How to learn a language on a budget
Why do people give up on learning a language?
There are many answers to this question, of course. Recently, we’ve been running a survey (which you can still complete, if you have two minutes), about language learning, reasons for learning and things that might get in the way. According to the results so far, two of the top answers given to the above question are: lack of time, and lack of money.
As I know only too well, language classes, private tutors and language CDs or books can quickly become very expensive. Having recently decided to try and upgrade my schoolgirl French, I had a look round at languge tuition and was pretty depressed to see that I would struggle to afford even a few weeks of classes. But never fear, there are plenty of ways to learn even if you can’t afford to go back to school or buy expensive subscriptions.
So here’s my short guide to how you can learn a language on a budget. Happy learning!
1. Online
There are a tonne of great resources to be found online without even paying a penny. Depending on your language, there are loads of websites for learning grammar, vocab and more. And you can often find really good sites for more advanced learners – I really love RFI for practising French (they have news reports in ‘easy’ French, with text transcriptions). For beginner to intermediate learners, busuu.com has a great programme for 12 languages, including grammar, reading, writing and vocab, and even allows you to chat with native speakers.
2. Media
This probably only applies to intermediate to advanced learners, but it’s my favourite way to practise the languages I already speak. Try watching movies in your language, with English subtitles, or subtitles in the language. Or Google the online version of a newspaper in that language (if I’m feeling very motivated, I read lemonde.fr, spiegel.de or elmundo.es). The radio is also a great tool for language absorption. You can listen to radio in almost any language at tunein.com (and they have a great app for on-the-go listening). Even just listening to some music in another language gets you used to the sound.
3. Flashcards
I used to be obsessed with these when I was at school and uni. In my opinion, this is a great way to cram vocabulary. Either make your own with paper (write the foreign word on one side and the English word or a picture on the other) and test yourself or get a friend to test you. Or, even better, there are some free programs to do just that, which even remember which words you’re weaker on and bring them up more often until you get them right. I used to use this on the computer, but you can get flashcards in app form now too.
4. Find other people to speak to
Ok, I’ve got it easy here because we have a very international office and I’m never short of someone to annoy with my dodgy Spanish… But even if you’re not surrounded by native speakers, you might be able to track down a language partner using a website like totalingua.com that matches you up with an exchange partner. If no one lives in your area, you can always arrange a Skype chat instead of meeting face to face.
5. Apps
There are some amazing free or cheap apps to download on iPhone or Android. I’m using a combination of DuoLingo and uTalk to learn basic Italian. DuoLingo is free and gives you a good grounding in grammar and basic vocab, whilst uTalk features native speakers for all (70 and counting) languages, and has real audio for all the phrases and vocabulary, so I can pick up on the accent and pronounciation as well. I normally play a couple of the games on the bus to work, although I save the recording quizzes for the privacy of my room!
6. Books
If you’re more of a paper and pencil type, then there are plenty of language-learning books on the market, and they’re mostly cheap to buy, or you can track some down second hand. I think there’s something to be said for having a paper dictionary if you’re a serious language learner (what if leo.de is down!?) – even if you just decorate your shelves with them to look intellectual (or is that just me?).
Have you got any more tips for people learning a language on a budget?
Alex
Next week: our guide to learning a language when you’re short of time. If you’ve got any particularly useful tips you’d like to see included, please let us know below!
How much money are you wasting on language software?
So, you’ve decided to learn a language. Great! Now what?
If you’re anything like me, you’ll have gone straight to the Internet in a fit of great enthusiasm, and bought yourself a language course – whether that’s in an app, on a CD or online. You might even have gone a step further and enrolled in a class.
But then the sun comes out, or the World Cup kicks off, or you decide to start reading the Game of Thrones books (only recommended if you have nothing else to do with your time for at least six months), and that passion for your new language starts to fade a little bit. Suddenly there are other things to do with your time, and although you definitely still want to be able to speak the language, you just don’t seem to have the time or enthusiasm to actually learn it.
And so that language course you bought, which promised so much, is forgotten and unused, and your dream of going travelling and fitting in like a local remains just that – a dream.
Can anyone else hear violins…?
It might sound obvious, but the thing about language courses, whether it’s EuroTalk, Rosetta Stone, Duolingo or any of the other multitude of programs out there, is that they’re only as useful as you allow them to be. I wish I could tell you that simply by downloading uTalk to your iPhone, the vocabulary will magically find its way into your brain while you’re sleeping, but it’s just not true (although if you want to try it, it’s available from the App Store).
Let’s look at this another way. You want to lose weight, so you join a gym. Logical. Maybe you even go along a few times after work. But then six months later you’re still not skinny, and on top of that you’re out of money and you probably feel pretty bad about yourself too. According to research by online accountants Crunch.co.uk, here in Britain we were wasting £37m a year on unused gym memberships in 2011. Just think what we could have been doing with that money. Or how fit we could all have got if we’d kept going to the gym.
The fact is, gyms don’t magically make you fit, or thin. (If it were as easy as that, I’d have joined one a long time ago.) They just provide the conditions you need to get yourself there. Even a personal trainer, whose job it is to help you, will only get so far if you’re not willing to meet them in the middle. And it’s the same with language software – if you don’t use it, it can’t help you. We’d all love a big red button that will get us instantly to where we want to be, but life isn’t like that.
And that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Learning a language isn’t just about being able to speak that language. It’s also about the things you’ll discover along the way. You’ll learn to appreciate your own native tongue, understand the culture of the language you’re learning; you might even make a whole new group of friends. And personally, I think the satisfaction you feel the very first time you manage to speak to someone in another language, even if it’s just to say hello or thank you, is much greater than the pleasure you gain from becoming fluent. In the same way, reaching your target weight will feel amazing – but nothing will beat that first pound you lose.
So my advice is this – don’t buy language software, unless you’re going to use it. Because as the late Maya Angelou once said, ‘Nothing will work unless you do.’ And we don’t want your language app gathering virtual dust on your iPhone, until one day you realise you don’t need it any more and quietly delete it.
But if you do decide to invest in a course (hopefully EuroTalk!), and you follow through on that crazy plan you had one day to learn Russian, or Korean, or even Klingon, that’s great. I guarantee you won’t regret it – and it’ll definitely be less painful than going to the gym.
Liz
Goal! around the world [Infographic]
Sometimes one word is all you need… With the World Cup getting underway today, here’s how each national team says that all-important word, ‘goal’.
You can find this and lots more in our language learning app, uTalk – available to download and start learning right now from the App Store. So whether you’re watching the football at home or away, you’ll always be prepared.
(There are lots of non-football related words in there too, for those of us with other interests!)
Please do share the infographic with friends and tell us how you’ll be shouting ‘Goal!’ this World Cup 🙂
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10 reasons to visit… Lisbon
Having just come back from Lisbon and having loved every minute of it, I had to continue the ‘10 reasons to visit‘ series with this fantastic city! Here are my thoughts on why you should visit…
1. Cork
I had no idea this was a big Portuguese commodity but apparently Portugal produces well over half the worldwide supply of cork. Presumably because we use less and less cork in bottle stopper production, the Portuguese have become extremely inventive in finding other products to make from the strange bark, and shops in the centre of Lisbon are stuffed full of cork purses, hats, sandals, bags and jewellery – even the odd umbrella!
2. Hills
Some people might disagree with me on this one, but I like a city with hills, and Lisbon is mostly hills. Pretty steep hills. The reason this is good is that it provides lots of great viewpoints, and the view is worth puffing up a hill for. From the top of the Parque Eduardo VII or the Aguas Livres Aqueduct, the view is particularly good, showing a great sweep of pale red rooftops descending into the river estuary. I was staying right at the top of perhaps the steepest hill in town, and climbing up it several times a day made me feel less guilty about having the extra odd pastéis, but if you get fed up with them there’s always the funicular railway to drag you up or down the hill.
3. Pastéis de nata
I really regret not buying a crate of these to bring back. This is definitely the best pastry I’ve ever tasted, and you can get it in every other shop. Gooey, custardy filling inside flaky pastry, slightly burnt like a creme caramel on top. Yum yum yum.
4. Friendly people
I’ve rarely been anywhere where I was made to feel so welcome. Everyone we chatted to had time to talk to us, and everyone was smiley and helpful (a far-cry from London!) Since I work in languages, I always feel guilty not trying to speak the local language a bit so I took uTalk Portuguese with me and managed to get by fairly successfully – but not having practised at all my pronunciation was somewhat questionable. And yet, instead of the scornful expressions you encounter in some places, in Lisbon everyone was patient and happy to listen to me mangling their language. Also, a lot of people addressed me in English before I could even try out my Portuguese – something which impressed me and put me to shame at the same time.
5. Belém
At the far side of the city, the little district of Belem is definitely worth seeing. Its main street is crammed full of bakeries (more pastéis) and small, good-value restaurants selling great seafood dishes. There’s a great big expanse of green park and a long promenade along the seafront, past the impressive statue to Portuguese exploration and the famous Belém Tower. If you’re looking for somewhere to take a book and chill out for an afternoon I recommend Belém!
6. The tram
Lisbon has a set of extremely iconic yellow trams, crammed full of people as they make their rickety way along the streets. Rising very tall off the ground but being very short, they look like little shuffling animals sneaking through the streets. If you’re more of an underground person, the metro has some beautifully decorated stops too – I particularly enjoyed the caricatures at the entrance to the Aeroporto stop.
7. Bacalhau
Aka salted cod. This traditional dish is served for Christmas dinner in some households, and is definitely worth ordering if you get the chance. Historically a fishing nation, the fish and seafood dishes are diverse, imaginative and delicious. I recommend Bacalhau à Gomes de Sá, a mixture of bacalhau, eggs and olives.
8. Cobbled streets
Again, maybe not an actual reason to go to Lisbon, but it’s something really nice when you get there – the streets are all paved with small cubes of white flint which reflect the light so much that it makes you squint. So smooth in places that you slide along them, these cobbles give the roads a charming, uneven surface and make you wonder how long it took to lay all these stones down in the first place.
9. The Elevator of Carmo
I didn’t actually go on this elevator as it seemed a bit of a waste of money, but you can walk along the platform for free and you get another great view over the bustling main street below. The elevator accommodates for the split-level in the street (another consequence of the hilliness) and is built in a fantastic, dark, neo-Gothic style- really imposing.
10. Bairro Alto
The trendy district of Lisbon: we found that it was quite sleepy in the morning and afternoon, but from about 9 at night all the doors open up to reveal tiny, one-room bars selling cheap beer in plastic cups. Everyone meshes together on the streets drinking and chatting, moving from one bar to the next until the dawn creeps in. The whole atmosphere was really friendly and I can’t wait to go back!
Are there any other fans or residents of Lisbon who’d like to share their own reasons to visit? And remember you can send us your own contributions for places to feature in our ’10 reasons to visit’ series 🙂
Nat
A little language goes a long way
As marketing manager here at EuroTalk, it’s my job to tell everyone how great our products are. But from time to time, I need to use them for myself and I get reminded all over again just how useful they are.
Last weekend I spent a few days in Naples, Italy. I was determined before I left to try and speak a little bit of Italian; after all I spend most of my time telling other people they have to speak the local language, not to mention it just seemed like the polite thing to do. As it turned out, it was also quite necessary because to our surprise, although it’s a pretty touristy area, not many people spoke English. Fortunately I’d come prepared with uTalk on my phone, and it turned out to be invaluable.
I left home with no Italian at all, apart from the basics – ‘ciao’, ‘grazie’ and ‘per favore’ were the first words I tried out (all included in the free version of the app). I’d also learnt the numbers up to three in advance, so I could ask for a table in restaurants. Pretty soon I realised I also needed to know ‘una bottiglia d’acqua’ because it was quite hot and sunny (when it wasn’t pouring with rain), and some higher numbers so I knew how much money I was being asked for. So out came uTalk for a quick revision session.
The first time we went to a restaurant, the waiter spoke some English and somehow identified us as Brits the moment we walked in, so my contribution was fairly limited, although I was insistent that I wanted to say what I could in Italian. The following night, I managed to ask for the bill, thanks to a quick check of my phone. And by the last night, I was able to order dessert by describing what I wanted (‘una torta de fragole’) and was astonished and delighted when the waiter brought me exactly what I wanted without any confusion. (We also got free limoncello at that restaurant – although I think they might have given that to everyone.)
Our main challenge in Naples was figuring out the ‘funicolare’ – which, by the way, is the weirdest way I’ve ever travelled. (For those who aren’t familiar, it’s basically a little train/car that carries people up and down the mountain – but on the inside and at a 45 degree angle. It’s quite surreal.) I’ll admit there was a bit of English used when I asked the man in the station how it all worked the first time, but then after another quick check of uTalk, I managed to buy us three tickets (‘bigliettos’) from the slightly intimidating lady in the little shop next door.
None of my conversations were particularly long or profound, but every time I said something in Italian and the person I was speaking to understood me, I gained a little bit of confidence. By the time I left, I was quite looking forward to these little exchanges, and was a bit disappointed if someone talked to me in English. There were a lot of Brits around, as we were all there for the Davis Cup tennis (the less said about that the better) and we witnessed a few fellow tourists adopting the ‘talk louder in English’ approach, not to mention quite a lot more standing around looking very confused in the funicolare station. So it was quite satisfying to know that we’d made the effort; the locals I spoke to certainly seemed to appreciate it. And yes, there were a couple of occasions when they thought I knew more than I did and started chatting away in rapid Italian, but somehow I managed to fumble my way through it (‘non capisco’ – I don’t understand – is another important phrase to learn).
It’s always useful to learn a few words before you leave for your holiday, but for me the most useful thing about uTalk was that I always had access to the vocabulary – written and spoken – whenever I needed it. I wouldn’t necessarily have thought to look up ‘strawberries’ and ‘cake’ before I left, for example, so without uTalk I might have missed out on this amazing dessert. And that would have been a tragedy.
Liz
