AtCinta Bahasa we have quite a few students who started learningIndonesian first with free mobile apps such as Duolingo and Babbel,and then they decided to expand on their learning by taking a coursewith us.
Why did they make that choice, and how can you use mobile apps to get themost out of learning to speak bahasa Indonesia?
Inthis short post, we’ll talk about languagelearning apps and reveal the ways that theycan strengthen how you learn languages for maximum benefit to you,the language learner.
WhichMobile Apps do people use?
Duolingoand Babbel are two popular and free mobile apps for Android and Appledevices that offer many languagesto startlearning. We can’t tell you which one is better, both are fine andit is really up to you to try them both and decide which one youprefer.
Wefirst heard about Duolingo in 2013, just as it was coming out fromour student, the famous author Tim Ferriss, who wrote “The 4-HourWorkweek”, “The 4-Hour Body”, “Tribe of Mentors” andothers. He was an early-stage investor in the company and as you mayknow, very well acquainted with the tools and techniques of rapidlylearning and mastering anything. He has gone from zero to winningdance competitions, martial arts competitions, and many otherrapid-learning achievements. He has a very specific approach torapidly acquiring languages. Babbel has also been around for a verylong time and has a very similar offering to Duolingo.
Surelythere are other apps as well that could be considered, but these arethe two most-popular ones our students tell us about, andany others will be similar in what they offer.
What’s So Great About Language-Learning Apps?
Whatmakes Babbel and Duolingo such awesome language learning apps is thatthey use gamification to keep you, the language learner, motivated tokeep on using the app and continuing to build your vocabulary in thelanguage.
Theyalso use a variety of activities to keep you engaged, and give yourbrain the opportunity to use what you have learned in differentcontexts, which strengthens your linguistic flexibility. As yourbrain becomes more flexible in applying the language, you will bebetter able to communicate correctly and effectively in a variety ofdifferent situations.
Theyalso use the scientifically-proven learning technique of ‘spacedrepetition’. Spaced repetition is the ability to more firmly recallwords by seeing them repeated at specific, or spaced, periods oftime. This helps you to build a vocabulary that sticks in your mindand doesn’t fall out easily as long as you either continue to usethe app, thanks to their gamification. As long as you are using theapp frequently, spaced repetition will work for you.
It’sgreat to use these apps to start learning words, then shortsentences, then more complex sentences and phrases. Thereading and writing side of language-learning is a good way to startas it activates the visual side of your learning so that you canstart to read.
Thenyou grow into into listening comprehension, which is great for whenyou start to hear people speaking the words that you have becomefamiliar seeing. You can start to identify specific words when youhear a native speaker speak, know what those words mean and get thegist of what they’re saying. Theyare great tools for building and maintaining your vocabulary in a waythat you can see in your mind, and hear through the audio recordings.
Overtime, you may learn to speak just by doing that, but we’ve seenthat happenonly with about 5% of language learners. This isbecause Duolingo and Babbel are great at solving part of thelanguage-learning puzzle, but not all of it. There’s an additionalpart of the language-learning puzzle>that’s needed and this is where learning at Cinta Bahasa comes in.
Thisis because language-learning apps can only take you so far, and thenit’s time to remove the training wheels and really learn how tospeakwith the people around you.
BothBabbel and Duolingo treat the written language like the spokenlanguage, and bahasa Indonesia is absolutely not spoken like it iswritten. The first few units are fine, but as soon as you startgetting into Unit 3 or higher, what you learn starts to diverge fromhow people really speak, and this can cause communication problemsfor you later on.
Anotherthing we notice is that the apps generate rather random sentences,rather than focusing on sentences that are only really practical,useful or make sense. So you end up learning sentences which youwould never use in the real world. Although this might be goodtheoretically, to be able to say things you would never need to sayin real life, we think it is better to focus on learning sentencesthat are useful. This is what a human teacher can do.>
Learningwith a real teacher completes the most important part of thelanguage-learning puzzle because they are able to strengthen what youhave learned, help correct mistakes that may have crept in, and fillin missing areas that may have not been fully covered.
Areal teacher can also listen to you speak andhelp you to speak correctly and carry on a conversation, whichstrengthens the verbal communication part of learning a language.It’s also about hearing your pronunciation and improving it so thatyou sound more and more like a native speaker. This is something thata mobile app cannot do.
Anotherimportant and often-overlooked part of learning a language ismovement. Many people do not learn to communicate in a language onlywith their head, but also with their body. Learningwith movement has become an important part oflearning a language andhelps us to develop other ways of understanding what other people aresaying and how they are expressing their feelings.
Learningat Cinta Bahasa can also provide you with the very important culturalelement to language, such as etiquette and styles of social speechbetween different kinds of people such as friends, family,colleagues, employers, officials, etc.
Souse Duolingo or Babbel, everyday, and also take Group or Privateclasses at Cinta Bahasa. Tell your teacher that you are also usingDuolingo, so that you can incorporate what you are learning thereinto your classes as well. You will then be using the best of bothworlds to become a fluent speaker of bahasa Indonesia. Semoga sukses!