It is said that learning a foreign language can give you a better command of your native tongue.
But many people need more of an incentive before they’ll devote the considerable time and effort necessary to absorb a foreign grammar and lexicon.
Cunning use of technology can make the job a whole lot easier than it used to be.
Whether you need a few handy phrases for an overseas vacation or you’re planning to spruce up your CV with a more advanced command of a language, a computer and an internet connection will get you up to speed.
They won’t replace the skills of a teacher, but they’re great for supplementing study and improving your comprehension of a different language. So whether you want to improve your school-learnt French or aim to captivate Chinese clients, prepare to get ahead by employing a few technology smarts.
There are four fairly obvious key skills to develop if you want to learn a language successfully: reading, writing, listening and speaking. The most obvious strategy for tackling all at once with your PC is to install a software study suite.
These packages divide into offline and online types, a good-value example of the former being Transparent Language’s Learn Language Now! series (www.transparent.com). There are 16 titles available, covering Dutch, Arabic and Swedish, as well as more common choices, each of which introduces more than 15,000 words and hundreds of handy phrases.
It’s not merely a case of reading from lists. Transparent uses the multimedia strengths of the Mac and PC to present interactive lessons featuring video clips narrated by native speakers, along with the means to analyse your own pronunciation. Games and reference resources also feature, as do mp3 files that can be loaded onto a personal media player for revision while you’re out and about.
Rosetta Stone publishes both offline and online interactive study courses in 30 languages. The company uses what it calls Dynamic Immersion, by which you link words with on-screen pictures and hear native speakers pronounce the words.
The online service enables you to continue study when travelling. Rosetta tracks your progress, so you get an idea of which areas need additional focus.
Immersion in a foreign culture can bring language acquisition along a treat. And while multimedia study courses go some way to creating an immersive experience, there’s still more that can be done to create a virtual environment in which to better absorb new vocabulary.
Strange transmissions
Try dialling up an internet radio station from the country of your target
language. Point your web browser at
www.radio-locator.com
for a huge list of overseas stations that broadcast online.
There are downsides to this approach, however. If you’re at work, the systems manager will probably take a dim view of your bandwidth-hogging activity. And native speakers often talk too quickly to be understood.
Also, you can’t revise and analyse streamed audio unless you record it. For that, you’ll need a capture program, such as Applian’s AV Streaming Capture Suite for PC or Wiretap Pro for OS X. Both products can convert streamed audio into files that can be saved for later study, and even slowed down in an audio editor, such as the open source program Audacity.
With diligence, you can create your own audio-based study modules, while learning something of current affairs in the country you’re interested in.
