This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on November 1, 2021 - November 7, 2021
Annyeonghaseyo! Bonjour! Ni hao! Want to learn a new language in preparation for your resumption of international travel, whenever that may be? Or because you want to immerse yourself in a different culture while being stuck at home? Here are some ways to do it online.
1 Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC)
Popular MOOC platforms such as Coursera, Udemy and edX have language learning courses, many of which are free. Users will learn the new language through videos and quizzes. It is a more traditional way of learning languages online.
2 Specialised language learning apps or software
Duolingo, Busuu and Rosetta Stone are popular platforms for language learning. Some offer premium content for paying users. Duolingo’s exercises comprise mainly quizzes. The gamified features and intuitive user interface of the app make it a fun way to learn languages.
The other two offer more structured learning content through flashcards, explanations and quizzes. These could be more helpful to those who want to truly master the grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary of a new language.
3 Just learn the basics
There are platforms that allow you to learn only the most common phrases that would be useful for tourists. Surfacelanguages.com and Learnalanguage.com, for instance, have very simple interfaces to help users learn the most used phrases of a language.
4 Spotify
There are podcasts on Spotify that teach foreign languages. Some of these teach languages through conversations.
5 YouTube
You can find all sorts of language-learning videos on YouTube. It could be basic video tutorials on a new language and even a language tutorial using popular foreign language dramas. It is a fun and unconventional method of learning.
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