You’re probably reading this in the comfort of your own home. Due to all of the coronavirus restrictions, the whole of the Netherlands is not only working from home but also learning new skills and keeping fit at home.
The living room is your temporary gym and you’re interacting with family, friends and colleagues via your screen on the kitchen table. However, maybe this is becoming tedious and you’re up for a new challenge to keep your brain active. Why not take this opportunity to learn a new language or to improve your current skills in a specific language? In this article, we explain three ways in which you can do just that from your own home.
Method 1: Self-study
How fortunate to be living now and not fifty years ago! Today, there is so much information available for learning online. There are countless apps, websites and books to help you out. However, because there are so many to choose from, it is handy to set goals for yourself so that you can focus on what is important to you, for instance, learning more about language structure or expanding your vocabulary.
Why not watch short video clips – if necessary, with subtitles - listen to a podcast, or read a book or magazine? Self-study can help enormously if you want to keep your language skills up to scratch. Use it or lose it!
Method 2: Learn from the people around you
No matter how much information is available online, in the end, you pick up a language from interacting with people. From native speakers, you learn how to pronounce words correctly, not only by listening to them but also by watching carefully how they move their mouths to make the sounds. They can help you get the sound just right.
If you happen to live with someone who is a native speaker of the language you are learning, take advantage of this, and use this time to talk to them exclusively in that language. Get them to repeat the sentences and words that you’re getting wrong, so that you can hear how they should be pronounced. Don’t overdo it though, it’s a question of striking a happy medium!
If you are not living with a native speaker, maybe there is someone in your network you could practise with, via Skype, for example.
Method 3: Do an online training course
If you would like to make progress, then why not do an online training course? The advantage is that you have your own personal language trainer who is there to guide you. They get to know you and your specific language requirements, are aware of your current language skills and can advise you how to best improve them based on your individual learning style.
In normal circumstances, you would have face-to-face lessons with your trainers in a teaching environment that is conducive to making you feel at ease. This always gets the best results. However, due to the coronavirus restrictions, this is no longer possible, and a lot of language institutes now offer lessons online.
During this period, Regina Coeli is offering online
blended-learning language training courses. The courses consist of a number of online face-to-face lessons with a language trainer combined with three months of access to the institute’s eLearning platform. As many sectors have been hit hard by the coronavirus restrictions, Regina Coeli is offering their online training courses at reduced rates.