by Michael Gorman
Learning a foreign language is a long and time-consuming process that requires a serious commitment. Whether you are an experienced learner with several new languages already mastered or a beginner who knows a couple of phrases, you need to keep the momentum going, train yourself, and continue to progress in spite of the difficulties encountered along the way. One of the major difficulties that many language learners discover is lack of time to engage in the process meaningfully and efficiently. This is a recurring theme you might have heard from people that you know not only in learning languages but accomplishing many other things. The modern lifestyle is to blame here, but we do not want to sit around and waste time, right? We will use the smartest approach by taking the language learning with us wherever we go.
There are a countless number of apps and tools that allow learning foreign languages on the go. To help you make the right choice, we have gathered the list of the most popular one at the moment and arranged them by the skills that you need obtain, including listening, vocabulary, and reading.
Many people are wondering where they could improve the understanding of the verbal language and try to engage in speaking clubs. As great as this option is, it takes a lot of time off the schedule because it requires the participants to be at a certain place at a given time. Moreover, the schedules can shift to fit the majority of the club members, and you might not be among them. Apparently, another way should be found for those that lack free time to learn, and we know exactly what you need. One of the easiest and unbelievably effective ways to learn languages, whether on the go or at home is YouTube, because it allows listening for native speakers wherever you go, whenever you can. At Aussiessay, for example, the YouTube was used to design lessons in English academic writing because there is a lot of great educating stuff. You will be surprised but one short video can be transformed into a great listening exercise with subtitles.
Another great tool for listening is podcasts. They can be selected to resemble your interests and taken on the go. For example, here are some great podcasts in Spanish and French for beginners.
There are tons of apps that allow you to learn new words and phrases out there. For example, one of the most popular right now is Busuu, which can be a perfect companion on the go because of compatibility with iOS and Android systems. It is widely used for learning of Spanish, French, German and other languages because of the alternating grammar and vocabulary lessons with listening test and brief writing assignments. The works are checked by the others users of the site, who are the native speakers of the language you're learning. If the Spanish is the language you are after, check out this app called Lingorami. It available for Android devices for free and offers a great learning experience by providing the users with five different learning games and 30+ Spanish lessons created by Ivy League graduates. The advantage of these apps is the open access to the lessons on the go even without the Internet connection, so you will be able to enhance the learning even with limited time.
Learning the language through reading is perhaps the easiest exercise because you can read text on the smartphone, tablet, Kindle, or any device that supports it. Nowadays, we have access to the Internet everywhere, so take advantage of this and read in the target language whenever you can. BBC's news can be useful for English learners by providing news articles, while blogs can serve as examples of informal language. It is strongly recommended to mouth the words while reading to practice the pronunciation and exercise different muscles. Also, do not forget to highlight the unknown words for future translation and learning during the process because it helps to expand the existing vocabulary. They could be gathered into special groups of words that could be learned every day.
While many people cite the lack of time as their most feared issue when it comes to language learning, we can accomplish amazing success by being smart about it. Remember, there are as many solutions as there are excuses and we just have to gather the strength and use the right tools to achieve the goal. Having read this article, you already know what tools can propel you to the goal of learning a foreign language because you can start doing it right away and have some results tomorrow. As soon as you build the momentum, you will find yourself at the top of the learning mountain, way ahead of others.
Michael Gorman is an expert blogger situated in London. Michael stays always on trend in blogging, digital marketing and social media
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