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4 Online Hacks for Language Immersion Regardless of Your Location


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“I learned that word, but I can’t remember what it means.”

How often does your memory fail you? Often enough?

That can be discouraging but remember: practice makes perfect. What you may need is language immersion. That is immersing yourself in a language regularly until using it becomes reflexive, almost second nature.

A busy work and social life could make regular language training challenging. Luckily, there are some smart, and even unexpected, online language immersion tools with which you can practice a foreign language on a daily basis, either at home or on the go!

 

Benefits of language immersion

Practicing language immersion by using web-based software and apps is a smart way to improve your language skills because it is convenient, relevant, and cost-effective.

Being online means being anywhere in the world without leaving your front door. You don’t have to take a two-hour flight from Germany to Spain in order to practice Spanish with a native speaker. Skype or Hangout can connect you to someone in Spain in a matter of seconds.

On the internet there are almost no borders that limit what you can do. If you have a hobby, you can find people with the same interests as you with a quick Google search.

Online language training is often more convenient than classroom lessons, as there is no bricks-and-mortar cost involved. Platforms like Coursera or EdX  even offer some courses for free, as their mission is to make education more accessible for the mass.

4 Tips for Online Language Immersion

1. Curate playlists in on Spotify

Language learners can use Spotify as an immersion tool because you can use the app to create playlists with songs in the language that you are learning.

Whether you listen to music all day or just when you relax, Spotify has something for you. Spotify also curates and updates playlists with music in different languages that match your activities, for when you work out, have dinner or just chill.

Can you estimate how many new words and phrases you would pick up daily?

2. Cook your favourite meals using online recipes

Eating the food of a country might not help you much, or at all, to learn the language of that country. However, cooking one of its famous dishes will bring you closer to their culture and you can practice the language by following the recipe.

If you are learning Spanish, for example, search online for “receta española tortilla de patatas” and you will find more recipes than you can probably cook.

There are options for written instructions as well as how-to videos. Cookpad is a good site for the former and YouTube is an excellent alternative for the latter.

Meal planner companies like HelloFresh or KnifeOverFork also develop apps, which are available in different languages. Using a like-wise app to plan weekly meals and cooks them entirely in the language you are learning.

3. Work out with a virtual instructor

If you work out regularly, instruction videos and apps will make a great language immersion tool. In the morning, you can use a 7-Minute Workout app to kickstart your energy and language level at the same time. The app is available in many languages, including English, Dutch, German, Japanese, Chinese and Vietnamese.

If you don’t understand all the instructions, the movements on the screen would be your cues. Guessing the meaning of words in physical context is the way native speakers learn their language growing up.

If you can find a suitable workout app in what you want to learn, try YouTube. A few quick search would reveal, for instance, many instructed work-out videos in French or Yoga sessions in Spanish.

4. Use a mYngle tutor

You can always improve your language through listening and speaking to your mYngle tutor. The platform enables users to choose a teacher, book a lesson and start learning entirely online, right from your home-office.

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About the author:

quynh-150x150Quynh Nguyen writes about productivity for individuals and teams while travelling the world. She loves learning languages, riding a bike and having many nice cups of tea. Connect with her @QuynhThuNguyen or visit her at www.quynh.nl

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One Comment on “4 Online Hacks for Language Immersion Regardless of Your Location”

  1. mYngle Blog » Blog Archive 3 Myths About Learning a Language, Which is Not English - mYngle Blog Says:

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