What other online services do you use to learn languages?

What’s great about the Web is that new services are always popping up for all sort of things. This has especially been true in the languages space recently. Just in the last six months there have been three major new sites that have launched:

LiveMocha – Kind of a poor man’s Rosetta Stone mixed with social networking features and other community tools. I’ve been pretty impressed with what these guys are doing and I’m not the only. They recently raised $6 million in funding.

Babbel – This site has a great interface and combines pictures and vocabulary to produce a pretty decent user experience. The social stuff here doesn’t quite as well developed as LiveMocha but they have a good foundation in place.

Mango Languages – Although Mango doesn’t have any sort of social components (at least not yet) their training tools seem to be the most sophisticated. When you compare spending $10 or $20 a month with them (or just using their free service) against plunking down $200 a pop for Rosetta Stone that comparison looks pretty favorable.

Another cool thing to check out are the various language services like italki, xLingo and the Rosetta Stone-owned SharedTalk

I’d love to hear any other services that you use to learn languages. One thing’s for sure…there’s never been a better time to be a language learner!

I’ve used livemocha and mangolanguages. They’re both pretty good.
I like wordchamp.com
You can go to foreign language sites from their site and their translator will pop up to help you read. It’s a great way to build vocabulary and pick up on idiomatic expressions.
I also use wordreference.com. The participants in the forums are really helpful.
John, you’re right. There has never been a better time to be a language learner.

Hey. I like this website http://www.colby.edu/personal/b/bknelson/exercises/ for written exercises/grammar practice. I’ve used it a lot with my classroom students (when I’ve been fortunate enough to get a lab). I also LOVE wordreference.com too. Very helpful when finding the most natural (colloquial) way to say something.

My friend was heavily devoted to the idea of traveling to Brasil. So for about 3 months he would watch nothing but the movie City of God – over and over and over again.

In about 3 months, he had a pretty thorough understanding of ghetto conversational Portuguese. Serious.

For beginning Spanish and French check out Optimnem – I first heard about this site when I read the book, “Born on a Blue Day.” The gentleman who developed these courses is an Autistic Savant and holds the world record for reciting Pi. He has taught himself several languages. He’s an amazing individual.

I’ve never taken any of the courses but I respect and admire Daniel so I would expect his courses to be high quality. I’d like to hear back if anyone has any first hand experience.

For Spanish, I like LoMasTv

It has online videos of native-Spanish speakers in all sorts of topic areas from music to novelas to historical documentaries. The service features a pitch-correct slow play option that allows the learner to slow the rate of speech in order to improve comprehension. It also includes an instant look-up feature for unfamiliar words, and comprehension games to practice with. It is fun and inexpensive (monthly fee of $9.95).

I’ve used this tool extensively to improve my Spanish listening skills and have noticed a big improvement in my ability to understand my Spanish-speaking students in my ESL class.

Thanks for posting that Heidi,

that’s just what I’ve been looking for.

Obi,

That’s a pretty good idea. I’m thinking of going to Cuba aftet this embargo is lifted in a about 5 years, so I’ll probably watch Scarface 50 to 100 times in preperation.

Great links to use are always appreciated. Thanks to all of you. I discovered lingolex.com, which has links to chat sessions with Spanish and English learners, and a link to elmundoes.com, a popular Spanish newspaper, which has a lot of videos one may use to listen to and see actual news, sports, issues, fashion, etc. There is something for everyone. I even found some flamenco cds etc. ¡Olay!

Really good links guys. I’m thinking that maybe soon we’ll put together a master list of all of the best resources from around the Web. I’ve seen a few of these lists floating around but the landscape is changing so quickly. I’d say at least 5 of the 10 best sites I know for learning languages didn’t exist a year ago. How crazy is that?

So keep posting them and we’ll make sure that they end up on whatever list we end up putting together!

After spending 8 months in south/central American i decided to start my own Spanish school.
I have just got it finished now after a year of trials and building a curriculum.
Let me know what you think
Craig
www.121speech.com

Hey Craig. Welcome to eduFire! The site looks good. Are your teachers based in Guatemala? I was taking classes from a lady in Guatemala before we launched eduFire. It was through SpeakShop and I really enjoyed the experience. Good luck with the venture!

Hey Ryan!

I’d love to hear about your experiences in a post-embargo Cuba knowing nothing but conversational gangster Spanish.

Should he fun times! :)

Hello,

Personally, I’ve registered with the following sites as an online tutor in french :
- Myngle
- Buddyschool
- Verbalplanet
- Wordchamp (very good site but their tutoring services are not operational yet)
- Linkua
- Palabea- Babbel
- Kantalk
- tvesl
- Revoluminary
Tutor’ home
- WiziQ

I use wordreference too, it is a must site… !
For the accents, I use french.typeit.org (you can use it with different languages)
For the conjugation of verbs in french, I use leconjugueur.

Hope this helps !

Welcome Jean-Marie! Wow! You are very experienced at tutoring on line. Your information will be valuable to me since I have never tutored online before. I will check them all out. Thank you.

I also love www.freerice.com. It is great for vocab…and you also help feed people in third world countries.

Learning English? Visit my site: www.helping-you-learn-english.com

Diana,

That is such a COOL site!!!! I’ve donated 100 grains of rice so far! I could really get addicted to that site – kind of like our Flash Cards only English – and some really unique words too!

None yet.

A long time ago…before eduFire was around I used Rosetta Stone..not the same as an online service like italki, livemocha or anything. I was not very successful with this type of learning. I need one-on-one attention otherwise my mind goes here, there and everywhere

I have used or tried out many of the above sites, and I can tell you….edufire is the best thing since sliced bread! I have referred to About.com for rules and a few examples, but it’s all reading, and not as much fun as some of the texts I have used to review, extend, and maintain my skills. I was thinking, too, that perhaps…someday… as our technicians have their hands full already, it would be fun to offer a listen and speak type of feature for all students who need verbal practice and confidence building. A tutor could say sentences for a specific need…such as traveling or at the airport, and the student could listen and speak, to get pronunciation and cadence correct, as well as to practice how to say things. It could be spoken more slowly and then the speed increased. Yes, I get my best ideas in the mornings. Gosh, it’s early, yet!

Probably the best free German<>English dictionary available is http://dict.leo.org/. Used by employees of every large company I taught in.

I have been using [ 8 sidor] an easy to read web newspaper in swedish,which has an audio component.what I do is listen first then translate in my head .Then I go back and read the article.

Jon !

The market is huge but only the best sites are going to work. So you have to spy them as they are spying you. Only quality is going to make the difference.
Jon ! I chose my camp ! I will be working with you and only with you.
Personally I think that LIVEMOCHA is “moche” (ugly in French), Babbel and Mango are for babboons.
Wordreference are my personal enemies because they are under the control of American and Canadian Wasps and silly Quebecois. Besides I was banished by them for being “rude”.
Vote Obama ! I Vote for Jon !
There is only one site that works, it’s Paltalk, but Paltalk is completely free and reserved for people who mostly can not be active learners. Paltalk is not a concurrent for Edufire.
Jon ! I am not saying that some alliances are not possible but look : there are many different cars but people make their choice through price, quality, technology and so on !
Long live EduFire !
PS : May I buy some shares ? :→

These are great replies so I thought I’d add my two cents. I just found this board while I was looking for flashcards in Russian. The site “www.yourlanguageresource.com” seems pretty new since I just stumbled upon it recently when I was looking for pimsleur products. It seems to be growing.

What I’ve been using to learn other languages is BYKI,,,its a program you download for free and you can install the languages you wish to learn. Its based on flashcards and it is a great way to learn a language’s basic word for different stuff. Of course it’s not like chatting with someone who can guide you and tell you different things, but it works pretty well for beginners, you have writing and pronunciation and the letters mean Before You Know It.

Live mocha is pretty cool too and for my bilingual practice I use OM PERSONAL MULTIMEDIA, this site is english-spanish and mostly for spanish speakers to learn english. It has lots of multimedia and tests and exams…one good point, its for free.

Sue