The fact that mobile apps took the world by storm a few years ago is something no one can argue. Suddenly, our phones became smart and our computers had to step down, vacating a long-held, privileged position which had so far never been threatened. With this change came a whole new way of doing things and our daily life was completely reshaped. Many were the fields that hit the ground running and gained considerable market share in this new app-based world, leading to a complete revolution in software categories such as productivity, shopping or news. And this transformation, although surprisingly slow to begin, has now hit the language learning business.
Language learning, understood in modern terms, is something relatively new, something whose potential we only grasped with globalisation and the arrival of the Internet. However, when the industry had already conquered and saturated the world wide web, mobile apps barged in, creating a whole new niche for language learning. Yet this niche was not filled immediately, and it has only been in the last couple of years that language learning apps have really caught on.
The best thing about learning a language using mobile apps is that it gives you all the freedom you want and hundreds of possible combinations to suit your needs. There are self-study apps, like FluentU, where learning takes place with videos and tasks based on those videos, or apps like Wokabulary, which is like an interactive notebook that will help you store and practice any word or expression you want to learn.
However, the sort of apps that are becoming all the rage as we speak are those that promote real-life communication by means of language exchange. While italki holds a prominent position on a computer-based format, it’s apps like uTandem, Linq App or HelloTalk that are dominating the mobile app market. The problem is that, there’s nothing more real in language learning than live, face-to-face communication, and the only one that offers that is uTandem. While italki, Linq App or HelloTalk limit themselves to connecting users to practice languages online, uTandem takes language exchange to the next level, granting users the opportunity to set up their own live language exchange sessions, face to face. This, as you may guess, is as real an experience as it gets. uTandem connects you to native speakers around you who are interested in learning your language. Therefore, you can meet up in a bar, café or wherever you want, and have a proper, real conversation with a native speaker, helping each other with the ins and outs of your own language. How about that to boost your foreign language skills!
Another aspect that caught my eye about this app is that, apart from connecting you to other native speakers, it shows you a list of language schools, cafés and organisations around you where you can go to get professional assistance, or to hold a language exchange session with your tandem pal.
It’s already become clear that learning a foreign language nowadays is becoming increasingly useful and much easier than before, as language learning apps are finally bearing fruit. Language exchange apps is simply the natural direction that language learning is moving towards. As a language learner, I’ve already been on three face-to-face language exchange sessions and I must say that I’m in for the long run!
to know more, please visit: utandem.com
This post is Sponsored by Utandem, originally appeared on Startup Dope
