Free Language blogs

LingQCentral or LingQ Central plus ItalianLingq and ChineseLingQ Podcasts for Free Italian and Chinese Audio Content

chapman — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:32:53 -0500

I've just added two more podcasts from the LingQ Podcast Network: ChineseLingQ and ItalianLingQ.

I'd also like to point out LingQCentral, "where you'll find everything related to LingQ". It's the place to stay tuned to all things LingQ. They put out quite a lot of useful content and work very hard to create effective online resources for learning 10 foreign languages, so check them out!

Hopefully one day I will be able to interview Steve himself, though I don't know if he wants to talk to me again after I didn't follow through last time for multiple reasons. He sent me a copy of his book, which I read most of and enjoyed, but was overloaded with life at the time and didn't properly thank him. Steve: if you're out there, thanks and when you want to try again, just drop me a line. :)

New Feature from Palabea Allows for Finding Language Partners Offline

chapman — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 21:09:37 -0500

Just got this in from the folks over at Palabea!

We have launched an entirely new section in palabea called ‘Offline LanguageExchange’. This, we hope, will complement the online language learning by promoting a more intimate, offline, learning experience. Using the Offline Language Exchange, you can make and meet friends, share with them your stories and experiences, interests and goals, while you share new languages. Read more...

Cool to see the project continuing to move with momentum. :) This looks to be a cool way to make ethereal online contacts turn into real lasting friendships! It is also something with the potential to motivate folks to truly engage in learning as it brings the language exchange into our daily lives.

A Free Hindi Podcast and BBC Language Resources for Mandarin Chinese and German

chapman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:56:24 -0500

I recently added a podcast for learning Hindi and two articles on more resources from the BBC Languages website: German and Mandarin Chinese.

Namaste Dosti: The Learn Hindi Podcast for Grammar and Vocabulary for Beginners
BBC Languages Mandarin Chinese
BBC Languages German

Loquella Comes Through with Free Online Tools for Chinese, French and Spanish Learners

chapman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:51:25 -0500

I published three articles to the front page on the Loquella.com online tools for learning Chinese, French and Spanish. Loquella really put together a nice online tool using materials from the US Foreign Service Institute's Public Domain language learning materials.

Loquella.com Loquella Listen, Read and Speak Spanish Using a Free Online Language Tool and the FSI Language Method
Loquella.com Loquella Listen, Read and Speak Chinese Using a Free Online Language Tool and the FSI Language Method
Loquella.com Loquella Listen, Read and Speak French Using a Free Online Language Tool and the FSI Language Method

German InternetTV, BBC Chinese News and Simple English Online Encyclopedia

chapman — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 21:45:05 -0500

Here are some of the latest additions to the front page. One of my favorites is the Deutsche Welle German InternetTV Miro Player!

Deutsche Welle Miro Player for Instant Access to DW's Audio and Video Content in German, English and More
BBCChinese.com BBC News in Mandarin Chinese
Simple English Wikipedia Free and Open Encyclopedia for Learning and Teaching through Topics Written in Basic English

Testing a BETA Spanish Product eBay Deal Finder

chapman — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:08:29 -0500

I just launched a very BETA version of what I am calling a "deal finder" for users interested in finding deals on commercial products for learning Spanish:

Spanish Auctions with Deals, Discounts and Specials

The deal finder uses the Build a Niche Store technology, a popular Web software that helps create eBay niche stores.

Hopefully this will be a way for folks to quickly and easily find deals on audiobooks, software, gadgets and electronics, textbooks and more for learning Spanish.

Depending on how the BETA goes, I might launch stores for some of the other more popular languages that Free Language users are interested in, such as Arabic, Mandarin Chinese and English.

Have a look if this interests you! Currently, the deal finder is available for the US eBay Market, but I'll also set them up for other markets in due time if this goes well.

Eighth Newsletter and Two Free Podcasts for Learning Hebrew

chapman — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:38:05 -0500

The Eighth Edition of the Free Language Letter was published a few days ago. Lots of good info there, so check it out if you haven't yet.

Also, I added two new podcasts to the new Learn Hebrew section of the site. They are both great resources for Hebrew language learners!

HebrewPocasts.com Learn to Speak Hebrew at your Leisure with Free MP3 Audio Podcast Downloads
LearnHebrewPod.com Learn Hebrew Podcast with Free MP3 Audio Lessons for Conversational, Listening and Written Practice

Note to Free Language Blog Subscribers

chapman — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:56:02 -0500

Hello to all blog subscribers out there! I want to inform you of some changes to the blog at Free Language.

Historically, the "blogs" on Free Language were a sort of gray area, with some people posting resources, some site updates, some random things, etc.

This is changing now! From now on, the Free Language blog will cover all things related to Free Language as a website, meaning information about updates and changes to the site, recent developments, ideas and plans for the future, etc. The blog will no longer be covering the learning resources themselves, except for periodic lists of all the latest updates.

If you are interested in receiving regular notices of updates specifically regarding languages, language learning and language education, please subscribe to the Free Language Front Page feed, which is:

http://feeds.feedburner.com/freelanguage

Thanks for your interest in and support of Free Language. I look forward to continuing to build this resource in a more structured manner, so there is much good information and many excellent resources and methods to come.

Free Language Moving Up with Baidu.com Chinese Search Engine

chapman — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 13:46:09 -0500

I thought the blog subscribers might be interested in knowing that Free Language is rising considerably in the Chinese search engine Baidu. See the screenshot below to get an idea of how much traffic is coming in from this search engine, which peaks at off hours for Google.com because it is on the other side of the world!

Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese and Spanish Overview Pages Complete

chapman — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:24:07 -0500

I have been working hard to make new "overview" pages for each language on the site. These pages include all resources for the language, news feeds, podcasts, info about Internet TV and social language learning, tag clouds, links to feed subscriptions and other such good info.

The idea is to put all the main things site visitors are interested in finding out about for a given languages on one single page (rather than simply lists of resources starting with the latest one). It works and it looks good, too! :)

The process of creating these overview pages is taking longer than I thought, but they are coming along! Currently, there are overview pages for Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese and Spanish.

By the end of March 2008, I will hopefully have overview pages for the all the languages on the site.