Learning a New Language
About 2 years ago I decided to learn a new language. 20 years ago I had a quite disappointing experience when learning French in a weekly course (15 attendees, 2 hour per week). Then the learning progress was really sluggish and over time attendees dropped out of the course. Once the number of participants reached a critical threshold the course was discontinued.
This time I decided to learn with some online resources via an app.
As a language I have chosen Dutch (for no very obvious reason).
What follows is a description
- of my learning path
- the apps I have tried or used
- other resources I have found useful
Babbel (payed subscription)
I started with this application and reached A2 level of the application after about 7 months. All in all the application worked well for me. The application provides scarce information on grammar. So I bought a grammar book to look things up, when Babbel did not provide the necessary information.
Textbook A1-B1 level
After having reached A2 level (at least according to Babbel), I started working with a textbook covering A1 to B1 level. It became clear very quickly, that A2 level of the textbook was much more advanced than A2 level of the Babbel app.
Busuu (payed subscription)
I tried Busuu application and completed B2 level. Again I found that B2 level in Busuu is very much different from a B2 level of another textbook. All the same I found the app useful and the texts are oriented toward real-life situations.
Mondly (payed subscription)
I only tried this application for some weeks. It turned out that its speech regognition system is often very poor. Moreover I think the texts/topics of the app are dull and do not cover real-life scenarios well.
TaalHammer (payed subscription)
More or less just a trainer for vocabulary. It would certainly help to improve my vocabulary but I found working with it really boring. So I stopped using it after only a few weeks.
TalkPal (payed subscription)
Up to level B2 I have found the app useful as it provides a way to talk to an AI assistant. But at level C1 I found the text examples less convincing.
ReadLang (payed subscription)
Just recently I started using this app. Basically it is a reading app where words can be excercised. Even other texts can be uploaded to be used for excercising. Moreover there is a chat function which I have not yet fully tested.
The workflow is like this:
- choose a text (either available in the app or by uploading it to the app)
- highlight words you do not know ; these words are added to the vocabulary for training.
StroopTaal (payed subscription)
The app claims that users can prepare for the Inburgering exam in the Netherlands. Levels A0 to C1 are covered.
I have just played with the payed version of the app for some days and it looks useful.
Other resources (freely available)
After having completed the content offered by Babbel and (later) Busuu, I wanted to enhance my hearing skills by listening to some podcasts.
Here is a list of resources I am using frequently.
BNR radio
The website offers a vast collection of printed and audio content . I use the audio content in a podcast app on my mobile phone almost daily.
NOL
Very similar to BNR radio.
dutch online academy
https://thedutchonlineacademy.com/en
- Useful for learning dutch grammar
- Offers online courses
Preliminary Summay
With the apps and resources described above I have been able to enhance my reading skills quite a bit.
The audio content of the podcasts contributed greatly to improve my hearing skills. Currently I can understand about 60-70% of these podcasts. This is a promising result, given that these podcasts are performed by native speakers.
My speaking skills are still poor. None of the resources mentioned above seem very helpful to become fluent in Dutch.
Just recently I came across another app which may perhaps help me getting better at speaking. The HyperLingua app
seems to be very much different from other language learning apps. Unfortunately, at the time of writing, this app does not yet support Dutch language. So I will wait and put it on my watchlist.