[2023-01-18] Six favourite language-learning tools

Today, a friend asked me whether I used the free or paid version of Duolingo. I provided the answer to that question and shared additional tools I have found useful in learning a language.

I've heard from a number of people lately who are striving to learn a second (or even third) language. Their reasons are varied:
  • to meet the requirements of a current or future job and to advance in their career (a frequent objective of federal public servants);
  • to facilitate travel;
  • to connect with their heritage and culture;
  • to communicate with friends, relatives or neighbours; and
  • to exercise their brain.
In this post, I share my favourite resources—those I use now and those I've used in the past—to learn a language.

Duolingo
I'll start with Duolingo (no affiliation) since that's the primary tool I'm using now and the subject of today's question from my friend. My son and I just moved to the paid version of Duolingo after six weeks (in his case) and five months (in my case) on the free version. Shane is using Duolingo to improve his French, and I am using it to learn Brazilian Portuguese.

The advantages of the paid version are significant. First, there are no ads. That allows users to spend more time learning, and less time waiting for an ad to end. Paid users can make unlimited mistakes. In the free version, users start with five hearts and lose one each time they make a mistake. It's very easy to lose a heart, either through lack of knowledge or a simple slip of the finger. If they run out of hearts, users must take one of several possible actions to continue their lessons. They can do a practice lesson to regain a heart, can watch a video (if prompted) to gain another heart, or restore their hearts by using gems they earn through the game (a rather expensive way to "buy" hearts). They can also wait for their hearts to be restored—one heart every 5 hours or five hearts over 25 hours—but doing so will stifle their progress. I found myself being very tentative, almost nervous, every time I verified my response because I was afraid of losing another heart. I didn't mind doing the practice exercises to regain hearts, as it helped solidify my knowledge, but I couldn't advance as quickly. With the paid version, by contrast, I am now free to play with reckless abandon, to guess with impunity, and to move forward more quickly—all of which puts the focus on learning, advancing and having fun.

VocabuLearn
The Ottawa Public Library offers a number of ebooks and audiobooks to help with learning various languages. My favourite tool is the VocabuLearn series. For the past five months, I've been borrowing the level one VocabuLearn: Portuguese-Inglês audiobook from the Library. It has a very simple format: a word or expression is said in one language, then the other, with a pause in between, giving users time to guess the translation. Sometimes English is first; sometimes Portuguese is first. I like to listen to the audiobook while cleaning my house. When I first started listening to the audiobook (Level 1) last summer, I could guess the English version of a Portuguese word about 10% of the time; now I can do so about 70% of the time. This week, I downloaded the Level 2 book. The Library offers VocabuLearn audiobooks for a wide range of languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, German, Dutch, Swedish, Arabic, Greek, Polish, Korean, Japanese and Mandarin.

DeepL Translator
I learned about DeepL Translator from a fully bilingual francophone who used it regularly to obtain a pretty solid draft translation that she could refine before sending out. I have used the free version of the DeepL app on both my desktop and phone for several years, first for translations from English to French and now from English to Brazilian Portuguese. DeepL offers translations into many languages, including Brazilian Portuguese. Google Translate is similar, though its Portuguese offering is European Portuguese with no option for Brazilian Portuguese.

Collins Online Dictionary
As good as an online translator is, it doesn't take the place of a traditional dictionary. One of the drawbacks to DeepL and Duolingo is that they don't always provide the context for their word choices. By contrast, a dictionary offers all the translations for a given word and the context to help users understand which translation to use in which situation. For example, the English verb to feel could be translated into Portuguese as sentir (emotions, pain), tocar (touch) and achar (think, believe) and into French as (se) sentir, toucher and croire. As part of my learning, I've been using the Collins Portuguese-to-English and English-to-Portuguese online dictionary and the Collins French-to-English and English-to-French online dictionary.

Say It Right
Through the Ottawa Public Library, I was able to download an ebook from the Burlington Public Library (one of four libraries that are affiliated with the Ottawa Public Library) to improve my pronunciation of Brazilian Portuguese. Say It Right in Brazilian Portuguese uses a standard phonetic system that explains how to say words like a native speaker. While local libraries have a limited selection of Say It Right books, bookstores offer many other languages in the Say It Right series.

Schaum's
While working in the federal public service, I loved Schaum's French Grammar book, which I credit with helping me achieve an exemption in French writing. This resource provides the best explanation of French grammar, in English, that I have ever found. It's also my son's go-to resource, though he purchased the e-version.

More tips for learning a language

While pulling together this post, I read an interesting article from the BBC: How to learn a language in an hour a day. The article states that one can make meaningful progress toward learning a language by spending an hour a day. The speed of that progress is, however, related to the complexity of the language. The article cites the experience of the US State Department's School of Language Studies, which has been teaching languages to US diplomats for the past 70 years. The School divides languages into four categories according to how many classroom hours it typically takes an English speaker to reach professional working proficiency in the language:
  • Category 1 includes French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish and Dutch and requires 600-750 classroom hours.
  • Category 2 includes German and Haitian Creole and requires 900 classroom hours.
  • Category 3 includes Greek, Farsi, Hindi, Polish and Ukrainian and requires 1100 classroom hours.
  • Category 4 includes Arabic, Japanese, Korean, Cantonese and Mandarin and requires 2200 classroom hours.
I was pleased to see Portuguese in Category 1.

The article states that programs like Duolingo and Rosetta Stone can help users pick up the basics of any language pretty quickly. However, half the time learners spend on their studies should be devoted to using the language.

[D]evote at least half of your hour to stepping away from the books and videos to practice with a speaker face to face, be it someone who's native or highly fluent in the language. "To go over questions and do activities, to talk together in the language, and to discuss the culture," [Beverly] Baker [an associate professor and director of language assessment at the University of Ottawa] says. "I would not skip that part, because learning about the people and culture will motivate me to keep up with the rest of my learning."

The experts also recommend frequent shorter learning sessions over infrequent longer learning sessions:

Just like exercise or musical instruments, people recommend a shorter amount of practice time on a regular basis rather than larger chunks on a more sporadic basis. Baker says this is because without a consistent schedule the brain fails to engage in any deep cognitive processes, like making connections between new knowledge and your previous learning. "An hour a day five days a week is therefore going to be more beneficial than a five-hour blitz once a week."

To advance their acquisition of the new language, learners can read or watch material that they already have an interest in.

"If you like cooking, buy a cookbook in a foreign language; if you like soccer, try watching a foreign game," [polyglot Timothy Doner] says. "Even if you’re only picking up a handful of words per day—and the vast majority continue to sound like gibberish—they will be easier to recall later on."

Returning to the many reasons to learn a language, the BBC article has this to say about the benefits to our brains:

Research shows there is a direct correlation between bilingualism and intelligence, memory skills and higher academic achievement. As the brain more efficiently processes information, it is even able to stave off age-related cognitive decline....

Despite the daunting timeframe, experts say it’s worth learning a second language for the cognitive benefits alone. Doing so naturally develops our executive functions, "the high-level ability to flexibly manipulate and utilise information, and hold information in the mind and suppress irrelevant information," says Julie Fiez, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s department of neuroscience.

Beyond the social and cognitive benefits of learning a language, I am enjoying other benefits: fun, interest and a sense of accomplishment. If you have other tools you are using to learn or master a language, please feel free to share them.