Foreign language learning is nothing new to most people; most think of it is part of personal improvement and it is what most people invest their time, effort and money in, in order to achieve the ability to communicate with more people. There are so many ways to learn foreign languages some are traditional while the others are more up to date with the latest technological tools. Language learning through language schools, through online courses and software, and through other practical tools are just some of the many ways to learn a foreign language.

Learning languages online happens to be the most practical nowadays especially for people who spend a lot of their time in front of their computers. Most language courses and lessons online are free and are easy to understand. Aside from websites and software, are you aware that there are some people who are learning foreign languages through Twitter?

Twitter is one of the leading free social networking and microblogging sitesin the world today and it has millions of users. The service enables users to send and read other users’ one hundred forty-character updates which are also known as tweets. Twitter is being used not only to post updates but also to follow updates by other users.

Now how is it possible to learn a foreign language through Twitter? Search for users which offer language learning tutorials and tips! There are Twitter users who offer their language learning tutorials for free and there are some who promote their language learning personal websites, blogs, and services through their tweets.

How are you going to search for Twitter users who promote the learning of foreign languages? One of the helpful tools to search for users is to visit TweetGrid and type in what you want to search for example, “learn English” or other similar terms. A list of users and their respective tweets with the keywords you are searching for will show up and give you and idea on who you should check out or follow, and who gives the best lessons or services in language learning.

So is it really possible to learn languages on Twitter? Yes and no. The disadvantage with language learning on Twitter is that it is not recommended for total beginners. If you are new to language learning, don’t expect that you will automatically understand everything about the language. Some users will discuss vocabulary and grammar but you might have a hard time understanding it since the allowable one hundred forty character tweet is quite limited. You will be lucky though if there is a link to a site which explains the lessons further.

If you are one of those who already have a basic knowledge of the language you are learning, Twitter helps you enhance what you already know. Following the updates of users in your target language will help you exercise you comprehension skills of the language. If you have a hard time understanding words and phrases, you can send direct messages to the users you are following and kindly ask them to explain to you.

Twitter is the “in” thing nowadays, and maybe you should try out learning languages through it. If you have tried it out already, please share your experiences with us.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 1:03 pm and is filed under Languages and Medias, Learning Methods. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.