Immersion and input are the best ways to learn a language, but sometimes the best resources are region-locked. Accessing native content from a country that speaks your target language can significantly boost your language skills. Through this method, you can access streaming services, games, and messaging apps in your target language. While this process is overall pretty simple, keep in mind you may need to provide a phone number and/or a payment method when setting up a new Google or Apple account in a different country. Creating the account itself is free, but some countries will ask you to connect a payment method in order to download any apps as a way of limiting spam or fake accounts.
The first thing you need to access another country’s app store is a VPN. VPNs usually cost a few dollars a month, so that does make it a premium resource, but because setting up the Google account itself is free, I decided to put this article under free resources as well. If you invest in just one language learning resource, I highly recommend getting a good VPN. This will make a huge difference in the resources available to you.
The first thing you need to do is connect to the country you want to access the app store of. In this example, I’m connecting to Taiwan, but this works for any country.
If you’re on an Android device, then you’ll need to go into your Google account and create a new one while on the VPN. To access your Google account, just click the icon in the upper right corner on any Google web page or in the Play Store. Then, click on “show more accounts” or “add another account” depending on what page you are on. If you are on an IOS device, the process will be similar, but you need to create a new Apple account while on the VPN.
You may need to go through several different screens before you can create a new account. In this case, just keep selecting “add account” until you reach the sign-in screen.
When you reach the sign-in screen, click on “create account,” then follow the prompts to set up a new account.
Once you have created your new account, open the app store and change your account in the upper right corner to your new account. You should see apps in that country’s language pop up on the top charts page.
Now that it’s all set up, you can access streaming services, games, and messaging services unavailable in other countries. Apps you download will be accessible even when you are not connected to a VPN, but to see the apps in the app store, you need to be connected to the VPN for the country you set up the account for. If you forgot to connect to the VPN and aren’t seeing the apps you want, switch to a different Google account, close the app store, connect your VPN to the correct country, open the app store, and switch back to your other account, then you should see the other country’s apps.
