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Ask HN: Language Learning Software that emulates learning like children?

1 points by mattm ↗ HN
I've wondered about this for a while. Why is there no language learning software that emulates the process we use as children for picking up a language?

Is there any programs that I'm not aware of?

I've used chinesepod.com and now japanesepod101.com but these are all audio based. They are good lessons but I feel it would be so much easier to learn if the dialogs were shown as video. If someone is ordering tea in a restaurant, I should see the person ordering tea and my mind will associate the sounds with the images.

Does anyone know why this hasn't been done before? Is it just too expensive and time consuming to do video editing as opposed to audio? I haven't yet learned a foreign language fluently but I am dismayed that so many products try to come up with new ways of teaching rather than just using the way we learn as children.

I will be taking some time off next year to work on ideas and this might be one of them. If anyone has an interest in improving language learning software, feel free to contact me.

3 comments

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1331
I once did a university Spanish course that used Destinos (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Destinos), a 52 video episode course that uses techniques that you describe. A textbook and a few workbooks are also provided, as using what you learn is key to remembering it. I see that there are similar courses for English, French, and German linked to from that Wikipedia page.

I bet that the cost of producing high quality video is quite high, so that is indeed probably one of the primary reasons that such material is rare.

I recall there being some videos produced by language podcasts (including JapanesePod101, if I remember correctly), if you look for them.

mattm
Thanks for the suggestion. I will read up on their learning style more.

As for JP101, they do have some videos but they are mainly teachers standing in front of the camera teaching some things - like it would be in a classroom. It's not really what I envision.

Did you feel that you learned and retained things better when presented with video stimulation?

1331
It sounds cliché, but I truly believe that each person learns in different ways. For people who are visual, video stimulation works quite well. A good language course combines many different styles of learning.

The Destinos videos kept that Spanish course interesting for me, but I tend to learn better by doing than just observing. The most useful language course that I have ever taken was an advanced Spanish translation course that I took in a university in Japan. The course was conducted in Japanese, and every student translated a novel from Spanish to Japanese. The Spanish was easy for me, but that course advanced my Japanese more than any other.