LangoLAB.com - A Different Way To Learn A Language

How do you actually learn a language? Anybody would tell you that going to a classroom and sitting there for an hour or so is not actually the answer, but something that might even have a prejudicial effect. You can’t “force” yourself; the whole thing should be as natural as possible, and – above all – as suited to your tastes as it can get. In a classroom, the teacher has to come up with something that appeals to the fifteen or so students he will have. If you want to listen to a song by Radiohead and analyze it, the teacher might do that once, but that is it. He won’t do it twice since not everybody will enjoy it. That is where this initiative comes in.

Essentially, LangoLAB will let you immerse yourself in any language through online video and text. That means that you can watch not only your best-loved music videos but also television programs that come complete with comprehension tools. These include a one-click dictionary lookup functionality, flash cards and notes on idioms and phrases.

As a linguist, I can tell you that such an approach is the way I advice everybody to go if they want to pick up a new language. Teachers are important, of course, but you can’t just learn a language sitting one hour in a classroom twice a week. Immerse yourself if you want to get somewhere.

“LangoLAB is a site that is designed to help people learn foreign languages. The site endeavors to expose learners to authentic cultural media from the internet in the foreign language they're learning, and it provides tools to allow them to comprehend the media as quickly as possible. langoLAB is constructed around the hypothesis that people will learn a foreign language more quickly when they're immersed in it through media and live interactions in which they can quickly perceive prelinguistic meaning and regularities. The site facilitates the social accumulation of knowledge about foreign language, grammar, and lessons in a novel way, using a rich client interface to map this knowledge to the foreign language media.”

It is a very spot-on approach when it comes to picking up a foreign language.

Which languages are already featured? Which ones will be added next?