Learning the local lingo

Learning a language can be tough but a computer can make the process faster and more fun. We explain how

Many holiday destinations have it all: constant sunshine, beautiful scenery and great food and drink.

On the other hand, plenty have a distinct lack of English speakers. Even something as simple as being able to say “please” and “thank you” to waiters can make a holiday more fun and relaxing ­ yet the idea of learning a language might summon up bad memories of dull vocabulary and grammar drills at school.

Don’t worry, though. Computers can make learning a language much more fun, with audio and video demonstrations aimed at the enthusiastic holidaymaker. They can also be used to breathe new life into existing audio courses.

Converting tapes or CDs means they can be easily played in the car, train or on board the plane. There’s no need to spend a fortune on personal tuition, either, as there are plenty of inexpensive programs and useful websites that provide free help.

Electronic learning
Computers are great for learning languages because they offer so much more than books can. There is no guesswork when it comes to pronunciation because difficult words can be replayed out loud as many times as required. Some programs can even record your pronunciation to check if it is correct. A single DVD can hold the equivalent of more than 50 audio cassettes, plus video examples. Electronic dictionaries are faster when searching for individual words and can be integrated into other programs.

There are all kinds of language courses available to buy, ranging in price from budget titles to rather more expensive options. They also vary in the depth that they cover. If you have yet to decide where to go, Teaching You 31 Languages of the World from Focus Multimedia (£10) might be the best software to buy.

We gave Teaching You 31 Languages of the World a Buy It award back in a review. Each language can be installed separately, saving space on the computer, and the package includes various exercises to help improve written and aural skills. Grammar rules and references are also included for those who want to get into the nuts and bolts of the language. With plenty of languages to choose from, it is ideal for those who want to experience as many countries as possible.

We looked at Teaching You Spanish from Focus Multimedia, which costs £10. It includes two titles: Survival Phrases for Spanish and A Spanish Adventure with Andres. Both include reading and video exercises with information on word meanings and grammar. There are word games that involve unscrambling or finding missing words, which can be customised to use only words that have been learned.

So far, so good, but not much more than could be accomplished with a book. What sets the software apart is the ability to rate your pronunciation by recording your voice and comparing it with a native speaker. A gauge moves through red, yellow and green as the pronunciation improves. It cannot offer practical advice in the way a human tutor could, but it helps to prevent basic mistakes.

The software also allows you to take part in scripted conversations. These are available in various difficulty levels, so you can choose to be given a literal translation of each phrase or a more general prompt. The pronunciation gauge is also included here.

Free speech?
The internet has a fantastic range of resources for brushing up on languages and many of them are free.

Rosetta Stone produces online study courses and boxed software that can be found in shops. The advantage of an online course is that it can be used on any computer with an internet connection ­ even in a lunch hour if your employer is happy for you to access the internet.

The online courses work with the Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari web-browsing programs, and they do not require broadband. The disadvantage is that Rosetta Stone products are quite expensive. The Level One boxed software costs £140. The online courses are subscription based: a three-month subscription costs £70, six months £100 and a year £150.

For anyone wanting a complete course that costs nothing, www.fsi-language-courses.com includes lots of courses that were written by the Foreign Service Institute in America. They are old but not outdated and there are audio files to accompany the texts.

There are also many free tools available online that can help when learning a language. These don’t always have the multimedia polish of the paid-for software and often rely on flash-card tuition, but many are well worth trying out.

Jmemorize is a program that simulates using flash cards, where a question is written on one side of the card and you have to remember the answer. The software works on any Windows, Mac or Linux computer that has the Java Runtime Environment installed.

Like many of the free programs for learning languages, Jmemorize does not include any actual lessons ­ it’s simply a way of using lessons that you, or someone else, has prepared. Some ready-made lessons, including a course in Sp anish, can be found at http://wiki.jmemorize.org/Lessons. Alternatively, it’s simple enough to enter your own questions based on information found in a textbook or online.

An alternative is www.livemocha.com. Livemocha takes the idea of pen pals but uses the internet so that you can practice spoken conversations with real people using a microphone or headset and an instant messaging program, such as MSN, rather than written letters.

As well as conversations there are lessons in Spanish, French, Hindi, German and Mandarin. As leaping straight into spoken conversations can be daunting there are writing and speaking lessons that are marked to give advice on grammar and accent. Formal lesson plans help to give a sense of progress and online leaderboards add an element of friendly competition.

Listen and learn
An Apple iPod or other portable music player can be used for more than just listening to music. There are lots of recorded audio programmes, often known as podcasts, on the internet that focus on learning a language. A good selection can be found at http://tinyurl.com/32op22. There are European languages as well as Chinese and Hindi for those travelling further afield.

A range of foreign language podcasts can be found via Apple’s iTunes software. Click on the iTunes Store text under the title Store in the left-hand column of iTunes. Click on Podcasts, then on Education and then Language courses. These podcasts can then be transferred to an iPod to listen to on the move, or played on the computer.

Apart from dedicated teaching tools there are plenty of other ways to improve language skills.

It is very helpful to just listen to ordinary speech in a foreign language. This can be helped by watching films - popular websites such as Amazon have large selections of foreign language films.

Don’t forget to check the extra features of DVDs you already own as they may have soundtracks in the language you are learning. Many foreign film DVDs have English subtitles that help when the going gets tough.

It can also help to listen to online radio in different languages. A quick web search will bring up many national radio stations. For example searching for “French news” will take you to sites such as www.france24.com, which broadcasts the news in both English and French. Anther good place to look for French audio is Radio France Internationale. This website is particularly helpful because it broadcasts a version of the news in simple French. Click on the text “écouter rfi” and then on “Français Facile”. A pop up window will appear and the radio will start playing.

Many national television channels also have websites and broadcast programmes online. Plenty of videos can also be found on www.youtube.com - simply search this website for the name of the language you want and “tuition” to see the available videos. One disadvantage of Youtube, though, is that it is harder to find a useful collection of videos. On the other hand, we are unlikely to forget the meaning of the phrase “poser un lapin” having watched the video at http://tinyurl.com/yuvnao.

Finally there’s the modern day equivalent of a foreign pen pal: join an online discussion forum where users write another language. This gives an opportunity to practise reading and writing.

There are lots of ways to brush up on a language using a computer, or even to start from scratch. Using a computer has all sorts of advantages over borrowing a book from a local library. Not only can the computer play phrases and videos, it can assess your own pronunciation to prevent misunderstandings. So never fear if that exciting foreign holiday seems a long way off. Start learning the local language now and it will be even more enjoyable.

Breathe new life into old audio language courses
If you own a language course on CD, a computer and MP3 player can make it more useful.

Rather than shuffling through discs, with a computer it is possible to select any audio lesson with a few clicks - Windows Media Player or iTunes can be used to import all the tracks on each CD, storing a copy on your hard disk. This makes it far easier to get to the lessons you want and to replay them over and over if necessary.

If you also have a portable MP3 player, it’s possible to copy the CDs onto it for use when travelling, or for easy learning during the day. The method for this varies, but iPod players can copy music from iTunes and most others can do so with music stored in Windows Media Player.

Digital Dictionary
Not everyone knows that many phones can be used as phrasebooks. A useful utility is Mobile Translator English-Spanish, which translates 47,000 words. For a list of compatible phones, see the Getjar website.

If you have a mobile phone that can access the internet, it is possible to use online translation services, such as http://babelfish.altavista.com. These are often too literal but can be helpful for unknown words. Alternatively, the online phrasebook at www.coolgorilla.com has a useful selection of phrases. If you plan to use online services, be careful to check the cost of using the mobile internet when abroad ­ it can be expensive.