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[Top Photo: Associate brand manager Jacob De Leon, 27, speaking to a Japanese chef at Akanoya Robatayaki Japanese restaurant. Jacob picked up Japanese so that he would be able to communicate with the locals or order food properly whenever he heads to Japan for work.]
By Cheryl Tan
Language classes have gone hi-tech. Translation: You can now learn languages online and in real time, like in a private tuition setting.
Forget lessons in the classroom or listening to language tapes. That is so old English.
Nowadays, there are online courses teaching just about any lingo you like, ranging from fee-based types to free. The demand for such online classes in Singapore is still in its infancy, but in terms of supply, a simple Google search throws up a wide range.
They include online language courses from established brick-and-mortar organisations here such as the German cultural centre, Goethe-Institut, and Berlitz.
As well as individualised learning modules, the laptop language lessons offer an abundance of course material ranging from flash cards to videos to games.
The ability to log on and learn at a time that suits the individual particularly appeals to time-pressed professionals such as Dr Yvonne Kwee. She decided to pick up basic German for fun and paid $1,400 for an online beginner course in September last year at the Goethe-Institut, instead of its usual classes.
'I've a busy work schedule and when I saw this option, I thought it would give me the flexibility to learn from home and whenever I wanted,' says the family physician, who declined to give her age.
Her four-module course is structured around a story which 'makes it fun to learn' and has quizzes after each module to test how much she had learnt, she says.
'It's like completing an actual class. And after the course, you can take an exam to show that you have mastered a certain level of proficiency,' she adds.
Besides Goethe in Singapore, language schools such as Berlitz have their own online classes.
The pick-up here, however, has been slow so far. At Goethe, only eight people have signed up for its online Redaktion D course which was started in 2006.
Its head of language department Anja Geissel says such courses are more flexible and 'ideal for people who travel a lot' but cannot replace interaction with a real teacher and coursemates.
But specialised language courses are pimping up their online lessons with impressive interactive features that include live chats with tutors.
International e-learning platforms such as Rosetta Stone, which is based in the United States, launched its TOTALe product last July which not only allows live chats with tutors, but also has an online community where users play games and chat in the languages that they are learning.
The US$999 (S$1,390) 12-month online course, to be available here later this year, offers 31 language packs ranging from Arabic to Korean. Its spokesman says the software teaches a new language 'by immersion, rather than translation and memorisation drills'.
Despite the fancy gizmos, language teachers in schools are confident that the demand for classroom learning will continue. A spokesman for Ikoma Language School, which specialises in teaching Japanese, Mandarin and English, says: 'Although online learning may be suitable for one-to-one private tuition, it will never be able to replace the classroom setting.'
She adds that apart from teachers being able to correct a student's pronunciation on the spot, those attending group lessons can 'benefit from their classmates' questions as well as interacting with others'.
For Filipino-American Jacob De Leon, 27, e-learning lets him learn at his own pace. The associate brand manager decided to pick up Japanese with Rosetta Stone because of his work trips to Tokyo. Classroom settings make him 'nervous because of the expectations' and he is 'embarrassed' when he makes mistakes.
His US$220 course, which comes with a CD-Rom and headset, has a speech-recognition program that ensures users repeat sentences accurately.
He says: 'It doesn't spur you to learn quickly. But this is a more gradual way of picking up a language and at a pace that I'm comfortable with.'
This article was first published in The Straits Times.
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