What You Need to Know About Popular Software – Yiddish Language Learning Software
There are thousands of human languages, many of which can be learnt by computer. In fact one company, The Transparent Language, offers computer-learning software for over one hundred languages ranging from Afrikaans (a language spoken by whites in South Africa) to Zulu (a language spoken by blacks in South Africa). They offer languages whose names start with 25 letters of the alphabet, O is the only exception. This article examines software associated with the Yiddish language but many issues and features can be carried over to numerous other languages.
Yiddish was once spoken by approximately 11 million people mostly in Europe, Israel, North America, and South America. Present estimates are about 3 million speakers, many of whom are quite elderly. Yiddish developed from German dialects. Since the 13th century, written Yiddish has used a variation of the Hebrew alphabet containing 22 letters. Yiddish is written from right to left. Yiddish nouns are masculine, feminine, or neuter. Yiddish pronouns, articles, and adjectives change form for different cases. Yiddish verbs are conjugated to show person and tense. Furthermore pronunciation can vary sharply from one dialect to another. All these factors make it relatively difficult to learn this language.
Yiddish vocabulary has come from many sources, including German, Hebrew, various Slavic languages and, recently, English. Many Yiddish words have entered the English vocabulary. As with many other languages, vocabulary exchange is a two-way street.
One major aspect of learning a language is pronunciation. Computer software can be a great help in mastering this difficult task. Many software programs correct your pronunciation. Unlike human teachers, the program will never tire of hearing your mistakes. You can access these programs at your convenience and not spend any time in traveling to the teacher’s home. Remember, skilled Yiddish speakers and consequently teachers tend to be elderly. Do you feel like reviewing your lessons a half hour before bedtime? This is no problem for the computer but isn’t an option for your teacher who lives across town or even next door.
Many software packages come with a variety of games, quizzes, and other learning materials. Sophisticated programs track your progress, analyze your errors, and make individualized suggestions. Additional features include audio tapes for practicing on the way to work, phrase books, and dictionaries.
Electronic translation is also available but at this point I personally question the quality of translating any language by computer. Learning Yiddish, or for that matter, any other language is hard. But the computer can improve the learning process.
The Pro of Using a Language Learning Software
Language learning can be hard if you don’t have the proper learning materials, and a good teacher who can help you to learn understand a particular language that you have taken interest in. However with the aid of a language learning software the process of language learning has been easy and convenient and learners can gain a lot from the software.
The software is quite advantageous because it gives the learner the chance and the comfort to learn a language from the comfort of his or her home. This is very convenient and reliable to learners as they can choose the appropriate time they feel is comfortable for them to learn. Since one does the learning at home it helps one save money since they won’t need to hire a private tutor or pay money to enroll for language learning classes. The software furthermore helps you to improve your reading, writing and speaking skills of your favorite language effectively. This is because when you have the learning materials you can make references as much as you want to, whenever you feel like making some clarification on a particular issue such as pronunciation of words. With the program you can easily pronounce words because it allows you to learn using the latest technology of speech recognition.
Language learning programs help learners to improve on their grammar effectively as they continue to take lessons to be great linguists. It is indeed a language erudition style that gives you the opportunity to learn in your own pace and pleasure. You will be better placed to discover the vocabulary of the language you are interested in and become a better communicator among native speakers of a language. The erudition aid gives an opportunity to fast learners to learn many languages since it offers a variety of them and at a cheap cost owing to the fact that one will spend less and learn more. Language learning software makes your erudition experience quite interesting because it offers interactive games that enable one to have fun while learning as well to make the learning experience more engaging throughout the education period. It offers other programs such as pocket pc, the basics of mp3, and iPods. Therefore the learner can easily take a break and learn great facts on the mentioned programs which help to break monotony of one lesson.