Language learning has never been more fun, thanks to technology. With a slew of messaging apps available online, it’s so much easier now to get connected with other language learners around the world.
The thing is, however, not every app is made equal. Some lack features that can aid efficiency in handling heavy communication, while others don’t have the bandwidth to take care of a growing community.
Luckily, one messaging app stands out when it comes to aiding language learning: Discord. What is Discord? How does it work? And how exactly does it make language learning and online meetups more efficient and fun?
What is Discord?
Discord is a messaging platform that offers text, voice, and video capabilities.
Originally created for video gaming communities, the platform has expanded its reach to other communities as well, including language learning groups.
With Discord, you can create chat rooms—otherwise called servers—where like-minded people can socialize, meetup, or collaborate.
Discord can be accessed both on desktop and mobile for free. For desktop, the platform runs on Windows, macOS, Linux, and through web browsers. For mobile, it’s available for Android and iOS.
How is Discord different from other social media messaging platforms?
Think of Discord as a combination of the chat-based app Slack and the video-and-voice-chat platform Skype—only better.
Discord has two unique features that make it different from other social messaging platforms:
- Conversations are on an opt-in basis – You need to get invited to a server through a unique link; however, there are also semi-public servers available.
- Each server can be organized with separate channels – Within a server, it can be further chunked into separate channels for better organization. This feature, in particular, is what makes it an ideal place for online language learning meetups.
How does Discord work?
Joining Discord is quite easy and intuitive:
- Users can join a private server through a unique invite link. Alternatively, users can search for semi-public servers as well.
- Once you’re in, you can converse with other members in the server any way you like: through text chat, group voice chat, or one-on-one video chat. There’s even a screen sharing feature called “Go Live” should you have the need to show people what you’re talking about.
How is Discord beneficial when it comes to language learning?
Language Garden is a community created for and by language learners, which offers language learning meetups and other helpful resources.
As a supplement to our usual regular get-togethers, we have been using Discord as an online meetup place to further our language learning practice.
What makes Discord an ideal place for language learning over all other messaging platforms we have used is that we can create separate channels, text, and voice, for each language.
Some channels are further organized into voice chats according to the level of language proficiency: basic or intermediate.
And with the breadth of functionalities that Discord offers, users can learn a language in a variety of ways:
- Chat – This can help language learners polish their grammar, as well as learn the writing system of a certain language in a more interactive way.
- Voice – This works well especially when it’s difficult for learners to meet up in person. Voice chats are also a great way to improve your diction, pronunciation, and understanding of the nuances of a spoken language.
To date, we have channels for the following languages:
- English
- Mandarin
- Japanese
- Spanish
- German
- Korean
- Portuguese
- Italian
- Esperanto
- French
- Vietnamese
- Indonesian
- Russian
- Arabic
- Taiwanese
- Cantonese
- Thai
Join our community on Discord!
LinguaVirtua has an active community on Discord! If you want to start learning a new language online, join us through the invite link here: https://discord.gg/PSVvNVh