Two Helpful Tools to Improve Your Spanish
In this week's blog, I am going to focus on 2 different tools to help you improve your Spanish. These are great tools you can use, and it's a fun way to learn Spanish. However, you can use both of these tools for other languages as well. The Language Learning with Netflix is available in a multitude of languages, and Toucan is available in a few options.
Originally, I was going to talk about podcasts as well, but I decided to make that a separate blog. So this blog post is going to be rather short as I only want to concentrate on these two tools that you can benefit from. So, without wasting too much time, let's get right into it!
If you like to watch movies and series on Netflix, then this is the language learning tool for you. And truth is, who doesn't like to watch Netflix? I have used this before, and I love it! Although, my main focus is Spanish, this works in a variety of languages. This works as a Chrome extension, so you will have to use Google Chrome as a browser. Without this, you can of course watch Netflix with subtitles, but here is what this extension offers you in addition to just plain old ordinary subtitles.
Language Learning with Netflix allows you to choose one set of subtitles or even two at a time. If you want, you can have subtitles in your native language and in your target language, which for me is Spanish. Also, this extension provides a pop-up dictionary for most of the words that are in the subtitles. So, for instance, if there's a word you do not know, you can pause it and click on the word for a definition. This allows you to expand your vocabulary by watching your favorite shows.
With this extension, you can also play back sections of a show in a slower speed. This is so incredibly helpful! And let's face it, when you first start learning a language, it seems like everybody is speaking at breakneck speeds. Spanish speakers are some of the fastest speakers in the world, coming in second only to Japanese. And honestly, some Spanish speakers speak with machine-gun like speed, with some speaking so fast that I have had native Spanish speakers tell me that sometimes there are some speakers who speak so fast that even they can't understand them! With this in mind, trust me, this is one of the most helpful tools of this extension. Don't worry! Eventually, as you learn, you will begin to catch many of the words that are spoken, and it won't seem so fast anymore. This is completely normal, and it happens to learners of all languages.
I believe that there is a paid portion of this extension as well that provides you more options as for as translation goes. And I believe the paid option allows you to save words into a list. Personally, I have never used the paid version. The free version is a great asset in language learning, and in my opinion it is good enough. Honestly, I couldn't tell you if the paid version is worth it or not, but in my opinion, the free version offers you so much, I don't see the point in paying.
Toucan is a really cool extension that you can get. It's an extension for Chrome as well. So like before, you will need to use Google Chrome. The link above takes you to the website where there is a link to the extension there. What makes Toucan such a cool language learning tool is that it changes random words throughout all your web pages into Spanish. For example, the majority of the words throughout all your webpages are going to be in English, but every so often, you will come upon a word in Spanish. If you are stumped and don't know it, you can hover the mouse over the word, and it will give you the word in English. Also, you can click to hear how the word is pronounced in Spanish. Don't worry, you can always turn it off if you are working from home or if you are a high school or college student. You don't have to use it until you are ready to turn it back on. So, this is a helpful feature.
Well, that's it for this week! I told you this was going to be a short blog. Check back next week where I will be talking about different podcasts I like to listen to in Spanish to help with listening comprehension. Also, I'm testing out a couple of new Spanish language learning apps that I haven't used before. So, keep checking back as I hope to write a review of those as well.
