Free Language - Learn Spanish

Babbel Integrated Spanish Language Learning Platform Includes Web Interface, iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad App, Social Networking, More

polyglot — Sat, 17 Apr 2010 22:29:32 +0000

Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning Spanish.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your Spanish learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual Spanish learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study Spanish on your mobile device - even if you're offline! Babbel Mobile is free to download for everybody, and access to the Vocabulary is available for free for those who already are subscribers to Babbel. If you're not on Babbel, you can purchase the vocabulary as a stand alone app, which has 3000 words and phrases, for a onetime $7.99 USD.

TED Talks and Language Learners/ Teachers Rejoice: Be Inspired while Learning a Language using Transcripts and Subtitles

travelinguist — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 20:38:15 +0000

A Hidden Gem for Language Lovers and Learners

This article presents a unique approach for intermediate to advanced (and beyond) learners of many languages to gain exposure to interesting material in their target language(s). It has to do with a very popular website that features short (usually less than ten minutes) presentations by some of the world's greatest and most famous minds (not always both ;) on their specific areas of expertise. It's called, simply, TED, and the presentations are called "TED Talks".

The TED website itself is not geared towards language learners or educators yet is useful for both. It is especially useful for English learners, as all the talks are in English. But it's also useful for anyone learning most of the world's most-spoken languages (as well as numerous lesser-spoken ones) who want to simultaneously watch inspiring, funny, courageous, fascinating, informative, persuasive, ingenious and often jaw-dropping presentations about technology, science, entertainment, design, business and global issues - all while gaining exposure to their target language. Here's how and why...

Learn Spanish Online: Easy, Quick, Fun (Plus Apps!)

travelinguist — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 20:35:15 +0000

Have Fun Learning Spanish Fast

Busuu Spanish offers Spanish learners a dynamic combination of online lessons, language exchange and mobile apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android.

Busuu offers many of their features for free :) This includes picture-based vocabulary training, writing exercises, reading comprehension exercises, video chat, interactive exams and a bustling community for social exchange in Spanish.

The Busuu system allows you to keep a track record of your Spanish studies and mark your progress as you complete each lesson. You can work through your lessons at any time, enabling you to fit your study schedule into your daily life however you choose.

Find Friends and Practice or Exchange

Finding friends is easy in the Busuu community! Quickly search and contact other Spanish learners to practice with as well as exchange partners to share and trade with. Plus, there's a free video chat function for easy access to language exchanges right in the same interface you're using to learn.

Stay Motivated in Style

In order to keep you motivated, Busuu has created a beautiful interface which allows you to grow and visualize your own language garden as you make progress learning Spanish. If you are interested in learning more than one language, you will have a tree for each language that sprouts and shoots to the sky as you progress through the lessons and levels. It's quite a thrill to see this grow and know it's a visual representation of your language skills!

Free Spanish Mobile App for iOS and Android

Busuu offers free mobile apps for learning Spanish on the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and Android. The free app takes you through the basics for getting around, and is especially useful while traveling.

Reverso Free Online Translation Service, Dictionary, Verb Conjugator, Spell Checker and Grammar Helper

travelinguist — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 05:42:59 +0000

Free Online Translation Service in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew and Japanese

Reverso is a free translation website for many languages. It is also a also a dictionary, verb conjugator, grammar helper and spell-checker with a handy toolbar for instant access to these features directly in your browser.

Reverso services are available for French, Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew and Japanese. This means you can translate between any combination of these languages, such as Arabic to Japanese, Russian to Chinese, Hebrew to Portuguese and so on.

Plus, the reverso.net website has been localized in English, French, Spanish, German, Russian, Italian, Czech and Romanian, meaning the entire user interface is available in those languages.

The ability for users to give feedback on the translations adds a community feel. Also offered is a free newsletter. For quick and easy translation between all the languages above, Reverso is a great tool!

Teachers can recommend this resource to students, especially their toolbar for quick access to translations on the fly while browsing online material in the target language.

Spanish to English Translation

travelinguist — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 13:30:15 +0000

Popular Free Spanish to English Translator, Dictionary and Spanish Course

SpanishDict.com is a widely-used free Spanish to English dictionary and translator. The website has been around since 1999 and has millions of visitors per month who rely on their fast and accurate translation engine.

In addition to offering a dictionary and translation, the SpanishDict offer loads of useful tools for Spanish learners including a free Spanish course, multimedia flashcards, Q&A, Word of the Day, Spanish grammar guide, links to Spanish newspapers and radio stations worldwide, a phrasebook, conjugation tables, a chat interface and more.

The interface is clean and loads quickly. All in all, this is an excellent all-around resource for Spanish students, and is useful for teachers as well.

Free Spanish Courses, Resources for Teachers and Interactive Games for Children

travelinguist — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 13:25:56 +0000

Spanish Resources for Learners, Teachers and Children

123TeachMe.com is a great Spanish language website offering free information and tools for learners and teachers alike. Amongst these resources you'll find interactive Spanish games for kids, Spanish courses for adults, a Spanish verb conjugator, a translation engine, a directory of Spanish schools, daily study resources (words, verbs, phrases with RSS) and more.

For learners interested in courses, they offer free access to a conversational Spanish course, a Spanish grammar course, a basic medical Spanish course, Spanish for maids and housekeepers as well as business and occupational courses. All in all, it's quite a lot of material, and well-geared toward multiple niches. This is incredibly useful for quick learning on a specific topic.

Spanish teachers will love the worksheets and printable handouts as a quick way to get material for use in class. Included are games, grammar and vocabulary exercises, videos and more.

The website itself is clearly organized, neatly laid out and very useful. Many sections of the site are supplemented with audio and video. Bravo to the folks at 123TeachMe :)

Six Ways to Learn Languages Free

polyglot — Thu, 26 May 2011 19:49:46 +0000

Language Learning Tips on Using Free Wikimedia Resources

This article points out six useful ways to use Wikimedia content from Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikinews, Wiktionary and Wikiquotes for learning languages free.

What's highlighted here is also great for teachers because it is licensed via Creative Commons and available to use for free.

Spanish is used as an example here, but the same ideas are applicable to all languages for which content is available.

1) Know General Info about Your Target Language

Find out general information about a language by viewing that language's Wikipedia entry. For example, here's the Spanish language entry on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language

It contains loads of general information, as well as specifics about grammar, alphabet, pronunciation, etc.

2) Use Wikibooks and Wikiversity Courses to Get Started

The Free Dictionary (thefreedictionary.com)

polyglot — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:03:30 +0000

Free Multilingual Dictionary and Word-Related Apps

TheFreeDictionary.com is a great free dictionary available in over a dozen languages.

The English dictionaries are exceptionally broad-reaching and include Financial and Legal dictionaries.

Also of use to the language learner are their website features, including drag-and-drop rearranging of the interface and double-clicking of any word on the site to see its definition. Word of the day, news, quotations, horoscopes, daily articles and history tidbits provide a flow of updated content to work with.

Also available are word games and the ability to track a personal vocabulary list.

If you are language mobile, they maintain numerous dictionary and word-related apps.

Front Page News in Over 20 Languages from Newspapers Around the World

polyglot — Mon, 23 May 2011 18:24:40 +0000

Daily Front Pages from 89 Countries

Thanks to Newseum.org, you can catch a glimpse of today's front page from hundreds of the world's newspapers - in nearly two dozen languages - for free. A great way to gain exposure to news in a language you are learning, the website and iPhone/iPad/iPod Touch app created by Newseum.org are truly outstanding.

Browse the website or use the app to immediately gain access to the front page of hundreds of newspapers around the world, complete with a downloadable, readable PDF version. This is quite useful for language instruction based on lessons from today's world news.

book2: Learn 40 Languages for Free Online

polyglot — Sun, 15 May 2011 23:44:34 +0000

Free Audio Books for 40 Languages

book2 is an outstanding resource for learning the basics of many languages.

This project sticks out by offering around 1600 combinations of languages, such as Japanese to English, Chinese to Arabic, etc, to use for exposure.

The method involves learning a series of short audio sequences to become comfortable in specific situations (introductions, meeting people, getting around, etc) common in daily life.

11 Free Spanish Lessons

polyglot — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:00:52 +0000

Summary

Get eleven free Spanish lessons from VisualLink Spanish to get a feel for the basics of Spanish using their unique visual method of language learning.

These lessons give you an introduction to Spanish and show you how their commercial course works. The key to their method is the linking of images with sounds to give learners a head start on easier memorization.

From Website

Spanish is important in today's world. Learning Spanish can open doors and provide personal satisfaction. These free Spanish lessons online will help you learn to speak Spanish faster than you ever thought possible. Unlike other software courses, here at LearnSpanishToday.com you will learn to speak Spanish in complete sentences. The Visual Link™ Spanish lessons teach you how to speak in everyday situations by teaching you sentence patterns that help you master the Spanish language. You will learn Spanish - Guaranteed! We are so confident that you will learn Spanish that our course comes with a 6-month Guarantee .

Learning Spanish

Learning Spanish can help give you the lift you need in life. Learning Spanish can help keep your brain sharp and many studies have shown that learning Spanish can stave off the affects of Alzheimer's. The Visual Link Spanish™ course was designed after years or research and development and accesses the brain's amazing ability to store and recall a foreign language. Sign up for our free learn Spanish lessons above and see how fast you can learn Spanish for free.

Free Spanish Lessons

The free Spanish lessons on this site will give you a sample of how the Visual Link Spanish Course works. They will teach you new vocabulary words in context of complete sentences. You will learn how to use each new word you learn. By the time you are done with the first free interactive lesson, you will be able to form 22 different sentences and you will already be speaking and conversing in Spanish. Get started now!

Visit VisualLink Spanish and get eleven free Spanish lessons.

Babbel Urban Explorations: Learn French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, English and Swedish Quickly for Travel

polyglot — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 19:58:07 +0000

Summary

A recent addition to it's online and mobile language learning suite, Babbel, winner of the 2011 European Award for Technology Supported Learning, has just released a new and very useful set of online foreign language courses called "Urban Explorations", available in:

Babbel's "Urban Explorations" are specifically designed courses to help the casual traveler quickly and effectively prepare for a visit abroad.

Free Spanish Phrasebook

polyglot — Sat, 19 Feb 2011 17:20:32 +0000

Summary

Wikitravel users have collectively created a free Spanish phrasebook with the goal of making it possible for travelers to "get by" while traveling in areas where Spanish is spoken.

Wikitravel phrasebooks are available in many languages and each one varies in depth and detail. Most of the phrasebooks include a pronunciation guide, a general phrase list, information about dates and numbers, a color list, transportation-related phrases, vocabulary for shopping and phrases for eating and drinking. Some are even more in depth, and all are free!

From Website

This Spanish phrasebook is not a language tutorial, comprehensive grammar or dictionary. Its goal is to define just enough of the language so that an English-speaking traveller can "get by" in areas where Spanish is spoken.

Spanish (español), also known as Castilian (castellano), is the third most-spoken language in the world. Originating in Spain and spoken by most residents there, it has slightly different pronunciations from the rest of the world's Spanish speakers, as well as a few vocabulary differences.

It is also spoken in Mexico and all of Central and South America (Guatemala, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Peru, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay) except Belize, Brazil, Guyana, French Guiana, Suriname, and the Falkland Islands.

In the Caribbean, Spanish is also spoken in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Although the Philippines and Guam are former Spanish colonies, relatively few learned how to speak Spanish, and even fewer do so today.

Spanish is a first language for many people in the United States, especially in California, Texas, South Florida, and elsewhere the Southwest.

A Western Romance language, Spanish is closely related to and mutually intelligible with the other romance languages to a wide extent, such as Portuguese, Catalan, French, Italian and Romanian. English and Spanish share variants of approximately one third of their words (via Latin), although the pronunciation tends to be very different.

Spanish is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in the central-north of Iberia during the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the later Medieval period.

Modern Spanish developed with the "Readjustment of the Consonants" (Reajuste de las Sibilantes) that began in 15th century. The language continues to adopt foreign words from a variety of other languages, as well as developing new words. Spanish was taken most notably to the Americas as well as to Africa and Asia Pacific with the expansion of the Spanish Empire between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, where it became the most important language for government and trade.

In 1999, there were 358 million people speaking Spanish as a native language and a total of 417 million speakers worldwide. Currently these figures are up to 400 and 500 million people respectively. Spanish is the second most natively spoken language in the world, after Mandarin Chinese. Mexico contains the largest population of Spanish speakers.

Spanish is one of the six official languages of the United Nations, and used as an official language of the European Union, and Mercosur.

Spanish is the second most studied language in the world, after English.

View the Spanish Phrasebook.

Learn Spanish Phrases Essential for Travel, Free from BBC Languages

polyglot — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:39:04 +0000

Summary

A collection of the most useful phrases in Spanish for travelers by BBC Languages Quick Fix.

Not to be considered an Spanish course, these simple phrases cover the most essential core necessities and "niceties" travelers ought to know ("Hello", "Goodbye", "Thank you", etc) to show cultural appreciation by speaking Spanish!

Includes an online player to view the phrases as they are written in Spanish and listen as a native speaker says them.

You can also download them to your MP3 player or print out a sheet and take it with you on your trip!

From Website

12 essential holiday phrases in Spanish. Take these phrases with you on your mp3 player and as a print-out!

Visit BBC Languages Spanish.

Free Google Translate, Mobile Translation Website and Translator App for Android Phones

polyglot — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 00:18:50 +0000

Google's Free Translation Engine

Google has an amazing machine translation engine which is also available via their mobile translation website and now available as an android app.

Available in over fifty languages, Google Translate is able to handle words, sentences, paragraphs, websites and documents. Their mobile website is fast and easy to use, and the Android App makes it all available natively on your Android Phone.

From Website

Forvo.com: Thousands of Words in Dozens of Languages Pronounced by Native Speakers

polyglot — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:45:32 +0000

Listen to Words in Dozens of Languages

Forvo is an interesting project which accumulates recordings of existing words in all languages. A lofty and, indeed, ongoing goal!

Language learners interested in finding out just how a word is actually pronounced by a native speaker of a given language will love this website!

Have a look at the languages page and you can quickly see which languages have the most words. There is a handy tag cloud on the side of the page which will show you in a visual way which languages have more words already pronounced.

And if you're interested, feel free to contribute to this collective pronunciation effort!

Center for Free Foreign Language Learning from Wikiversity.org

polyglot — Mon, 17 Jan 2011 22:45:56 +0000

Summary

Wikiversity is a great website for learning about all kinds of topics for free! Among the numerous topics you will find quite a lot of wonderful information about foreign language learning. Literally dozens of languages are represented (see list below) and it's truly a goldmine for those interested in getting started with some general information and often even more.

Also of note: The content on Wikiversity is free and made available under a license called the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License. This is great news for teachers who are interested in finding free materials for their classes and students.

From Website

Hello and welcome to the Wikiversity Centre for Foreign Language Learning. Here you may learn foreign languages and explore their cultures, as well as teach others the languages you speak.

The study of the structure of a language and its development is called linguistics. Wikiversity's School of Linguistics is part of the Faculty of Social Sciences.

Languages

At publish time of this article, the following languages are available:

Germanic languages: Afrikaans, English, German, Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian

Romance languages: Latin, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish

Languages of South America: Quechua

Slavic languages: Czech, Polish, Russian

Celtic languages: Irish, Brythonic Celtic Languages Division (Breton, Cornish, Welsh)

Indo-Iranian languages: Hindi, Persian

Finno-Ugric languages: Finnish, Hungarian

Turkic languages: Turkish, Azerbaijani

East Asian languages: Japanese, Korean

Sino-Tibetan languages: Tibetan, Chinese

Austro-Asiatic languages: Vietnamese

Tai-Kadai languages: Thai

South Asian languages: Bengali

Afro - Asiatic languages: Luganda

Niger Congo / Bantu languages: Sesotho

Semitic languages: Arabic, Hebrew

Other languages: Albanian, Basque, Greek (also Ancient Greek)

Constructed languages: Esperanto, Klingon, Novial, Turoke

Tolkienesque languages: Quenya, Sindarin

Babbel Lets You Learn German, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Italian and English Online, Offline and Mobile

polyglot — Fri, 19 Nov 2010 18:57:01 +0000

Summary

Babbel is reportedly the most popular online language-learning platform in Europe for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish. This is no surprise to us here at Free Language – we see that the website has a user-friendliness and effectiveness that could appeal to anyone who wants to start or dig deeper into a language. Though the language courses at Babbel are based on tried-and-true print materials and are written and designed by language education experts, they in fact take full advantage of advanced technology and use the internet and mobile devices to teach in a way that accelerates your progress.

For example, Babbel has developed a state-of-the-art pronunciation trainer with speech recognition that encourages you to talk out loud (taking away any need to feel shy around other speakers!). It incorporates an algorithm that analyzes how close your pronunciation is to that of a native speaker, and you can keep repeating it until you’ve made yourself understandable. This feature, unique in the online language-learning world, is available online on the Babbel website and on Babbel’s new and improved free app for iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch, also available via the website.

Another feature that distinguishes Babbel from other online language software is the Review Manager. It keeps track of your individual progress and detects where your difficulties lie. So, according to what kind of errors you’ve made (or successes you’ve had) in the past, it will prompt you to review certain items at optimized intervals so you’ll commit vocabulary to long-term memory. The Review Manager keeps track of your personal vocabulary – that is, everything you’ve studied so far – and makes it accessible online at Babbel.com and also on-the-go synchronized with the app.

Lang-8.com Get Free Help with your Foreign Language Writing, including Spanish, French, Chinese and Many More

polyglot — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 23:38:36 +0000

Summary

Lang-8 is a free, unique and popular website for learners of many languages to come together and correct one another's writing. Native speakers review writing submitted by learners who wish to improve. You can help and be helped!

The free tools provided in the interface are straightforward and tuned in such a way that it's quite easy to correct another user's writing, as well as to see exactly how others have corrected yours.

Lang-8's interface also provides social tools for interacting amongst users, including a way to find language matches to suit your needs.

Lang-8 has a large user community, coming from over 180 countries around the world, and together they provide access to help in some of the more exotic languages for which it's often hard to find resources, much less free help. Yes, there really are plenty of people out there willing to help you improve your writing for free! In turn, you can choose to help others as well.

Also available is a mobile version of the website.

From Website

Real Interactions

Learn from real native speakers excited to help you with the language that you are learning.

International Community

Community members from all over the world make Lang-8 a fun, social experience.

Keep Track

Tag and keep track of the things you learn from native speakers. Refer back and remember!

See Results

By using Lang-8 you will get better, make friends, and see real results. There’s no better help than native speakers.

Lang-8 Intro Video

Visit Lang-8.com

Best Language Learning Software?

polyglot — Sat, 08 May 2010 23:52:44 +0000

There is no best language learning software. Linguistic needs and motivations vary widely. A wide variety of high-quality resources, tools and exposure empowers language learners to be successful in their goals.

Exposure alone to these tools is not the whole picture. There's a motivation, some kind of reason, behind the effort required to truly achieve. This is where you'll find the reason to keep it up, stay learning and move toward personal language goals.

Much also depends on what language you are learning and how you learn best.

These are part of the factors that make up your personal language profile. If you learn about yourself a little, you can know exactly which resources will be most helpful in your individual case.