How Social Media Can Help with Learning Languages by Rachel Summers

No matter how old you are, learning a second language is one of the most valuable things you can do. Having a second language can enrich your life, improve your job prospects, and even put you in touch with more friends around the world.

However, these days it feels as though you just don't have enough time to keep up with a new language skill. There is a solution though, in the form of social media. Here's how it can make learning a language much easier and convenient for all kinds of learners.

Why Use Social Media?

Think about why you haven't learned a new language yet. You probably thought "I just don't have enough time in my day to properly study a language". However, how much time every day do you spend on social media? The answer, probably, is a lot.

That's not to say that you should quit social media to focus on your studies. There's a lot of benefits of using it to stay connected with your loved ones. Did you know that you can use it to stay connected with your language studies too? It's a lot easier than you'd think.

Which Social Media Sites Should You Use?

OK, so you can use social media to keep up with your language studies. Which networks should you use? Here's a shortlist of the platforms you should be looking into:

Facebook: Facebook is the platform that most people use, so there's a lot of learning opportunities there. If you're a teacher, you can create a page that your students can 'like', and then update it frequently in your chosen language.

Youtube: This popular video hosting platform has a huge amount of resources already on there that you can use. There's teaching videos that will guide you through different aspects of the language, and there's also videos by 'vloggers' that you can watch to get a feel of how the language is spoken naturally.

Tumblr and other blogging sites: Blogs are a great way to learn more about a language. Tumblr is one of the best platforms to use, as you can read blogs in a bite sized. There's lots of language blogs, such as Omniglot and State Of Writing, that you can follow too to learn more.

Pinterest and Instagram: These image-based sites are some of the best ways to use flashcards and other visual learning aids. If you learn better with visual tools, then this could be the best way of learning a language with social media.

What Are the Benefits of Using Social Media?

There's a lot of reasons why social media can be a great way of learning a new language. As you've seen above, you have a lot of choice when it comes to the platforms you use and the way you learn. It's not just this that makes it a great way to learn, though.

"Using social media makes you accountable for your learning. You'll be showing others online that you're learning, and they'll see if you fall off the wagon. If you're the kind of person that's motivated this way, then it's a great way to learn." - Liam Orwell, Author at Reviewal 

As well as this, you'll be able to easily document your learning with social media. This is especially true if you use a social media platform that allows you to organise your writing with hashtags or other organisational tools. If you want to go back to something later, it makes it very easy to find it.

Finally, social media, of course, helps you connect with other people. That's its primary function, after all. The best way to learn any language is connect with others who speak that language. Social media makes it easier than ever to connect with people all over the world, so take advantage of this.

As you can see, social media is one of the best ways to learn a new language online. Start looking for resources on your preferred platforms, and you'll see that you're picking up new vocabulary in no time at all.

Rachel Summers is a freelance writer whose passion is helping students get the most out of their learning journey. She started out as a writer and journalist in the newspaper industry, including Best British Essays, before breaking out to go freelance and follow her own passions. Her writing is designed to help you get the most out of college. You can find her blog here.

Using Digital Media to Learn a Language

Over the last few days we've been looking at the various ways you can use media to help you learn a language. As we've already covered print media and broadcast media, today we thought we'd finish off with the most modern media, digital media.

Video Games

The huge advantage of using video games to learn foreign languages is that when you play them, you are often far more engaged in them than when watching TV or a film. A TV show or a film will continue whether or not you understand what's happening. In video games, especially RPGs and story-driven games, if you don't understand what's being asked of you or what's happening, you won't be able to advance to the next part of the game.

The Internet

Everyone knows how fantastic the internet is! You can find whatever you want on the internet (as well as plenty of things you don't!), making it a great way to read material that you're interested in. The internet has evolved significantly since the old days when it was just text and a few low-resolution images. Today you can read articles, watch videos, TV shows, and movies, and even play games.

Social Media

The word "social" is key here. We can't stress enough that actually conversing and communicating in the language that you're trying to learn is arguably the best way to learn a language. You can use social media sites to find groups of people to learn with you, as well as language exchanges where you can learn a foreign language in return for helping a speaker of that language learn your language. Not only do you learn a language, but you can make new friends as well!

How do you like to learn a language? Do you have any clever tips or tricks on how to use media? Tell us about them in the comments below!

Learning Languages with Social Media

One of the best ways to learn a language is to speak it. So what do you do when there's nobody around to talk to? If, like us, you spend most of your life in front of a computer, you should consider getting on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ or any of the other social media sites and start communicating.

Long before the aforementioned social media websites existed there was instant messaging. Services such as MSN Messenger and AIM enabled us to talk with our friends from anywhere in the world, as long as they had a modem and a good tolerance level for high-pitched squealing noises anything was possible. As its popularity and reach grew, the internet quickly became one of the great places to learn languages.

You can learn a language from the comfort
of your home, no pants required. 

Practising languages is tantamount to your success in learning a new language. You can study as much as you want but as we've found, if you don't use the language it becomes very easy to forget everything you've learnt. Instant messaging can help you practice your writing, but also requires quicker comprehension in order to formulate a response. You don't need to be as quick as if you were actually speaking to someone, but you need to be faster than if you were writing a letter or an email, which makes it a perfect middle ground for those wanting to exercise their language skills.

Now that the popularity of instant messaging is on the decline, its space has been taken up by social media, most of which come equipped with a chat function. If you have friends that speak a language you'd like to learn, communicate with them. Send them some messages in their language and get learning. If you're not sure how to say something then look it up, just not on Google Translate, and keep going.

As well as chatting or tweeting to your friends, look for groups, forums or other places where language learners want to get together to practice and learn languages. There are thousands of communities for language aficionados on-line so you have no excuse not to be doing it!

2012: Year In Review

We've been having some fun looking at Facebook Stories and seeing what the world has been talking about most this past year. Since Facebook is American, they've dedicated several sections to the past year in the U.S., including memes, songs, books, movies, events and almost everything in between. We're having a look at the most talked about things from several countries around the world.

Australia: One Direction

It seems the Aussies can't get enough of the English-Irish pop group. They've also been fond of reality TV, the London 2012 Olympics and the globally-famous mummy porn, 50 Shades of Grey.

Here's 9 shades...
you'll have to get the book for the rest!

Canada: The Hunger Games

The Canadians spent the year talking about The Hunger Games, the box-office smash featured in the Top 10 for most countries. They also enjoyed The Avengers and the TV series The Walking Dead and a few films and books that were also popular in Australia. Mitt Romney also made an appearance on their list.

France: François Hollande

Given that France could be said to have invented modern politics, it's no surprise that their new president, François Hollande, would feature at the top of the list. Sports were on the tip of everyone's tongues as Chelsea Football Club, FC Bayern Munchen and Swedish footballer, Zlatan Ibrahimovic all featured in the list.

Germany: BVB

BVB, or Borussia Dortmund was on most Germans' lips for 2012, as were FC Bayern Munich, Chelsea Football Club and Cristiano Ronaldo. Reality TV star Daniele Negroni was also being talked up by the Germans.

Europeans sure love their football!

Italy: Terremoto (Earthquake)

The earthquakes in northern Italy in May and June were the main talking points of the year for most Italians. There was widespread destruction across the affected areas, including 26 deaths. Technocrat Mario Monti came in second and the same football teams from the Champions' League final, Chelsea and Bayern Munich pop up too. Footballers Mario Balotelli and Gianluigi Buffon were popular as well.

Spain: Trabajo (Work)

Spain's year was dominated by the economic crisis. Trabajo, meaning "work" was the most talked about topic and huelga, meaning "strike" was second. The rest of the list mentions Rajoy (the current prime minister of Spain) and the crisis económica (economic crisis). The Spanish national football team, La Roja, the Eurocopa (Euro 2012), Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo all also feature.

United Kingdom: London 2012 Olympics

The Brits were banging on about their Olympics all year, and Usain Bolt was an often mentioned athlete. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II was also talked about, as was 50 Shades of Grey and box-office smash The Avengers.

Part of the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations.

United States: Barack Obama and the Presidential Election

There was plenty to talk about in the United States this year, but the top story was the seemingly never-ending presidential election. Barack Obama was the most talked about politician and public figure, and lucky for him all that buzz helped secure him a win. Like their northern neighbours, Americans became obsessed with The Hunger Games, as they devoured the books and headed to cinemas to see the first film. Instagram became a favourite tech tool that is no longer just used by hipsters, and the meme TBH (to be honest) was often seen at the end of opinionated posts. Americans also became fanatics of the band Fun., whose song We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monáe) was #1 in the charts for six weeks and was heard everywhere from Super Bowl commercials to being covered on the show Glee.

Happy New Year!

Crowdsourcing Translation: Power To The People?

Crowdsourcing is becoming more and more common nowadays. With the increased importance of the internet, this was almost inevitable. What exactly is crowdsourcing?

Crowdsourcing is a method of outsourcing a task to a large, almost infinite, number of people. An open-ended invitation is sent out to an unknown group who then work on a solution to a problem. Usually anyone can provide a solution and the best solutions are chosen via a rating system or peer assessment methods.

Do you reckon you'd get a good translation from these guys?
Probably not.

Crowdsourcing can be used for translation too. Why not? If you have something that needs translating why not present it to every translator you can and get them to do it? It's cheap since the translators are not usually paid. Everyone pitches in a suggested translation and then the community votes on the best translation, known as crowdvoting.

Crowdvoting works almost everywhere, except Florida.

There are several key issues with using crowdsourcing for translation purposes. Firstly, there is little to no quality control. If only under-qualified translators are submitting and voting on translations, then the end result will most likely be a poor and inaccurate translation. Secondly, if all translations are done as individual parts, there will be no consistency amongst translations, as several parts of a single sentence could be translated by multiple individuals.

Furthermore, there is nothing to stop malicious entries. If you are familiar with the internet you know that it's full of lunatics. Occasionally, an incorrect translation can slip through the cracks when one person writes something "funny" and a group of internet nutjobs decide it would be amusing to vote this through as a suggestion. Think Wikipedia.

Sometimes crowdsourcing can be very powerful. Wikipedia is a fine example of what can be achieved if you find a good community of passionate people. Of course, you can't cite Wikipedia for academic purposes and it hasn't always got the quality of Encyclopaedia Britannica, but it's an excellent resource for killing time and learning about things you never thought you'd even read about. We love a good Wiki link-hopping session!

It's no Wikipedia! It probably doesn't even have an entry on memes!

Can crowdsourcing translation work? Is it a replacement for qualified paid professionals? We think not, but given the economy, sometimes a poor translation is better than no translation.

Trolling For Hits: Deceptive Headlines

In a move that would have the plain language cause turning in its grave (if it was dead and not just a concept), it seems that news sources and other websites love a bit of trolling.

Using this image entitles you to be a dick on the internet.

The idea that news sources use misleading headlines to boost their hits was brought to our attention by the current affairs and humour website The Gabbler (definitely check it out!), which suggested that even the most reputable sources are using this dirty tactic in order to get more hits and in turn, more money.

We remember seeing a local newspaper article saying that "Brangelina" were coming to town. It turned out that the article was referring to them "in films" and that a new cinema was being constructed. It's fairly annoying to have given a site a hit just because you've been deceived, but if you look at most "headlines" you'll see it's the way the internet works and the same can be said for print too.

If you've ever read Hello!, OK! or any other publication that features a general salutation proceeded by an exclamation mark, shame on you. You should know better! However, their headlines are clear... they correspond directly to the shit that's in the article.

However, seemingly reputable sources regularly use misleading headlines to get people to read their articles. They're usually well written, but they're based on fact and probably don't garner as much attention as so require a little sprucing up. 

So many things to read... how to choose?
By the most interesting headlines, of course!

So here are the two options for every journo:

Clear headlines

They may appear dull and possibly deter readership.  It's a fine line and we feel the right answer depends solely on the material. For newspapers and facts, clear language is key. The BBC's news site normally has decent headlines but we must admit they've fooled us a few times.

Creative headlines:

"Creative" headlines seem more interesting than the article really is and in turn increase readership. As long as the article isn't posing as fact, what's the problem? They won't be the first people to have tricked you so they can earn some money and you won't be paying anything. Language can be creative and beautiful, and it should be enjoyed.

So...?

Which side wins in the end? Are we sticklers for thinking that language should be matter of fact? Or can news be creative? The best headlines grab your attention. If clicking on a link or picking up the newspaper is encouraged by an intriguing headline is it such a bad thing? They do earn money from doing it... and they won't be sharing that money with you despite having tricked you. At least you can take solace in the fact that they have encouraged people to read!

The Power Of Social Media On Languages

It wasn't too long ago that there was an article on the BBC (ah, the good ol' Beeb) that we found very interesting. It was about the tu form in French becoming very common in social media. Read the full article here.

For those not in the know, in French using the word tu (second person singular) rather than vous (second person plural) is considered very informal. However, it has become commonplace across social media.

Perhaps tu being shorter than vous contributes to this, especially in the case of social media sites such as Twitter that have character limits.

Of course, social media isn't usually considered the most formal setting. Even if you don't necessarily know a person, on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc it would be fine to use a colloquial register.

Colloquial language is fine. Manipulating their logo in any of the above ways is not.

You probably rarely write in full sentences. Would you start a text with "Dear..." and end with "yours sincerely"? We think not!

Text messages have also had a huge effect on the way people use language for some time now. If you've ever had a Pay-As-You-Go SIM card you know the importance of getting everything you need to say into that one text!

Those familiar with the internet before social media will remember that MSN Messenger, AIM and other IMCs (instant messaging clients) had people using BRB, OMG and the now world-famous LOL. Meaning "laugh out loud" and never "lots of love". We've all heard the horror stories of texts that read:

"Sorry to hear your father passed away. LOL"

Sorry for your loss. LOL

The point was made that French, German, Chinese and English users tend to use less formal language on social media sites. On the other hand, Japanese users show all sorts of formalities in their language use. Though if you're familiar with Japanese, you will know that it is rife with honorifics. If you used to watch the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (the brilliant original, not this CGI rubbish the kids have now) or any kung fu films, you will know the word Sensei. Other honorifics include -san -chan, -kun and many, many, many more!