How can I learn a language without staring at a screen all day?

[Sonjaconjota]

A couple of things that have not been mentioned yet, I think:
- paper flashcards
- making your own language learning games and activities, like pelmanism, grammar wheels / vocabulary wheels, paper puzzles, cut-up sentences that you have to put into the right order again etc.



-story cubes: https://www.storycubes.com/en/
- Sentence drills through writing or speaking as suggested here:
https://www.cipolyglot.com/become-fluent
- speaking with a language assistant like Alexa
- podcasts / audiobooks + shadowing

[Stefan]

You mentioned language events over zoom but have you considered other interests? There are over a million public Discord servers, covering all kind of subjects and languages. There are 261 just in language learning. Even this forum has one. Join the voice chat in one of them and you might be able to talk about your other interests with native speakers. Download the app to your smartphone and put on a pair of headphones and you can speak while walking or sitting outdoors.

Server database: https://disboard.org/

[mentecuerpo]

Listening to audio files is one way.

I can't watch the screen all day, but part of the day.

I buy as many language CDs, then I ripped them to mp3, put them in my dropbox, sync the dropbox with my smart android phone, and listen to the MP3's over and over, mixing them daily as no to get bored. I like it so far.

I use Spotify and listen to playlists of songs in my target language, and I like it too.

By the way, language CDs are evolutionary becoming extinct. For example, teach yourself no longer offers CDs. So I buy used language CDs on eBay.

For example, for the Teach Yourself series, You have to use an App on your phone or live stream from their website. You have to be tech-savvy to find the downloaded android files before you can transfer the MP3s to your pc, if you want a copy away from your smart phone (My son helped me, it was not easy). So annoying, really "Teach Yourself Series"?

[einzelne]

Here's what I do:

- Read paper books
- Print out required materials (textbooks, transcripts, books etc)
- Use e-readers with pop-up dictionaries
- (No longer possible since quizlet removed this feature): print flashcard as worldlist for vocabulary reviewing
- Listen to audio (books, podcasts etc) and shadow it
- Read and retell technique for practicing active skills.

If you get easily distracted while opening your digital devices but still need them (for instance, I think, going back to paper dictionaries is not an option), just switch off the Internet when you use them while studying.

[DaveAgain]

(for instance, I think, going back to paper dictionaries is not an option)

Online/software dictionaries are certainly a lot quicker for lookups than paper dictionaries, and I wouldn't want to use a paper dictionary if I was reading something with lots of unknown words, but I do use one sometimes.

[MorkTheFiddle]

(for instance, I think, going back to paper dictionaries is not an option)

Online/software dictionaries are certainly a lot quicker for lookups than paper dictionaries, and I wouldn't want to use a paper dictionary if I was reading something with lots of unknown words, but I do use one sometimes.

While reading on Kindle, I always keep a paperback dictionary handy because a word sometimes flummoxes Kindle dictionaries (French, Spanish). Alas on occasion the paperback fails as well. When I am really stumped and curious, I head for a hardback bilingual dictionary, and if that fails, a monolingual dictionary. For French the mono I use is Le nouveau petit Robert (2010), for Spanish, El pequeño Larousse ilustrado (2016). I do not have a tablet, my two laptops are too awkward, and the desktop seems like overkill just to look up a word.