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Toby Urff

Toby Urff

Chief Language Geek @ Reelang

Toby is one of the co-founders at Reelang, speaks 5 languages and knows that language learning is a marathon, not a sprint. To keep up the pace, you need to find ways to practice a little every day that's fun enough that you keep at it, and effective enough for you to actually speak within a few months.

Articles by Toby Urff

How to learn a language before moving abroad: using comprehensible input to go beyond apps

If you're moving abroad in the next few months, the best use of your remaining prep time is listening to real native speech at a level you can mostly follow, not more vocabulary drilling. Apps train you to recognize words on a screen with no time pressure. Real speech, at real speed, in the accent you're about to live inside, is a different skill entirely, and it's the one that gets tested the moment you land.

By Toby UrffSeptember 18, 2026