14 Fun, Painless Ways to Practice Languages Online

14 Fun, Painless Ways to Practice Languages Online 14 Fun, Painless Ways to Practice Languages Online No one ever said I need to have less fun.Theres a good reason for that.Who can resist a good time?And when it comes to language learning, having fun while learning does as much  for your education as it does for your spirits.After all, the more fun studying is, the more often youll do it.And the more often you do it, the more youll learn.There are plenty of fun ways to learn a language if you know where to look for them. And one great place to head for tons of practice opportunities is the internet.Practicing languages online  gives you the opportunity to find the type of practice you enjoy and even switch once you start to get tired of it. Online practice is also often interactive: Its much more entertaining to engage with a language in an interactive way than it is to learn it passively from a textbook or other traditional means!So grab your laptop and get some active learning in with these 14 fun ways to practice languages online. How Do You Make Language Practice Fun?First and foremost, choose activities you enjoy. Just because someone else thinks an activitys fun doesnt mean you will. Try different activities until you find one you truly enjoy.Its also important to vary your activities. Doing the same thing can get boring even if its fun. You dont see people binging on cake everyday, do you? Thats why its important to vary your activities. Maybe throw in an occasional pie or tart. If you vary your activities, youre less likely to get tired of them. Plus, using varied activities will result in a more well-rounded language practice.Finally, when youre no longer having fun, switch activities. Even activities that start out fun can get boring after a while. When you no longer enjoy an activity, dont hesitate to cut and run. There are plenty of fun activities out there, so theres no need to linger on one thats not fun anymore.14 Fun, Painless Ways to Practice Languages OnlineInstagram it upIf youre a social media  maven, theres nothing quite like Instagram fo r fun, easy language learning.To use Instagram for language learning, you can set up a separate account and post in your target language. Over time, you may get followers who also speak that language. Follow them back or interact with them to pile up the language learning.While you can start a new account for your target language, using your main account is a clever way to sneak in some language learning without even having to set any time aside for it. Just follow some Instagramers who use your target language. When you check Instagram for fun, youll wind up reading in your target language just by glancing at posts by users you follow.Another benefit of using Instagram to practice your language skills is that Instagram is primarily visual with only short text. Itll never be daunting to read since its so  brief.Who to follow is based entirely on your interests. For instance, beginning language learners might follow accounts designed specifically for language students. To find one, s earch hashtags like #learnArabic, #learnChinese, #learnFrench, etc. If youre a foodie, you might find food accounts by searching for #recipes in your target language (for example, #?????, #??, #recetas). Love TV and movies? Follow your favorite stars to learn more about international celebrity lifestyles (and the global nature of sponsored posts) as you brush up on your language skills.If youre a fan of social media, you can try the same tricks with Twitter or Facebook. For that matter, if you cant get enough of Pinterest or LinkedIn, you could even look for authentic language content there!Find a language exchange partnerFinding a language exchange partner  is an enjoyable way to get conversational practice and make a new friend.The idea behind language exchange partners is that your partner lets you practice speaking in your target language. In exchange, you give your partner speaking practice in your native language. Not only does this help you build your language skills, it help s you connect with a native speaker, an invaluable source of language and cultural information.Plus, its fun to make friends! You can talk about whatever you like, so your language practice can be just as fun as a casual chat with a good friend.Maybe you already know someone who speaks your target language who you could partner with. If not, there are plenty of online resources out there to help. For instance, you might try  italki,  MyLanguageExchange.com  or  Verbling.Many online language exchange websites also offer video or text service to help you interact with your partner. If not, you can  try using Skype to connect with your partner online.Use FluentUWhen youre looking to pack a lot of learning into your downtime, FluentU is a great choice.Thats because FluentU combines fun, authentic videos, like music videos, movie trailers and news, with high potency learning material. Each videos captioned and each words annotated to give you easy access to any words definition, example sentences and an associated image. You can even click on words to see how theyre used in other videos.Plus, FluentU also offers learn mode. This mode transforms videos, pictures and example sentences into flashcards and exercises you can use for an engaging, authentic learning experience.FluentU uses an algorithm to personalize lessons based on a learners history. This way, the questions you see are based on what you already know, so you can challenge yourself without being in over your head.Use  FluentU online  or  download the FluentU app for iOS or Android devices.Binge TV and moviesBinging TV  and  watching movies  are undeniably fun activities. After all, how else would your couch have developed such a perfectly human-shaped groove? But enjoying TV and movies can also be one of the funnest ways to practice a language.While you can download content or buy DVDs, using a streaming service is the easiest way to have a lot of foreign language content at the tip of your fingers.Netfl ix  is one top streaming choice. It offers an abundance of options in most popular languages. Plus, Netflix is even producing its own original foreign language content that you cant get anywhere else, like the popular Spanish series  Las chicas del cable  (Cable Girls).  If you already subscribe to Amazon Prime, you also have access to some free foreign language programming via Amazon Prime Video. To browse, look at the sections for foreign TV or foreign movies. Hulu  also has some options for language learners.To get the most out of your viewing, try experimenting with subtitles. If you can understand what youre watching without subtitles, thats great! If not, you might try using subtitles in your target language to read along as you watch. Still too overwhelming? Use English-language subtitles to give you a clearer idea of whats happening. Regardless of your subtitling choice, youll still learn a lot of great words and work in some fun listening practice.Follow an authentic vlogge rIts easy to learn a language on YouTube. After all, theres a seemingly limitless supply of content in any language you might be learning, including  Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian and  Spanish.You can harness the power of YouTube to practice a language by following vloggers who use your target language. Whenever your favorite vlogger posts a new video, just watch and enjoy to get a little language practice. If you want to up the learning ante, you might even try interacting with other viewers in the comments section.To find your next favorite authentic vlogger, try searching terms in your target language. For instance, try searching beauty tips in your target language to find beauty vloggers.You can also use a tool like Channel Crawler to search YouTube channels by language. If youre interested in a particular regional dialect, you might also filter by country. If you want to see which YouTube channels are most popular, you can sort them by number of subscribers to see what other people are watching.Read popular blogsImprove your reading skills as you learn more about your favorite topics by reading popular blogs in your target language.You might be familiar with English-language blogs covering your favorite topics like food, exercise, sports or virtually any topic you can think of. But there are blogs on the same topics in your target language!Reading a blog in your target language is an easy way to practice thematic vocabulary related to the topic. Plus, its easy to do. If you follow a blog that updates regularly, its like a built-in reminder to do a little reading practice.To find your new favorite blog, search for blog and any topic youre interested in using your target language. For instance, if you want to read about fashion as you study French, search blog de mode  (blog of fashion). You might find fun options like La Penderie de Chloe  (The Wardrobe of Chloe). More interested in improving your Italian c ooking? Try Il Fatto Alimentare  (The Food Fact).Stream musicIf you want to tap your toes to the rhythm of learning, try learning a language with music.Thanks to the internet, you have easy access to tons of music in your target language, and that musics just as catchy as your favorite English-language songs.Popular services like Spotify  and  iHeartRadio  offer some international fare that will fit the bill.Online radio  is another fun, easy option. Services like AccuRadio  offer a nice array of world music, while free online services like TuneIn let you filter by language and/or country.To get the most out of listening to your favorite foreign language music, try to look up words youre unfamiliar with and listen to your favorite songs frequently. Eventually, youll have the song memorized, making it easy to remember any words the song uses.Play a gameYou can satiate you fun side, your competitive side and your language learning side all with one thing: Playing games.Playing games   is super fun, and you can even use it as a break during your regular study sessions. That way, you can keep learning without feeling like it takes any effort.To find online games, search free games in your target language for some online options. For instance, Spanish students might enjoy Juegos.com.Most games dont lean too heavily on language, but invariably, there will be a few words in your target language. This ensures that playing games isnt too intimidating even for beginning students.If you want a little more language, though, you can also find multiplayer games. To do so, try searching multiplayer games in your target language. For instance, Italian students might like Giochi di Multiplayer (Multiplayer Games). Multiplayer games often offer chat with other players.Word games provide another good way to study basic spelling and vocabulary rules in your target language. Many word games are targeted at language learners, so you can find them by searching the name of your target language and word game or vocabulary game. For instance, Russian for Everyone offers lots of fun language games.Delve into world knowledge with WikipediaEver fallen into a Wikihole? Sometimes, its hard not to. You open one page youre interested in and soon youre flipping through 20 tabs of related content.Thankfully, there are lots of versions of Wikipedia in different languages. The next time you want to look up something on Wikipedia, try doing it in your target language. Not only will you get the information you need, youll also get some language practice. Plus, you might soon find yourself spiraling into an uncontrolled learning binge.Since Wikipedias user-generated, its important to remember that it wont always be accurate. However, if you see something that isnt accurate or want to contribute additional material, you can also practice your language skills by contributing content yourself!Enjoy an international edition of BuzzFeedYou need to know what your choice in furnishing s says about your love life. You cant resist finding out what your Zodiac sign is based on your choice in avocado toast. And obviously, who can resist cat pictures?Normally, BuzzFeed is a hub of viral, compulsively-shareable content. However, you can also use BuzzFeed to make your language learning go viral. Thats because in addition to a U.S. edition, BuzzFeed has a number of international editions in foreign languages. French students can read  BuzzFeed France, German students can enjoy  BuzzFeed Deutschland, Japanese learners can read  BuzzFeed Japan, Portuguese students might like  BuzzFeed Brasil  and Spanish students can choose between  BuzzFeed España, BuzzFeed en español and BuzzFeed México.To use BuzzFeed to practice your language skills, all you have to do is choose which articles interest you. You might even set a specific goal, like reading two articles a day. Read whatever you can. If you have trouble, you can also look up unfamiliar words to help build your vocabula ry.Volunteer using your target languageDo you want to help people while practicing your language skills? Volunteer using your target language!You dont even have to go abroad to use your language skills to volunteer. In fact, you dont even have to get off the couch. There are volunteer opportunities you can do from the comfort of your own home.For instance, you might try reading for LibriVox. LibriVox offers free public domain audiobooks in a wide variety of languages. However, in order to do this, they need volunteer readers. If youve reached a point in your studies where your reading and speaking skills are strong, volunteering for LibriVox might be just the boost you need to get to the next level.If you prefer something else, you can search for volunteer opportunities with Idealist. You can filter by remote to find opportunities you can do from home. Then, search for your target language to see what volunteer experience is right for you.Not only will it feel good to help people, i t might also increase you motivation to continue improving your language skills.Read foreign editions of familiar magazinesForeign language magazines  are more than just a fun readâ€"theyre also a fun learning tool.Many popular magazines youre familiar with have international editions in foreign languages. This makes it easy to find a magazine youll be interested in and helps you know what to anticipate.For instance, National Geographic is available in a wide array of languages, including Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Castilian Spanish and Latin American Spanish.Online editions often offer free articles, and new articles are added regularly.To get the most out of reading foreign language magazines, you might also base your selection on what thematic vocabulary you want to work on. For instance, if you want to learn more food terms, you might try a cooking magazine. Then, try to read articles regularly to practice your reading and im prove your vocabulary.Plan a vacation in your target languageTravel can motivate you to improve your language skills, but travel planning in your target language can actually help you practice your language skills for a one-two punch of motivation and learning.There are travel websites in virtually any language you can imagine, so the next time you want to plan a vacation, try doing it in your target language. For instance,  Lonely Planet offers websites in a number of different languages, including French, German and Spanish. This has the added benefit of helping you learn travel-related vocabulary that you may need on your next adventure.Read a bookBookworms rejoice!  Reading a book  is a terrific way to practice your language skills, and you can do it entirely online.Sure, you can download books through Amazon or virtually any other book seller, but you can also find books for free. Your local library may have ebooks available in your target language that you can check out. There s also  Project Gutenberg, which offers free online books in a number of different languages. Plus, since many works appear in several languages, you could even have the English version open alongside the foreign language version so that you can quickly check back if you dont understand something.For a little extra help, you might also keep your favorite dictionary open in another tab to look up any words you dont know.When it comes to fun ways to learn a language, youre only limited by your own imagination. Be on the lookout for even more fun ways for practicing your target language!