December 18, 2017

"If It Plugs Your Gap, It'll Proper Plug Your Gap": Top Tools for Winter 2018

1 hour 7 minutes

Click or tap here to read the full shownotes.

Follow up on a topic: Pop Music

Bilingual lyrics, Spanglish and Justin Bieber of all people winning a Latin grammy. Lindsay brings up the Despacito Effect and we discuss if that's a thing.

If you love music, check out our pop music episode.

Top Tools for Winter 2018

Here are the nominees - listen to the show to find out how they can help you learn languages.

Kerstin:

1. Clairefontaine Vocab Notebook (on Amazon UK, and here's a comparable one on Amazon.com)

This is a classic notebook for learning and testing yourself on vocabulary. Write down your words, and use the handy cover tabs for testing yourself. Perfect for one of my favourite vocabulary learning techniques of all time, Write-Look-Cover-Repeat.

2. Libby

Libby is a library app designed to give you access to ebooks and audiobooks in your local library's catalogue. So that means you can borrow hundreds of books and even language courses right now, for free, on your phone or tablet. Available for iOS, Android, and Windows 10.

3. Lingq (referral link)

After hearing so much high praise for Lingq from Shannon Kennedy on episode 65 of the show, Lingq got a well-deserved new mention. This app is designed to help you read any text in another language, and it remembers the words you study. Check it out as it might plug your gap.

Lindsay

1. Léa Knows App

This app takes words that you've looked up on google translate and automatically creates flashcards of them. It's out for Android and iOS, and will "proper plug the gap" if you're stuck on how to study all those new words you've looked up, for example during and after speaking practice.

2. Museum leaflets and other "bumf" from tourist attractions near you

Discover a museum near you and check out their leaflets in other languages. Perhaps there's even a walking tour so you can get reading and listening practice at the same time, and play around with the available languages.

3. FlowLingo

This app is for Spanish users, and gives you access to a huge library of online videos from cartoons to TED talks. You will be able to listen to the video and see the subtitles, and it even pairs with Duolingo. Great for Spanish learners who want to add more video to their routine. This app is out for Android and iOS