For the longest time, I’ve dreamed of being able to speak in several languages. Why? For one, I love to visit interesting places and learn other cultures. Knowing another language is a big plus in traveling. I think it is also really advantageous career-wise for someone to be proficient in more than one language. Plus, excuse the little kid in me, but I think it’s really cool to be multilingual, right?!
Right now, I’m bilingual. I speak English and Filipino quite well. But I’d really like to learn three more: Spanish, Japanese, and Italian. I was able to learn basic Spanish back in college. Over the years, I’ve been trying to improve on it.For Japanese, I got an introduction to the culture and language when I taught English to Japanese students a few years ago. One of my dear students gave me a grammar book as a parting gift. Unfortunately, I got to skim through it only a few times. With Italian, well, my progress is dismally slow. I could basically say, goodbye and hello plus a few other words I occasionally forget. I know my brain cells definitely need a language boost.
Most of the time, I’ve relied on books to brush up on these languages but I must admit, it has become increasingly difficult through the years. I needed something to go with my busy schedule as an employee and now, as a stay at home mom. I also wanted some interaction because learning a foreign language by yourself can be boring at times.
So, when I saw a post in one of my online groups about a FREE social language learning app called Hello Pal, I got intrigued and excited too.
Interestingly, Hello Pal allows you to chat with people in a foreign language in real time! This means, if I’m trying to learn Spanish, I could chat with someone online in Mexico! Isn’t that great?
I immediately downloaded it from Google Play and was ecstatic that it was relatively easy to use. First, I needed to fill in my profile with my name, a photo, the languages I can speak and the language I am learning ( screenshots from here on are from my mobile phone):
Then, I searched for pals fluent in Spanish. There were several people that came up and I chose randomly. I clicked the chat button and started engaging in a conversation with native speakers.It was unbelievably that simple!
10 things I love about the Hello Pal app:
· I get to talk with a native speaker in real time! I was able to communicate with someone in Mexico and Japan.
· I can instantly switch languages by using first-in-the-world phrasebooks depending on my needs. I could change languages depending on who I’m talking to. You just need to click the flag button at the bottom left of the screen to change the language phrasebook.
· I found my pals according to my own criteria. For example, I was able to choose their gender (female) and age group (25-35). You can even choose the current location of your language pal.
· I can easily practice listening and speaking during chats. I get to improve my pronunciation by listening intently to professionally recorded audio using the phrasebooks. Furthermore, The microphone button allows me to record,review and send voice messages.
· It has great built in translation tools! When I was talking to a Japanese person, I just clicked on her message and it gave me an option to translate into words or characters. So, I was able to follow the conversation with my newfound Japanese pal.
· The customizable phrases help me effortlessly change words in sentences depending on the flow of conversation. For instance with the sentence” I live in the city of Los Angeles.” I could change the underlined word with “Manila”. This makes small talk a lot easier.
· The cute emoticons make the conversations livelier.
· Play and discover icons add excitement to language learning. These buttons found at the bottom of the interface allow me to test my vocabulary and find additional resources.
· Since it’s an app, it’s as handy as my mobile phone. I don’t need big bulky books and CDs to continue learning anymore. I can learn even while doing housework. I can also skip dreaded grammar lessons in favor of practical and conversational phrases.
· Best of all, it’s FREE! As a budget conscious mommy, this is a great feature! I don’t need to spend more money on classes and books just to learn a foreign language.
The truth is, I don’t know if I’d ever be a polyglot.But for now, I’m just happy having a great app that allows me to speak a foreign language without much effort.I could learn in just minutes!
How bout you? Do you want a new and hassle free way to learn a new language? Are you itching to practice what you’ve learned with a live native speaker? Hello Pal is just a click away!
I have a friend who studied Korean and also went to Korea to study language. She was using an app called Hello Talk. It's almost the same as this except for the name. Both are really interesting and helpful! I hope this is also downloadable for iOS. 😀
Just like you mate, I also had a dream of speaking a language or two part from our mother tongue. Specifically , Spanish. I love this language just like you do. It's very romantic to the ear. I'm glad you found this app for easy way of learning.
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This is so amazing! I wanted to learn different languages also, just the basics and this is a good start. Thanks for sharing!
This I a cool app. You are learning other language at the same time making new friend. I will download this app and update you on it 🙂
Languages have always been a passion. I know a couple of dialects having lived in Vis-Min, and of course Filipino. I'm trying to learn French–but when you speak it, sometimes the local get too fast and all you can say is 'je parle tout un petit peu francais'! haha plus they can't help but find my accent 'too cute'–(this means, it's bad) My app of choice is Duolingo, but the more language apps, I can get, the better 🙂
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I've never known that there is an app like that! YAY! I'll download that later. I've also wanted to try and learn other languages. Especially French and Spanish I hope through this app I can do that 🙂
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Hello, pal! Thank you for this! Been wanting to learn other languages as well but I am not sure if 1) im too busy to find a schedule or 2) i am too busy trying to catch more sleep should I find the time. But anyway, this is cool. Would want to learn Japanese, French and German. Japanese as husband is learning and I would want to converse with him in japanese and somehow gulatin sya. Eheh. French as I find it too sexy. And German simple because I would want to visit Berlin someday and I need to learn a few German words to survive.
This is amazing. I am surely gonna learn a couple of new languages from this app. I have been meaning to learn Spanish too
This is awesome! I already know Mandarin and French aside from our vernacular language which is English and Filipino. However, reading & writing is truly different from speaking it. I'm definitely downloading this app since I want to be better at speaking Mandarin and French. -Me-An of http://yogoandcream.com
This is sooooo cool! I am now trying to learn Spanish too and this would be a great help. I did learn a new language last year but thru courses which is a bit costly. I will dowload the App now! Thank you for sharing this. 🙂
I'm so glad i found this post! This is an amazing idea. I really need to practice my Italian more and this is the perfect way to do so. Plus, you get to meet cool new people. I really really like this
Hey this is so cool! I would love to try this app too. It does pay to learn a few foreign languages and as it is, I have an international business, so yeah, I am giving this app a spin.
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Oh my! <3 I didn't know that such an App existed! 🙂 Thank you so much for this.