I’m looking for an app or website to help my so improve her English.
We looked at Duolingo earlier (as I’ve used it before for learning a bit of Greek) but it does not support English to English courses. This is a problem as our native language is as obscure as it gets.
Do you have any recommendations? It would be awesome if the service was as gamelike as Duolingo.
This is my first post on Lemmy, I hope I’m not in the wrong community.
The best way to improve her English is for her to read tons of English literature.
Get her a Kindle Paperwhite (about $120) and encourage her to read fiction. It has to be enjoyable.
With the Kindle, she can look up the dictionary definition and pronunciation of any word she encounters and does not know.
Has your SO tried books? Ebooks or audiobooks could be helpful. They could try reading a book they are already familiar with in english, that way they wouldn’t have to put too much effort into getting acquainted with characters and plots, and focus into pronounciation, grammar and slang.
honestly, any app that is in english and keeps her engaged. There are penpal apps, where you write people letters. or maybe something like microblogging or lemmy.
Well now I’m intrigued by what your native language could be.
I thought I shouldn’t doxx myself so much, but whatever. Our native language is Bulgarian.
@alokir@lemmy.world (is that how I tag people?)
I got a notification so I guess tagging works.
I wouldn’t call Bulgarian obscure, I expected a minority language like Mansi or Breton.
You’re right. When you put it like that, calling it obscure sounds like an exaggeration. Though it’s probably one of the least spoken Slavic languages.
I was surprised Duolingo doesn’t have it supported, so I just checked. Apparently I can learn Klingon and High Valerian, but not Bulgarian 🤷
Play video games in English. Watch English-speaking YouTubers. Interact with people online using English. As long as she enjoys the content, proficiency in the language will follow.
You see, one of the goals is to be able to enjoy media in English together. The problem is that she quickly gives up after encountering too many unfamilliar words or constructs.
Thats why I’m looking for an app to help her get a bit more confident.
Instead of describing it, I just uploaded a quick video of how it works.
I read in spanish with a spanish dictionary and it’s great. I can actually proceed in literature that would be too slow with a physical dictionary.
Also there’s always flash cards. She can probably find some kind of app work english-her language flash cards and just start learning vocab.
https://youtube.com/shorts/3d4F-E4Cm00
edit: pardon my nasty nails I’ve been moving today
Kindle kindle kindle! I also commented elsewhere but the kindle offers one super key thing: the ability to look up a word’s definition super fast and easy.
You just long press on a word with your finger, and the definition pops up. If it’s a term like “Monrovia” you’ll get the wikipedia article instead. Definitions and wiki articles pop up in a little window just smaller than a post-it note and when you tap anywhere else it goes away.
