Language-Learning Dictionary You Should Try Out: Reverso Context

Hello, everyone, and welcome back to my blog! I wanted to start off by apologizing for not having posted for a while. As many of you already know, I am currently abroad and have not had the opportunity to blog as much as I originally wanted to do, however, am hoping to post more consistently for the remainder of the semester from now on. For the first post of the academic semester, I thought that I would post about an application that I found out about a few months ago through a YouTuber polyglot, Lina Vasquez, called Reverso Context. 

In Lina's video (watch it down below), I remember her talking about a few other language-learning apps that she has recently been loving, but she particularly liked this one, as it is better than simply using Google Translate, or another online dictionary. I started using it, because I also find it very practical and easy to use. Instead of just typing in a word and the search engine coming up with 15 different results, you not knowing how to use the word, or you not knowing which definition is the correct one as a non-native speaker, this app helps you narrow down your results. What I like about the free phone version is that you can translate words from English into 12 other languages. The majority of the languages that you and I are learning are on there, but I hope that they continue adding more in the future.

You can change the language that you are translating from and translating into at any given moment in time. I use it for over 3 languages on a daily-basis, so I do not have to worry about only being able to use it for a language at a time. All you have to do is type in a word, a phrase, or a full sentence that you would like to translate into your target language and if whatever you type in is available in the database of the website, then it will automatically come up with a whole bunch of sample sentences and will bold the word(s) that you typed in for a quick reference. In this way, you can easily know for what you are looking in your target language. As far as I know, these sentences are written by and written for native speakers, so they are not literal translations when they should not be. It is also great for learning new idiomatic expressions and more complicated constructions that you may not know or unsure about.

I have been consistently using this app since this past June when I was studying abroad in France and it has been a lifesaver ever since. So far, I have mainly been using it for my essays when I do not have access to native speakers who can help me edit them, but have also found it helpful when I am trying to immerse myself in another language. Since I like writing emotively, I find it very difficult to fully convey my thoughts in another language without having a reliable resource such as this one. Whenever I have been in doubt, it has helped me create more native-sounding structures and sentences. I personally love scrolling through all of the sample sentences and seeing whether or not they convey the same context of which I am thinking. After all, that is why it is called Reverso Context!

Since it puts words and thoughts into perspective, it is more visual than most other dictionaries you will find, as you are not just seeing a word without knowing how to use it. Instead, you get to see how words function in a sentence and learn their various meanings, which makes learning a new language more fun! As someone who has to write and talk in over 4 languages on a daily basis, it can get confusing and frustrating to remember all of the words that I would like to use in all of them, but this app has worked miracles to help fix that problem. 

Aside from these reasons and more, I recommend using it for learners who want to use it for more than just one language at once to avoid having dozens of applications for each individual language on your phone. I believe that there is also a premium version of this app, but do not currently own it since I have been satisfied with its free version (feel free to check out the premium version if you are looking for even more language-learning resources). This app is also a great tool for college students who are taking language courses who need to write more elaborately than usual. All in all, if you are on the lookout for a new resource that gives you meaning and context behind what you want to look up, you may want to give this app a try!

How to Reduce Stress by Meditating in Another Language

Hello, everyone! For anyone who is returning to my blog, thank you so much for your unending support and patience. Despite the fact that I have not posted anything in a few months, I am hoping to get back on track in the upcoming weeks. If you are new to my blog, I am glad that you stumbled upon this post and hope that you stick along for the ride by following it. That being said, I am sure that most of you have experienced some kind of stress recently, because it is that time of the year again. Whether you are a college student who recently took finals, are a high-school student who is in the process of finishing up college applications, or are simply overwhelmed with work, it is easy to forget about the importance of taking time for yourself.

After years of overworking myself and not being as productive as I could be by asking too much of myself, I finally realized that I was missing one thing: practicing self-love and valuing my own worth. It may sound somewhat selfish, when in reality it is one of the most important practices that you can follow. I have learned that I cannot love others if I do not love myself, especially now that I am in college. One of the ways in which I have spent the little free time that I have in my spare moments throughout the week is by meditating. Though this practice may seem unrealistic, or even difficult to some, I hope that you give it a try by the end of this post.

Whenever I have me-time (time for myself to spend it the way that I desire), I like playing relaxing, soothing music and or meditating and reflecting. I recently realized how therapeutical it is and how much it helps heal my soul. Since I knew that it was something that I wanted to start implementing into my daily routine, I figured that it would be most beneficial if I did it in another language. Recently, I have been dealing with a lot of emotions, so I felt that it was best to find a relaxing way that could help clear my mind. If you simply go on YouTube and search "meditating", "meditation", or something of the sort in your target language, hundreds of videos will show up. I personally like watching videos of different people and then subscribing to the channels that I like the most, so that I easily check my feed whenever they post similar videos.

All you have to do is play one of those videos and follow exactly what the person tells you to do. Oftentimes, you will have to close your eyes, take in deep breaths, or simply relax your body. What makes this practice so worthwhile is that you can do it from the comfort of your bed, or home. If you are having a lazy day, but still want to progress in your language learning, you can do so and review words, such as "to breathe", "mind", and "to close" without even thinking about it. In other words, many of us would most likely meditate or relax anyways, so what better way to do so than to do it in another language. 

The video that is above is the first meditation video that I came across in Italian, but feel free to find ones in your own target languages. I hope that this post was helpful for all of you and that you start practicing more self love by healing your entire mind, body, and spirit. 

Why You Should Study at a Language Institute

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. 

Foreign Language Vocabulary Builder Using Anki (Application)

I have been waiting months to write this post, because I wanted to make sure that I gave you the best tips and that I genuinely knew how to best use Anki. In case you have never heard of it, Anki is an application, which you can download online for free, or on your phone for a decent price. I first found out about it when I read a book that gave practical tips on ways that you could start making a better use of time when learning languages. Although I have not been able to use it every day, due to being a full-time student and doing a lot of extracurricular activities, I have used it for a total of over a year, so I can confidently say that Anki alone is one of the most valuable tools of which I have taken advantage over the years. I have not only increased my vocabulary, but also now know how to teach myself abstract words that are harder to master.

The way that it is used is very simple. When you open up the application, you have three tabs from which to choose: Decks, Add, or Browse. If you click “Decks”, you can directly click on one of your decks and start learning a fixed number of cards a day. For example, in my deck named “Deutsch”, it currently says that I have 30 new cards and 0 new cards. This means that, based off of the amount of cards that I want to learn per day, I should review all 30 of those cards today.

If you click on the tool icon to the right of where it says “New”, you have 4 options: Rename, Options, Export, and Delete. If you want to change the name of one of your deck of cards, simply click “Rename” and type in what you want that deck to be called. In the options tab, you can choose “Default” if you feel that you can study the amount of cards that the program is defaulted as. You can also choose “Show new cards in random order”, or “Show new cards in order added” under “Order”. Lastly, you simply choose how many cards you want to learn a day in a certain graduation interval (ex: 1 day), as well as change the easy interval and the percent of your starting ease.

I usually learn 10, or 20 cards a day, but what is great about this application, is if you ever feel that you cannot learn, say 20 cards a day like you originally set out to do, you can adjust that every day if you feel like it is necessary to do so. Anki is an application that you can adjust based on your particular needs and does not make you do something that you do not want to do.

Now that I have covered the basics as to how Anki works, you are probably wondering how I actually use it. Although I will try to do my best to explain how this application works, please make sure to watch the video that I attached above, so that you know how to properly use it step by step. Otherwise, you will probably be very confused and will not understand what I feel like any language learner should know how to use. The first step to adding cards to a deck that you name is to click “Add” and to click on one of the decks that you have, so that you are assured that the new cards that you will add are placed into the correct deck.

Then, I go to www.google.com/images and search for an unknown word in its original language (keep in mind that this step is absolutely crucial if you want to get the most out of this application). For example, if I did not know that “la Estrella” were “the star” in Spanish, I would type in “la estrella” and would find the image that most appealed to me. In other words, I try finding images that are not only visually appealing, but that also help me remember what the word means without translating it from Spanish to English. I then pu the word in its original language where it says “Back”, or I will copy and paste a phrase that is attached to an image and leave the word that I am trying to learn underlined like this: ___________.

Although this process can be time-consuming, what is great about it is that there is truly no wrong way to do it. You do not have to add 100 new words every day. Instead, you have to be consistent and try to use it every day when you are starting if you can. If you cannot, then try using it several times a week. It should not take you more than 15 minutes to study the amount of words that you asked Anki to show you, and it is a really fun and interactive way to expand your vocabulary. Instead of simply using the traditional notecard method that can be tedious to write and use, you are using, reading, and saying new words in your target language. This forces you to switch from, say German mode to English mode.

What is most important about this process is that you search for words, or even phrases of the words that you want to learn in your original language. Avoid translating words as much as possible, and only do so to quickly check if you know the direct translation from your target language to your native language, but avoid putting in any words, or even images that contain words in your native language if you want to expand your vocabulary by twofold, or threefold.

I hope that you found this post practical and helpful. Have an amazing week and continue enjoying summer!