App recommendation for language learners:Musixmatch
Musixmatch is a pop up app that opens a small window (adjustable size) with synchronized lyrics to whatever song you are listening to at the moment. You can minimize, dismiss the app and move the icon around the screen at any time.
The app is highly costumizable, letting you choose the colors to the window, how much of the lyrics to show (just one paragraph at a time or many) and whether you’d like to see a translation of the lyrics in a different language:
There are ads but they won’t interfere with your experience. This app is compatible with all popular music streaming applications, the ITunes and Play Music. You can even open the Musixmatch app itself and there will be the list of tracks in your phone there, like a music player. You can even make your own contributions adding lyrics or synchronizing ones that have already been added but aren’t in sync with the music
In my experience, this app works really well, it’s smooth, not annoying at all and it looks good. This is a wonderful tool in language learning as it helps me practice my listening and my pronounciation as I sing along and (specially in french) I learn to make the connection between how a word sounds and how it’s written. Give this app a try, I promise you won’t be disappointed!
I like to think of language learning into three stages. The first being the beginning. Where you are getting to know the language and the culture. You’re introducing yourself, playing around with the letters and words. There’s the middle stage or what many people may consider intermediate. This stage is usually when you have a good amount of grammar and vocabulary. You are reading and writing (roughly), but are stuck and don’t really know where to continue. The final stage is the mastery of the language. You are thinking, dreaming, and mumbling in your language. This is the satisfying cut of the sharpest knife into butter.
Let’s focus on the middle stage. In language learning many people (not all) experience the most stress when they are far away from the beginning stage, but are still missing the pieces to reach the final stage. Unfortunately, many people give up. They get stress out (great song) and slowly stop learning. Many people just don’t know where or how to keep learning. So how do you keep learning??
Number 1: You gotta recognize that you are stuck. Take a moment and evaluate your current situation in your proficiency. Realize, that you are not learning less and you’re not learning more. Then go to number 2.
Number 2: Start figuring out what you know and don’t know and want to know. Similar to a pros and cons list you are acknowledging what you can already do in your language, what you don’t know, and what you want to know. That way you can smoothly go into learning.
Number3: Vocabulary!!!! Seriously, even though you are past the beginning level the real reason you are stuck is because you need more to work with. Try learning more advanced vocabulary. Medical terms, organs/bones, space, etc.
Number 4: Be creative. Try to learn how to play with the words you know. Learn how to speak in sarcasm, or with idioms. Learn some metaphors and similes. Try to find fun ways to use your language.
These four steps will not get you to complete fluency. But they will make getting there much easier and stress-free. I hope this helps out. I am currently stuck in the stage and so I came up with a way for me to keep going.
So I started making this directory of the availability of different languages in language learning apps/websites. I figured that this would help a lot of us in our never-ending hunt for resources. The objective is to help in determining which apps/sites your target language is available in.
If you’d like to help in adding in languages/resources, the link is right here! Feedback is also much appreciated!
One of the mistakes I made when starting to learn a new language was only using Duolingo for vocab; using Duolingo itself is obviously a good way to learn and review words, especially in context, but you shouldn’t only use that website as it has strange way of prioritizing which words you learn. (Sure, knowing the word for dishwasher can be useful; but you probably shouldn’t learn it sooner than the words “to know, to do, to try” etc.)
I made the list into a printable in which you can fill in the words of your target language(s), because honestly I just like filling in things and seeing how far I have come in a certain language, and especially when you are learning several languages at once this gives you a nice overview of the most important words
Although I study Korean, the resolutions I’m making are appropriate to people learning any language. I thought I’d post them as I think some of them might be quite helpful for anyone looking to make language related new-years resolutions, or just how to better themselves at language learning in the new year. These are tips and tricks that can help you through out the whole year - not just for the first few days of January!
1)Learn 10 new words every day If you feel like 10 is too much go for 5 or even just one, whichever fits you and your pace of learning best - one is still better than none, and hey, by the end of the year that’s a whole new 365 words you now know in your target language - progress!
2)Set your study time Personally, I’m going to try for an hour a day just sitting down and straight learning, set a day each week, or a time each day and just sit down and get to it, you could do 5 hours a week, 2 hours a week, 2 hours a day even. Remember, just do what fits best with you and your schedule - you don’t want to overwork, but then you also don’t want to be wasting time that could come in useful for your learning progress.
3)Keep a diary Keeping a diary sounds like a bit of an odd one, but no, I don’t mean simply writing down how much work you’ve done or what you’ve learnt, instead, keep a diary in which you write down what you did that day- your thoughts, feelings, and anything else you might put in an every day diary entry, but write in your target language, it will give you a chance to practice using the language every day, even with things you may not necessarily use in day to day conversation.
4)Test yourself Again, match this one to how fast you’re wanting to progress, but I recommend testing yourself what you learnt that week, or that month or even just completing some tasks. You could do this by printing off worksheets you can find online or buying a workbook!
5)Vary your learning This is more of a personal one for me than anything, but if you have the time to learn another language or subject, throw that in there too, for me, I’m going to do an hour a day of Korean, and an hour a week of Chinese, but make sure to plan this well as you don’t want to be getting behind on subjects you may have exams in.
6)Plan I’m being serious, you have to plan. I really can’t stress this enough, whether you wake up early Monday morning to plan your entire week or just make a habit of planning for the following day every night - This is really going to help you out.
7)Re-evaluate your resoluions monthly Yes, you heard me right - re-evaluate your resolutions. Change them. You may think that if you’ve made a resolution you have to stick to it but your main resolution should be to reach your goal (and we’ll get onto that in just a minute). At the start of every month, look at the main events coming up, if you have a lot of events or exams then cut down your language hours, make less goals for the end of that month and plan it to suit you - you’ll never achieve your goals if you’re over stressed and over working yourself.
8)Goals Set one main goal for your language by the end of the year, that’s the main one you want to achieve - then set smaller ones for the end of each month that will get you there, then more for each week. This breaks down your goals and makes them more easily obtainable.
So those are my resolutions guys! I hope they were helpful to you all!!! <3
I’m not sure how many of you know about this website - butbUTBUT - it has a TON of languages with awesome beginner/intermediate vocabulary lists - and as a bonus, it has the pronunciation of NEARLY ALL the languages offered which is super helpful! Languages like Ukrainian, Persian, Swahili, and even Amharic all have their pronunciations.
The only languages without pronunciations that I found were Belarusian and Tamil
Disclaimer: I haven’t read them all, but I wish I had! And the more linguistic books may be centred around the English language since they are in English. I’ll do a Spanish one too, and possibly a French one.
hey ho! it looks like it’s next to nothing, buuut– surprise! here’s the peko swordbag vector i made 5 years ago, but at a higher dpi and transparent. there’s a black version and a white version.
