Before I visit a new country, I like to learn as much as I can about the people, culture and its customs. If I’m visiting a non-English speaking country, I also like to learn some of the language as well. Prior to visiting South Korea for the first time I learned Hangeul, which is the Korean alphabet, along with some basic vocabulary and common phrases. I was nowhere near fluent when I arrived but it helped me to feel less like a tourist and immerse myself in the culture. This year, I’m really excited to share that my husband and I will be heading to Europe for the very first time for our proper honeymoon! We haven’t confirmed all the details yet but we’re definitely visiting France, so I’m trying to learn a bit of French before I go.
After searching and checking out a few different resources, I found a free app called Duolingo. It’s a fun app that’s structured like a game, where each topic is a level that needs to be passed before you can ‘level up’. As you finish each topic you earn ‘lingots’, which you can save up to purchase fun items or bonus topics from their store. Topics range in increasing difficulty from Basics 1, Basics 2, Phrases, Food and Animals, all the way through to Economics, Sports and Spiritual. But what I really like about this app and what’s been bringing me back each time is how fun it is!
Within each topic, there are a series of mini lessons and each lesson has a variety of different methods to help you learn and keep things interesting. There are pictures to match with phrases, sentences to translate, sentences with missing words to be filled in, word pairs to match up and many more. The other interesting aspect of this app is that it focuses on repetition. Anyone who’s tried to learn a new language would know that if you don’t use it, you lose it and underneath each topic there is a ‘strength bar’ that keeps track of how long since you’ve completed the topic. The goal is to keep the bars full and regular reminders are sent from the app to keep practicing!
The only thing that I don’t like about this app is that you need to complete each topic before moving onto the next one but I suppose that’s the whole point of it. Other than that, I really like this app and wanted to share it with anyone who’s thinking of learning French or any other European language. Au revoir!