While language learning apps and websites such as are plentiful online, places to practice are less easy to find! Here’s a few you can try out, none of which are limited to just one or two languages:
Chat
HelloTalk (iOS/Android): an app with 100+ languages that lets you chat with native speakers of your target language from around the world with voice + text. It’s the one most geared towards just conversation!
WeSpeke (iOS/Android): an app and website with probably the largest variety of languages at 130, with text, audio, and video chat.
Conversation Exchange: this one’s a little different, as it not only allows you to get a pen pal and has text, video, and voice, but it also lets you meet up with native speakers in your area to practice!
Speaky (iOS/Android): a web and mobile app which is pretty much social media for language learners! It has 110+ languages and you can make video/audio calls and message from your browser.
HiNative (iOS/Android): not exactly for chatting with people, but instead you can ask native speakers about their culture/language in your target language!
Read
Duolingo Immersion: lets you translate articles from your target language into your native language, or vice versa.
Readlang: read articles, books, and other texts online, with vocab support, and it will create vocab lists and flashcards based on the words you needed help with.
All You Can Read: a selection of magazines and news websites from 200 countries, offered in a wide variety of languages.
Worldpress: a directory of worldwide newspapers and magazines, sorted by country, region, and also political affiliation.
Listen
Live-Radio: a collection of thousands of worldwide radio stations in a multitude of languages.
Every Tongue: 7,000+ recordings of all different languages, readily available online.
Omniglot: a massive listing of online radio stations in languages from A-Z!
Global Recordings Network:search by language or country to listen to any of a wide variety of online recordings.
I just stumbled upon www.polymath.org and it’s amazing! There’s no audio, sadly, but it is filled with amazing vocab/grammar/phrases for a wide variety of languages!
So far they have:
Afrikaans
Albanian
Armenian
Azeri
Basque
Belarusian
Bosnian
Brazilian Portuguese
Bulgarian
Cantonese
Castillano
Catalan
Croatian
Danish
Dutch
Esperanto
Estonian
Farsi
Filipino
Finnish
Flemish
French
Gaelic
Galician
Georgian
German
Greek
Gujarati
Haitian
Hausa
Hebrew
Hindi
Hungarian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Khmer
Latvian
Lithuanian
Macedonian
Malay
Malayalam
Maltese
Marathi
Nepali
Norwegian
Pashtu
Persian
European Portuguese
Romanian
Russian
Serbian
Slovak
Slovene
Somali
Spanish
“Mexican”
Sudanese
Swahili
Swedish
Tagalog
Tajik
Tamjl
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Uzbek
Vietnamese
Welsh
Yoruba
I’m not a native in any of the languages listed, so I’m unsure of how correct these courses are, but so far they seem good. Has anyone else used this site? If you have, which language did you use it for? I’m using it for Lithuanian and Greek atm.
I think this is one of the biggest struggles of the langblr community because once you’re done with duolingo it’s kind of like you’ve just been thrown out on your own with no direction. In all honesty it took me a LOOONG time to figure out what to do with myself and how to keep progressing once I finished the tree, but now I’m at a point in my language journey where I speak my L2 every single day with my native friends. I wouldn’t consider myself fluent, but I’m definitely conversational.
Do the reverse tree I seriously cannot stress this enough. Go through and do the reverse tree of your language (if it’s available, of course). What I mean by this is when I finished the Italian tree for English speakers, I went through and did the English tree for Italian speakers. It may seem redundent, but at least for those two trees, the vocabulary the two trees offered was actually quite different and I ended up learning loads of new vocabulary. Not just new vocabulary, but you’ll have access to the duolingo forums in your target language. You can ask questions to an unrestricted amount of natives, and you could possibly offer help to a bunch of natives who have questions. Also for all of the brave ones out there learning more than 1 language at a time, try to see if there’s a duolingo tree for your L2 to your L3 (for a while I was learning French for Italian speakers)
Flashcards & Vocab Remember to be SMART about the vocab you learn. Learn words that you’ll actually use in day-today conversation. IF you never speak in your native language about a topic, don’t waste your time learning the words in your target language. Vocab isn’t just about acquisition of words, it’s about acquisition of words you will actually need and use. Memrise is my go-to for new and GOOD vocabulary. All of the vocab lists are user-submitted, so you’re guaranteed to get good, commonly used, and NATURAL vocab words that have been put into lists created by native speakers! There are so many thousands of lists for hundreds of languages and it’s honestly a gold mine. They have a mobile app for which you can download lessons so that you have access to them when you’re offline (aka perfect when you don’t want to use cell data or you have crappy service) AND THE BEST PART IS THAT WHATEVER YOU DO OFFLINE GETS SAVED AND YOU CAN JUST PICK BACK UP WHERE YOU LEFT OFF. Not only that, but they have an “ignore” option so that you don’t have to repeat any words that you already know. I love memrise. I’ve even made a few of my own lists just because I’m a hoe for a good deck of flashcards and I love the repetition method of memrise. Also, Memrise is a lot like duo in the aspect that you can add a bunch of friends and it keeps track of your experience points so that you can compete with people if that’s something that helps keep you motivated. They even have different rankings once you accumulate a certain amount of experience (personally, this is a HUGE motivator for me). All in all I love memrise. ALSO it has lots of other things completely unrelated to languages, so even if you dont study languages I would still check it out!
ALTERNATIVELY: Anki! Just find somewhere to MAKE FLASHCARDS AND STUDY THE DAMN THINGS. I’ve never used Anki before so I can’t really give a good review on it (however if someone who has used anki wants to shoot me a message, I can add their review to the post or smth). I, personally, used an app called StudyBlue (there’s a desktop version as well) when I was making flashcards because it would let me make decks of like 1,000 words and then I could take quizes (you have the option of doing multiple choice, true/false, and fill in the blanks) and it’ll keep track of your progress and stuff. Also, you have access to other user-submitted flashcard decks so it’s pretty cool in that sense!
LEARN THE DANG GRAMMATICAL STRUCTURES (Honestly you’d think this one would go without saying) I think people get too caught up in the accumulation of new words to stop and realize that knowing 8,000 fancy words is completely pointless if you don’t know how to put them in a sentence. To me, this is 900000000% more important than vocabulary, because if you don’t know a word you can quick do a simple search for a single word and slap it into a sentence, but if you don’t know an entire sentence structure you’re dead meat, kid. Please make notes and try to form simple sentences for all of the grammatical conventions, different verb tenses, etc. Also, don’t just learn HOW to use them, but WHEN to use them. — A really good website for explaining grammatical conventions in super simple terms is about.com. They have AMAZING resources! Lots of vocab lists, information on grammatical structures, verb conjugations, verb charts, etc. Plus, you can even sign up for newsletters, “word of the day” emails, and things of that nature. Here are the language subsections of the website that I’m aware of: Italian About, Spanish About, French About, German About. There might be more, but I’ve never checked. It should be easy to find out if they have a subsection for the website that you’re looking for, just type in “LANGUAGEHERE.about.com” into the browser and try your luck! — If there isn’t an about page for your language, google is your BEST FRIEND I PROMISE.
Switch to your target language This one is pretty simple: change your phone and all of your social media over to your target language. If you’re feeling really brave; change your entire computer over to your target language. This one didn’t particularly do a whole lot for me as far as learning new vocabulary and sentence structure, but I’ve always been really bad at trying to remember days of the week, names of the month, telling time, etc. and changing my phone over to my target language helped solidify that information in my brain and now I can throw out dates and times like I was born to do it. – ALSO: Since I know you’re on tumblr if you’re reading this post, FOLLOW BLOGS THAT POST CRAP IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. I follow so many Italian blogs, and honestly it’s just super great exposure for my dash to be half Italian, half English.
YOUTUBE God I frickin love youtube. There are LOTS of super great language-learning youtubes out there, and lots of channels that have subtitles. BASICALLY YOUTUBE IS AN UNLIMITED BOX OF FOREIGN LANGUAGE LISTENING SKILLS. You like watching monthly favorites videos? Plug the line “my monthly favorites” (in your target language ofc) into the search bar and BOOM. You like watching pokemon letsplays? FIND U A DAMN POKEMON LETSPLAY SERIES IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. You wont understand everything at first, but trust me just hearing the language makes life easier. One thing I like to do is listen to asmr videos in my target language because people tend to speak more slowly in ASMR vidoes and it’s far easier for me to understand them.
NETFLIX On the note of listening skills, WATCH NETFLIX IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. There’s this really great google chrome extension called “Hola!” (the picture is a little flame with a face on it) that is basically a proxy extension so you can change what country you’re browsing the internet from, and–in turn–access netflix in different countries. This lets you have access to web-series’ and movies that might not be on the netflix in your country (fun fact, the first two Kung Fu Panda movies aren’t on America’s netflix list, but they’re on Italy’s netflix list in case you want to watch), and also access to films and series that were CREATED IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE!!! Not to mention access to subtitles, which is always a wonderful thing. (p.s. you can use Hola! for any website you want to, and it doesn’t slow your internet down 😉 )
MUSIC PLEASE LISTEN TO MUSIC IN YOUR TARGET LANGUAGE. Not only will you feel super cool and empowered once you can start singing along to songs in a foreign language, but you’ll feel even MORE super cool and empowered when you start understanding the lyrics of the songs you’ve learned. Also: please, please, please look up the lyrics to the songs you’re listening to. It’ll prevent you from singing along and mis-singing (is that a word lmao) lyrics and making silly errors, you feel me. A big bonus of listening to music is that you inadvertently pick up pronunciation skills! It’s great fun, I love music. – One way you can find foreign music is through spotify. You can go to the top 50 charts of different countries, and that’s a great way to get exposure to boppin’ tunes in your target language. Just go to the main menu then to charts, and then click “top 50 by country” and find the country you’re looking for and TADA. // CONVERSELY: If you don’t like spotify, use pandora, or find some songs you like in your target language and plug them into the youtube search bar and then weed through the recommended videos on the sidebar and find new music that way!
Children’s books This might not be for everyone, but sincerely googling and reading children’s books in your target language is a great way to get used to sentence structure. You might not know all the words, but sometimes it’s just such a wonderful thing to read such simple sentences and to just practice that sort of stuff. – If reading children’s books isn’t your style, then read books that you ARE interested in. Read translations of your favorite books, read books that were written originally in your target language, just read books man.
ASK QUESTIONS PLS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD This one can get to be a little tricky because it might be hard to find someone to ask questions to, but please keep in mind that there are lots of different native languages in the langblr community and we’re all here for the sole purpose of helping each other out so please don’t be afraid of asking a native (or even someone who’s fluent) to explain something or to correct your sentences, etc.
Find speaking partners Personally, I think this should be the LAST thing on your list of priorities. I KNOW LOTS OF PEOPLE WILL DISAGREE WITH ME BUT HEAR ME OUT: I think it’s rather discouraging to try and pressure yourself to speak your target language and realize “wow I’m not as good as I thought I was”, or to feel like you’re bad because you know so many words and you study your verb tenses but you still can’t make good conversation, etc. I THINK YOU SHOULD WAIT A WHILE BEFORE FINDING A SPEAKING PARTNER, but you definitely need to do it. I would wait until you’re comfortable reading and understanding your target language as well as forming basic sentences and stuff like that. JUST A WARNING, FINDING A LANGUAGE PARTNER IS HARD AS HELL. IT’S LITERALLY A NEEDLE IN A HAYSTACK ORDEAL. I used Hellotalk to find all of my language partners, however you could probably just as easily find language partners on other social media outlets like tumblr, facebook, twitter, etc. (Actually, using those types of social medias might be more comfortable for most people). A good way to find people on facebook is to join a bunch of language groups on facebook, and even if you don’t find language partners you can still see posts in your target language. REMEMBER IT’S ALL ABOUT EXPOSURE FOLKS. The more exposure the better. Like I mentioned: I do think you need to hold off a bit on finding a speaking partner, but I will say that for absolute certain speaking partners are astronomically more helpful than anything I’ve mentioned on this list. You can listen and read and make flashcards and write sentences to yourself, but at the end of the day is netflix REALLY going to fix that grammatical error you made?
Last but not least: please don’t be so hard on yourself. Making mistakes is ONLY NATURAL. Just think of learning a language like any other kind of skill; you make lots of mistakes when learning how to do anything but you learn from your mistakes and soon enough you stop making those mistakes and keep refining your skills. a quick vote of confidence for you all before you leave: I once confused the italian word for panties(mutande) with the word for snacks(merende) and basically told my friend “I BOUGHT SO MANY PANTIES IM GOING TO EAT THEM UNTIL I DIE”. And like two days ago I mixed up the word for the color lavender(lavanda) and the word for laundry(lavanderia) and told my friend she should wear a laundry-colored dress to her sister’s wedding. OKAY– in all seriousness, it’s really important to remember that mistakes are natural and they’re nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, once you learn that making mistakes is totally normal to do, you’ll enjoy yourself much more and learn way better. HAVE FUN AND STUDY HARD I BELIEVE IN YOU ALL.
Some of you might already have heard of this App, but just in case you haven’t, let me tell you something about HelloTalk (Spoiler: It’s amazing)
It’s an App that makes finding Native Speakers and immersing yourself in your target language incredibly easy! After signing up you say which languages you can speak (and teach) and which ones you would like to learn and what your current level is, and then you’re ready to find other language learners!
HelloTalks concept isn’t repeating vocabulary and grammar rules over and over again, but actually using your target language with native speakers!
(this isn’t one of my conversations, i got this from the google play store, i wasnt comfortable putting one of my real conversations on here)
Hellotalk makes it easy for you to correct each others mistakes and add comments explaining it! You can practise speaking and pronunciation by sending audio messages or doing (free) voice calls!
there’s a translator function in the app that you can use while you’re writing your message, which means that, if you forget a word you don’t have to close the app and look it up somewhere else, you can do it all on the actual app.
When you receive messages, it also gives you several options
you can favourite, correct, listen to or translate the message you receive, which makes understanding each other as easy as possible!
A new thing that has been added recently is the “Moments” feature, which is sort of like a timeline feature, where you can publicly post in your native or target language and let your language partners see what you’re up to right now or like and comment on other peoples Moments
This App is just so very helpful and I literally don’t see a single reason to not download this app, if you’re passionate about language learning, especially because it’s FREE
This is a list regarding ways I expose myself to French both spoken and written in music, film and news portals. Obviously this list is non-exhaustive and there are several aspects which I haven’t discovered yet and in the future I’ll most probably create better & improved versions as I discover different artists, films, etc. and possibly even include other segments such as literature!
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//MUSIC//
This is the longest section in my list because I’m quite exposed to French music and different French artists. This is the best way for me personally to learn vocabulary as well as get my ears somewhat used to spoken French especially since it is such a fast-spoken and elidable (omission of letters, ex. ce que je dis= c’qu’j’dis, etc.) language. All the artists can be found on Spotify yet possibly not their entire discography.
What I usually do is give a listen to a song the first time to see if I like it and then follow the lyrics on a lyric website. This is very crucial to both test your understanding of the language and also enrich your vocabulary. Google any words you don’t know and try to keep a list of the words you learn. Listening to music can also introduce you to colloquial or vulgar terms which is quite cool tbh but be attentive when to use them. Also try to listen to the songs as much as you can so you’ll eventually learn the lyrics which will be a huge boost to your understanding of spoken French and better your pronunciation, and will assure you remember new vocabulary.
Artist Name: Description. Favourite songs.
Stromae: Probably the most popular singer in French nowadays; mostly electronic; very good lyrics for general vocab, not too hard to follow or understand. Papaoutai, Tous Les Mêmes, Alors On Danse, Formidable, Carmen, Sommeil
Indila: pop; very nice and catchy debut album; really good for vocab and quite easy to follow. Dernière Danse, Tourner Dans Le Vide, SOS, Ego
Coeur de Pirate: Francophone singer from Canada; indie and pop; moderately-paced songs. Place de la République, Comme des Enfants
Vitaa: earlier work is very soul but most recently transitioned to pop and electronic; some colloquial expressions, uses a lot of elision, might be quite difficult to understand just by listening. No Limit, La Même, Game Over, Emmène-Moi, Emmenez-Moi, Mégalo, Vivre, Ma Soeur
Sexion D’Assaut: rap collective; not super fast but I find it rather hard to understand just by listening. Ma direction, Désolé
Maître Gims: member of Sexion D’Assaut; rap; quite fast at times; quite good for vocabulary, frequent use of one-off english words. J’Me Tire, Zombie, Bella
Orelsan: rap and electronic; really good for vocab on the whole and not so difficult to keep up with. La Terre Est Ronde, Le Chant Des Sirènes, Ils Sont Cools (<- this song contains A LOT of slang/colloquial words and phrases)
Lio: 80′s pop singer; upbeat songs; very easy to keep up with, ideal for beginners and beginner vocabulary. Amoureux Solitaires, Le Banana Split
Vive La Fête: synthpop music duo; very alternative hipster tumblr pale blog aesthetic; very easy to follow. Noir Désir, Nuit Blanche
Shy’m: pop and electronic; typical commercial pop music-sound but in a different language tbh; quite easy to follow and keep up with. L’Effet de Serre, En Apesanteur, Et Alors!
Kendji Girac: winner of The Voice France; dance-pop and kind of gypsy as well; easy to follow, good for vocab and some simple yet commonly used words you might not know. Andalouse, Color Gitano, Mon Univers, Viens Chez Nous
H Magnum: I’ve only recently found out about him because he was featured in a song with Vitaa but his music seems really catchy though not too easy to follow just by audio. Aucun Mytho, Garde L’Équilibre
Lartiste: same as H Magnum because he was featured on Vitaa’s new album, a bit tricky to follow by audio. Polygame
Rose: I know like one song of hers because our French teacher showed us a song of hers during class which was really cute and she doesn’t seem hard to follow; quite good song for vocab. La Liste
Édith Piaf: really slow traditional-pop 40′s 50′s music, easy to follow but some low quality audio files can be annoying to actually understand. La Vie En Rose (I actually prefer Grace Jones’ version of this so check that out too)
France Gall: winner of ESC 1965; very 60′s French pop, catchy songs; alright to keep up with. Poupée de cire, poupée de son, Laisse Tomber Les Filles
Zaz: I know one song but it’s super catchy and nice and also not hard to keep up with. Je Veux
Eurovision Entries: Check out the Eurovision entries of: France (almost all in French) Switzerland (some in French) Belgium (some in French) Luxembourg (most in French)
LYRICS:
Wiktionary:Extremely good for searching individual word meanings, nice and clean interface with usage notes where applicable and most often verb conjugations as well. Also denotes little yet important details of words (ex. H aspiré, Colloquial/Vulgar words, etc.) If a word / expression is not present in the English version, it’s most probably in French Wiktionary, but the definitions might be difficult to understand sometimes.
Word Reference: I prefer Wiktionary to this yet whenever I’m not satisfied with a meaning on Wiktionary, Word Reference saves the day tbh. Extremely good and reliable online dictionary + different languages as well.
Genius: My favourite lyric website. Contains songs in many different languages and the words are 99% of the time spelt perfectly. Some songs might also contain annotations to hep you delve between the lines and discover the lyrical meaning. Check out Genius specifically for French.
Paroles Et Traduction:Lyrics to French songs + lyrics to English songs which are also translated to French!
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//FILM//
To be completely honest I haven’t explored French cinema so much so far but I’m getting into it more and more. Ideally, films in French should be watched with subtitles even at more intermediate stages, just so everything is understood. However at the same time try to grab hold of some words here and there and test your understanding by listening to the dialogue and it will also help you get used to the usual fast-paced conversation which typically takes place in French. I recommend watching it without subs after you’ve given it at least one run-through and understood the basic conversations and the film plot, and then continue to test your hearing and observation just by hearing.
Film Name ((If Any) Translation) (Year) Description.
First and foremost I’d recommend every film by the Québécois director Xavier Dolan because his work is honestly so lovely tbh.
I Killed My Mother (J’ai tué ma mère) (2009) Probably one of my favourite films ever actually. Essentially the film deals with the complex bond between a (gay) son and his mother
Heartbeats(Les Amours imaginaires) (2010) The story of two friends who fall in love with the same man
Laurence Anyways (2012)
“The story of an impossible love between a woman named Fred (Frédérique) and a transgender woman named Laurence (then living as a man) who reveals her inner desire to become her true self” (Wikipedia)
Tom at the Farm (Tom à la ferme) (2013) “Tom, a young advertising copywriter, travels to the country for the funeral of his boyfriend Guillaume. There, he is shocked to learn that no one knows who he is, nor his relationship to the deceased. Guillaume’s brother Francis soon sets the rules of a twisted game. In order to protect the family’s name and the deceased’s grieving mother, Agathe, Tom now has to play the peacekeeper in a household whose obscure past bodes even greater darkness for his “trip” to the farm.” (Wikipedia)
Mommy (2014) “Diane Després is a widowed mother who is overwhelmed by the difficulty of raising her troubled, sometimes violent son Steve as a single parent. Després then begins to receive assistance and support from her mysterious new neighbour Kyla.” (Wikipedia)
Other films I know of:
Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain (2001) Also one of my favourite films ever TBH. “
It tells the story of a shy waitress who decides to change the lives of those around her for the better, while struggling with her own isolation.” (Wikipedia) (It has a really lovely soundtrack too, check that out!)
Blue Is The Warmest Colour (2013) This won the Palme D’Or unanimously so it’s definitely good I presume even though I haven’t actually gotten myself round to seeing it yet?? “The film revolves around Adèle , a French teenager who discovers desire and freedom when a blue-haired aspiring painter enters her life. The film charts their relationship from Adele’s high school years to her early adult life and career as a school teacher.” (Wikipedia)
Le Roi Danse (2000) Recommended by my French teacher during our Molière lesson of Le Malade Imaginaire to help us understand the context of the setting. It’s based on a biography of the composer Lully and it features his relationships with Louis XIV Of France, Molière and Robert Cambert.
Molière (1978) Also recommended by my French teacher, except that this is biographical of Molière himself to my knowledge.
This is very good to get used to reading French without the long-term dedication / difficulty of actual French literature, and extremely beneficial to vocabulary. I recommend liking their Facebook pages as well rather than just visiting their websites to receive constant updates and a passive French-language presence online! Also try to read the comments left by people to test your understanding further (however be cautious of spelling errors or colloquialisms)
Outlet Name (Website) / (Facebook page): Description.
L’Internaute (Website) / (Facebook): not as popular as Le Monde or Le Figaro yet is still very good and well-updated
Okapi (Website) / (Facebook): this is a magazine rather than an actual news portal. It has some magazine pages on its moderately updated Facebook page, but you can also get a subscription through its website
TV5MONDE(Website) / (Facebook): also not an actual news portal but rather a television network, but there are plenty of written articles on its website (under Informations) which you should check out!
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That comprises this list of a few ways to become more exposed to the French language! As I said, this is far from exhaustive, and I hope to create another list as I delve into the language further. Hope this is of use to people learning the language!
ALRIGHT LISTEN UP Y’ALL. IF YOU ARE TAKING A FRENCH CLASS OR JUST LEARNING IT YOURSELF, LET ME TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT THIS BOOK.
THIS BOOK IS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO WRITE LIKE A PRO IN FRENCH.
THE FRONT END OF THE BOOK HAS ALL THE GRAMMAR RULES YOU COULD EVER WANT. ALL THOSE RULES ARE CONVENIENTLY PLACED IN EASY TO NAVIGATE TABLES. IN THE BACK PART OF THE BOOK, ARE YOUR PESKY CONJUGATIONS. WITH THIS BOOK, YOU HAVE ALL THE RESOURCES TO WRITE A KICK ASS ESSAY ALL IN FRENCH.
I ONLY GOT IT LAST SUMMER BUT HOLY CRAP DID IT IMPROVE MY ASSIGNMENTS. I’VE BEEN IN FRENCH CLASSES FOR A LONG TIME (since pre-K and I’m currently in my last 4 weeks of grade 11) AND NOTHING HELPS ME MORE THAN THIS BOOK
Mientras can be used in different situations, but it’s more commonly used as “while”, another very common use is “as long as”.
Mientras = while
Ella siempre canta mientras se ducha. She always sings while she takes a shower.
Fue bonito mientras duró. It was nice while it lasted.
Él estaba leyendo mientras comía. He was reading while eating.
Mientras yo trabajo todo el día, tú no haces nada. While I’m working all day, you do nothing.
Los niños desarrollan habilidades sociales mientras trabajan juntos en su proyecto. Children develop social skills as they work together on their project.
Yo vivo en México y él en Corea, así que él está despierto mientras yo estoy durmiendo. I live in Mexico and he lives in Korea, so he’s awake while I’m sleeping.
Me gusta leer o escuchar música mientras espero el autobús. I like to read or listen to music while I wait for the bus.
Mientras + subjunctive = as long as
The subjunctive has many uses in Spanish, it’s very hard to find just one explanation for it, so today we are just going to see how to use it with mientras.
Siempre te ayudaré mientras pueda. I will always help you as long as I can. *poder → pueda (subjunctive)
Mientras viva, nadie te hará daño. As long as I live, no one will hurt you. *vivir → viva
Mientras tenga dinero, no me importa si no está guapo. As long as he has money, I don’t care if he’s not handsome. *tener → tenga
Mientras tú me ames, el mundo puede romperse en pedazos. As long as you love me, the world can break into pieces. *amar → ames
Puedes hacer lo que quieras mientras seas responsable. You can do whatever you want as long as you are responsible. *ser → seas // querer → quieras
Seguiré llevándole flores mientras a ella le guste. I’ll keep bringing her flowers as long as she likes it. *gustar → guste
Mientras viaje en avión, puedo ir a cualquier parte. As long as I travel by plane, I can go anywhere. *viajar → viaje
Extra! Mientras más … más/menos = The more … the more/less
Mientras más leo, más aprendo. The more I read, the more I learn.
Mientras más lo veo, menos me gusta. The more I see it, the less I like it.
Mientras más lo pienso, más me gusta la idea. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea.
Mientras más tienen, más quieren. The more they have, the more they want.
I just heard about Clozemaster and I thought I’d give it a try. Clozemaster is “gamified language learning” based on filling in the blanks in sentences in your target language. I tried a little bit of N4 and N3, but I didn’t play for long so this is truly a first impression.
Here’s what the site looks like while you’re using it. The default is black text on a white background, but I like how you can switch to white text on a black background!
First of all, I really appreciate that this site has recordings of actual Japanese people saying every sentence. The recordings play automatically after you finish each question, but you can quickly skip ahead if you don’t feel like listening.
I also like how the whole system is repetition-based, so sentences will keep coming up until you get them right.
My first criticism would be that the words are written in kanji, so you need to be able to read kanji in order to select the right answer. (Just knowing how to say the word won’t help you.) But that’s not necessarily a bad thing! Just depends what you’re trying to achieve.
Since this is a game, you get points each time you get a question right. Getting a question right in the multiple choice mode (pictured above) gets you 4 points, but getting a question right in text input mode (pictured below) gets you 8 points.
If you get stuck, you can click the question mark on the right to make choices appear.
The next issue I encountered was related to the words being written in kanji – you can’t just type the answer in hiragana if there’s a kanji for that word. As you can see below, I got the answer incorrect because I typed は instead of 葉.
There’s an option to take away the English translation, and at first I thought this made the game way too hard, but I realized it’s actually pretty cool. The whole idea behind a “cloze test” for languages is that you’re able to really process the sentence as a whole and think about which word would make the most sense, rather than just translating the one English word that’s missing from the sentence.
Finally, here’s a look at the dashboard that keeps track of your progress:
Overall, I think Clozemaster is great. It’s not a stand-alone tool for studying Japanese (or any other language), but I already feel like I strengthened my Japanese from the 30 minutes or so I spent playing around with it.
@jstor how does a post-grad person get access to those journals? I miss nerding out. 😦
OH I’M GLAD YOU ASKED.
1. Does your uni provide access to alumni? Check here.
2. Do you live in a city that provides JSTOR access through the public library? NYPL does, as does Boston Public Library – check your local library!
3. Sign up for a free Register & Read account – create a MyJSTOR account and get online reading access to 85% of the journals on JSTOR. Check it out how to sign up (in an admittedly silly video) here, as well as how to manage your account.
4. Need to download? Sign up for JPASS, our subscription service for independent researchers. 10 article downloads per month, it’s $19.50/month or $195/year. More info (+10% off the yearly plan) here.
5. Interested in ONLY historical content published prior to 1923 in the US and 1870 worldwide? GOOD NEWS, all those articles are freely available. Just enter a search term, click the “Journals” tab in the results page, then sort by “Oldest” – early journal articles that are free to access will have a little “FREE” icon next to the title.
6. Just need one article? Many are made available by the publishers for single purchase directly from the JSTOR platform. Prices are set by the publishers, and vary widely, so just be aware of that.
Hopes this helps! Feel free to reach out with any questions on any of the above.
326 Miles 