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  • Writer's pictureStacy Vazquez

Learning a New Language: Making the best of Quarantine

Now that many are staying home, people have a lot of free time. Not being able to go out, some search for an activity to do to prevent boredom. An activity that is time consuming and fruitful is learning a new language. There are many apps and websites that teach many different languages. In fact, a lot of these apps/websites are free.


Student improves reading comprehension skills with Duolingo Stories
Student using Duolingo Stories*

A famous language-learning app is Duolingo. Duolingo has free and paid plans. The free plan is actually really helpful and isn't extremely limited. Duolingo teaches basic words and then moves on to sentences and phrases. It helps with listening, pronunciation, reading, and writing. It also has a placement test option for people looking to review or improve their language skills. It is really good for learning a new language from scratch; however, Duolingo won't help after a degree of fluency in a language.


Another language learning website is Rype. Rype is not free and costs around 65 dollars a month. This website is actually super helpful too because the learning is completely personalized. Students will get a personal instructor and be taught one-on-one in a 30-60 minute video call.


Memrise is a language-learning app like Duolingo. It also has free and paid plans. It starts by teaching basic words and teaches more advanced content as the course moves on. Although it's similar to Duolingo, some games and exercises are different and might be a better option for some people.


Both Duolingo and Memrise offer a variety of languages. They also allow people to start multiple courses so they can explore and find a language they like.


Communication is so important in the world. Learning a new language is not only beneficial for travel but also for communicating with tourists and or immigrants. It can open doors and help break cultural barriers. Learning is a great way to spend quarantine and will definitely pay off in the future.



*Photograph by Stacy

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