Nowadays language learning is constantly happening in almost all corners of the world since many people have already learned of the importance of being proficient in more than just a single language. In various fields of research, business, education and other sectors, languages play vital roles in enriching these fields and languages help in making globalization a bit easier.

A lot of people in various parts of the planet are learning the English language since English is considered to be the world’s lingua franca; spoken as a native language by more than five hundred thousand people and as a second language by more than a billion people. A lot of people are also studying the Spanish language since Spanish is the third most spoken language in the world and it is spoken by more than three hundred million native speakers. In the United States there is an upsurge of native English speakers who are learning Spanish and there are Spanish-speaking immigrants who are also learning English in order to adapt into the country they call their new home. However, are you aware that in Spain there are only few people who can read, speak or understand English?

A study was done by Ipsos and it has revealed that only seventeen percent of Spaniards can read English, fourteen percent can understand it, while eleven percent can speak it. The study also revealed that seventy percent of Spaniards are aware of the importance of English yet only four percent are learning it. A director of a language school has stated that the statistics have not changed much over the years and that one of the reasons why some Spanish are not able to learn English is that they are not exposed to it. News broadcasts which feature international leaders talking in English are dubbed in Spanish instead of just adding Spanish subtitles to the original language the video clips are stated in.

Another of the reasons why Spaniards are not learning English is that it requires money to learn the language. Ninety-four percent of more than a hundred thousand Spaniards traveled abroad in 2006 in order to learn English and they spent something between 2500 and 3000 euros for a four-week English language course which some families cannot afford.

Spain is one of the biggest economies in the world ranking at eighth, yet it is failing at a second language. The people of North America and England are also considered to be no experts in second languages and it is being accredited to theory that countries whose languages are spoken by a large number of people do not feel the need to learn other languages.

Neither Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero nor opposition leader Mariano Rajoy can speak English fluently. Among the five prime ministers who have governed Spain since 1975, only one Leopoldo Calvo-Sotelo, spoke English fluently. PM Zapatero wants all the young people in the country to speak English within a time frame of ten years.

About a hundred thousand people in Spain take the Cambridge ESOL test every year and in 2006, among those who took the proficiency test, seventy percent passed. The Director of the British Council in Spain has stated that “The level of English in Spain has improved considerably over the last ten years.”

If more Spaniards will become interested in learning English and they have access to learn the language, there is hope that Spain will not lag behind other countries when it comes to proficiency in the English language.

Learning foreign languages is a wonderful investment, it is one of the most useful things that you can “carry” when traveling, and also it can open a variety of job opportunities and increase your knowledge about other cultures. Learning the basics of the language such as the major skills in listening, speaking, reading and writing are essential in order for you to become fluent in the language.

If you are considering to enroll in a language course in a language school (perhaps abroad where the language is spoken as a native tongue), better read up on what kind of language courses are available and figure out which will be able to help you learn your target language faster.

Group Classes
The most common types of language courses are available in group programs. Group classes are oftentimes offered to a specific number of students in a group of 10 or more students. Group courses are offered in various levels from beginner to advanced and focus on the main language areas of reading, writing, speaking and listening. Majority of group lessons are based on oral conversation as well as studies in grammar and comprehension. Most of the students who enroll in group programs have limited time or would like to have a more intensive language study.

The advantages of learning a language through group classes is that you will be able to interact with your classmates; you will be able to participate in discussions, share your different views, learn to work with a group and most importantly, learn from each other’s strengths and weaknesses in your target language. The downside with group classes is that you might not learn what you specifically want to learn about the language and your progress and weaknesses might not be closely evaluated since there are many of you in the class who need the teacher’s attention.

One-to-One Classes
One-to-one or individual language classes are tailor-made courses which can be designed to a student’s own request. A one-to-one language course can be combined with the language needs identified during the diagnostic assessment and interview. The student will have the attention of the language teacher all to himself or herself! The course follows a set curriculum and the time and pace of the lessons will be adapted to the schedule of the student. This type of language learning course is ideal for students who are willing to learn the language in a longer period of time as long as it accommodates their time and comfort.

The main benefit of taking up a one-to-one language course is that you will be given close supervision by your language teacher. Other advantages include your faster development with one on one conversation and the intensive grammar support you receive in your target language; your teacher will be able to check up on your errors and your progress in real time compared to group classes where the teacher wouldn’t be able to identify each student’s individual progress. The disadvantage of a one-to-one course is that you will be interacting only with your teacher. You might get too accustomed to your teachers expressions, vocabulary and pronunciation. There is a possibility you might not enjoy your teacher’s company if you could not establish good rapport with each other. Also, usually one to one courses are more expensive than group courses.

Now that you know some of the pros and cons, you can take your pick between group classes and one-on-one courses and choose the one which you think will help you learn effectively and quickly. However, there is another type of program you might want to consider if you find it available in your prospected language school.

Combined Language Courses
There are some language schools offer combined language classes which incorporates the benefits of group classes together with the benefits of a one-to-one course. Language learners who want to focus on particular areas of their target language may tackle them during the individual lessons and they may also enjoy the dynamic activities and interactions during the group classes.

Whatever type of language course you plan to take, think things over carefully and decide on the course you think you will enjoy more. After all, if you are having fun, it will be easier to learn and improve your languages skills.

Language learning is an interesting investment because you can be assured that learning a target language will be very useful for you in the future. Nowadays there are so many ways and methods to learn a language and each technique may produce different results for each language learner. Have you ever tried or would you want to try learning a language through performing arts, such as acting?

Learning languages through arts is a creative and original way to become fluent in a language. The Slovak National Theater or the SND has recently hosted several experienced experts from various European theaters in Nottingham, Berlin, Helsinki, Saint-Etienne, and Hamburg; these experts gave lectures and led workshops on joining Theater – Education – Art, a unique European educational project. The project took place during the last weekend of February 2009 and its goal was to exchange experiences about connecting theater with school, educating through theater, and various creative ways of education.

One of those who teach foreign languages through drama is Steven Clark. He is a teacher of English as a foreign language, a French teacher and also gives classes of theater studies. He has stated that, drama is like a language. He uses drama to teach languages through his basic idea for students to forget about one’s identity and overcome shyness, to let go of inhibitions and feeling guilty for not saying or doing things properly, and to enjoy and take pleasure in exploring a foreign language.

Communication is a major key in learning a language; through the performing arts many emotions are reflected and eventually lead to better communication. For example in drama, a single eye contact can draw out a lot of emotions such as aggressiveness, friendship, hostility, solidarity, and trust among others. Through these emotions you can establish rapport with other people and communicate through actions, interaction, and eventually through language exchange.

Steven Clark has said that the feeling of human belonging is essential when it comes to learning a language because we humans sometimes need to communicate abstract and sophisticated stuff in a way that is fair to other people. If people who have performing arts as their common ground, they should start working from it and explore the possibility of learning new languages.

If you’re interest in the subject you can read our post on learning languages through music.

Learning languages is very interesting yet when you are still on the initial stages of learning you may become eager to immediately understand what you are reading or listening to. On the internet there are various language translators which may guide you as you enrich yourself with the language you are learning and most of them have helped a lot of people in translating webpages and texts.

The following are just some of the many online language translators, their features, and some of their advantages and disadvantages.

Babel Fish – used to be powered by AltaVista and now by Yahoo!, Babel Fish is among the pioneering translation tools on the web. The site allows translations in Simplified and Traditional Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. It also allows embedding of a widget on your personal site to enable your readers to translate your site content into the language they prefer. Babel Fish is a powerful online tool yet it doesn’t assure accurate human translation since it is an automated translator that uses a machine to translate words.

Babylon – it is a free online translation site which supports more than seventy-five languages. The service of this translator is aimed to help users gain the basic understanding of texts in an unfamiliar language. The service of Babylon has been tried and tested many times over yet they admit that there are times that the translations have pitfalls perhaps due to inaccurate translations. Among the languages supported by Babylon include Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Turkish.

Google Translate – this online language translator powered by Google now supports translations in five hundred six language pairs and is one of the most comprehensive online translation tools available for free. As most translation sites don’t give perfect translations, Google Translate has the same weakness however it makes understanding the central ideas of the text easier. The languages supported by Google Translate include Albanian, Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, Galician, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese.

Nice Translator – it is a quick online translation service which allows you to translate text between thirty-six languages. When using this site all you have to do is select one or more languages you want to translate into then type or paste in the stuff you want to be translated, press the Enter key then everything will be translated in a snap! What is so nice about Nice Translator is that it auto-detects the language you are translating from and translate it into your selected languages right away. The site does not require registration and it has an easy to use and clean interface. In Nice Translator you can translate text to and from Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech, Danish, English, Dutch, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Greek,Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Lithuanian, Latvian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Polish, Russian, Romanian, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. A lot of people who use Nice Translator think it is more than just nice because its translations are superb and almost accurate and it also has plugins and widgets which you can embed in your website or blog.

SDL FreeTranslation.com – it is a free translation site which allows users to translate text and web pages in various languages. It is one of the popular translation sites online having an estimate of two million visitors a week. It supports Chinese, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish languages.

There are more language translators out there on the web which may or may not offer the same kind of services, features and satisfaction to its users. Online translation tools are very useful especially when there is immediate need to translate important things. However, bear in mind that these online tools are automated and cannot assure you perfect or accurate translations all the time.

Read more about some add-ons in firefox that help you translate and learn languages online.

According to the results of our Poll of the Month, this article is about online tools that you can use to learn a language. There are many sites where you can find tools, but this article does not cover them all. We will only discuss some tools that we believe to be innovative and that use a practical methodology to learn languages on the Internet. All of these tools are completely free to use.

The first tool that we will discuss can help you improve your English pronunciation and knowledge of phonetics. The website has a variety of educational activities such as cards, games, pictures, etc., that will allow you to learn and practice the language using fun and entertaining resources. This website has been nominated by British Council ELTON awards in 2008.
You can visit this site @ http://cambridgeenglishonline.com/Phonetics_Focus/.

The second site is that we will talk about is www.bbc.co.uk/languages/. Here you will be able to find courses for beginners in various languages. Some of these languages are English, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Greek and Portuguese. In this site, you have the option to study grammar, vocabulary, and you can freely download or listen online to key phrases of the language. This site is ideal to begin studying any of the languages that they have available.

Another cool website is www.vocabulix.com. In this site you can go through different exercises on vocabulary and verb conjugation with Vocabulix. The languages you can learn here are German, English and Spanish. So for people who already speak one of these languages, this site will be useful, since it uses one these three languages to translate the verbs and vocabulary you are studying. This site can track your progress, so as you go through the vocabulary exercises, lessons become more complex and advanced in each language.

Also, we would like to recommend the online translator: http://www.nicetranslator.com/, which is developed by Tumble. This is an effective translator, since it uses Google translation API, which is one of the best online translators available. The main difference with Google’s online translator is that Nice Translator has an improved interface for translating text on the Web and you can translate one language into several languages at once. Tumble also has available several web widgets and plugins that you can download and install on your Blog or web.

I hope these tools will be useful for you in learning other languages. We will continue to search for more information about other tools on the Internet. If anyone has used any of these online tools can give his/her opinion about them or if you want, you can recommend other tools as well.

Please read our article about a tool that automatically translates conversations in chats -  meglobe.