and spark up conversations to anyone who was near me. Before I knew it, it was over in the blink of an eye.
At did deutsch-insitut, we were told that we could only speak to our classmates and to our teachers in German , which, in reality, was not very hard to do, because most of my classmates did not speak any of the other languages that I speak, and if they did, they did not feel comfortable enough to carry on complex conversations in them. I ultimately learned the power that language has in bringing all of my classmates of my institute together. German united us and gave me friends from Vietnam, Sweden, Korea, China, Russia, Tanzania, Portugal, Spain, Brazil, and Guatemala. Despite our differences, ages, and cultural backgrounds, we treated each other as one: as a family and helped pick each other up. We ultimately made each other better learners and cheered each other on.
My institute used the Aspekte Neu textbook, which is by far the best textbook that I have ever been asked to used for class. Instead of being made and tailored to students who are obliged to take a language class, it is made for international students who want to learn German. The instructions, the readings, the grammar explanations, the listening comprehension exercises, and all of the activities were in German. Aside from doing what was in the book, we would work on expanding our vocabulary (ex: we would learn and write down vocabulary by classifying it into thematic categories instead of simply learning words without any context randomly). Since I had decided to pay for an Intensiv Modul, which stands for a designated extra time for more practice, I was able to have a lot of conversational practice with my classmates, as only 5, or 6 students were in it at any given time (you had to pay a little more in order to have it as a part of your weekly schedule). It was not only worth it, but also gave me more exposure to hearing a native speaker talk in German at a rapid and native space, as well as more time to ask questions and clarifications about the grammar and the vocabulary that we had learned in every chapter.
After years of time and dedication to my German studies, I am happy to say that I received a B2 certificate. I am thankful for all of the laughs and conversations and for making me regret not staying longer, hope to someday visit my classmates in their home countries, and that I continue staying in touch with them in German. My hope is that by the end of this post, you learned the value of a language institute education and that you consider to study in one and experience it for yourself. Studying at a language institute not only helps make your resume stand out and look more impressive, but ultimately allows you to be independent, learn more than you ever thought that you could achieve in a short amount of time, and gives you lifelong friendships of other individuals whose ultimate goal is your own.
