Original link: http://catcoding.me/p/new_english_tools/
Recently, I discovered some new good tools for learning English, and by the way, I would like to share some of my experience.
Discord English group
There are many English practice groups on Discord. We can join in and chat with language learners from all over the world. There are rooms with more than three or four people, or two people can chat one-on-one.
This method is what he told me when communicating with a reader, he improved his oral English in a short period of time and finally succeeded in the interview. I have been using Discord to practice speaking for a month and a half, and I think it works very well.
Probably because of the time zone, most of them are people from Asia and Central European countries, such as Indonesia, India, Thailand, Turkey, Russia, etc. According to my statistics, most of them are college students, and there are also many high school students. Although these people are not native speakers of English, most of them are better than the average English learner in China.
You may have seen some people use software such as OME tv to practice English at station B, but if you try it yourself, you will know that this is not suitable for practicing English, because you will meet a lot of strange people, and the time cost is too high. It’s big, and it’s hard to stop for some more in-depth topics.
I also used to pay to improve my speaking on Cambly, but now I think that way is too formal. Using Discord is more casual. By default, you don’t need to see the other party. All your attention is focused on listening and speaking, and there is no psychological pressure to make mistakes. It is suitable for people like me who are somewhat socially phobic. Sometimes I chat with people while hiking, and now I can communicate in English more fluently in many aspects. Most of our chats are about daily topics. If we meet some computer-related practitioners and students, we can also chat about technical matters.
Another benefit is being able to communicate with people from different countries and cultural backgrounds, so as to gain different feelings and understand the world more deeply. In addition to some common countries, I have also chatted with people from countries such as Mongolia, Egypt, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Yemen.
I was more impressed by a junior high school student in Yemen who said she could not go to school because of the civil war in her country. I didn’t know that the country of Yemen was still so turbulent. After I came back, I searched for some background. I also met an Egyptian who works as a customer service and he wanted to learn English because English customer service pays more and he didn’t go out for almost a month because he was disabled and I was walking outside so Turn on the video and broadcast him the people coming and going in the community. I have met young Russians. He said that he hates his government very much now and is trying to escape from Russia by all means. I have also met some pure language lovers who can speak several languages fluently and have strong imitation ability.
Some people will add a friend if they chat more speculatively, so as to keep in touch in the future. Because they are both language learners, most of them are more patient. Sometimes the expression is not clear, and some people will share the screen to explain to others. If I’m in front of the screen, I like to open Google Reality and chat with each other about the country and city they live in.
Like most Chinese students, my oral English has always been weak even though my English reading and writing skills are not bad. Language is a skill. If you master the basic grammar, you will not be so rigid. Even if the pronunciation is not standard, it is not a big problem. Normal and fluent expression requires a lot of self-confidence, and if there is no practice, you will not To get that confidence, if you practice enough, there is no mental translation process when you express it.
Building Your English Brain is a very good course. The process of building self-confidence lies in your ability to fully grasp simple words and use them proficiently. Sentence making is a good way to exercise, and chatting with people is the most natural way.
Tracy plugin
Youtube is the best English database, where you can find many different levels of video materials. Tracy for Chrome | Master a new language in an enjoyable way This plugin allows you to enter several different modes to learn English, such as follow-up, quizzes, etc.
This is a plug-in that caught my eye recently. It is especially suitable for practicing oral English with Youtube materials by using shadow and reading methods: 
This plug-in is still being updated. Now we can simulate many scenarios, read along and get a score. If there are unfamiliar words, they will be automatically marked. 
Immersive Translation Plugin
This plug-in immersive-translate is suitable for reading some relatively long English articles. I sometimes use it to read NewsHacker and the like. But I don’t recommend keeping this plugin open all the time, but just try it when you want to browse articles quickly. Because if you have been relying on this kind of translation, it is not easy to develop the habit of reading English.
Various GPT and AI tools
The translation level of ChatGPT surpasses most translation tools, and I will ask ChatGPT to help me polish it when I write a little longer English now.
I also tried the AI chat software myshell before, but since I used Discord to chat with real people, I feel that AI tools are not interesting. It is more interesting to chat with live people. Even if the pronunciation of people is not as clear and smooth as AI, but that kind of The sharing of emotional feelings and life experiences between people cannot be replaced by AI.
Learning a language is like opening up a world, and discovering a new way of learning is like opening up a world. If you have any good learning methods and tools, please share with me.
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