Try out the new Linguist system and help us with language content.
To improve in English or any language you need to listen and read at great deal. You need to listen to different content and yet you also need to listen to the same content many times. Our learner of the month for February, Udo, has listened to some content over 200 times. I learn the same way. This is only possible if the content is interesting and pleasing.
Typically, content needs to be on a subject of interest, spoken in a pleasing natural voice, and not too difficult. What is more it should not have explanations in your own language so that you are fully immersed in the language you are learning. In my own learning experience, I have always dramatically improved my language skills when I found content which was at first somewhat difficult, but which I genuinely enjoyed. For Mandarin it was the Xiang Sheng comic dialogues of Hou Bao Lin. For Japanese it was the NHK tape of the history of the Showa era. For German it was a series cassette tapes with low key and natural interviews with real people from real life. For Italian it was Pinocchio or I Promessi Sposi read by Moro Silo at Il Narratore. For Cantonese it was a radio announcer with a great sense of humour and a rich deep voice. How often I listened to this material. Gradually I understood more and more. I did not always have the advantage of being able to read these texts in order to learn the words. I certainly did not have The Linguist system. But I realized the need for such a system.
I am now pre Beta-testing the new Linguist system for Russian. I am able to handle quite difficult content, such as Pushkin and Tolstoi, because I am interested in them and because of how The Linguist system works. But not everybody is interested in classical literature. Some people want to learn about Russian pop culture or business. So we will need a variety of content, not only for Russian but for all languages that people want to learn.
That's why we would like your help. If you know of interesting content in your own language, or in the language you are learning, please share it with us. You may have favourite podcasts, or radio content with transcripts. Maybe you can create your own podcast material or just record yourself talking to interesting people in a natural spontaneous way.
If you are interested in finding and uploading content into our new system, please contact customer service. One of the benefits of helping us in this way is that you will be doing so from our new system and you will also be able to pre-beta test our system at the same time. Our only requirements are that the content have both audio and text, that the audio be of good quality and that the material be copyright free. I look forward to learning from your content.
