How My Smartphone is Helping Me Review German
@bagarad (14283)
Paso Robles, California
February 2, 2019 12:58am CST
Almost 55 years ago I took three years of German in college and even had a German penpal. I wrote in English and she wrote in German. It worked for us. I didn't really have anyone else to practice with. There was no internet. There weren't any smartphones. We had books and classes.
I had been reading that learning a foreign language is good for helping one keep one's brain cells working right, so I was delighted when I found the "Drops" app to help me review my German. It's actually fun and somewhat addicting. I usually want to go through more than my one session a day. It's almost like a game. I'm learning and it challenges my memory.
When I joined Instagram I decided to follow some people who live in Germany who post in German. Instagram translates, so I get practice reading casual German the way people write it outside of textbooks. One of those accounts is German for Mummies (not the Egyptian kind). She draws cute pictures and labels them in German. She includes some simple sentences at about my current level. It often reinforces what I'm learning in Drops. The app can be used to learn many different languages. I may start Spanish once I feel grounded enough in German not to be confused.
The photo I've used here gives you an idea of how parts of the Drops app work. You can see it has matching, word searches, and putting pieces of a word that match a picture together to spell the word right.
Have you ever used an app to help learn or review a language? How do you best learn new things? By reading, hearing, or interacting with an electronic program on a computer or smartphone? Or do you watch a YouTube video? That's the next thing I may try. I like variety. How about you?
7 people like this
9 responses
@LadyDuck (502466)
• Italy
2 Feb 19
Same as @toniganzon I am using Duoling to speak a better German. Talking with people and watching programs in German is the best to practice. I only really learnt to speak perfect French living in France.
2 people like this
@toniganzon (77156)
• Philippines
2 Feb 19
I'm trying to learn French too. Just trying. And you are right about talking with people and watching programs. I watch Korean drama to help me with that. But the Koreans I talk to only want to speak English when they converse with me.
1 person likes this
@toniganzon (77156)
• Philippines
2 Feb 19
@LadyDuck It does really help to be surrounded by the language we want to learn. That's why those who want to learn the language do visit the country of that language to learn fast. It's really different. During the Spanish regime, our national language was Spanish. That's why we still use some Spanish words in our dialect. And it's easy for us to learn Spanish as well.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (502466)
• Italy
2 Feb 19
@toniganzon I studied French 5 years in school. I could write and read French very well, but when I moved to France and I started to watch TV there, I realized how difficult it was to listen to many different accents. It took 3 months before I could say that I really understood French.
3 people like this
@Torunn (8606)
• Norway
23 Feb 19
I usually learn the grammar, then some words and then I try to read. I like grammar, so I often end up reading about far too advanced stuff :-)
I usually teach German in school. Not this year, teaching only physics for two semesters, but I really wish my German pupils would do things like that on their own. Use their mobile phones for something good, not just take stupid pictures of eachother. Plus they would explore which way they learn best, as it's quite individual how you like to learn and you can't use all the ways in a classroom.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
26 Feb 19
I'm amazed at how many free learning resources there are on YouTube. And I get some practice reading and even listening to German on Instagram. So much better than the language labs we had when I was in college, and much more fun.
@wolfgirl569 (135744)
• Marion, Ohio
2 Feb 19
I have never tried to learn a second language. But I used to be able to cuss in German as there was an exchange student at our school for a year.
1 person likes this
@toniganzon (77156)
• Philippines
2 Feb 19
I'm using Duolingo for reviewing my Spanish and Korean language. I learned the Korean language on my own. A Korean friend taught me their alphabet and told me that their language is the easiest to learn. And he was right about that. I could even write their characters pretty easily.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
2 Feb 19
Although my closest friends are of Asian descent I've never dared attempt to learn an Asian language because of the different characters. I had enough trouble trying to learn Russian and Serbo-Croatian. I also have a paid subscription to Duolingo but I don't like it as much. I think it's boring - too much like a text book.
1 person likes this
@changjiangzhibin89 (17239)
• China
2 Feb 19
Learning foreign language goes a long way towards our memory and preventing senile dementia.We have some apps of learning foreign language and I use one of them.
1 person likes this
@bagarad (14283)
• Paso Robles, California
2 Feb 19
I want to review my German because I like to read German poetry in the original. Or at least I used to. I'd have no trouble at all using Spanish here. My state started as a Spanish colony. Most immigrants to our state speak Spanish. Sometimes I think I'm living in a Spanish colony again and I hear Spanish every time I go shopping.
