The world we live in is rapidly growing into an enormous melting pot and most of us are well aware of the fact that the ability to speak a foreign language has never been as vital as it has been in the 21st century. Learning a new language offers many new career opportunities as well as other advantages which are often ignored. Among the less obvious benefits is the change in perspective one will gain from seeing the world through different eyes.
Every language expresses ideas in its own particular manner, giving us the ability to see things from another angle and thus allowing us to gain new insights of ourselves, our native culture and the world around us. This can spark creativity and give individuals an exciting new window through which to view the world and make decisions.
Language Immersion for Chrome is an experimental extension that aims to simulate the experience of being immersed in a foreign language. By switching certain words and phrases from English into a language of your choice, the websites you already visit can provide a way to experience the world from a different perspective.
Features:
Choose from all 64 languages currently supported by Google Translate.
Novice-to-fluent skill settings let you immerse at your own pace.
Click on a translated word to switch it back to English.
Roll-over a translated word to hear it pronounced.
Another useful extension is – Google Translate.
Google Translate is perhaps the most effective tool for learning a new language. It helps you quickly look up words or phrases you might find difficult to understand in a foreign language. The best way to go about using this tool is to browse web pages in English (or your native language) and then translate that page into the language you’re learning by clicking the Google Translate button in the Chrome toolbar. This will help create a strong link between your native language and the one you’re learning.
Foreign Language Pad
Another way to improve your language is by actually participating in forums. Though getting used to forums isn’t such a big deal, writing in a different language does pose some problems, especially if you’re not used to writing in it. To help you with that, foreign language pad comes in handy. Once installed, the extension lets you use a machine translation system, look up meanings in dictionaries, check pronunciations as well as structure all in a single window. So, without leaving the page you’re browsing, you can write in any language you want.
Mind The Word
Much like the aforementioned Language Immersion extensions, this one too randomly translates a few words into the language you want to learn. From the settings screen, you can choose which language to translate words into and how many times the word should appear. Another tool that uses the same technique is Polyglot.
Verbs Trainer
Putting focus on passive learning of words, this next extension lets you practice conjugation of verbs in an easy, non-distracting way. From the settings screen, you can choose which language to train on as well as the frequency of words that show up. Verbs to be practiced pop–up on the side in such a way that you don’t get distracted from your browsing session. Overall, this is a nice app for practicing one of the hardest parts of a language, which is grammar.
How Do You Say : again, a useful one for ESL learners, highlight a word to hear its pronunciation in English or click on the extension button and type in a word to hear it.
These are a few useful and popular language extensions provided by Chrome. Hope they make the learning experience fun for you!
