Introducing LingoDream — Learn Any Language in a Few Months!
What is LingoDream and How Can You Use it to Become Fluent in Any Language?
Learning a foreign language can be a difficult and frustrating experience. Most students do not speak the language fluently even after studying it for years in school. Our failed language education system has even led some of us to believe that it takes innate talent to learn a foreign language. It doesn’t. With the right mindset, methods, and resources, anyone can learn and become fluent in a foreign language.
Fortunately, the good news is that numerous studies now suggest that extensive reading can be a particularly effective method to learn a foreign language. Extensive reading basically means self-directed reading. You don’t read textbooks. Instead, you read materials that genuinely interest you. By reading anything that interests you, you will not only improve your reading comprehension, but also increase your vocabulary and enhance your grip on the grammar, thus improve your command of the language overall.
So, what is the bad news, then? The truth is you already know the bad news. After learning a foreign language for a few months, and when you open a web page in that language. It looks like this:
You want to read interesting stuff, but instead, you are stuck with the boring textbook dialogues about the weather and groceries.
What can we do about it?
When I was learning English, and later Korean and Spanish, I had the same problem. So, I created LingoDream. LingoDream solves the problem that interesting texts are too hard to read whereas easy texts are not interesting.
In order to be able to read anything we want, we need to minimise the frustration and effort of reading texts in a foreign language. To that effect, we first need to rearrange the layout of the web page to make it ad-free and easier to read. LingoDream does this automatically every time you import an article. Next, we need to find a way to deal with the new words and expressions. This is where LingoDream excels.
First, you can choose any user-posted article from the LingoDream web site or import any article on the web using the LingoDream browser extension. Now you can begin reading the text! Note that the text is cleanly displayed on the left side without any ad and other distractions. On the right side, you have the incredibly comprehensive and informative reference tools.
Let’s say you don’t know what the English word ‘satellite’ means. You just click on it, or select it. Immediately, you can see the dictionary definitions and example sentences on the right side. You can even configure the dictionary settings to further optimise your learning experience.
And If you don’t understand any phrase or sentence, you can simply select the entire phrase or sentence to get an instant translation!
You might have noticed that we also have a tab for Images, and another for Wikipedia. This is because sometimes new words are better learnt with images or Wikipedia entries.
Let’s say we want to know what ‘fossa’ means. The Oxford Dictionary gives the following definition: “A large nocturnal reddish-brown catlike mammal of the civet family, found in the rainforests of Madagascar.” Okay, but what does it look like? A much better way of learning this particular word is by seeing multiple images of it. And instantly, we know what a fossa is.
Now let’s suppose, on one of your more contemplative days, you are reading a science fiction or a philosophical article, and you encounter this term, ‘phenomenology’.
If you consult a dictionary, it will say something like this: “The science of phenomena as distinct from that of the nature of being.” Okay, what does it mean?
Instead, if you click this word on LingoDream and click the Wikipedia tab, it instantly shows you a concise summary of (as well as a link to) the Wikipedia entry for Phenomenology! (It’s the study of consciousness as experienced from the first-person perspective. You can read all about it on Wikipedia if you are intrigued.)
Moreover, LingoDream automagically creates context-based vocabulary flash cards for you every time you look up a word. You can optionally add hints or notes to the flash cards as illustrated in the image below. Based on the Ebbinghaus Forgetting Curve, LingoDream reminds you to review or recall these new words periodically, so that you will easily learn and remember a large vocabulary and know how to use it in the correct context!
There are so many super helpful features of LingoDream that cannot be described in a single blog post. For instance, LingoDream lets you access authentic audio pronunciations recorded by native speakers for any word or expression. You can also listen to the high-fidelity and natural-sounding text-to-speech audio while reading that text at the same time. On top of that, LingoDream keeps track of your learning progress and displays it on your profile page to keep you motivated…
Sign up today and become fluent in your dream language in a few months.
