Setting Up Your Tech and Keyboard for Hebrew or Spanish Language Learning

If you're serious about learning Spanish or Hebrew, your phone and computer should be working with you, not against you.

Most intermediate learners don't realize how much friction they're carrying. You're switching between apps to look up a word. You're hunting for the right accent mark. You're fumbling through Hebrew characters on a keyboard layout that makes no visual sense. Every one of those micro-interruptions costs you focus, momentum, and time.

The good news? You can fix most of this in about 20 minutes.

This isn't about downloading 15 productivity apps or building some elaborate workflow. It's about making a few intentional adjustments so that practicing your target language feels easier than avoiding it. Let's walk through what actually matters.

Start With Your Keyboard Setup

This is the foundation. If typing in your target language feels clunky, you won't do it. And if you're not writing regularly: whether it's journaling, texting a language partner, or completing exercises on Dioma, you're missing one of the most effective ways to solidify grammar and vocabulary.

Setting up a second (or third) keyboard on your device takes five minutes. On a Mac, go to System Settings → Keyboard → Input Sources and add Spanish, Hebrew or any other language you're learning. On Windows, it's Settings → Time & Language → Language & Region. On mobile, it's similarly straightforward: Settings → General → Keyboard → Keyboards on iOS, or Settings → System → Languages & Input on Android.

Once it's installed, you can toggle between languages with a quick keyboard shortcuts, these are always changing on laptops, so check your specific model. On mobile, it's typically a globe icon. That's it. No app switching, no copy-pasting from Google Translate.

The Physical Keyboard Question: Hebrew Learners, This One's for You

Spanish and French learners can usually get by with their standard QWERTY layout. Hold down a key—like "e"—and you'll get options for é, è, ê, and so on. It's not perfect, but it works.

Hebrew is different. The script doesn't map neatly onto Latin characters, and hunting for letters while toggling between layouts is genuinely disorienting at first. This is where a silicone keyboard cover becomes one of the best $15 investments you can make.

These covers sit over your existing keyboard and show you where each Hebrew character lives. You're not memorizing key positions under pressure—you're seeing them. Within a few days of use, your muscle memory kicks in, and typing Hebrew stops feeling like a cognitive puzzle.

You can find them by searching "[your language] keyboard cover [your computer model]" on Amazon or a similar site. Spanish and French learners can benefit from these too, especially if you're frequently typing extended passages and want visual reinforcement of accented characters.

Set Your Devices to Your Target Language

This suggestion makes some learners nervous, but it's one of the most effective passive learning strategies available: change your phone's display language to the one you're learning.

You don't need to do this on day one. But if you're at a solid B1 or beyond, you already know enough vocabulary to navigate your phone in Spanish, French, or Hebrew. And because you use your phone dozens of times a day, you'll be encountering high-frequency verbs, interface terms, and everyday phrases in constant, low-stakes repetition.

The beauty of this approach is that the context is bulletproof. When you see "Compartir" next to the share icon, or "הגדרות" (settings) at the top of a menu, there's zero ambiguity. You're learning vocabulary in the exact context where it's used, no flashcards required.

Start with your phone. If it feels manageable after a week, try your computer or tablet. You can always switch back if it becomes frustrating, but most learners find they adapt faster than they expect.

Use an E-Reader App With a Built-In Dictionary

We covered this in depth in our recent post about Hebrew and for Spanish, but it's worth reinforcing here: if you're reading on a device, use an app that lets you tap a word to see its translation instantly.

For Hebrew learners, Evrit is excellent, it's a digital bookstore with an integrated dictionary, so you're never leaving the page. For Spanish and French, Kindle and Apple Books both support this feature if you've downloaded the right language dictionaries. If you're intermediate, I recommend an iPad or other Tablet and not an ereader. E-readers are easier on your eyes, but they're really slow to translate on the fly and this critical for maintaining your flow.

The difference using an ereader makes is hard to overstate. Without it, encountering an unknown word means: stop reading, open a dictionary app, type the word, check the definition, switch back, find your place again. With it, you tap once and keep moving. That fluidity transforms reading from a laborious study session into something that actually feels like reading.

And at the B1–C1 levels, reading volume matters. The more you read, the more your brain internalizes sentence patterns, collocations, and the natural rhythm of the language. Removing friction is everything.

Consider Changing Your Browser and Search Settings

If you're already comfortable with basic searches in your target language, try setting your browser's default search engine to the local version of Google—Google.es for Spanish, Google.fr for French, Google.co.il for Hebrew.

Why? Because when you search for something, you'll start seeing results in that language. Recipes, news articles, how-to guides, they'll all be filtered through content written for native speakers. It's a subtle but powerful shift that exposes you to real-world language use without requiring any extra effort.

You can do the same with YouTube. Change your location settings, and your homepage will populate with recommendations in your target language. This is especially useful for passive listening practice: background vlogs, cooking channels, or news clips that you can absorb while doing something else. For some countries, you might need a VPN to see the full catalog from that country. These are relatively cheap.

A Word on AI Tools: Use Them Strategically

ChatGPT and similar tools can be incredibly helpful for language learners—but they're not magic. Use them to:

• Check readability before committing to a new book or article (paste in a sample and ask, "Is this roughly B2 Spanish?")
• Generate example sentences with specific vocabulary or grammar structures you're working on
• Get quick explanations of confusing grammar points or idioms

What AI can't replace is structured feedback on your output. A chatbot can generate fluent text, but it won't catch the subtle errors in your writing or help you understand why a sentence doesn't work. That's where a system like Dioma's correction engine becomes essential, it's built to give you specific, rule-based feedback tied to the patterns you're actually struggling with.

AI is a useful supplement. It's not a curriculum.

Keep a Simple Log of What You've Read or Watched

This one's optional, but many learners find it motivating: keep a lightweight list of books, articles, or videos you've engaged with in your target language.

It doesn't need to be fancy. A note on your phone, a Google Doc, a bullet journal—whatever works. The value isn't in the format; it's in the record. When you're three months into a plateau and feeling like you're not progressing, looking back and seeing that you've read four books, watched a dozen YouTube videos, and completed 60 Dioma exercises gives you proof that you are moving forward.

Progress at the intermediate level is harder to feel than it is at the beginning. Documentation helps.

The Setup Shouldn't Be the Work

Here's the thing: none of these adjustments teaches you Spanish, French, or Hebrew. What they do is remove the small, recurring obstacles that make practice feel harder than it needs to be.

Language learning is already hard. The grammar is hard. The vocabulary is hard. Staying motivated is hard. You don't need to also make typing, reading, or finding content harder than it has to be.

Set up your devices thoughtfully, and then forget about them. The goal is for your technology to fade into the background, so that when you sit down to practice, the only thing between you and the language is the work itself.

And that's exactly where the learning happens.

Dioma is built for learners who've outgrown the basics. Structured curriculum, smart feedback, real progress. Try it free for 7 days.