Language Learning Resources

Studying languages on our own, without the guidance of a teacher, is hard!

For best results, you will want to use multiple learning resources – do not rely on just one!

In this section, I describe tools I have found useful.

Learning a language is a long-term endeavor, in spite of numerous Youtube videos proclaiming “Learn French in 3 hours” or “Learn French in 7 days” or “Learn French while you sleep!”. Or “Learn all the Polish you need in just 30 minutes”.

For most of us, learning a language requires we study every day, over many months – potentially years – to develop a minimum conversational skill.

I am studying mostly Norwegian but also reviewing Spanish, at the time I write this. In fact, I have been studying Norwegian for six months, and every day, 7 days per week, for the past 4 months.

Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, I may earn an affiliate/paid commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

Common European Reference Framework

Europe has established a standardized method of evaluating language skill, known as CERF. This defines six basic levels of language skill.

From what little I have read:

• Level A1/A2 – conversational skill achieved
• Level B1 – skill required by graduate programs, some employers, and some nations to apply for citizenship.
• Level B1/B2 – a good degree of fluency
• Level C1/C2 – native level proficiency.

What Works For Me

I use multiple resources, described below. I have paid accounts at Duolingo and Mondly.

• I initially started studying Norwegian using Duolingo only. This has been helpful for building vocabulary. Later, I added Mondly (see below for info on both of these).

• I read short stories written in the target language.
• I watch Youtube videos with subtitle/captions in my target language (for me, this is Norwegian).
• I watch some Norwegian TV programs available on Netflix, with Norwegian subtitles.
• I am following language polyglot Steve Kaufman’s approach of focusing on “input” first, and then “output” later.
• This means spending several months learning basic vocabulary and grammar. I practice speaking in the language but for now, only to work on pronunciation – this will help later on.
• As I build vocabulary, I begin reading more materials in my target language – for me this has included short stories, even social media posts by Norwegians.
• Then, I expand to listening – using both Youtube and Netflix content in Norwegian, and several TikTok channels that have Norwegian speakers and/or specific language tutorials.
• As my reading and listening skills develop – not there quite yet – I will turn my attention to “output” – that is, speaking more in the target language.
• The next phase after that will be – probably – to use online language exchange options. There are many such programs available – and enable you to practice your language skills typically with a native speaker. In exchange, you assist the native speaker in practicing your own native language.
• Depending on how I wish to go, I may hire an online tutor for a while.

My initial goals were to read (mostly) at the A2 levels, and hopefully to also speak at that level. It might be possible to achieve B1 level proficiency eventually. We will see!

I have learned through this process that the key to language learning is practice, practice, practice with much repetition. Memorization does not work and is not how you should go about this. As we continually repeat these lessons – over and over again – we are gradually building neural networks in our brains to recognize the language patterns. This is definitely not memorization! Learning another language is a multi-year project, best if practice every day!

Duolingo

Duolingo provides online language learning options in over two dozen languages (even Klingon!) – for free. You can optionally choose a paid subscription that ads a few additional benefits and helps fund their operation to provide language learning to students of all types, all over the world. I have a paid subscription.

Duolingo is a great way to explore languages too. For example, I first started with Spanish, which I had studied in high school, but also did some practice with German, and then sampled Norwegian. I found that Norwegian really clicked with me and thereafter, focused on Norwegian and Spanish.

Duolingo can be accessed in a web browser and via mobile apps. I mostly use the web browser but while traveling I have made use of the mobile app too.

By default, Duolingo is “gamified” which means you earn points and “badges” for achieving various learning goals, and can compare your progress to other anonymized students. Plus, Duolingo provides various animated responses that some do not like (but these are probably good for school kids). Some people like the gamified approach and some do not.

The anonymized “Leaderboard” can be a helpful motivator for some. On the other hand, if you are using multiple resources besides Duolingo, the Leaderboard ranking may cause you to put too much focus on Duolingo when your time might be best spent on other language learning resources.

To remove yourself from the “Leaderboard, log in to your Duolingo account in a web browser, click on your profile icon and choose Privacy Settings. Uncheck “Make my profile public” and this will remove you from the “leaderboard”. Now you can focus on what ever learning option makes sense to you, at that time, rather than spend too much time on Duolingo.

Duolingo is quite good for learning vocabulary, but I found less good for learning grammar rules.

For some languages, like Spanish, Duolingo provides short stories that are read aloud to you and then you can answer questions to evaluate your interpretation. This is a great feature to improve listening comprehension, but it is not available for all languages.

Mondly

In some ways, Mondly is similar to Duolingo in how it presents sentences to learn vocabulary – but also different. On the plus side, with Mondly:

• Many of the practice items have photos of the subjects you are learning – this can be helpful for retention
• You can pick and choose to do practice sessions in any order, or re-do them too. With Duolingo, you can only look ahead one lesson – cannot jump any further than that. With Duolingo you cannot repeat lessons or past practices – unless you have a paid account. I have a paid account on both services and use both every day.
• Mondly, like Duolingo, can analyze your spoken words for speaking accuracy. Mondly seems pickier than Duolingo in what it accepts as correct pronunciation – this is probably a good thing!
• In Mondly you also earn points by completing lessons, but it is definitely not the “in your face” gamification of Duolingo.
• Mondly has a fascinating VR app called Mondly VR, available in the Steam OS store. With Mondly VR, you wander in a 3D virtual world space and interact with simulated people in your chosen native language. I’ve only just started to use this – and wow, this is one of the more fascinating applications of VR that I have seen. Very interested to pursue this further – and will eventually post a review.

Would I recommend one over the other? I find Duolingo is perhaps better for teaching vocabulary – but with Mondly you can also pick and choose relevant travel scenarios, such as restaurant, airport or workplace dialogs. For me, working with both every day introduces me to different new vocabulary. In fact, sometimes the words for an item are different between the two! This might be, however, because Norway has about dozen different dialects of Norwegian spoken within the country. Both may be correct!

They key for me is to work with multiple resources – Duolingo, Mondly, short stories (see next items), and to also watch Netflix stories in Norwegian, with Norwegian subtitles.

Olly Richard’s Short Stories

Olly Richards is a UK based language expert who runs a company with a skilled staff developing language learning tools. Their focus uses an approach called “story-based” learning. And there is value in this approach!

His group has put together a large collection of “short story” books in many languages and I find these to be a great adjunct to language learning especially after you have developed initial skills using Duolingo or other resources.

I believe the stories are targeted at those at the B1-level, which I am not. Nevertheless, I have found these stories quite valuable.

I own Spanish and Norwegian books and I was surprised by the results. I followed his recommendation to persevere – slowly – through each chapter. There are always words we do not yet know and grammatical constructions that are new. I struggled to make it through chapter 1.

But then magic happened: Two days later I re-read the first chapter – and miraculously, much of it now made sense! There is something to this – and it likely has to do with how our brains are developing neural network pattern matching – as well as learning the basics of the story. The two combine to improve our language learning.

I am now several chapters into the stories. Because I am learning new vocabulary, it is slow going on the first pass. Each day I usually review 2-4 past pages and try to add 1-2 new pages. In this way, I practice and re-inforce what I have just covered while gradually adding new words, phrases and sentence structure.

Fluenz

Fluenz takes a traditional approach to language learning, with on screen dialogs spoken by native speakers, and an on screen teacher providing a simple lecture about what you are about to learn, and then discussing the specifics as you move through each module. Plenty of exercises are provided for learning vocabulary, learning grammar and practicing reading, writing, listening and speaking.

Fluenz, unlike other language learning systems, is targeted at adults and professionals who desire to learn language skills for international travel and business. This is different than some other models which are typically oriented towards children – and teach you barn yard animals first! That is not the right approach for adults!

Fluenz, on the other hand, consistently provides adult learners with the language skills and scenarios that adults face when traveling. Fluenz nails adult language learning.

Compared to some other options (like Duolingo being free), Fluenz may seem pricey. You can buy individual modules (there are 5 major modules per course) or you can buy the entire set. The entire set, at time of this writing, retails for about $400 – however, it is steeply discounted at various times such as “Black Friday” after Thanksgiving to under $300.

You get what you pay for – and I see Fluenz as worth every penny I paid.

As mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is important to use multiple resources. I use Fluenz for overall Spanish learning and also Duolingo to improve my vocabulary, plus general reading in Spanish.

Norwegian Language

If you are studying one of the more used languages, such as English, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, French, German and more, there are likely many courses, books, apps and online web sites devoted to those languages. You may even have access to in person language courses in your hometown.

But if studying less popular languages you may need to get creative and work with multiple learning resources.

For Norwegian, I began my study with Duolingo. Duolingo is good for what it does but it likely does not do enough.

To address that, I added the book The Mystery of Nils – which uses a story-based approach to language learning. When I first started this book, I ended up setting it aside – I found useful to pick up more vocabulary, first, via Duolingo. Seems that once the first two modules of Duolingo are completed, you’ll have sufficient vocabulary to get more value out of the book.

I also bought Olly Richard’s book, Short Stories in Norwegian. This one really hit the mark for me. I struggled a fair amount to slowly make it through a chapter – but amazingly, when I went back and re-read the chapter a couple of days later, progress was far easier – which means this learning method works!

I use several Youtube resources:

• Simple Norwegian – very helpful to learn correct pronunciation and helped me understand some things that Duolingo had left me confused about. In additional to language videos, he also does interviews with people – and you can close caption these to improve your reading and listening.
• Norwegian Teacher – Karin – numerous videos with Norwegian captioned text available. She speaks slowly and clearly – which really helps!

Research indicates that watching a video in the target language, and simultaneously seeing captioned text, in the target language – is a great way to improve your language skills.

A Youtuber in China named William Lu said he taught himself Norwegian using various YT videos including, oddly enough, a cartoon show named Peppa Pig. When watching this cartoon, select Closed Captioning, then go to Settings area and select “auto translate to Norwegian”. This will display the conversation of the cartoon with Norwegian text captions.

Children’s stories are good source of material – they are generally short and use simplified language – great for learning practice!

I also found there are at least half a dozen Norwegian language TV programs available on Netflix, plus some content on Disney+ is also available in Norwegian (such as Frozen and Frozen 2). I am especially enjoying Ragnarok, a modern-day retelling of Viking Myths, featuring a group of high school students in the fictitious town of Edda, Norway.