#langblr tip

[vempress]

weird language study tip; look up qna questions and answer them in your target language. extra points for pretending to be a youtuber.

[polemicandcontent]

some casual ways to interact w/ your target language

1. play a dumb phone game in the language. low stakes way to force yourself to understand a lot. that new harry potter game, if you’re intermediate/advanced ? go off ! [majority of popular games will have multiple language options, otherwise if you set your phone into your target language it’ll likely change automatically]

2. feel like wasting some time online ? look for ‘quotes in x language’, or poetry, or just use search terms in that language. (or set your pinterest/tumblr/whatever settings to your target language)

3. find your horoscope in your target language !

4. shopping lists - or a to-do list (i.e. chores, homework etc.) 

5. if you’re able, try making a simple recipe from your target language. could even be pancakes, mug cake or soup, but you can still read imperatives + find new vocab !

6. similarly, look for trashy online magazines, like seventeen or cosmopolitan in your target language. simple, attention-grabbing articles. buzzfeed, for example, has a spanish version, so try to change the language settings. 

[caffeineandcram]

Language Learning Tip/Advice

Okay so this won’t apply for every single language out there BUT it is super useful and does apply for a lot of people who are doing the Summer Language Challenge:

Go to languagepod101.com and look for the language you want to learn (It’s a free language learning site, although you have to pay to get all the material)

Sign up for a free account

They’ll ask you if you want an email every day with a new vocabulary word and the native pronunciation in your language.  I cannot recommend this enough:say yes!!  Since it’s only one word per day, it’ll be so much easier to memorize than your vocabulary list of 75 words, and you’ll really learn a lot from it tbh (I usually see if I can use the word in as many sentences as possible throughout the day)

Once you confirm your email, they’ll give you an offer that in all honesty sounds clickbaity/scammy-I promise it's safe. I’ve used my credit card on before and nothing ever happened

The offer is $1 for:

a month of premium service

a free product (lesson book) from their store

special lessons you can download (also 100% virus free and safe I promise)

a ‘7 day fluency’ course

I’ll be the first to admit that fluent in 7 days for any language is complete bullsh*t, but the normal lessons are done by a host who is a native speaker, as well as one who has a western accent, which I’ve always found helpful. Also, they go through normal conversations that you’ll most likely have, explaining each line, the pronunciation, grammar, etc

I do recommend cancelling your subscription shortly after the $1 is processed though, as you get more than enough to begin your language learning journey from the $1 and the free parts of the site

I also recommend buying an intermediate level guide book with your free store credit, as this is probably around the level you’ll be at after completing the lessons they give you

Even if you don’t sign up for the $1 offer, the site has a ton of podcast style lessons for free that you can listen to on the bus, while cooking, or whenever you have free time 

I know not everyone has money to spend on learning languages, but this is honestly super cheap compared to most software, and you don’t even have to pay for the free words/basics of the software. I really recommend it as it’s helped me out a lot in the past, and I hope that regardless of whether or not you guys choose to use it, you all do amazing while learning your languages <3

[polemicandcontent]

study reminder:

the point is not being a week ahead. it’s being on top of things, or the ability to catch up.

[caffeineandcram]

Learning French Tip #198379

So when you're learning a new language a lot of people tell you to watch tv/movies in that language. The problem is that most of the time, the audience is native speakers, so the conversations in the show are at a higher level and speak way too fast for someone who's at a beginner/intermediate level to understand. Telefrancais is a show centred around a French speaking pineapple named Ananas. It's really good for beginners because the characters have French accents, but they also speak slowly, repeat things a lot, and use simple vocabulary. To be honest, I live in Toronto so from grades 4-9, we have to learn French, but if you can get yourself to the (fairly low) level of understanding most of the episodes of Telefrancais, you'll know more than I learned in my first 2 years. All the episodes are on youtube if you're interested, and are pretty short so if you're learning French, they're definitely worth watching.