Can I use Duolingo or the internet to teach myself languages at home? Do I really need to pay for a French or Spanish tutor? How can I learn French or Spanish as an adult? How long does it take to learn French or Spanish? How much will it cost to learn a language?
These are all questions I get asked about language learning, particularly by adult learners. Here are my five top tips for supporting your language learning journey at home.
1. Vocabulary building apps like Duolinguo are great for the little and often approach but can only
take you so far. A step further is the offering from Gymglish which I think is excellent for learning alone at home.
2. Kindle - not only can you download foreign language newspapers but you can also read simple books you’ve already read in your native tongue - Harry Potter à l'école des sorciers, anyone? There’s the added excitement if you’re a language nerd like me to notice changes of names and think about why the translator felt the change was needed and how the change makes the translation more effective.
“Hogwarts was another name that had to be personally changed by the translator. Sure, they could have kept it the same. But it would have lost that endearing quality of the name, since to the French it would have been gibberish.
And thus Hogwarts was dubbed Poudlard. Poudlard is a shortened version of pou-de-lard, which basically means bacon lice. Get it? Hog-warts. Bacon lice. They did what they could to keep the spirit of the name alive.”
by Liz Wyatt, 30 Nov 2019
3. Listen to foreign language radio - eg. Dial FM in Spanish. Depending on where you listen, you may be able to see the song and the artist. You can then listen on Spotify or the music streaming app of your choice, having downloaded the lyrics to sing along with.
4. Watch films - improve your listening and reading skills on Netflix by watching films with audio in French or Spanish or subtitles in French or Spanish. Or both. Other streaming services probably do this too, I just don’t have them! As an aforementioned language nerd, I’m fascinated by the differences between the dubbed audio and the subtitles; there are obviously necessary differences in translations needed to fulfil different criteria such as lip-synch for audio and speed of reading for subtitles. I once accidentally got my settings set on French audio and Spanish subtitles and I have to admit that was a step too far, even for me.
5. Use a good online language dictionary, when utilising any of the above tools, to check and find words. I like wordreference.com and, in the app, you can save words to a favourites list which gives you a valuable tool to practice retrieval and ensure you don’t forget your newly discovered words. You can use Google Translate, but be on the lookout for when it leads you completely down the wrong path; I’ve got plenty to say about the pitfalls of google translate, but I’ll save that for another blog.
Whatever you choose to do as your method of deepening your practice, try to carve out a regular time and to review the new French or Spanish words you’ve picked up. At a certain point, you will probably need to book time with a tutor to take you to the next level of language understanding but you’ll be speeding up your journey no end by practising at home.
If you enjoyed this, you may like to read https://www.tutortaylor.com/post/the-5-best-reasons-to-learn-a-language or https://www.tutortaylor.com/post/three-reasons-to-choose-a-uk-based-tutor
If you feel like the time is right to work with a tutor, please do get in touch via our website.
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