We know it's good to learn another language. It opens doors, makes you more employable, helps you make new friends, and it's fun, too. But to improve our linguistic (语言) skills, many of us have to stand hours of school lessons or evening classes, with our heads buried in textbooks. It's no wonder that technology appears to be providing a better and more accessible way of learning.
There is certainly a huge demand for language learning, and having a smart phone means you can have a virtual teacher with you wherever you go. Many app developers are keen to cash in on the demand, and there are numerous learning apps available— including our own, free, BBC Learning English app!
Some educational apps offer languages not popular enough to be taught at evening classes, or at most universities. And others offer "invented" language courses in Esperanto, Elvish and Star Trek's Klingon— lessons you might not find in a traditional classroom.
Whatever you want to learn, apps allow you to go at your own pace and fit learning around other commitments. But they're not perfect— you might not get your head round the grammar and will lack the peer support you get in a classroom environment.
So, does technology take the place of the end of traditional classrooms and teachers? Guy Baron, head of modern languages at Aberystwyth University, thinks not. He told the BBC that apps should be used alongside classroom methods, not to remove traditional teaching. And he adds: "The apps are not designed for degrees, but they could be additional resources."
Certainly technology is going to help in and outside the classroom. But attending a real lesson, facing a real teacher, probably forces you to be more involved.
