Learn languages with iPod shuffle

Here is the podcast

For those members of The Linguist who wish to learn English or improve their English, I recommend the iPod shuffle.

I have two iPods, an iPod Nano and an iPod shuffle. I find the iPod shuffle especially handy. It is smaller, and it is easy to load up content and then set my content to shuffle.

To improve in languages it is necessary to listen to language content, and to listen a lot. One of the problems is that it is easy to lose concentration. I find that if I shuffle the content I can maintain a higher degree of concentration.

In a recent experiment I have put some Korean learning content, Russian learning content and an audio book in French (Vie de Mozart by Stendahl) which includes music by Mozart. The average length of a track is about 3 minutes.It is great. I never know what is coming next. I am alert listening to whatever comes.

I am shuffling towards fluency in Russian and Korean while enjoying my French audio book and Mozart music. All of this also keeps my English in the background.

Comments

[PETCHIUTHU]

WELL

[Ethan Poole]

I have a normal video iPod and I do a similar thing. I have a playlist for foreign language material, excluding music (considering only 10% of my music is in English anyhow). When I want to practice language I just put that playlist on shuffle.

Right now, I have mainly podcasts in foreign languages that I have found. A few Spanish things for fun, not practice. Then various things I have found in Swedish and Finnish.

I have an iPod Shuffle too, but I have never stuffed it with language stuff.

[Whitey]

I have a question.

I made a language playlist and added Korean lessons from CDs to my iPod. So far, so good.

The problem is that when I want to listen to just music, I go to "Shuffle Songs" and the language tracks are interspersed with the music.

How can I remove the language tracks from "Shuffle Songs" and keep them separate from the music tracks?

A kind of half-assed solution that isn't working too well is this: I made a smart playlist with music only, and shuffled it. However, everytime I use the iPod, the same first song on the shuffled playlist plays. I want a true shuffle of songs, where each time I turn on the iPod a new song plays.

I thought of one solution: Try to designate the language tracks as an "Audiobook" so that they won't be included when I use "Shuffle Songs" to play my music library. However, I can't figure out how to do that.

Any advice?

Thanks.

[Steve Kaufmann]

Sorry I cannot help you as I do not know. I use iPod shuffle to shuffle my language (or music) playlists. Perhaps someone else knows the answer.