Language “maintenance” involves more than holding on to what you already know. Languages are constantly changing, and you need to keep up to stay current and effective.

In German, for example, Hamsterkauf (literally “hamster buying”) showed up recently to describe pandemic-induced panic buying, as did “Coronaspeck” as a name for the weight gained during quarantine.

Where are you likely run into all this new language for the first time? Perhaps on social media while social distancing (another relatively new expression!)

Many language professionals regularly follow social media in their target language.  Tweets, captions, comments, videos, etc. give you access to current, unfiltered, native speaker language. That’s also the reason social media is one of the authentic sources we pull from in our weekly CL-150 Cohort lessons.

Of course, social media is infamous for being a time sink. What a waste of time! Unless of course, it’s in your target language and you are making good use of that time for your language maintenance. CL-150 Learned Vocab and Self Reporting will help you make sure time spent on social media is still time on task.

Look up words, phrases, even acronyms you don’t recognize and add them to your CL-150 Learned Vocab.

You can easily add new words, phrases, slang, and so on to your CL-150 Learned Vocab, where it can be refreshed and maintained over time. You can add individual items or bulk import vocabulary and customize it with images, audio, and annotations. (Here’s a quick help video if you don’t already know how.)

The interesting or challenging vocabulary you add becomes part of a sophisticated automated refresh system that keeps your entire personal lexicon continually active in your memory by challenging you with some well-chosen items each day. That few minutes of daily Learned Vocab refresh, probably on your phone, effectively stems proficiency falloff and is an easy habit to maintain.

Record your target language social media time with CL-150 Self-Reporting.

Incorporate time spent outside the CL-150 into your CL-150 time and reports with Self-Reporting. You can submit a Journal Entry report to track your time spent on social media, that way it shows up in your personal tracking and is included in reports run by your instructors and program managers. (Never self-reported before? This quick help video will show you how.)

Leverage your social media time with the CL-150 to build your personal active lexicon and retain it indefinitely while enabling your organization to see and appreciate all the work you are doing.

Need help with Learned Vocab, Self-Reporting, or other CL-150 features? Attend a new user orientation or visit the CL-150 Training Kit to explore on-demand help materials.