Learn to understand native speakers.
Without translating in your head.
Many language learners can read and write, but they can't watch a movie without subtitles or keep up with a conversation of native speakers - colloquial speech feels too fast and unintelligible.
The problem is not a lack of vocabulary or grammar knowledge. It's a lack of speed. You are not able to understand directly - instantly and without conscious effort. You have to think about each sentence and translate it in your head into your native language. Even discerning where one word ends and the next begins takes a moment. While you are doing all that conscious processing, the speech continues, but you don't have the time to listen.
When you can do something slowly and with focus, but can't do it quickly and automatically, practice might be just what you need. This app is designed to help you practice. It's like training wheels for language learning.
Here is how:
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Get both audio and text versions of an interesting book. Open your .mp3 a .txt files here.
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Listen to the audio without looking at the text, and try to understand as much as possible.
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Only when you get lost, pause the audio and read the incomprehensible part.
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Click words you don't know to see their translations (set the languages here).
Trying to understand without looking at the text is important because your goal is to build the pathways in your brain that connect sounds to meaning. Looking at the text is like getting help from a spotter in a gym. The spotter helps you lift the weight when you can no longer do it, but the more you lift without help, the stronger you get.
How much does it cost?
$4.99 per month. There is a 2-week free trial without registration - that should be enough time to see progress.
The ability to understand spoken language is the key to a language
Learning becomes fun once you get past the phase where your brain can't keep up with the speed of natural speech (a phase in which many people remain stuck permanently). You will learn simply by listening to something you enjoy. If you don't understand a word now and then, it's not a big obstacle - you often figure it out from context, which is a great way to learn new vocabulary.
Audiobooks, usually narrated clearly and slowly, are just an intermediate step - after them, you move on to movies and series, which are linguistically more challenging but contain visual cues that help you understand. And there is nothing better than learning a language with the help of a series you enjoy so much that you watch episode after episode till midnight, just because you have to know how it ends.
Start right now
You can try it without registering. Open your own files here, or try one of our demos.
Support
Any problems? Please let me know: honzabe at gmx dot com.
This app only supports text in .txt format and .mp3 audio files. If you have any other files (such as .epub) and this guide doesn’t help you, feel free to drop me a line - I will try to help you with it.
