Speaking a foreign language is one of life’s most essential skills. It offers numerous benefits, such as expanding your career opportunities and providing a gateway to other cultures.
Part of the beauty of the learning process is that there’s always something new to discover. Even if you’re fluent, there’s still room for improvement, as not even native speakers are masters of their own language.
Finding new and challenging learning materials becomes increasingly difficult once you’re fluent. Progression is often fast paced initially, but this slows dramatically once you speak confidently.
Most people have a clear understanding of grammar rules at this point, as well as a wide range of vocabulary, so locating suitable lessons is a task in itself.
Unfortunately, most courses are aimed at beginners rather than advanced language learners, but this can be overcome when you know what to look for.
With millions of active subscribers all around the world, Babbel sits at the top of the industry as one of the best-selling language learning apps. The courses use real-life situations, which means students are ready to have conversations within the first three weeks. Babbel offers complete writing, listening, and speaking exercises to teach vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, and cultural trivia. There are also various extras, such as games, podcasts, and live classes. Unfortunately, Babbel only teaches 13 different language courses, but they’ve been carefully created by a team of over 150 language experts. You can try one class for free, but to gain full access to Babbel's teaching methods, you’ll need to subscribe. There is no free trial but you can take advantage of the 20-day money-back guarantee.
Lingoda is the perfect language-learning service for people looking for live classes but still wanting flexible schedules. Instead of repeating exercises, Lingoda enables its users to schedule one-hour lessons with real teachers 24/7. Lessons can be solo or in a group, and all teachers are native speakers. Unfortunately, it only offers courses in four languages: Spanish, German, French, and English. It’s also more expensive than other language-learning apps where lessons average the $10 mark. However, people who are committed to taking daily lessons for three months straight can get refunded up to 100%. Students can try Lingoda through the 7-day free trial available for the Monthly and Marathon subscriptions.
LinguaLift’s founder was always determined to find the best method possible for teaching his students new languages. After moving to Korea to teach English, he found his answer. The main problem students face is not the lack of material, but the absence of direction. To answer this need, he created LinguaLift, a language-learning app that offers thorough courses where students are provided with a personal roadmap created by their tutors. LinguaLift provides courses for five languages: Japanese, Hebrew, Russian, Spanish, and French. Although this may seem like a small number, each program is meticulously built with tons of cultural content and grammar explanations. LinguaLift’s subscription costs $17 a month with yearly installments and provides access to all courses. Better yet, students can try the first three lessons of all programs completely for free before purchase.
If there’s one thing that we can all agree on it’s that learning Chinese is challenging. The language has unique pronunciation – where your tone changes the meaning of a word – and features a complicated alphabet that not even native speakers know fully. So, it’s not surprising that around 90% of Mandarin students give up. But Mandarin Blueprint is here to save the day. Created by two people who learned the language from scratch and became fluent, the app offers a fresh perspective on teaching Mandarin – where students start by learning the different tones. After getting a grasp of the pronunciation, you’ll begin to learn characters and components. To achieve this, Mandarin Blueprint follows a unique teaching sequence called Optimal Character Learning Order (OCLO) that speeds up the learning process tremendously. If that wasn’t enough, the company offers a 14-day trial to test everything out, which is enough time to learn the first phase of the course for free.
According to a Japanese proverb, ‘even a thief takes ten years to learn his trade.’ Likewise, a language can only be mastered through rigorous training. This involves being proactive, especially at an advanced level. Many people supplement their understanding by streaming shows, but that will soon lose its effects if done inconsistently.
Language learning apps are viable alternatives, until you realize that most are catered to beginners – much like regular language school courses. Therefore, you have to be picky. This is because you need an app that pushes the envelope by teaching you not just the language but the country’s culture, history, dialects, and slang as well.
These advanced language learning apps provide a specific set of tools that are tailored to your requirements. For example, if the software has integrated live tutoring, it can help you book a lesson with teachers. They also connect you with like-minded learners to speak with and make friendships while practicing the language.
Most apps also provide a reading list and videos to watch, letting you learn about a given culture while relaxing.
When you’re already at an advanced level, it can be hard to know how to progress. But don’t despair – you just need to think outside the box a little.
Incorporate new language into your daily life: This could mean reading or watching the news in your target language and discussing it with other speakers. In turn, this may then lead to immersing yourself in the country more broadly by reading up on its cultural events, national celebrations, and politics.
Immerse yourself in media: This can involve tuning in to the radio stations of the country or looking for podcasts online. Watching movies and series in the language you’re learning is also a great idea, especially if they give you a better understanding of the country’s culture.
Spend time among native speakers: If possible, visit the country for a few months, as being fully immersed in the language is guaranteed to significantly advance your skills. Of course, this option isn’t available to everyone, but luckily the internet provides many alternatives, such as chat rooms to get you speaking with natives or other learners.
Language learning apps are extremely helpful, but it ultimately comes down to personal effort. Most important is to keep studying, even when you’re fluent. Speaking like a native requires getting in touch with locals as often as possible, and the internet provides plenty of platforms for that.
If this doesn’t appeal to you, then watch a video, write down difficult words, and practice them with the correct pronunciation. Writing practices can prove the most challenging, but visiting a forum and writing comments can do wonders. You can also try to find a writing partner and come up with a story together. Not only will you improve your language skills, but you’ll also boost your creativity.
Finally, try combining reading, listening, and writing by doing fun exercises like playing a video game in the language you’re learning and then writing an online review about it.
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