Are you looking for language
learning apps with structure
to tell you exactly
what to learn, how to learn it
and how well you're learning it?
What if I were to tell you
that the language learning apps
that you're looking for
aren't actually going
to solve your problem?
In this video, I'm
going to talk about
why exactly you're
looking for that structure.
A couple of language learning apps
that will give you that structure
that you're looking for,
but why they might not work for you
and what you should do instead.
If you're new here. Hi, my name is Jamie.
I'm a language coach.
And I help independent language
learners understand
exactly what they want to do
with their language learning
and how to achieve it.
So if you want more content
like this, remember
to subscribe and hit the bell
to be notified when I post a new video.
Why do language learners
look for highly structured language apps?
And what exactly do I mean by structure?
Generally, most people's
first experiences
with languages are in school
when they have to learn a language
in order to get a grade and graduate.
Right.
And in order to accomplish
that, teachers have a set curriculum
that they have to teach
set grades, that
they have to help
their students get a textbook
they have to work from
and all that kind of stuff.
Language teachers
are basically told exactly
what they need to teach their students.
Whether or not it's
actually effective for a particular
goal is a whole other topic.
But language teachers,
at least in public schools,
they don't have any control over
what they're teaching
and how they're teaching it.
So as a student,
you have a textbook that you're given,
you're told exactly what lessons to do
you're told exactly how to do them.
And then you're given a grade
to tell you exactly
how will you accomplished
that specific exercise.
A lot of people enjoy that
because they know exactly
what they're meant
to accomplish, how to accomplish,
and whether or not they accomplish that.
It gives us a lot of strong expectations
and gives us something to work with.
Outside the school
setting when language learners
go to learn a language.
They realize that it's not as clear
cut as they want it to be.
And they're looking for
that structure to feel like
they're actually accomplishing something.
That's basically
how they've learned to learn.
Somebody else set the standards for them
and they have to
accomplish that standard.
Like I said, in public schools,
generally speaking,
even teachers don't have any control
over what they're
teaching their students.
And that makes a lot of language
teachers really unhappy in their jobs
because they realize that
what they're teaching
isn't actually effective
for enjoyable language
learning and conversational language.
But they don't have any power over that.
So whether or not you get
an effective language education
for your particular
goals is not within the power
of the teacher in the public school.
It's the same thing with language
learning apps with structure.
Yes, they are heavily structured.
But for what?
For what intention?
So let's talk about the language
learning resources
that have this really heavy hand
holding and structure.
And I really like.
But they might not give you
the language education
that you are looking for.
Does this sound like you so far?
Let me know in the comments below.
The first resource that I recommend
language learners looking for
structure is Rocket languages.
Now, of course, as always,
I have a whole review of rocket
languages on my website,
link below in the description for that
if you want more information on it.
But Rocket Languages
is really excellent at bringing you
from total beginner
to actually genuinely really advanced.
I'm actually really surprised by it.
Rocket Languages
is really excellent
at hitting all of the language skills
except for grammar.
Their approach is that you
don't really need a strong handle
on grammar necessarily
in order to communicate
effectively, which is true .
So that right there,
if you want to learn grammar,
then rocket languages is not for you.
Basically, rocket
languages takes conversations
that you're probably going
to have in the language.
So it's really great
for real life experiences.
But some might think that
it's not very engaging.
It's talking to a computer.
There's no person on the other side.
There's no connection like that.
So if you need that sort of connection,
then you're going to be really bored
by rocket languages.
On the topic of being engaging or not.
It was really engaging that technology
for like 10 years ago.
But now in the age of video,
it's kind of outdated.
You know, you just have audio clips
and you have speech recognition,
which is fine.
But in this day and age,
at least at the time of this recording,
there's no video,
which is really,
really huge on the Internet
and can really help to narrow
the gap between something
as accessible as an online language
learning resource
and like engaging connection
to keep you motivated.
Fortunately, though,
if you buy rocket languages,
you get lifetime updates.
So in the future,
if they end up adding
video to the course,
then you'll get that if you buy.
And the second resource
that is very, very
highly structured is the Pod 101 series.
The Pod 101 series is really aptly named
because the whole thing is
based on podcast episodes.
All the podcast episodes
are free to access.
It's all the other learning material
that you have to pay monthly for.
But if you want that. Structure.
You got to pay as a personal observation.
I find the pod 101 series
to be really annoying
just because they really aggressively
plug and advertise
and market their paid stuff,
which I get it.
And also, even though the entire pod
101 series is freely
available to anybody,
they have a really long intro
at the beginning of every episode,
which you can just skip.
It's really annoying for me.
But if you do pay in order
to get that structure,
the pod 101 series can be really great.
If you really enjoy podcasts,
it can be a really motivating way
to learn the language, but very limiting
speaking practice like none.
So while rocket languages
has everything except grammar,
the Pod 101 series
has everything but speaking.
Now, one of the features of the paid
pod 101 series is that
if you pay the highest tier,
you can get a one on one personal tutor,
which is really, really
cool, makes a very highly structured
and responsive to your needs.
Basically, instead of
meeting with a tutor
like twice a week or whatever
it is, you submit
your exercises to the tutor
and within like twenty four hours,
I believe might be wrong.
The tutor responds with feedback
and things like that.
So it can be really,
really strongly lead.
If it's something that's engaging to you
and if speaking isn't
a very high priority to you,.
And I really hate
how misleading the prices are.
I hate that I go in
depth again in my review.
That makes me feel gross personally.
But, you know, now,
with all that being said,
as you can see, that
depending on your goals,
while both rocket languages and the pod
101 series can be really
highly structured
and can be really genuinely effective
for getting up into higher levels
of the language from ultimate beginner,
that doesn't mean
that either of them will be engaging
for you, enjoyable for you,
or that they will lead you
to your specific goals.
Now that circles
back to what we know now
about schools, how
we learn languages in school. Right.
As I mentioned, schools
teach us exactly
what to learn, how to learn it
and how well we're learning it.
While these two resources
do exactly that, that
doesn't necessarily mean
they're going to be enjoyable
and that you're going to get the results
you're looking for.
The thing with independent language
learning is that
that has to be a priority.
If you're looking just for structure
and you're jumping
right into these highly structured
language resources,
then you might feel
like you wasted a lot of money
and that you're still nowhere
and you're still frustrated.
You're still overwhelmed.
This is exactly why I help
my clients to understand
their needs, their desires,
what they want, what they don't want,
what they're interested
in, all sorts of things like that.
If you want to learn
more about this approach
and how I teach language learners
how to define their goals
and find resources online
that will actually genuinely
benefit them and genuinely make them
want to learn the language.
Click the link below
in the description for my free training,
where I go really in-depth lesson
by lesson, day by day by me,
exactly how I teach my clients just that.
And if you want to learn more
about my personal approach
to language learning,
as well as the approach
that I teach my clients,
watch this video next.
It goes really in-depth
with real precise examples
of how exactly I do that.
Otherwise, have a wonderful day
and I will see you next time.