Practice | Frau Roboto's Language-Learning Tools

The adage goes, “Practice makes perfect.”

Fortunately, or unfortunately, it’s hard to be “perfect” in a foreign language– where we ever chase feeling like we’ve earned the title of “fluent speaker” as this other blog post discusses in detail. But exposure and practice will make you a lot better a lot faster!

If you’re sick of the flash cards and grammar exercises and are looking for less “traditional” means of practice that you can incorporate into your day every day, may I suggest:

READING
- Children’s books, magazine articles, news articles, pamphlets, advertisements, parallel text novels, novels, … just get your hands on it and go! The beauty of reading is that there is no rush to understand, like there is in listening. You have the time to pick apart sentences word-by-unfamiliar-word until you get it. This is also one of the least expensive methods of practice, thanks to the internet.
MUSIC
- Ever hear a song for the first time in forever and surprised yourself that you still knew all the words? The ability for songs to lodge lyrics in your head can also work in your target language! What’s even better is that the songs, if they aren’t too slang-ridden, can give you easily accessible references for noun genders/grammar structures/phrases. Playing through lyrics in my head have helped me get higher German test scores in the past. I would suggest starting out with slower music so you can get the words and meanings without too much struggle, but honestly, listen to whatever you will continue listening to! Just be sure to have a reliable set of lyrics nearby so you don’t learn things wrong! When you find an artist or two you really enjoy, buy their CDs/Mp3s and listen to them in the car, on your jog or wherever else. I enjoy Lafee, Tom Albrect and Jupiter Jones.
TV/Movies/YouTube
- Listening comprehension is VITAL to ever having a successful conversation. Start out with short clips and then get hooked on something a bit longer. My college German professor had us watch Rote Rosen, a German soap opera because the themes and vocabulary aren’t too complicated to figure out on the fly– and he knew we’d get sucked into the can’t-turn-away-from-the-train-wreck element of the soap opera. (Echte Kanasta!). If you like movies about WWII or spies, I would seriously recommend Sophie Scholl – The Final Days (Die letzten Tage) or The Lives of Others (Das Leben der Anderen). These movies have really good German history as well as language practice.
Pick a friend from class and practice outside of class
- Remember writing notes in code in the 2nd grade? Well, this is the super-nerd version. It was fun to be speaking in a language not everyone else around you can understand. It also strengthened the bonds of our language network– our high school German club was an awesome, tight-knit bunch! People would be able to share their newest German-language findings (a book, a song, a silly cartoon), which increased our overall exposure, which is wonderful. It also has the accountability-partner element to it (like your friend who guilts you to come to the gym with them, even though you don’t feel like it)– which can build a little bit of healthy competition too! Not to mention, friends with whom you can engage with in your target language is likely the closest you will be able to come to immersion learning without the pricey experience of studying abroad. Embrace it!!!
Actually write/skype/communicate with your pen pals
- If you’ve studied abroad and picked up a few native friends, or your German teacher set you up with a random pen pal, initiate (or re-initiate) contact! Write an e-mail/facebook message/snail mail letter or call them on Skype and catch up on all the things you’ve been otherwise spending your time on. Germans in particular seem to be really loyal friends if you can keep up with them. Don’t let the buck stop with you!!!
Put your target language in your face all the time!
- Change your technology accounts’ language settings to German. If you already know the technology, you will have immersion vocab practice, if you don’t know the technology, you have incredible motivation to learn.
- Sign up for things like Transparent Language’s word of the day e-mail.
- Follow language learning sites on facebook (put it in your face all the time)

The underlying moral of this story is to do what you would normally do (read/listen to music/watch videos/talk with friends/check social media) and add a few pinches of your target language into the mix! That way it won’t seem like practice, it will seem normative, natural and (eventually) easy! Plus, by adding it into what you already do, it will likely be tailored to the format you most enjoy engaging with– which will make it both more practical and more fun.

How do YOU incorporate your language learning into your (daily) life?

We are fortunate enough to live in the age of the internet– all of the knowledge of the world wide web at our fingertips– if only we know where to look!

Lucky for you, I’ve done a lot of searching already for free language-learning/practice websites!

Here are some of my favorites:

Memrise – This is my new favorite website. It has oodles of courses you can sign up for, all of the content for which is user generated. AND it’s not limited to just languages. I also signed up for some medical terminology courses. Because it is all user generated, you do have to take it with a grain of salt, and not all of the courses are super well constructed. BUT there are a lot of really good courses available (especially for lower-level German), and you can message the creator of the lessons if you have any questions (no guarantees they will respond, though). What’s cool is you can go at your own pace learning new words (planting) an testing your memory (watering). It will mix up the words you have learned and give you a good review session for any class of words you’ve previously learned and wish to brush up on. Additionally, you have the option to skip certain words in lessons– like if you already know a good number of the vocabulary words on the list, and just want to practice with the 7 you don’t know quite as well. This way you don’t waste time. For words you have difficulty with, it gives you the option to create a “Mem”
This is my “Mem” for اَلْأُولَى which is the Arabic word for “the first”. The Arabic word is pronounced al-ah-oo-la; which reminded me of the French Looney Toons character PePe LePew saying “oh-la-la.”

which is a picture/text combination to help you remember the word better. If you get the word wrong during practice, you will be shown the Mem you made, or be prompted to make one (you don’t have to). You can also create your own classes, so if you have a specific list of vocabulary words (like I want to learn a lot of technical German words), you can type them in and the webpage will generate the course for you to navigate through. You get bonus points for quick (correct) answers. You can link it with your facebook account to get competitive with other friends. I also love that the sessions are relatively short, so you can sneak one in while waiting for the bus, or do a few during lunch.
Lang-8 – This should be my favorite website– but it’s not always fun to work on what you’re not good at. I am a terrible German writer. Speaking? No problem– you can slur through those adjective endings and no one will bat an eye, but on paper/screen, the flaws are sitting there, indisputably, in black and white. This is why I NEED Lang-8 in my life!!! It is all about getting you to be a better writer in your target language… which makes it one of the few sites you can use to work on your understanding and application of grammar. When you sign up it asks you for your native language, as well as your target languages. Your home page will look similar to your facebook newsfeed– entries in your native language with a lot of spelling/grammar errors! This is because the website has been smart in making sure no one abuses the system. In order for you to submit an entry you have written in your target language and get the corrections of native speakers, the website requires you to give your native speaker corrections to others seeking to learn your native language. You get points for correcting other people’s essays, which in turn you spend to get other people to correct your essays. The best part is that all corrections are submitted by native speakers– no archaic words will go by uncorrected– one of the dangers of using dictionaries for new vocabulary. The only downside to this structure is that all corrections are provided by native speakers, which means they may not be able to explain their corrections to you very well in a language you can understand. Because this website requires you to generate content instead of answer multiple choice questions, the time commitment required is greater… especially if you’re like me and struggle with writing in the first place. Make sure you have time to sit down and crank out that blurb– or you can start a draft and submit it to the community later.
duolingo – This website is akin to Memrise, but is just for languages. It is not comprised of user-generated content, and therefore has a more consistent quality throughout all of its courses. What is great about this website is that it tests you in a bunch of different ways including recognition, spelling, listening comprehension, and speaking. You can turn off the speaking questions if you do not have a microphone. There is also an “immersion” section where you can read and translate real articles in your target language. I have not used this functionality much myself, but, it is there to utilize should you choose. The site keeps track of how many days in a row you have practiced and rewards you with extra lives– which you’ll probably need. Every time you get a question wrong, you lose a life and if you lose all of them, the lesson ends and you have to start over (or choose a different lesson). If you get fueled by anger-from-failure like I do, you can use this life-based system to your advantage. You can also link it to your facebook page to generate competition among your friends. There are a few flaws in this website, but you can submit any qualms you may have to the creators and they will get back to you about your message.
Ba Ba Dum – This site is unique because it doesn’t really care what your native language is. The navigation and interaction with the site is almost entirely picture based. You can create an account to log your progress, or you can just pop on and do a few rounds without committing. You select your target language from the flag options in the bottom right corner, and select the game/practice method in the top left. There is a game where they give you the word and you have to choose the appropriate picture, one where they give you a picture and you have to choose the appropriate word, one where they say the word and you have to choose the appropriate picture, one where they give you a picture an the letters to make up the word are scrambled below for you to sort out, and a scramble option to shuffle each of the above into your game. There is no “end” to the lessons, so whenever you feel like stopping is when you’re done. You have to create your own sense of closure, but again, that makes it great for whipping out at the bus stop or during the last few moments of your precious 30 minute lunch break.
lingua.ly – I have not yet mastered this site, but if I understand its premise correctly, it has the power to be very useful for higher-level language learners. You create an account and install the button to your web toolbar. Then, as you are surfing websites in your target language, you have the option to add words on the page to your lingua.ly stash by double-clicking on them. It will then prompt you with a list of translation options, from which you select the ones you would like to learn. It will then save the words to your lingua.ly list and bring with it the context in which you found them. So, not only does it encourage you to surf websites in your target language– but all the surfing you’re doing should be related to your interests– no more stupid, outdated essays you couldn’t care less about! If you’re into fashion, you can learn fashion vocabulary. If you’re into refurbishing cars, cool. Build that vocabulary. I started surfing robot manufacturer websites to grab some vocabulary that I might hear floating around a German robot sales meeting. That being said– a complaint I would file against this site is that it automatically capitalizes each of the words you import, which is NOT a good thing in German, as capitalization is how you distinguish nouns from other parts of speech. A second complaint is that if the toolbar application doesn’t recognize the word on the page when you double click to add the word to your list, it won’t add the word to your list. You will have to manually add it to your practice list. I’m a little confused because I added words manually that the ap couldn’t translate, and then on my list on the site, it had them translated without need of my assistance… but hey, it’s a free service, I can’t complain too much!

If you have a smart phone, and aren’t living in the ‘dark ages’ like I am, you can download a free app from FunEasyLearn with 6000 German vocabulary words. Obviously, without the smart phone I can’t attest to the awesomeness of this product, but if it’s free vocab practice you can take with you on the go, what’s not to love?

If you ARE still in the ‘dark ages’ like I am, first of all *high five*. Second of all, (and this goes for people that don’t want to always have their fancy phones out too,) there is a fantastic offering of free quick-phrase books at LivingLanguage. These are lifesavers when you go to a country that speaks your target language and you are blanking on the word for “train station” or “pharmacy”.

If you’re trying to utilize one of the above listed practice websites away from home, where your Langenscheidt dictionary and copy of The Duden reside, the internet also offers a smattering of good online dictionaries and translation tools.

dict.cc – a short little URL that could save your life– or at least your German grade! The best part about this dictionary is that it tells you the number of people that prefer which translation over each other translations. For example, if you type in “wedding” on their site, it tells you that “Hochzeit” is preferred by 3676 people, and “Eheschließung” is preferred by 2671 people, whereas “Vermählung” is preferred by only 37 people. This gives you a good feel as to how appropriate your choice for translation is and helps you avoid using archaic words. If you were writing something about a wedding, chances are you would go with one of the first two choices and leave “Vermählung” in the dictionary. Words sometimes also have subjects listed with them, which is useful when trying to determine if the word for “thread” you are thinking about using is the one used in sewing textiles (Faden) or online forums (Thema). And lastly, the dictionary has sound bytes of most words. You can listen to people pronounce the words, and record your own for the posterity of the website.
Leo – This dictionary is German, and used for translating into other languages. It is much like the dictionary I mentioned before, just without the preference ratings.
PONS – This dictionary is unique because it includes a visual dictionary, text translation AND you can save words from the dictionary to a vocabulary list to practice later.
Google Translate – If you don’t want to navigate to “German,” just type in translate.google.de . The “.de” stands for Deutschland. This website is good for translating phrases. Keep in mind that Google Translate is fallible, and sometimes gets really confused with German word-order (especially if punctuation is involved). Although it may seem like a pain that this site isn’t perfect, I find it comforting that because it is imperfect, my efforts to learn a foreign language aren’t totally in vain. There is still a need for human translators.
IM Translator – Before the days of Google Translate, this was my go-to free translator. It’s a little rougher around the edges than Google Translate, but if you’re looking for a second, third or fourth opinion, this isn’t a bad place to get one. You can compare translations between 4 translators (one being Google Translate) with just a click. You can even back-translate to make sure you successfully communicate the message you wish to. Downside: this translator can only manage 1000 characters of text at a time… perhaps that’s where twitter got its idea for abbreviated postings?
About.com – If you are getting into translator fights for conjugations (specifically informal vs. formal “you”), this specific link at about.com lists the 20 most common German verbs with partial conjugation lists, while this specific link lists 50 common German verbs with links to conjugation lists.

It’s an exciting time to be a language learner, with all of these resources available. You can get corrections from native speakers or look up unfamiliar words on the go– so no more excuses! Get learning!!!

What (preferably free) language learning websites do you utilize?