Free Language - learn german

Languages of Europe and Open-Content Textbooks Collection to Learn and Teach European Languages at Wikibooks.org

polyglot — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 11:10:59 +0000

Summary

Wikibooks.org is a community for creating a free library of educational textbooks that anyone can edit. The Wikibook's Languages of Europe category can serve, for the language learner, educator and enthusiast, as an enormous doorway into the many European languages, both living and historical.

The European subcontinent has birthed and/or attracted an enormous variety of languages from many sub-branches of what linguists call the Indo-European languages.

Below you'll find direct links to a wide variety of European language open-content textbooks. These are free and open source, for everyone to use and benefit from. And collaborate on - especially language educators who have the knowledge to share with all through this open medium.

To boot, Wikibooks.org itself is available in a wide range of world languages!

From Wikibooks.org

Wikibooks Category: Languages of Europe

From Wikibooks, the open-content textbooks collection

These language books concern Languages of Europe. See also Subject:Languages of Europe.

European Languages with Books or Pages

Albanian, Aragonese, Armenian, Austrian, Basque, Belarusian, Breton, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chechen, Croatian, Danish, Galician, Gothic, Greenlandic, High Icelandic, Hungarian, Høgnorsk, Icelandic, Insubric, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Leonese, Lowland Scots, Macedonian, Manx, Neapolitan, Norwegian, Old Church Slavonic, Polish, Provençal, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Sicilian, Silesian, Slovene, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Welsh

This may be incomplete when you read this. Please check the Languages of Europe page for the latest content.

European Language Wikibooks Subcategories

Dutch language
English language
Finnish language
French language
German language
Greek language
Latin language
Lithuanian language
Portuguese language
Scottish Gaelic language
Spanish language
Yiddish language

Visit Wikibooks.org on Languages of Europe.
Wikipedia.org also has a category on Languages of Europe.

RocketLanguages.com Rocket German Language Audio and Software Course from Rocket Languages, Try 6-Day Free German Course

polyglot — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 08:49:53 +0000

Summary

The Rocket German product from Rocket Languages has proved to be a highly successful, fun! and fast method for beginners to learn the German language. The Rocket Languages team has designed a multi-faceted course including extensive audio lessons, software and learning games, grammar lessons with audio clips and a member's forum for help on demand.

I have personally been using Rocket Languages Japanese now as a total beginner with next to no knowledge of the Japanese language and the results have been excellent. I have used a lot of different language-learning methods (as you can tell from this website!) and the Rocket method is both quick and interesting, and I always find myself looking forward to the next lesson.

Don't just take our word for it. Try it out and if you don't like the results, you can get all your cash back for 60 days after you place an order. No risk there! And if you're not quite ready to jump in with both feet, try the free 6-day German course below...

Free 6-Day German Course

From Website

Rocket German is designed to be the easiest to follow system for learning how to speak German available. It is an interactive course that makes you want to study. Also, it's practical. You'll discover exactly what to say in virtually all situations.

With Rocket German, you are going to learn German rapidly, effectively, and easily. You are going to be able to speak at a restaurant, at an airport, with new friends...

With the Rocket Languages German Program you get:

A Rocket Languages Interactive Audio Course that prompts you to speak German in a conversational and friendly way so that the words just stick in your mind! Learn a language the easy way!

Mega Software Learning Games that are specifically designed to increase your vocabulary and understanding of German and allow you to have fun in the process!

Fully illustrated and easy-to-follow Grammar Lessons, for those of you who love to know how German works. Most of these come with embedded audio clips in the lessons so that you can hear exactly how the words are pronounced!

If you have any questions, you can either email us or post a message on our Members Only Learners Forums, where our team of language experts and fellow enthusiasts will respond to your needs. With every Premium order you get unlimited and full access to our Forum - imagine having a teacher, virtually "on call" 24 hours a day!

And of course all Rocket Languages products are backed by a 60 Day 100% Money Back Guarantee. We're that confident, and it's that simple.

Rocket Languages will teach you how to speak German naturally, so you can read, write, speak, and understand the language as though you have lived there all your life - these are truly cutting-edge multimedia courses!

Find out more about Rocket German.

All Rocket Languages

View all Rocket Language courses.

A Round-Up of 45 Mac OSX Language Software Apps: GPL Software, Freeware, Shareware and Demos from Apple's Download Center

polyglot — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 01:58:32 +0000

Summary

This (lengthy) article brings together a pile of Free Software (GNU GPL'd as Public Domain), freeware and shareware for language learning and reference for Mac OS X.

Software descriptions are taken from Apple Downloads. We will be adding more GPL applications soon.

Polyglot Culture: Quick Wikipedia Tip for Multilingual Language Surfing Goodness

polyglot — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:01:55 +0000

Summary

The now-ubiquitious Wikipedia.org has some multilingual gems tucked away in its folds. This article serves to point out one of the most powerful polyglot culture feaures that Wikipedia offers: the myriad articles in a multitude of languages at a single click away.

For instance, while browsing the topic "Language" on Wikipedia in English, down the left navigation bar you will find entries for the same topic in literally dozens of languages:

Afrikaans, Alemannisch, العربية, Aragonés, Arpetan, Asturianu, Avañe'ẽ, Aymar aru, Azərbaycan, Bamanankan, Bân-lâm-gú, Basa Banyumasan, Башҡорт, Беларуская, Беларуская (тарашкевіца), Boarisch, Brezhoneg, Български, Català, Чăвашла, Cebuano, Česky, Cymraeg, Dansk, Deitsch, Deutsch, Diné bizaad, Eesti, Ελληνικά, Español, Esperanto, Euskara, فارسی, Français, Frysk, Furlan, Gaeilge, Gàidhlig, Galego, ગુજરાતી, 한국어, हिन्दी, Hrvatski, Ido, Ilokano, Bahasa Indonesia, Interlingua, isiXhosa, Íslenska, Italiano, עברית, Basa Jawa, ქართული, Kernewek, Кыргызча, Kiswahili, Коми, Kongo, Kreyòl ayisyen, Kurdî / كوردی, Latina, Latviešu, Lëtzebuergesch, Lietuvių, Limburgs, Lingála, Lojban, Magyar, Македонски, Malagasy, मराठी, مَزِروني, Bahasa Melayu, Nederlands, 日本語, Нохчийн, Norfuk / Pitkern, Norsk (bokmål), Norsk (nynorsk), Nouormand, Occitan, پښتو, Polski, Português, Ripoarisch, Română, Romani, Runa Simi, Русский, Саха тыла, Sámegiella, Sardu, Scots, Seeltersk, Sicilianu, Simple English, Slovenčina, Slovenščina, Српски / Srpski, Suomi, Svenska, Tagalog, தமிழ், Tatarça/Татарча, ไทย, Tiếng Việt, Тоҷикӣ, Türkçe, Türkmen, Українська, Volapük, Võro, Walon, Winaray, ייִדיש, 粵語,Zazaki, Žemaitėška, 中文

This list discludes several languages for which this particular computer does not have fonts installed. Many of you will see font-related issues for some of the languages above. Find out more here if you do.

How to find the links.

This image shows how to find what other languages are available for a given topic on Wikipedia:

These are not translations.

Each entry is an organically-written encyclopedia article on the topic of "Language" in a language. The time and space for language and culture persists!

It's quite intriguing surfing Wikipedia for multilingual goodness. If you'd like to hear more on this topic or have something of value to share, please comment on this article!

Use these to learn!

This feature of Wikipedia can be used to learn and teach languages. Find a topic of interest and study up on the vocabulary in your target language, build a linguistic knowledge of specific interests, get materials for educating, compare entries in different languages to bring out cultural nuances and more. There are many ways to twist and tweak this vast maze of plurilingual content!

From Website

A language is a dynamic set of visual, auditory, or tactile symbols of communication and the elements used to manipulate them. Language can also refer to the use of such systems as a general phenomenon. Strictly speaking, language is considered to be an exclusively human mode of communication. Although other animals make use of quite sophisticated communicative systems, sometimes casually referred to as animal language, none of these are known to make use of all of the properties that linguists use to define language.

In Western Philosophy, language has long been closely associated with reason, which is also a uniquely human way of using symbols. In Ancient Greek philosophical terminology, the same word, logos, was used as a term for both language or speech and reason, and the philosopher Thomas Hobbes used the English word "speech" so that it similarly could refer to reason, as will be discussed below. More commonly though, the English word "language", derived ultimately from lingua, Latin for tongue, typically refers only to expressions of reason which can be understood by other people, most obviously by speaking.

Visit "Language" on Wikipedia in English and look at all the languages on the left navigation bar. Those are the languages for which the article you are viewing has equivalents.

New iTunes U: Download Educational Podcast Courses to Learn Language with Audio and Video on your iPod for Mobile Learning

polyglot — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:45:14 +0000

Summary

Apple recently released a new section of the wildly popular iTunes Store available through their iTunes software. This new section is called iTunes U, and collects podcasts from numerous universities and colleges to make them available for free download to your iPod or other mp3 player, mobile/cell phone, etc.

One of the sub-sections of iTunes U is (note: you need iTunes for this link to work) specifically for languages and language education - yay!

Currently there are 60 podcasts (probably more by the time you read this) available regarding both learning foreign languages as well as general topics regarding language in general. Many of these podcasts are called OpenCourseWare, considered Open Learning materials released in the Public Domain. This means they can be used truly freely by teachers and educators without worries about copyright issues - a big plus! Be sure to look at the license for each podcast to make sure of the licensing.

The podcast-based current courses available through iTunes U are English (Medieval and ESL), French, German, Greek, Japanese, Hebrew (various), Italian (Language and Theater), Romanian, Spanish (various) plus Language Technology and Lectures, Interviews, Clubs, Lectionary at Lunch and Storytelling Colombian Style. There are many more, too.

This is really exciting to see at this professional education level. Of couse, add this to the 982 language podcasts in the "regular" (non-iTunes U) iTunes store and that makes over a whopping 1,000 language-related podcasts for download through iTunes - all free. :)

Watch the iTunes U intro video below to learn more about this new feature:

From iTunes U

iTunes U puts the power of the iTunes Store to work for colleges and universities, so users can easily search, download, and play course content just like they do music, movies, and TV shows.

Always in session.

iTunes U delivers easy, 24/7 access to educational content from hundreds of top colleges, universities, and educationally focused organizations across the country. And it’s accessible to anyone with a Mac or PC.

Learning to go.

Students can sync iTunes U content with any iPod or iPhone, so they can go right on learning while they grab a meal, walk to class, or work out at the gym.

Keeps them motivated.

Engaging students on their home turf, iTunes U offers audio and video that make subjects more vivid than any printed page ever could.

Open-minded.

iTunes U lets schools open all or part of their content to the public, from parents to alumni to anyone with a love of learning.

Find out more about iTunes U.

Vocabulix.com English, German and Spanish Verb Conjugator, Conjugation Tools, Vocabulary Building, Self-Test Tool, Friend Finder

travelinguist — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:33:17 +0000

Summary

Vocabulix is a great resource for verb conjugations and vocabulary building through self-testing for English, German and Spanish language learners. Have a look at the verb conjugators for English, German and Spanish. Or test yourself in either of these thrree languages with the verb drills tool.

As the name would have you believe, you can also increase your vocabulary skills using their vocabulary builder, which allows you to determine a level of study, choose the type of test and review the terms before starting. Quite handy!

Also of note are the friend finder and lesson creation tool (available only when logged in).

Use Vocabulix Here!

You can use the tools below to conjugate verbs quickly right here, too!

English

Verb conjugator - English
Start>>
Learn English English Verbs by www.vocabulix.com

German

Verb conjugator - German
Start>>
Learn German German Verbs by www.vocabulix.com

Spanish

Verb conjugator - Spanish
Start>>
Learn Spanish Spanish Verbs by www.vocabulix.com

From Website

Learn Languages free and online with Vocabulix: Improve your vocabulary skills in foreign languages, online and free!

Vocabulary Builder

With over 90 predefined vocabulary lessons or create your own foreign language lessons and share them with other online users (also: French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech...)

Verb Drills

Learn Spanish verb conjugations, learn German conjugations or learn English conjugations with this efficient tool. Verb drills

Verb Conjugation Tables

In Spanish, German and English.

Visit Vocabulix.com

Learn That Language Now! ebook with Quick, Easy and Efficient Method for Learning Any Foreign Language

travelinguist — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 13:37:33 +0000

Summary

Learn That Language Now! is a truly excellent, highly useful e-book for learners of any language - available for instant download to get you learning better right away. The study approach presented in the book is refreshing, exciting and even intoxicating, because it works so well once you start using it! Having personally learned six languages to varying degrees myself, I was pleasantly surprised to find many new tips and tricks that I'd never come across in over 15 years of studying and practicing foreign languages.

The author offers language learners perspective (earned through years of learning multiple languages) as well as practical methods you can start using right away to improve your language study flow and achieve fluency many times faster than with standardized methods.

This ebook provides essential information that will save you time and energy, helping you reach your goals faster and with more confidence. And with a low price tag of $19.99 USD - and instant delivery to your email - you will have a hard time finding a more valuable investment in your foreign language learning endeavors.

Finally, teachers will also benefit greatly from this book as it will give them insight into creating better study programs and stronger learning tools for their students.

Find out more about "Learn That Language Now!"

From Website

Learn That Language Now

What if I told you that you can become fluent in a foreign language in a matter of months, learn thousands of words without worrying about forgetting them, master grammar and do all of this in an enjoyable, painless manner. Sound too good to be true? Well, prepare to have your language learning experiences turned upside down. Read on to learn more...

What is “Learn That Language Now”?

Learn That Language Now is a comprehensive manual that will teach you the tips, tricks, techniques and method to achieve fluency in a foreign language with the goal of learning as quickly and fluently as possible with the least amount of effort.

Learn That Language Now was written because all other traditional methods of language learning, including classes, textbooks, audio courses and software programs, were slow, costly, inefficient and used language learning philosophies that were out-dated. Most language resources teach language along the same lines as languages were studied hundreds of years ago: endless grammar, syntactical rules and vocabulary lists.

Visit Learn That Language Now.

PukkaGerman.com Pukka German Podcast, German Slang, Colloquial German, Idioms, Funny German Sayings for Intermediate to Advanced

travelinguist — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 17:37:46 +0000

Summary

Pukka German a free audio podcast for intermediate to advanced German learners. The Pukka German podcast focuses on real-life German, including colloquial German, slang, German idioms and funny German sayings. A few example podcast topics are Oktoberfest, Gobsmacked, Money, Party and Like Clockwork. The lesson audio, podcast transcripts and vocabulary lists are totally free and there is an option to become a pro member to gain access to online quizzes for a reasonable price. Pukka German is vibrant and filled with useful content for people that want to learn the kind of German language that is used in everyday life. The podcast production quality is that of proper studio recordings and the website is quite colorful as well. Overall, this is an excellent, vibrant, relatively new podcast for students of German. Bravo Lisa and Tyler!

From Website

Who is Pukka German for? Our German podcast is aimed at independent learners of German of all ages from intermediate to advanced levels. Whether you are a student, business professional or a language afficionado you will find plenty of useful material on the site to help you speak more fluent and interesting German. We do not teach beginner German so you will need to have the German basics under your belt already to get the most from our German podcast and online quizzes. Pukka German Inspiration On arrival in Freiburg, I realised that in order to properly integrate and enjoy living out here, I was going to have to learn German. Immediately I devoted considerable energy to learning the German basics as quickly as possible. I used language learning software, CDs, a multitude of books, online resources and also took German language classes. In fact Lisa was quite taken aback by my motivation and she worried that I had some kind of compulsive disorder that she'd failed to pick up on during our time in Scotland!
On arrival in Freiburg, I realised that in order to properly integrate and enjoy living out here, I was going to have to learn German. Immediately I devoted considerable energy to learning the German basics as quickly as possible. I used language learning software, CDs, a multitude of books, online resources and also took German language classes. In fact Lisa was quite taken aback by my motivation and she worried that I had some kind of compulsive disorder that she'd failed to pick up on during our time in Scotland! Unfortunately, I soon noticed that the language I learnt from text books was very different to the colourful language that I heard being used socially. It frustrated me that despite all the time and energy I'd invested to improve my German, I battled to understand what seemed to be the most entertaining conversations. I also felt cramped in my ability to express my personality and bring humour into conversation. It didn't take much to realise that it was the idiomatic language, the colloquial expressions and equally important, the German slang that I was missing. Fortunately for me, I had Lisa who not only did me the favour of speaking with me in German from my first week here, but she also explained many of the useful German expressions, that my private studies hadn't exposed me to. This obvious difference between textbook German and the language used by a large percentage of the Germans I was meeting is what inspired the creation of the Pukka German podcast. My vision with Pukka German is to help learners of German to bridge this divide, which normally is only achieved with a patient native speaker at your side. A German podcast seemed the perfect solution because it allows subscribers to hear new vocabulary in context and spoken by a native speaker. Podcasts are also great for regular delivery of content, which is super for language learning.

Visit Pukka German.

Subscribe to Pukka German. Subscribe to Pukka German via iTunes.

german.about.com German Learning+Teaching Resources, Verb Conjugator, Audio Listening Lab, Grammar, Geneology, Culture, Lessons

polyglot — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 10:06:47 +0000

Summary

german.about.com is packed full of information for beginner to intermediate German learners as well as teachers of those levels. In fact, there is so much content there that listing it here would take too much time! Instead, this article will highlight some of the things you can find on the site, and leave the rest for you to find on the site.

Of special note are the start learning section, practice materials, teacher resources, audio lab, grammar section, travel section, vocabulary section, culture section, thesaurus, games/exercises and verb conjugator.

There is a lot more there, and it's all accessible for free. :)

From Website

Our German Language Lab offers audio for beginners or more advanced learners of German. Using the audio categories listed below, you can learn how to pronounce German correctly. By listening carefully to the sound in our German Language Lab, you'll have a model to imitate. Some language learners find it easier than others to get just the right sounds of German, but with a little effort you can do it! If you want to sound like a German, remember the German saying: Übung macht den Meister. (Practice makes perfect.)

Use the German Word of the Day (Wort des Tages) to expand your German vocabulary. Below you'll find two versions, one for beginners and another for intermediate or advanced learners.

Visit german.about.com

Verbix.com Verbix Free Verb Conjugation Website (WebVerbix), Verb Wiki and Windows Freeware (FreeVerbix) for 100+ Languages

travelinguist — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 08:16:10 +0000

Summary

Verbix is "an independent non-profit organization that aims to promote and protect linguistic diversity." The tools on their site "contain verb conjugations for hundreds of languages, ranging from national and international languages to regional and even extinct languages."

There are four main things to bring your attention to in this article:

1) WebVerbix, a great free online verb conjugator for over eighty languages.

2) WikiVerb, a wiki site dedicated to languages, verbs, and verb conjugation.

3) FreeVerbix, a freeware version of the Verbix Windows software which bumps the number of available languages to above one hundred.

4) The Verbix website, where all three of the above and more (including the $40 paid version of Verbix 2008 for Windows) are available. Your purchase will support the non-profit group and expand the Verbix non-profit organization and web presence.

Also of import is the list of supported languages for the above-mentioned free and commercial products and online services.

The free Verbix stuff (WebVerbix, FreeVerbix and WikiVerb) provides plenty to work with for language learners and educators alike. The free online version works great for conjugating an enormous amount of verbs instantly.

From Website

UNESCO, United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Verbix is an independent non-profit organization that aims to promote and protect linguistic diversity [UNESCO Observatory: Multilingualism]. This site contains verb conjugations for hundreds of languages, ranging from national and international languages to regional and even extinct languages.

FreeVerbix 7.3 is a universal Verb Conjugator that shows verb inflections in 100+ languages. It is based on Verbix language extension technology, so after installation of Verbix you can easily install any language extension to add more languages in Verbix.

WebVerbix is a free on-line verb conjugator. It contains a subset of Verbix for Windows features.

WikiVerb is a site dedicated to languages, verbs, and verb conjugation. It's not going to be a copy of information available in WikiPedia, but it will focus in verb conjugation. It won't replace www.verbix.com either, but it includes information and languages that are not available there.

Visit Verbix.com

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