There is an endless list of recommendations for learning languages, but in general the first thing we need is exposure and flight hours. With that in mind, the Toucan extension proposes making the most of the long hours we spend browsing the Web to improve our vocabulary and the context in which each word is used, by making small modifications to texts and articles.
Many people learned languages through movies and videos. Others went all in on literature, hunting for original editions of famous books. And then there are those who found a great ally in computers, though in some cases learning happened out of necessity (personally, MS-DOS was one of my toughest English teachers).
Of course, the Internet isn't far behind when it comes to portals, services, and free resources just a click away. However, today we came across Toucan, an extension compatible with Chrome and Firefox that proposes a different idea: learn languages while browsing the Web. How exactly does that work? Let's see...
How to learn languages with the Toucan extension
Once installed, Toucan walks you through its basic process and also asks permission to access your browsing history, so that each site incorporates its mini lessons. The number of words can be changed in Toucan's settings, as can the complexity of its substitutions. Another aspect you can easily adjust is the language: the extension includes a switch to turn its function on or off, but after some testing, I recommend both using that option and refreshing the page if you switch to another language, for example, from English to French.
When you hover over a word modified by Toucan, you'll see the original expression and get the chance to do a little practice. The free mode limits those practices to three per day, but that's not the end of the world, nor is it an essential feature. The real drawback I've noticed with Toucan is... it makes mistakes. Some of its substitutions are simply wrong, and even though you can send reports, the idea is to learn a language, not fix problems.
In summary, Toucan has potential as an alternative resource for beginners who want to learn languages on the Web, but I hope it can fix the errors it detects, and who knows, maybe loosen the restrictions for its free mode.
Official site: Click here
