Introducing Toucan!
This article refers to the Toucan browser extension that has been acquired by Babbel and will be integrated into the Babbel ecosystem as a free product. Toucan helps language learners to build and retain new vocabulary while browsing the web. Read more here.
How does Toucan help me learn?
Learning a language is about practice. It takes a lot to memorise new vocabulary and experience them in a context that's meaningful. Toucan can help you practice more easily by immersing you in the language while you're browsing the web. What's even better is that you'll see those words in the context of sentences - helping your brain connect the word to its useful meaning.
Why not just use flashcards?
Flashcards are helpful for learning, no doubt. Our brains learn best though by experiencing those learnings in context and experiencing them over and over again. Toucan can help with both of those.
How do you know what words to change?
Toucan keeps track of what translations you've been exposed to and how well you do on vocabulary quizzes. This way we can start to phase out the words you know well, and phase in new ones that need some more practice.
What languages are available?
Languages you can learn:
We currently offer French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, English, Hebrew, Arabic, and Chinese (Simplified Mandarin).
Note:
At the moment, only websites that are written in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Hindi, and Korean work with Toucan's dictionaries.
Where does Toucan work?
At the moment Toucan is officially available to download in the Microsoft Edge, Chrome, Safari and Firefox web stores.