For those who know me, my significant other actually has a different mother tongue than I do. So like a good boyfriend, I’ve tried to learn some of it. At the beginning it’s easy to learn the basics. She taught me some words when we were going out, her friends told me some bad words too when I met them. However, after a while everybody stops showing you the basics and you’re a bit on your own.
At the time, I’m not sure that Duolingo existed, but I’ve read about someone who learned a new language using a set of index cards.
Nowadays you have a plethora of options to learn, but why not make a bit of money with the process.
How to learn a new language and maybe help other people while doing it.
Find people to learn with and set up a group.
Taking a course is the default option when it comes to learning a new language. However, there is a cheaper way to do it, why not make a group where you meet up (online or offline) and learn the language. You could charge a small few to pay for the props (material) or for a part-time teacher or an online service. You could record the session and, with the help of the group, create something to help all of you or even offer it online for free or few bucks.
Connect with native speakers and help them learn something in exchange to learning their mother tongue.
Not sure how you can make money with that part except maybe by providing the connection. However, by using that method you’re definitely saving money. The main problem with that option though is you’re not guaranteed of the quality of the teacher.
Be accountable for your learning
Build in your process should be an accountability component that helps you track and force you to take the time to learn everyday. A site like beeminder or stickK or an accountability partner can help you follow through. That is why a teacher helps because they can see if you progressed or not. Another way to be accountable is to make it public. Every day write a post about what you learn. Perhaps create a twitter (or tiktok) account to track your learning and tweet every time you learn a new word or fancy saying in the language you’re learning.
Check out the app out there and maybe create a apps that suit your need if you can’t find anything
There are dozens of apps and services that are designed to help you learn a new language. Maybe try a bunch of them to see what sticks. Duolingo, Babbel, Memrise, Rosetta stone, Mauril, etc.
If you can’t find something that works for you, you could try to create your own tailored to your needs and only to the language you’re trying to learn.
Maybe you’re advanced enough that what you need is to permeate the language you’re trying to learn, like using blinkist if you’re trying to learn German or a similar service that gives you book reviews in the language of your choice.
Wrap this all up in an offering
The main problem with all this when learning a new language is that sometimes it’s not enough or we get distracted by our daily lives. Sure the best way to learn is probably to live in the country and interact with the locals to learn, but if you can’t do that maybe you can create an environment with all the previous tips to help you succeed. If it works well for you perhaps that could be wrapped in a service to help others and sell it for a fee.
Conclusion
You may notice that I’m a bit all over the place. While some of the tips are useful to learn a new language, others are more useful to make money teaching or helping others learn a new language. Perhaps I will split both with more in deep analysis of both subjects. The mountain of apps to learn means that there are definitely a lot of options when learning, but it’s probably profitable to build those kinds of apps..
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