#language immersion

teen-spanish-immersion

language-program-travel

Right now, the biggest one in the market is the paywalled LingQ, which is pretty good, but well, requires money.

There's also the OG programs, LWT (Learning With Texts) and FLTR (Foreign Language Text Reader), which are so cumbersome to set up and use that I'm not going to bother with them.

I presently use Vocab Tracker as my daily driver, but I took a spin around GitHub to see what fresh new stuff is being developed. Here's an overview of what I found, as well as VT itself.

(There were a few more, like Aprelendo and TextLingo, which did not have end-user-friendly installations, so I'm not counting them).

Vocab Tracker

++ Available on web ++ 1-5 word-marking hotkeys and instant meanings makes using it a breeze ++ Supports websites

-- Default meaning/translation is not always reliable -- No custom languages -- Ugliest interface by far -- Does not always recognise user-selected phrases -- Virtually unusable on mobile -- Most likely no longer maintained/developed

Lute

++ Supports virtually all languages (custom language support), including Hindi and Sanskrit ++ Per-language, customisable dictionary settings ++ Excellent, customisable hotkey support

-- No instant meaning look-up makes it cumbersome to use, as you have to load an external dictionary for each word -- Docker installation

LinguaCafe

++ Instant meanings thanks to pre-loaded dictionaries ++ Supports ebooks, YouTube, subtitles, and websites ++ Customisable fonts ++ Best interface of the bunch

== Has 7 word learning levels, which may be too many for some

-- Hotkeys are not customisable (yet) and existing ones are a bit cumbersome (0 for known, for eg.) -- No online dictionary look-up other than DeepL, which requires an API key (not an intuitive process) -- No custom languages -- Supports a maximum of 15,000 characters per "chapter", making organising longer texts cumbersome -- Docker installation

Dzelda

++ Supports pdf and epub ++ Available on web

hello anon! thank you so much for the ask <3

when it comes to the "basics":

duolingo - i use it mostly as a motivator for systematic learning (via keeping my streak); and mostly to learn and revise different writing scripts: arabic, korean, greek, cyrillic, etc. sometimes i'll do a lesson in one of my target languages.

ngl though, i’m mostly sticking to it because i have a premium account and don’t want to lose my already spend money.

busuu - also a big motivator for keeping up with every day learning, no matter how small it may be. i used to enjoy it more with the premium account where i could do some revisions (vocab and grammar), but even without it, it’s a fun app. i've gotten quite far with my spanish here, so i often switch to french and korean when the material gets too advanced too quickly.

teuida - an app for learning korean, japanese and spanish through conversation. i’m sticking strictly to korean. i’ve only been using it for a month, but i really love it. it truly makes me think in a way that the previous apps don’t, and it focuses solely on speaking.

and etutor - it’s a polish site/app. i won a free course in one language, and so i chose spanish. it’s one of the best courses i've taken, really professional and interesting, though the lessons do get repetitive in their format (though it’s true of most, if not all, language learning apps/sites, i suppose). they add interesting cultural aspects to their lessons.

i also won a free british council course, though i recently haven't had the time to do any lessons there...

so these four apps/sites are what i'm sticking to for now and try to do every day. i've reached a one year streak on busuu today and have nearly one year on duolingo. apart from that, i've tried many other different resources (such as drops, mango, mondly, lingopie - this one is awesome and i have to return to it one day), but i don't plan to add more to my language learning at the moment... maybe after i finish my degree.

+ before i returned to working on my thesis i also always tried to add more to my learning schedule. the lessons i do on these apps are useful and helpful, sure, but i don't think they're enough... so i try to supplement this knowledge with immersion: watching tv, movies, youtube videos; reading books, articles, fics or browsing some foreign sites; listening to music or podcasts; using physical textbooks, etc.

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