Learning Languages through a VPN: A Powerful Language Learning Tool

hi everyone it's jazz cole and i'm here

with another video on how you can take a

vpn and make that work for you as a

language learning resource tool

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so

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so i i feel like vpns are a very

powerful tool because

many people use vpns because they're

trying to you know make sure that their

internet is sick internet connections

are secure

um sometimes people like to change it so

they can like unblock content that's not

available in the us especially like on

netflix

but i want to just show you like a few

different ways that how a vpn can

actually work for you

in in your language learning process as

much as i would love to say that you

know netflix is great and being able to

watch content from all over the world

there's nothing wrong with that but i

will just say that having a vpn will

actually give you will give you access

to local content that's actually free

for example one of my favorite programs

that i actually love is tf1 it is a

french broadcasting station but it's

basically you can act it's only

available in france so you can switch

your location to france and you can

basically watch it that's how i got

addicted to mammals

which is a reality tv show about

influencer moms

and it's like the best thing i love it

um and i don't have to pay anything out

of i don't have to pay for netflix or

subscription for that and with having a

vpn and being able to change that

location you're able to search for

content that's not

how to learn a language so to say

because

like for me whenever i like for example

for our website i was looking for a lot

of uh podcast recommendations that would

be able to authentically help you learn

how people speak in these actual

languages and

it's like you when when you are in the

us it's always like best podcast to

learn italian and it's always some

podcast like a list of podcasts that

actually teach you

whatever the language is but i don't

want to really like be taught like these

little things i want to actually learn

authentically and be exposed to these

different things so i'll get access to

like if i ask for italian podcasts i

will find so many podcasts that actually

locals are listening to that i can

actually start hearing

um so that like when i'm traveling to

that country i'm not

so surprised at certain dialogue and

certain slang and certain things i'm

aware of that

just that as a as an example you you

want to really just start training your

brain to start recognizing things your

brain is kind of like a

a sponge it's it's where you know you

are it's like when you're a baby you

learn your language not by oh let's sit

down and let's have a grammar lesson

it's like no you learn it because that's

what you're surrounded by and your brain

has the ability to expand its

neuroplasticity

so that you can actually obtain new

information such as a language like like

for example one time i was looking for

italian podcasts and i managed to find

like with my without a vpn i would just

find

like

podcasts to

learn best learn italian and it's not

like things i want to listen to like

radio stations i want to listen to them

talk about things that i care about you

know

um you know i remember i found a one

podcast it's a it's a french podcast but

it is um

it's called mini um

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i will put it in there and the link to

all these podcasts are all linked below

as well but it was a meditation

podcast and it was in french and so i'm

like wow i can meditate and like listen

to french because

why not you know and being able to even

find like resources like yoga because i

love to do that being able to learn the

terms so let's say if i go back to

friends and i just want to take a yoga

class i can understand what they're

trying to teach me you know um if you're

really interested in like things like um

i don't know like politics like finding

things that are actually going to

give you enhance your vocabulary about

things that you care about so that you

can talk about them with people and you

know all these different things there's

one podcast that i am very skeptical

about using it's like news and slow

french news and slow spanish and they

have it in like spain spanish and then

latin american spanish news and slow

german that's great to get caught up on

current events and to be able to learn i

think that's great for beginners but

when you just start like i'm learning

the basics and i just want to you know

keep going i don't know where to go from

here you need to just make sure that

you're looking for things that are going

to expose you to these different

scenarios um i actually feel like it's

great if you really love reading blogs

like if reading is

like if reading is a skill that you

really want to work on

you can actually find really good blog

posts that are available um you know or

you know just blog sites that might may

interest you and that's actually how i

found this site it's called amazon

it is a very good

very

aesthetically pleasing

blog site that's specifically for

traveling and i actually use some of the

passages to actually teach some of my

students about how people actually write

in the french language

um from a native speaker's point of view

i know that um also you can get out of

like the

algorithms like because the way it is is

that there's a separate algorithm for

like google searches in the us versus

like let's say belgium so if i'm

searching for something in

in the like for example in the us like

with italian podcasts because typically

people are finding or trying to find

podcasts that teach them italian so

that's why you're going to find those

resources

but with those like with changing your

location to that local setting you're

going to be able to have access to

what are locals looking for what kinds

of resources are coming up for them in

their searches um also what's helpful is

like if you're watching things on

youtube

all of the ads are in the target

language of

or in the native language that that

location is corresponding to and i think

that's also a great culture too because

you can also look at like marketing how

um their commercials are because i

noticed that even in like friends their

commercials are a lot different than

ours in terms of like what they're

advertising and how they're advertising

it and not only that but you can also

see like what products or like what

things you like are available like

in that country so you're not like oh

like wow you have

like this mug and i've never seen this

mug before i mean i'm sure they have

mugs but as an example it's like oh like

that's so interesting it's like

it's just something that for them is

just normal but you actually get a sense

of culture like merchandising um you

know there you get the sense of

like how they advertise their products

because if you're like trying to use

that in your career for example you are

like really into you know marketing

that can be really helpful especially

like if you're working for like a

company that is looking to expand into

international uh international markets

so you really want to be able to pay

attention to those kinds of things

and it was it's actually really funny

there's a book that is also recommended

on our book club section on our website

uh it's called monsieur mediocre um how

it's like one american learns the high

art of being friend like everyday french

i'm not sure about the full title but i

remember reading it and he was talking

about how he was he was writing uh like

like um like they were going over like

marketing uh strategies for marketing

their wine to americans and he's like

yeah like why not it's like instead of

saying like why not it's like don't be a

why no

like

be a why yes and they're like

we don't get it you know and you know

they didn't get it but you know it's

like those kinds of like marketing

things like you know especially like i

said in

like expanding into global

opportunities so i mean i think that

there's so many different ways to make a

vpn work for you i personally use

nordvpn but i think like whatever vpn

you use

will definitely like work as long as

you're able to connect to those websites

or to those locations that will really

help you be able to find authentic

sources so that you can

learn the language the way it actually

is spoken and it's communicated not from

textbooks because textbooks are boring i

don't know about you but when i was in

high school i hated reading textbooks

like it's like like those like um i had

a teacher that made like gave us those

like guided readings it's like you read

and you fill out the blank but i never

actually read it i just went through and

just looked for the answers and the

sections

you know

um my final tip is that with a vpn you

want to make sure that your internet

connection is strong enough to handle it

um generally like i've had like i

remember when i was an au pair in

germany i was like in the part of the

house that um got like the worst

internet connection so i wasn't able to

always use it in my room um or

yeah it wasn't really always i was able

to use it off my phone but not my

computer like that's something to take

consideration i know like like in public

spaces like airports and

cafes they typically have an air like a

connection that's strong enough so just

make sure that you're

able to have a good connection in order

to use it so

thank you so much for watching i really

hope this is helpful and i wish you the

best with your language learning

experience

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