by the Economist
The teacher who corrects your correspondent’s awful Mandarin is soft-spoken, authoritative and far away. Thanks to Skype, you can have face-to-face lessons with native speakers of more or less any language without stirring from your chair. Technology may one day make language-learning redundant (see article); meanwhile, it makes it easier. Language-teaching companies are slowly embracing technology. Berlitz is the biggest. Founded in 1878, its method is simple: seat no more than four or five students with a teacher who will utter not a word of their native tongue. Berlitz can also group learners with a specific need: tourists, say, or energy executives.
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