With the sheer number of online language learning platforms such as Busuu, Duolingo, Memrise, Rosetta Stone, etc at your disposal, it’s easy to write in-person conversations with native Englis, native Mandarin, native Japanese, native Spanish and other native language speakers off. After all, learning on your phone or computer is so much more convenient than actually going out to meet with a private tutor.
But are all these platforms the best way to learn a new language? While they sure do help people interact with language tutors, they are not always the most effective method you can use to learn and practice a new language.
The problem with online platforms
The main issue with learning a new language online is it often happens via some form of class, and classes are rarely structured in a way that aligns with how we as humans naturally learn languages.
Most of them involve boring lectures and a whole lot of mindless memorization and repetition, which don’t really help promote long-term retention.
Think about it.
How did you learn your native language? Did you take a course? You didn’t, right? In fact, you didn’t even try to actively learn anything. You naturally picked the language up through constant exposure in the form of the people in your home speaking it all the time.
And by the time you’re ready for school, you’re already able to effortlessly communicate with people verbally. And people understood what you were saying even if you didn’t have perfect grammar.
So, if classes are not the way to go, what’s the alternative?
Enter: in-person conversations with native speakers
Imagine you’re trying to learn, say, Korean. How much faster do you think you’ll acquire the language if you spent a year in the country instead of just taking an online course?
Considering Korean is pretty much all you’ll see and hear every single day for an entire year if you lived in the country, you will, without a doubt, pick it up much faster. And that’s just because you’ll be constantly exposed—even if indirectly at times—to the language.
Imagine how much faster you’ll learn if you actually had a native speaker regularly spending time to hold meaningful conversations with you—just like your parents back when you were too young to understand what they were saying.
But you don’t have to move to acquire a new language quickly
Platforms like TUTOROO allow you to pick up a wide variety of languages from native speakers from virtually anywhere in the world. Want to learn Spanish in Melbourne? You can do that. How about learning Korean in Hong Kong, Italian in Dubai or French in Singapore? You can do those too!
Just search for the language you want to acquire and enter your location. TUTOROO will take care of the rest for you.
The bottom line: fewer classes, more conversations
In fact, you don’t even have to take formal classes in the beginning if you don’t want to. You can focus on talking to native speakers first. It would take you farther in your language learning journey way faster than any course ever will anyway.
And, again, don’t worry if you don’t know any native speakers. You can just use TUTOROO to easily find one who’s happy to help language learners like you.