Free Language blogs

Learn Czech Free Online

travelinguist — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 14:52:47 +0000

Learning Czech Online for Free

A new project involving the Czech gemstone Moldavite has me heading to the Czech Republic in two weeks, and I have been searching around for resources for learning the Czech language online for free. I thought I would share them here for easy reference. Enjoy and good luck!

(Great for getting a general idea about the language and exploring further by following links to many aspects of Czech grammar, language history and more.)

Free Language's Czech Resources

http://freelanguage.org/learn-czech

What is the image?

The image in this article is of a handmade pendant featuring a raw specimen of the gemstone Moldavite, which exists only in the region of Southern Bohemia in the Czech Republic.

Busuu 2012 Language Survey Results Provide Interesting Insight into the Future of Language Learning

travelinguist — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:32:45 +0000

2012 Language Survey Uncovers Interesting Trends in Language Learning

Busuu, one of the world's most popular online language learning platforms, has just announced the results of its 2012 Language Barometer Survey.

With over 45,000 participants from 230 countries, this survey sheds light on successful and popular learning processes and well as what the future of language education may look like.

From busuu blog

More than 45,000 busuu.com users from 230 different countries responded to our survey, held at the beginning of March 2012. Let’s have a look at our users’ preferred methods for improving their language skills, what encourages or hampers their learning process and many more exciting outcomes!

The future of language learning relies on online methods!

If you're learning an obscure language, we'll help you find resources and give free guidance!

polyglot — Thu, 26 May 2011 18:02:54 +0000

Guidance for Learners of Minority Languages

Free Language announces Project Nurture, a language learning help center for those seeking to learn lesser-spoken languages around the world.

If you are working to learn any language that currently doesn't have resources on our website, we'll track down existing Web-based resources for you and provide written guidance for approaching the language successfully.

Popular Online Language Learning Platform Busuu Turns Three

polyglot — Wed, 18 May 2011 18:45:54 +0000

Three Years and Nine Languages Later

busuu has been alive and kicking for three years!

Free Language initally reviewed it back in the summer of 2008, and it's come quite a long way since then.

Now offering a total of nine languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, German, Polish, Turkish and Russian), they have grown from their beta stages to be one of the web's top online language learning platforms.

Busuu - we congratulate you on much progress in just a few years :)

Body Language and Travel Go Hand in Hand

polyglot — Wed, 18 May 2011 03:20:00 +0000

Don't Offend the Locals

Knowing how to travel is a lifelong experience, much like learning a language. When you can't just chat it up with the locals, one of the main cues you can go by is body language.

A Lonely Planet article entitled "Travel Etiquette 101: Body Language" gives a humorous and useful insight into examples of body language from Russia, India, Japan, China, Nepal, Morocco and more.

What's perhaps even more curious and entertaining is the sheer volume of comments - people chiming in with specific examples from all around the globe.

Learn Polish and Turkish Free, Now on Busuu.com

polyglot — Mon, 09 May 2011 06:54:43 +0000

Online Language Platform adds Polish and Turkish

Busuu is now offering a way to learn Polish and Turkish online for free. This adds to their repertiore of free language resources which also includes English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Russian and French.

Busuu also offers free mobile apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Info Release from Busuu.com

Merhaba and Cześć (in other words, ‘hello’ in Turkish and Polish)!

You can now learn Turkish and Polish online in addition to the 7 languages we already offer on busuu.com! And just like our other interactive language courses, the Turkish and Polish courses are completely free! Start learning Turkish or Polish today!

Language Learning System Babbel Offers Speech Recognition in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish

polyglot — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 15:12:54 +0000

Summary

We're pretty big on Babbel, the online language learning platform, and wanted to let Free Language readers know that in June they released a new browser-based speech recognition feature.

This unique tool encourages users to practice the language they are learning out loud and gives them the opportunity to fine-tune their pronunciation. Some traditional e-learning software includes this sort of tool, but none of them do it online in quite the same way. It is also one of the first applications to incorporate the new Adobe Flash Player 10.1.

Language Learning System Babbel Introduces Speech Recognition

Foreign language pronunciation training online
Real-time technology based on the new Adobe Flash Player 10.1
Speech recognition with Babbel iPhone apps also planned

Babbel integrates a unique speech recognition tool into its language learning system. The feature encourages practice and gives the opportunity to fine-tune pronunciation skills. This adds yet another dynamic dimension to online language learning.

The browser-based speech analysis gives learners an instant evaluation, letting them know how close their pronunciation is to that of a native speaker. Included in all Babbel courses, the feature will take effect automatically. No installation is necessary beyond the latest Flash Player.

Active speech

Many students of foreign languages, regardless of their level, lack speaking practice and often shy away from direct communication. Breaking out of the shell can take courage that is not always at hand. The idea of the speech recognition feature is to give them the confidence to open their mouths. "We're encouraging learners to speak and improve their pronunciation with a technical tool before they have to face real-life situations", says Markus Witte, Managing Director of Babbel.

In a new kind of exercise integrated into the Babbel courses, learners hear a word or phrase and are prompted to repeat it back. The quality of the pronunciation is then rated on a scale of 0-100. A result of 50 or higher means that the utterance is generally understandable. Beyond that point, the user can continue to polish their pronunciation to desired perfection.

New technology from audio software experts

The Babbel founders have an extensive background in audio technology. Among them are the original developers of TRAKTOR, the world renowned DJ software. This professional-level technology has been channeled into the online language learning system Babbel and made accessible for anyone online.

The new speech recognition tool marks a milestone in online language learning and underscores Babbel’s technological lead. It works directly with the popular Flash Player and is the first to make use of its new capabilities

Another implementation of speech recognition technology is planned for the recently released Babbel iPhone apps.

About Babbel

Babbel is an online language learning system. Along with the website, there are apps for iPhone and a downloadable vocabulary trainer. Both beginners and returning learners will find interactive exercises for studying English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and Swedish. Among diverse kinds of courses there are Basic and Advanced Vocabulary, grammatical exercises and pronunciation training. More than 700,000 people from over 200 countries have already registered with Babbel, while the iPhone apps have had at least 100,000 downloads.

We have reviewed Babbel for the seven languages it's currently working for. Have a look at our articles to find out much more about this unique language-learning platform:

Babbel English
Babbel French
Babbel German
Babbel Italian
Babbel Portuguese
Babbel Spanish
Babbel Swedish

Freestyle Spanish Website

polyglot — Mon, 31 May 2010 21:03:32 +0000

For those interested in investing in their Spanish education, Freestyle Spanish is a new project to put together all of the existing Spanish language products in one place so people know what they're looking for.

Also of intrigue is an emergent language learning method, called the Freestyle Spanish Method.

From Website

The days of one-stop language learning solutions are over. Spanish does not exist in a vacuum. Now you bring together what you need to learn the Spanish you want to speak. You can manage this by basing your studies on the kinds of things you want to read, hear, talk about and perhaps see.

The Freedom to Choose

* Use good tools and materials to build a solid foundation in Spanish.
* Cater Spanish study topics to your individual interests and needs.
* Create a steady flow of interesting Spanish content from wherever you choose.
* Grow your personal vocabulary by exposing yourself to this content consistently.
* Work to become comfortable writing and talking about your chosen interests in Spanish.
* Keep it real and put it to practice through language exchange.

Visit Freestyle Spanish.

World Cup Soccer/Football Free Language Courses for Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, English and Swedish!

polyglot — Thu, 20 May 2010 23:07:09 +0000

Babbel, the online language learning system, has just introduced some themed language courses that deal with soccer and the World Cup.

They contain special words and exercises to get ready for the sporting event, so you can explain the offside trap to a French fan in his native tongue, or – after a quick vocabulary check on the iPhone –, argue with a Spaniard over the incompetent referee.

The service is available online and on the iPhone for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish.

Press Release

Babbel Kicks Off a World Cup Course – Foreign Language Learning for Soccer Fans
Seven-lesson course to prepare for the World Cup
Soccer vocabulary on your iPhone with Babbel Mobile
Training in seven languages, making for 42 language combinations

BERLIN, May 19, 2010: This year, there’s just one international language: Soccer. But for whoever might be interested in any other language, the online platform Babbel now offers the Mini-Course “World Cup” in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese. The Vocabulary for the World Cup contains special words and exercises to get ready for the big soccer event, so you can explain the offside trap to a French fan in his native tongue, or after a quick vocabulary check on the iPhone, argue with a Spaniard over the incompetent referee.

It’s high time there was a little international understanding: Follow the match together, talk shop over the team lineup, or celebrate a goal. The Mini Course on Babbel is made up of three Courses and four new Vocabulary Packages. They bring together all the most important soccer vocabulary on your iPhone or online for convenient learning in your free time

Penalty Kick!

The World Cup Course contains seven short lessons. The first has useful words and phrases about soccer and can be tested for free. And for anyone who wants to give a fuller account of fouls to the Tifosi in the sports bar around the corner, there’s “Advanced World Cup”.

This special language Course is available in 42 language combinations. So any soccer freak can learn words and phrases in one of seven languages. With the Babbel Mobile app, you can learn the Packages easily on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Visit Babbel.com

Busuu Teams up with PONS to Offer Exhaustive Grammar Guides Online via Busuu.com

polyglot — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:42:18 +0000

The folks at Busuu continue to be hard at work pushing the limits blending self-instruction via web with social language learning online.

Recently, they have teamed up with PONS, a leading European language publisher based in Germany, to offer amazingly comprehensive grammar guides online.

TheLanguageShow.co.uk The Language Show London 2009 for Language Learners, Language Teachers, Language Lovers and Linguists

polyglot — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 14:03:41 +0000

2009 Language Show in Olympia, London

The Language Show is going to be an amazing event for language learners, language teachers/instructors/educators, language lovers and linguists alike. There will be loads of exhibitors from all kinds of language-related industries, for a full list view this page.

Also available are intensive language classes in Chinese, German, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, French, Japanese, Polish and Russian as well as "taster classes" in all the above languages plus Persian, Sign Language, Hindi, Catalan, Hungarian, Czech, Turkish and Norwegian.

If you are in the London area and are into languages, this is not to be missed!

From Website

The Language Show is the UK’s biggest event for language learners, teachers, linguists and anyone with a love for languages. The show offers language enthusiasts all the help, advice and resources needed to learn or teach languages all under one roof. Plus, there's a dedicated Language Careers Fair for job seekers.

Over 100 FREE seminars and 185 exhibitors cover every aspect of language teaching and learning in a fun and entertaining way.

Visit thelanguageshow.co.uk for more information.

Mobile Language Shop

polyglot — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 19:47:42 +0000

Quickly Shop, Find and Buy Language Products on your Mobile Device

Thanks to feedback from the online community, we have decided to launch a mobile language shop for users who are using mobile devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, etc) to surf the web to shop and buy language products.

We have worked to make this new website as fast, simple to use and easy to read from a mobile device as possible. We have spared the bling and whatnot to give you a site that just plain works for shopping online via your mobile phone, with features and searches already in place specifically for language products.

Babbel.com Releases Mini-Vocab Package w/Essential Vocabulary for Last-Minute Travelers: English Spanish French Italian German

polyglot — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:23:23 +0000

This just in from the Babbel blog:

From Babbel.com Blog

There’s always a little bit of anxiety that comes along with traveling abroad, whether for business or for pleasure. Possible scenario, night before — for example — the flight to Berlin, a sudden pang: “Oh right, they speak German in Germany, and I don’t even know how to say ‘how are you’. How am I going to manage to order my morning coffee?!?”

We at Babbel have now developed a stress-reducing linguistic survival kit (and perhaps path to that caffeine fix in a foreign country) for the last-minute language learner: the Mini-Vocab Package. Compiled especially for the spontaneous traveler, it offers essential words and phrases - in German, French, Spanish, Italian and English - to get through that first encounter with the locals unscathed.

For those who’ve got a little more time before the big trip, besides the Mini-Vocab, there are twenty other in-depth packages for all relevant situations while traveling, from leaving the airport to arriving at the car rental desk. There is of course also the opportunity to hook up with someone from Babbel’s now more than 350,000-strong community to chat, trade travel tips or set up a language exchange.

To go directly to the newly compiled Mini-Vocab package, click here. If you are not already registered at Babbel, after a quick and easy registration you will be taken straight through to travel vocabulary. For our press release, click here.

From Mara at Babbel

Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Buongiorno, Hallo!

Babbel.com, the intuitively designed online language learning platform, has just released a Mini-Vocab Package specially designed for the last minute traveler. It offers all the essential vocabulary for that first encounter with the locals in Spanish, French, German, Italian and English.

Take a look at the Babbel Blog (http://blog.babbel.com) for more information.

Thanks and happy learning!

Mara

Visit Babbel.com
Read about this on the Babbel blog.
Read Free Language's review of Babbel.

Free Michel Thomas Spanish Intro CDs for Brits who Buy Guardian on July 4th and Observer on July 5th, plus Holiday Phrasebooks

polyglot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:14:30 +0000

In Britain: Get Michel Thomas Spanish Intro CDs Free

If you buy The Guardian on Saturday, July 4th, 2009, and The Observer on Sunday, you will receive two free Michel Thomas Introductory Spanish CDs (~£15).

If you aren't in Britain, but are interested in Michel Thomas, view our deal finder links at the bottom of this entry. It's not free, but certainly cheaper than full price.

From Guardian.co.uk

Improve your Spanish with our 2 free CDs on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July, plus 5 handy phrasebooks to collect from Monday 6 July.

Learn Oromo Language Basics Online Free, aka Afaan Oromoo or Oromiffa(a), an African Tongue Spoken in Ethiopia and Kenya

polyglot — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:06:29 +0000

Learn the Oromo Language (Afaan Oromoo) Online

Recently we received an email from someone interested in learning the Oromo language online, free of course! Oromo is a language spoken in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Well... we looked around for a while and found four resources that, together, give an introductory self-guided course in this African tongue. This is nothing profound, but will provide the very basics about the language, some useful phrases for travel, a humble dictionary and some other useful goodies.

We thought we'd share this here for everyone, all on one neat page, so you don't have to scour around like we did!

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Oromo.htm
http://www.oromoenglish.com
http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/oromo.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oromo_language

About Oromo Language

Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromoo, Oromiffa(a), Afan Boran, Afan Arsi, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names (Oromic, Afan Oromo, etc.), is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. It is spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and neighboring peoples in Ethiopia and Kenya, such as the Werji. Older publications refer to the language as "Galla", a term that is resented by Oromo people and no longer used.

More Minority Languages Coming

We are currently building a directory to promote minority languages worldwide, and will be posting more resources for learning many lesser-known and lesser-spoken languages here on the site soon. Stay tuned!

Congratulations! Busuu.com Wins the Silver Lion Prize at the Cannes Festival, the Most Presitious Prize in Advertising

polyglot — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:23:08 +0000

Silbo Gomero Campaign Wins at Cannes

This just in from our friends at Busuu.com:

busuu.com wins a Silver Lion in the International Advertising Festival in Cannes for our Silbo Gomero campaign.

How to Get Pimsleur Language Products for Cheap including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and more

polyglot — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 23:07:59 +0000

Look no further for Pimsleur language product deals!

Yesterday we published an article about how to get Rosetta Stone products cheaply using our handy custom language deal finder.

So many people appreciated our article that we decided to do the same for Pimsleur language products!

How To Get Rosetta Stone Cheap for Any Language including Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian and more

polyglot — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:18:44 +0000

Look no further for Rosetta Stone deals!

The links below will take you to a cool little tool we've put together to get you the absolute best deals available on all Rosetta Stone products.

Use these links any time you want to find Rosetta Stone products cheap for any of their available languages. The content is always fresh and the deals are always hot!

Rosetta Stone Deal Links

Rosetta Stone American (US) English
Rosetta Stone Arabic

Free Language Shop: Get Cheap Prices and Major Discounts on Language Products - All While Supporting this Resource!

polyglot — Fri, 29 May 2009 17:42:42 +0000

Free Language has been working for a while on a new tool for site users interesting in narrowing down the absolute best deals available online for language learning products.

We have scoured the web and created a quick and simple way for Free Language users to save BIG on products from Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur and Michel Thomas, plus language education materials including DVDs, software, books, dictionaries and much more!

Byki iPhone App

polyglot — Fri, 08 May 2009 10:08:36 +0000

Byki has a new iPhone and iPod Touch application in the works for language learners. This new app offers many features for language learners, incuding:

Download thousands of free Byki lists through List Central, including your own custom content created through Byki Deluxe. Make lists out of text book material or articles, add them to List Central, and import them to your iPhone!

See a cumulative history of your progress in the new Statistics section

Adjust volume within an activity with improved volume controls

Customize font size for Chinese and Japanese transliterations

Byki for iPhone is great because users can take their learning with them to study wherever time allows, be it in line at the bank or on the commuter train. A quick 5 minutes here and there really adds up when you're learning a new language.

The app is currently available in Chinese, Danish, Dutch, French, German, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

Find out more...

"What we need in language learning" by linguist Steve Kaufmann, plus Why we need public domain language resources

polyglot — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 09:23:56 +0000

Just came across an interesting (and short) blog entry by linguist Steve Kaufmann, of LingQ fame:

http://thelinguist.blogs.com/how_to_learn_english_and/2009/04/what-we-need-in-language-learning.html

In this article he states that those interested in improving the language learning climate need to do the following:

1) Convince learners that they need to leave the learner content behind as soon as possible. i.e. within 3-6 months.

2) Stop wasting money on text books, schools, conferences, linguistics research, language teacher training, and spend the money on transcribing all the wonderful content that is available free of charge on the Internet.

3) Show learners how to find content of interest, and how to learn from it, meaning mostly listening to it in a concentrated fashion.

Bravo Steve! To this, Free Language would add that any resources created by learners and teachers would benefit from remaining Free and Open in the public domain - protected for future learners - by empowering the content with the GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL), the same license chosen by Wikimedia for all of their projects (Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikiquotes, Wiktionary, etc.).

It is important that we move collectively on the Web towards truly Free and Open language methods, resources, materials, etc. A recent article here overviews some of the existing Free and Open language learning materials.

Let's make sure access to language education materials is free for everyone, learners and educators alike.

Visit LingQ.com to learn ten language and counting, including Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

Added Language FAQ Section for the Most Popular Language-Related Questions and Answers

polyglot — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 13:42:25 +0000

Overview

We have just added a language faq section to Free Language! Here you can find many of your burning questions about languages in general and specific languages in particular.

This page is updated daily with fresh frequently asked questions, so be sure to visit back if your question has not yet been answered.

Visit FAQ Sections

Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Farsi (Persian), French, German, Hindi, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Body Language. Or view all language FAQs.

Rosetta Stone Spanish Software for Cheap!

polyglot — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 20:55:18 +0000

Just released a nice tool for people to find cheap Rosetta Stone Spanish software!

This is part of a growing marketplace for language products being made available here on Free Language.

Stepping Aboard for Multilingualism, a vlog entry from LingQ's Steve Kaufmann on Polyglot Culture

polyglot — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 19:09:47 +0000

Summary

Steve Kaufmann of LinqQ fame recently released a vlog entry regarding multilingualism and polyglot culture.

It's interesting for those who enjoy learning and speaking languages as a way of life.

Be sure to check out our recent story on LingQ's new features.

Steve Kaufmann on Multilingualism

Visit LinqQ.

LingQ Central Announces New Features for Steve Kaufmann's Unique Online Language Learning Platform Based on Texts

polyglot — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:21:46 +0000

LingQ has just announced a major upgrade to their unique online language-learning platform. Following is the announcement from LingQ Central.

New Features for LingQ Platform

Major New Release Coming Thursday, November 20

It's been a little over a year since we launched LingQ and we have been constantly improving the site since then. One of the most frequent comments we have received is that users don't understand what to do. "Where do I start?", "What should I do now?", etc...

We know that if we can get people started on LingQ, they will like it and they will stay. The more people that stay, the better the community and the experience for all members.

Courses

With that in mind we created courses. You will now land on the Courses page when you login to LingQ. If you don't yet have a course, you will be asked to pick one from the list of Available Courses. If you already have a course or courses, your most recently opened course will be displayed.

In every language there will be one free Self-Directed Course as well as Directed courses which are offered by our tutors.

All existing members will already have the Self-Directed Course, containing all the lessons you currently have in your account. The Self-Directed Course is basically the old WorkDesk list. From here you can open your lessons and study them as before.

Directed Courses are identified by level and are made up of 12 lessons selected by the course tutor. Courses are 12 weeks long and include a writing assignment and a conversation each week as part of the lesson. Participants will be able to email their tutor anytime, will be answered on the Ask a Tutor forum and will receive monthly reports. Directed Courses can be bought with a credit card or with points. Directed Courses are a great way to commit to your learning for a specific period of time.

If you do sign up for a Directed Course, you can also have one or more other courses active at the same time including your Self-Directed Course.

Active Assignment Limits Removed, New Active LingQs Limit for Free Accounts

You will be happy to know that all assignment limits will be removed from LingQ. The only remaining limitation will be a 300 LingQ limit on Free accounts. This means that Free members will only be allowed to keep 300 LingQs in their accounts at any one time. If you hit your limit, you will have to either delete LingQs or upgrade. All Basic, Plus and Premium members may create unlimited LingQs in their accounts.

New 5 Steps for Each Lesson and Simplified Lesson Status

Following up on our theme of simplification, we have removed the old assignment page. In fact, we have removed all references to assignments and items. Now we only refer to lessons. Furthermore, we no longer have multiple statuses for each lesson; New, Open, Updated, Completed, Archived, etc.... Now your lessons are either in your active list or they are archived. You will see that you move them from active to archived or vice versa by simply ticking or unticking a tickbox.

In addition, for each lesson we now assign 5 Steps. These steps are visible on the right hand side of the Lesson page. These steps will help new members, and really, all members get more out of LingQ. Progress indicators show how many steps you have completed for each lesson.

Everyone can post questions on Ask a Tutor

We are also opening up the Ask a Tutor forum to all members. Now, Free and Basic members can also post questions here. Tutors will only be expected to answer questions from Plus and Premium members but I'm sure many of our members will be happy to answer each others questions as well.

New Navigation and a New User Interface

Finally, you will notice the new design and the new navigation. We think you're really going to like the new design which gives a more lively look to the site.

The navigation has been changed to make it simpler for the first time user. There are now two main tabs for Courses and Community. All other tabs are now in a sub menu that is visible once the main tab is opened. There will also be a Welcome tab that is visible when you first open your account. This page is there to help newbies but can be removed once you no longer find it useful.

We realize our existing members will have to get used to the new navigation. We did not do this to confuse you! Rather, we did it to make things more obvious for a newbie. Thanks for your patience and we think that once you are used to it, you will find it at least as convenient as the previous navigation.

We realize we haven't provided too many images of the new LingQ. We're just trying to build up suspense! :-) You'll see it all on November 20th!

As with all changes, we want your feedback. Let us know what you like and what you don't like. We will try to respond to frequent requests. And, of course, although we would hope that you won't find any bugs, please let us know if some squeak through!

Enjoy the new LingQ!

ChinesePod.com Celebrates the 1,000 Free Mandarin Chinese Audio Lessons Milestone!

polyglot — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:45:40 +0000

Update from ChinesePod.com

This just in from the folks at Praxis Language's ChinesePod:

1000 Lessons!

This month ChinesePod hit an exciting milestone: its 1,000th lesson! Many thanks go to our loyal Poddies for all their support over the last 1,000 podcasts, and especially for the countless creative and useful lesson ideas. We could never have made it without you! So, now that we've covered every topic from toilet talk to being abducted by aliens, we toast a glass of baijiu in your honor, and look forward to what's to come. Have a listen to our special celebratory podcast.

Congratulations!

ChinesePod really is an amazing and fun way to learn Mandarin. Take the tour and find out more!

French, Spanish, Italian and English too!

ChinesePod is the first podcast to be released by the Praxis Language team. Praxis Language bases its products on combined Web-based and mobile learning. Community, fresh media content, talented course design team, array of web-based tools for practice and review. A unique combination of media and method, it's no wonder thousands are using ChinesePod every day.

The success of ChinesePod has enabled the release and growth of FrenchPod, SpanishPod, Learn Italian with ItalianPod and Learn English with EnglishPod.

Praxis's podcast-driven, socially enhanced, user backed language-learning phenomenon is maturing elegantly!

Learn Silbo Gomero, a Whistled Language from La Isla Gomera in the Canary Islands, on Busuu.com

travelinguist — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 17:03:19 +0000

Update from Busuu.com

Wow! More interesting news just came in from the folks at Busuu! They've done something, well, unprecedented as far as the Free Language team can tell: they've added an endangered language called Silbo Gomero to be learned right through their website!

This language is not spoken, but whistled (silbar = to whistle in Spanish), and is used by the people of Gomera, one of the Canary Islands off Spain, to communicate between long distances and over rough terrain. How cool is that!

Check out this video from Busuu about this fascinating language:

From Website

Become a Silbador!

The existence of the whistled language of Silbo Gomero on the beautiful Spanish island of La Gomera has for years fascinated linguists and language enthusiasts alike.

Silbo Gomero was invented in order to facilitate communication between the people of the island across the deep gorges and valleys long before mobile phones were invented. The tradition continues even now with the local government including it in the educational system of the island.

Learn Silbo Gomero at Busuu.com

Two Resources to Learn the Finnish Language for Free: Online Wikibooks and Byki Freeware

travelinguist — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 16:17:03 +0000

Finnish should be on Free Language by now. Ahhh... if only there were all the time in the world! But a recent email from a site user brought Finnish to our attention, and we will make it a point to add Finnish as soon as possible. Since we were unable to email the user back due to email issues on their end, this info is going up here on the blog.

Until a proper section for Finnish is up and running, there are two resources we'd recommend:

A Wikibook for Learning Finnish
Byki Language Freeware for over 70 Foreign Languages (including Finnish)

If you are interested in learning Finnish, please consider signing up for the Free Language Letter so you'll hear about it as soon as Finnish is added to the site!

Best of luck to you in your Finnish learning endeavors! And please recommend Free Language to anyone interested in learning foreign languages. :)

UPDATE: For those with a working knowledge of Finnish seeking listening practice, have a look at the Selkouutiset News in Plain Finnish Podcast.

Busuu Adds Animated Language Garden to their Drupal-Powered Free Social Language Community Site

travelinguist — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 07:51:40 +0000

Just got some news from the folks at Busuu. They have been working hard over in Spain to add some sweet new features to their free social language learning platform built on Drupal.

Check out a screenshot of a bustling language garden:

LinguistList.org Links Page Covers Linguistics plus Constructed (Conlangs), Endangered and Natural Languages and Writing Systems

travelinguist — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:54:34 +0000

Summary

The Linguist List, from Eastern Michigan University, has an amazing list of language links that just couldn't go unmentioned. Included are links regarding linguistics, endangered languages, natural languages, constructed languages (conlangs), writing systems, language meta-sites and language families.

From Website

This area of the LINGUIST list contains information on languages and language families, plus links to websites devoted to natural and constructed languages, to writing systems, and to language resources, e.g., dictionaries.

Visit LinguistList.org Language Links

Free Language blogs

Learn Czech Free Online

Learning Czech Online for Free

Insane Amount of Czech Resources

Lots of Czech Resources

Free Czech-English Dictionaries Online

Czech Language Portal and Beginner Lessons

Free Basic Czech Course

Free Czech Phrasebooks

Bilingual Czech-English Blog

Free Czech Wikibook

Article on Learning Czech in Three Months

Czech Language on Wikipedia

Czech Language on Omniglot

Free Language's Czech Resources

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Busuu 2012 Language Survey Results Provide Interesting Insight into the Future of Language Learning

2012 Language Survey Uncovers Interesting Trends in Language Learning

From busuu blog

If you're learning an obscure language, we'll help you find resources and give free guidance!

Guidance for Learners of Minority Languages

Popular Online Language Learning Platform Busuu Turns Three

Three Years and Nine Languages Later

Body Language and Travel Go Hand in Hand

Don't Offend the Locals

Learn Polish and Turkish Free, Now on Busuu.com

Online Language Platform adds Polish and Turkish

Info Release from Busuu.com

Language Learning System Babbel Offers Speech Recognition in English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish

Summary

Language Learning System Babbel Introduces Speech Recognition

About Babbel

Freestyle Spanish Website

From Website

World Cup Soccer/Football Free Language Courses for Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, English and Swedish!

Press Release

Busuu Teams up with PONS to Offer Exhaustive Grammar Guides Online via Busuu.com

TheLanguageShow.co.uk The Language Show London 2009 for Language Learners, Language Teachers, Language Lovers and Linguists

2009 Language Show in Olympia, London

From Website

Mobile Language Shop

Quickly Shop, Find and Buy Language Products on your Mobile Device

Babbel.com Releases Mini-Vocab Package w/Essential Vocabulary for Last-Minute Travelers: English Spanish French Italian German

From Babbel.com Blog

From Mara at Babbel

Free Michel Thomas Spanish Intro CDs for Brits who Buy Guardian on July 4th and Observer on July 5th, plus Holiday Phrasebooks

In Britain: Get Michel Thomas Spanish Intro CDs Free

From Guardian.co.uk

Learn Oromo Language Basics Online Free, aka Afaan Oromoo or Oromiffa(a), an African Tongue Spoken in Ethiopia and Kenya

Learn the Oromo Language (Afaan Oromoo) Online

About Oromo Language

More Minority Languages Coming

Congratulations! Busuu.com Wins the Silver Lion Prize at the Cannes Festival, the Most Presitious Prize in Advertising

Silbo Gomero Campaign Wins at Cannes

How to Get Pimsleur Language Products for Cheap including Spanish, French, Italian, German, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and more

Look no further for Pimsleur language product deals!

How To Get Rosetta Stone Cheap for Any Language including Arabic, Chinese, Spanish, French, German, Italian and more

Look no further for Rosetta Stone deals!

Rosetta Stone Deal Links

Free Language Shop: Get Cheap Prices and Major Discounts on Language Products - All While Supporting this Resource!

Byki iPhone App

"What we need in language learning" by linguist Steve Kaufmann, plus Why we need public domain language resources

Added Language FAQ Section for the Most Popular Language-Related Questions and Answers

Overview

Visit FAQ Sections

Rosetta Stone Spanish Software for Cheap!

Stepping Aboard for Multilingualism, a vlog entry from LingQ's Steve Kaufmann on Polyglot Culture

Summary

Steve Kaufmann on Multilingualism

LingQ Central Announces New Features for Steve Kaufmann's Unique Online Language Learning Platform Based on Texts

New Features for LingQ Platform

ChinesePod.com Celebrates the 1,000 Free Mandarin Chinese Audio Lessons Milestone!

Update from ChinesePod.com

Congratulations!

French, Spanish, Italian and English too!

Learn Silbo Gomero, a Whistled Language from La Isla Gomera in the Canary Islands, on Busuu.com

Update from Busuu.com

From Website

Two Resources to Learn the Finnish Language for Free: Online Wikibooks and Byki Freeware

Busuu Adds Animated Language Garden to their Drupal-Powered Free Social Language Community Site