10 Facebook Language Learning Ideas Youll Like or Love

10 Facebook Language Learning Ideas Youll Like or Love 10 Facebook Language Learning Ideas Youll Like or Love Did you know that Bob Dylan is a visual artist?Or that Vladimir Putin can play Russian classics on the piano?Or that Angelina Jolie is a licensed pilot?And hey, did you also know that Facebook is a language learning powerhouse?Yep, you just need to approach it with the right mindset  to fully harness its educational potential.In this post, were going to show you how to master a language through strategic Likes, friendly Follows and other Facebook-based tricks.Below are 10 ways to make your Facebook account burst with language lessons and insights that get a big thumbs-up from us. Learning a Language Through Facebook? For Reals?!We all know Facebook as a social networking site. In fact, its the biggest of them all, surpassing Twitter, Instagram and other social media, with more than 2 billion active monthly users.Despite the funky press its received over the years, many find it hard to imagine life before Facebook. The social network has practically embedded itself in almost all asp ects of life. But all this success aside, Facebook is still often an untapped resource when it comes to learning a new language. When our idea of Facebook is primarily a place to tag our friends, post cryptic I hate somebody, guess who updates and watch viral videos, we miss out on huge learning potential staring us right in the face.The thing about Facebook is, youre already there, and you already know how it works!So you might as well make it count.Think about it. The world is on Facebook: the native speakers you seek, the language content youve been looking for. All the big language content producers are there. And in a place like Facebook, unlike with standalone websites, you get to talk to everyone. You get to comment. You get to ask questions. You have a say in things. Its very democratic.But people have not yet woken up to the idea of Facebook as a major language learning resource. The language learning taking place, if it happens at all, happens tangentially, or by chance. T his shouldnt be the case, however, because if you think about it, Facebook is practically designed for the language learner. (It has translation capabilities, for goodness sakes!)Its time we take this platform by the horns and milk it for all its worth.So here are 10 things you can do today to re-discover Facebook as the awesome language learning platform its always been.10 Facebook Language Learning Ideas Youll Like or Love1) Join language learning groups.Facebook is a very good platform for people with similar interests to find each other, interact and, ultimately, become a community. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of groups that cater to language learners. You can join general purpose language groups that welcome learners of all tongues into their fold. You also have language-specific groups like those interested in Korean, Arabic  or  German.To find these learning communities, simply go to the search bar and use search terms like [French, Spanish, etc.] language learning groups. This will bring up relevant results for groups you can instantly join.To maximize these communities, be an active member of your groups. This goes from the very day you join. Give everyone a hearty, Hello! Newbie here! The people who wave back will likely be the ones who are the most active in the group, and you should take the opportunity to strike up a conversation with them.Language learning groups can be wellsprings of information and opinion. You can ask for reviews for certain language products, you can be pointed to resources you would otherwise have never heard of and you can make friends along the way!2) Like pages that deal with your target language.Want your FB feed to be an automatic learning machine, continually serving you up language learning opportunities? Like those pages and posts that relate to the language youre studying. Smashing the thumbs-up button on these babies will let Facebook know that youre interested in topics related to your target language an d will prioritize displaying them on your feed. Facebook goes, Oh, so you like that, huh? Well, heres moreSo how do you find out about content to Like and Follow in the first place? Well, its best to step out of Facebook and use Google for this. For example, lets say you want to get to the major Italian newspapers. Type in Italian newspapers in Italian on Google and youll get the names of their major dailies. Pick one newspaper, say, Corriere della Sera  (Evening Courier). Copy and paste its name into the Facebook search bar to see if the publication has a FB presence. When you see they do, dont hesitate to smash Like on their page. Do this for several newspapers, and soon, your feed will be populated with updates and news in Italian.Try this method for any type of content youd like to have on your feedâ€"for example, foreign language TV shows, like the German Der Tatortreiniger  (The Crime Scene Cleaner), or foreign language magazines, like the French Le Point.Now your feed might b e populated with friends or acquaintances whose love life or daily lunch pics dont interest you that much. You can tell Facebook not to show things like this on your feed so your language-related content doesnt get buried under the rest of the noise by choosing to Unfollow people or groups (you can still remain friends with them, but just not see their content).This way, your timeline will show language learning content thats worth a real look.To really have more control over what shows up on your timeline, click the downward pointing triangle found at the top right corner of your screen. Click on News Feed Preferences. Youll then be shown options like Prioritize who to see first, and Unfollow people to hide their posts.3) Watch viral videos from people that speak your language of interest.Youre already watching videos on Facebook, right? Might as well watch those that have something to do with your target language. Viral videos are highly memorable, and so they make the language th ey come in memorable as well. Maybe one shows a Chinese couple arguing about some silly thing, or a French boyfriend explaining an oncoming prank or even a Spanish sketch about the lovely differences between being single and attachedâ€"milk these visual contexts for language lessons.To find these viral videos, its again best to search through Google. Type in Spanish viral videos Facebook, for example, and you’ll see an assortment of hits. You can also add search terms like funny, inspirational, top, amazing, etc.This method can lead you to whole pages of videos and images. For example, Spanish learners can get to pages like Mexican Funny Videos, which curates humor content. There, youll find videos like La Jefa (The Boss), which shows a mother telling a son to clean the house, or else face terrible consequences.Dont forget to Like the pages or accounts containing the videos so their updates get locked into your Facebook feed.If you enjoy learning with videos on Facebook, youll def initely want to check out FluentU, which curates the best of YouTube in your target language for you. FluentU tracks down real-world videosâ€"like movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language lessons.4) Add native speakers to your Friends list.Native speakers are your ultimate language insiders. They can teach you their language in a way a textbook never can.And the cool thing about native speakers is that you basically just have to find one. And that one will be connected to loads of others.One way of finding native speakers is through the language learning groups we talked about earlier. Be on the lookout for native speakers who simply joined a group because they want to help everybody else. When somebody in the group asks a question and somebody else addresses the query with something like, Im a native speaker, and the answer to your question is, thats a green light for you to add that person as a friend. Theyve already signal ed willingness to help, and are therefore a high-quality friend add.And like I said, you just need one connection, and this will likely open up a whole network of native speakers for you.5) Study status updates and posts by your newfound friends, and write your own.Lets say you already have several native speakers added to your list. Milk their profiles by following them and studying their updates and posts. (What an easy way of learning with authentic content!)They wrote something? Theres a language lesson for you! Find out what its all about. Like social media posts in your native language, it may be short, silly and mundane. Heck, they might just say that they just finished a good cup of coffee, but thats a gold nugget right there for a language learner like you.They posted pictures? Read those captions and learn the fastest ways of describing things!As long as were on the topic of posts and updates, did you know that you can write your own posts in your target language? Just act ivate Multilingual Posts in the Language section of Settings, and every time you send out a post, you can choose to write it in French, Spanish, etc. This is an excellent way to practice writing in your target language.Dont worry that your friends might think you weird when their feed shows inscrutable French from you. Facebook will automatically translate your blurbs into English and your friends will be none the wiser.6) Read (and write) comments.Comments sections are a treasure trove of language gems waiting to be discovered. They can get even longer and more detailed than posts and updates, so theyre perfect for intermediate learners wishing to flex those linguistic muscles.Whether youre on a language learning page or a native speakers account, reading replies to updates will teach you things like vocabulary, common phrases, common expressions, sentence construction and idiomatic expressions. When youve got native speakers chatting back and forth, their language on full display, oh, thats simply a masterclass in the language.Just make sure that Facebook doesnt automatically translate your target language into English. To do this, go to Settings and click Language. Under News Feed Translation Preferences, edit Which languages do you not want automatically translated? Type in your target language and save those changes.This will allow you to view the comments and post in the original language that it was written. And dont worry, if you need it rendered in English, you can always click the ubiquitous See Translation.7) Check out pages for language learners.Earlier, we talked about language learning groups, right? Lo and behold, there are also pages and accounts run by polyglots, language bloggers, language content producers and institutions that give you heaps and heaps of free material.Youll find pages like polyglot Luca Lampariellos The Polyglot Dream  or, for Spanish learners, Señor Jordans Spanish Videos.Every Tom, Dick and Harry who produces language le arning content is probably on Facebook. And guess what, you often get richer information from their FB pages or profiles than their websites. With standalone .com websites, you have a one-sided flow of information. Its the company presenting their stuff. On Facebook, theres a lot more interaction happening. People get to comment and write in their reviews, suggestions and queries.So do check these out. Follow FluentU on Facebook and well keep you updated on our latest posts with language learning tips and resources.8) Pursue your hobbies and interests but in the target language.You have hobbies and subjects that grab your attention, right? What if I told you that you can pursue those wide-ranging interests and your love for languages at the same time?Because Facebook is such an international brand, people all over the world are using it. And guess what, theyre Facebooking in their own tongue, posting content in a variety of languages.Say youre passionate about food and scouting for great recipes. Instead of hobnobbing with the FB accounts of your favorite cooking shows in your native language or your go-to native-speaking chefs, search for chefs and shows in the language youre interested in. Youll not only get to see a different set of fare from an authentic perspective, youll also learn a new language along the way. Even a one-minute video that time-lapses the process of making a simple dish, flashing the different ingredients on the screen, can be a great vocabulary lesson.So whether you have an unmatched affinity for DIY projects, gardening, stamps or cars, Facebook can help you learn a language and engage your other passions at the same time.9) Watch some live streams in your target language.Facebook has launched live streaming capabilities on its platform, which means real-time language learning opportunities for those who know how to properly look and listen.You can find videos that are currently playing live by scrolling down to the Explore section loca ted on the left-hand side of your screen and clicking on Live Video. Follow enough language-related pages and youll have more opportunities to catch an interesting live feed in your target language.However, the live streams you watch dont necessarily have to have anything to do with language learning, as long as theyre in the target language. Hey, one could be about a French lady selling the contents of her closet online, or a German knife manufacturer exhibiting the virtues of his productâ€"the smart language learner uses these events as learning opportunities.They listen to whats being said. They listen to the tone and inflection of words. They watch for the most commonly repeated phrases and expressions. They have a dictionary or translator app ready just in case.Because live streaming doesnt come with subtitles or transcriptions, its best suited to intermediate and advanced learners out to hone their listening and comprehension skills.And if youre bold enough, you can test your writing chops by joining the live chat and asking a question or two of the host, all in the target language. Theres no guarantee that your comment or question will be answered (much less read), but its still good practice for communicating your thoughts in written form.10) Unleash the beast: Set your Facebook language to your target language.And last but not least, you can simply go all the way and immerse in the target language by changing the language FB comes in. Go to Settings and click on Language. Edit the section What language do you want to use Facebook in by choosing your target language.Click Save changes. (It will change your world.)So for example, if you change the language settings from English to French, the whole Facebook interface now is in French. The Like button becomes J’aime  and See translation becomes Voir la traduction. (And you will never be the same.)Youll feel like a fish out of water initially, maybe even thinking, This isnt Facebook! But resist the urge to navigate back to the settings and change back to English. Stop yourself, because very soon, youll get the hang of it. Soon, youll be breezing through the French interface without even missing a beat.So there are 10 things you can do to your Facebook to turn it into a language learning site. Each is powerful in and of itself, but use three or four in unison and youll really be beginning to harness the platforms language-enriching capabilities.But of course, dont forget to Like that picture of your friends cat. Itll make her day!Hope this post made yours. And One More ThingIf youre looking for even more ways to fully immerse yourself in a second language, then youre going to love learning with FluentU!FluentU takes real-world videosâ€"like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talksâ€"and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.With FluentU, you hear languages in real-world contextsâ€"the way that native speakers actually use them.Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of FluentU videos on offer:FluentU really takes the grunt work out of learning languages, leaving you with nothing but engaging, effective and efficient learning. It’s already hand-picked the best videos for you and organized them by level and topic. All you have to do is choose any video that strikes your fancy to get started!Each word in the interactive captions comes with a definition, audio, image, example sentences and more.Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and easily review words and phrases from the video under Vocab.You can use FluentU’s unique adaptive quizzes to learn the vocabulary and phrases from the video through fun questions and exercises. Just swipe left or right to see more examples of the word youre studying.The program even keeps track of what you’re learning and tells you exactly when it’s time for review, giving you a 100% personalized experience.Start using FluentU on the web site  with your computer or tablet  or, better yet,  download the FluentU app from  the  iTunes store  or  Google Play store.