The latest French Listening Resources video has been uploaded! This short clip is for beginners talking about family members and their ages. If you need the transcript, check out the Watch & Read page. There are seven more videos from Carole & Fabien on topics such as the house, typical meals, stores & fast food restaurants [...]
Full Story »Readlang + Podclub = My Latest Language Learning Obsession
Readlang by Steve Ridout is a new site (still in beta) which helps you learn foreign languages by reading and translating words you don’t know. You simply import text from any website, click on words you don’t know in order to translate them into another language, and save these words so you can review them [...]
Full Story »Free Children’s Books Apps in Foreign Languages (Text + Audio)
There are a lot of free language apps available nowadays but many of them are not very good or extensive. They tend to include some basic words or tourist phrases in flashcard format, but very few offer connected text (such as stories) in addition to pronunciation. Lately I’ve been looking for apps that include both [...]
Full Story »Dora will help you learn half a dozen languages
I often buy DVDs from the European Amazon stores to ensure that I will have a choice of at least one or two other subtitled/dubbed languages besides the original language. I’m not sure how, but I came across Dora the Explorer DVDs at the German Amazon and noticed that they offered FIVE languages, or at [...]
Full Story »Death of a language website: fsi-language-courses.org [UPDATED: It's back online and there are at least 3 mirror sites]
UPDATE: The site is back online!!! All of the files are also available at fsi.antibozo.net, fsi-languages.yojik.eu, or www.livelingua.com/fsi-language-courses.php, or you can use this torrent if you’d like to download everything. If anyone knows what happened to fsi-language-courses.org, please let me know! It was the site that included all of the Foreign Service Institute courses in the [...]
Full Story »Adding Subtitles to Online Videos with Amara for Language Learning
Listening while reading a transcript of what is said is the best way to improve overall comprehension as well as pronunciation. Extensive listening and reading also contribute to vocabulary acquisition. I have previously talked about TV series and movies that may include subtitles, but what about online videos? Youtube does have an automatic closed captioning [...]
Full Story »Amazon or Similar Stores with International Shipping for Foreign Language DVDs
If you’re looking for DVDs of movies or TV shows in European languages with the subtitles in that language, you’ll most likely have to look to European stores. Even though you can often buy foreign movies from Amazon.com or Fishpond.com.au, the subtitles will usually be in English only or there will be a weird combination [...]
Full Story »Ugly Betty Adaptations and Other Telenovelas for Language Learning
The Telenovela Method, as explained by Andrew, is a great way to learn languages quickly, which a recent study suggests actually helps your brain grow. The main reason I like this method is the authenticity of language and culture which is usually lacking from language learning resources. Finding subtitles to go along with the movies [...]
Full Story »Quotes from The Loom of Language on Classroom Learning and the Direct Method
I started re-reading The Loom of Language by Frederick Bodmer while travelling around Australia a few weeks ago. I only made it through the Introduction when I realized I had already added nearly 20 bookmarks and notes on my Kindle. I love this book so much. Even though it was published in the 1940′s, it [...]
Full Story »Extr@ Spanish, French and German Videos
A huge thank you to Andrew at howlearnspanish.com and commenter Robin who led me to the Spanish, French, and German Extr@ TV series. They were produced by Channel 4 in the UK and are aimed at teenagers learning languages, but any language learner should find them useful. Unlike language textbook videos where the speech is [...]
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