Category Archives: Learning Other Languages

Learn Afrikaans with these Resources

Learn Afrikaans with these Resources

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Who wants to learn Afrikaans?

If you want to learn Afrikaans, then you have come to the right place! Afrikaans is one of the easiest languages for English-speakers to learn. However, there are far fewer resources to study it compared to other languages. Here are some resources you can use to learn this beautiful daughter-language of Dutch.

Afrikaans Books & Websites

You can easily search Amazon for Afrikaans books, but there are not many and not all come with audio. The two main books are Colloquial Afrikaans: The Complete Course for Beginners and Complete Afrikaans: A Teach Yourself Guide.

The most extensive website for learning Afrikaans is probably Openlanguages. I have an Afrikaans tutorial here at ielanguages.com, and more content and audio will be added soon. Digital Dialects and Book2 both include Afrikaans. For more advanced reading practice, try Wikipedia in Afrikaans, afrikaans.com or the magazine Huisgenoot.

Although Duolingo does not have an Afrikaans course, Clozemaster, Memrise, and Quizlet include Afrikaans.

Afrikaans Music

Check out the Afrikaanse musiek videos playlist. Some of the videos are not viewable outside of South Africa, but it will give you a good start. From my random searching on Youtube, I’ve come across Bok van Blerk the most, with a lot of Bobby van Jaarsveld, Lianie May, Jay, Kurt Darren, Dewald Wasserfall, among others. Quite a few singers are also actors so searching for their songs on Youtube will bring up trailers and clips of movies they are in.

Afrikaans TV & Movies

If you are an Amazon Prime member, the romcom Johannesburg to Cape Town roadtrip movie, Pad na jou Hart (Road to your Heart) is included for free. Another movie starring the same two leads, Vir Altyd (Forever), is also now available for Prime members.

Pad na jou hart - Road to your Heart movie in Afrikaans

Fiela se Kind is probably one of the most famous South African films in Afrikaans. Platteland, Liefling, and As Jy Sing are all musicals. Vrou Soek Boer, Semi-Soet, Klein Karoo, and Somer Son are some romantic comedies. Leading Lady is mostly in English with some dialog in Afrikaans and is available at Youtube Movies.

It can be difficult to watch some South African movies since they are not always released in other countries or on DVDs of other regions. At the very least, you can watch the trailers on Youtube to listen to some Afrikaans. ShowMax is a subscription service for watching South African TV series and movies online (with English subtitles). They offer a 14-day free trial, then it’s $8.99 USD per month. They seem to have quite a few of the above movies available, as well as movies and series in other languages such as Swahili, French, Xhosa, Zulu, Diola, and Tswana.

KykNET is a TV channel that broadcasts in Afrikaans. You can watch clips from some of their shows on their website. 7de Laan is a long-running soap opera and you can watch the latest episodes on Youtube.

Afrikaans YouTube Videos

AfrikaansPod101 has a few free Afrikaans in 3 minutes and various listening comprehension videos available at Youtube. They also offer more extensive material through their paid accounts that range from $4 to $23 a month.

A few Afrikaans speakers have made some educational videos on Youtube, such as Afrikaans with Lindie, Heinsuniverse, LookAt MeLearn, Shaun Roselt, and STEOHENSTONE. The channel Kinderstories is children’s stories in Afrikaans. If you search the channel MindsetTeach for Afrikaans, you will find videos of children learning Afrikaans at school. This video on vowels was particularly helpful for proper pronunciation.

I recently started making more Germanic languages comparative videos if you’re interested in learning German, Dutch, and Afrikaans together. The latest video compares the subject pronouns:

Any other Afrikaans resources?

I am always interested in finding more Afrikaans resources, so please let me know in the comments if you have recommendations.

Polyglot Board Game - the fun way to learn languages

Polyglot Board Game is the Fun Way to Learn Languages

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Language enthusiasts, if you have ever wondered if a multilingual language learning board game exists, the answer is yes! Polyglot board game was created by Polyglot Inc. of Miami, Florida, in 1987. I don’t know if the company is still active or if they have created other language learning resources, but let’s take a look at this amazing game.

 

Polyglot Board Game

Polyglot Board Game

My game is obviously a bit faded… but at only $14.95, it was a great deal!

From the back of the box: A mind expanding educational game designed to enrich the understanding and knowledge of foreign languages. Play this fast paced exciting game of words and phrases in one or up to six languages. You’ll not only race for the win, but learn new words, phrases and better pronunciation for languages you want to improve or master. Elevate your command of ENGLISH, SPANISH, GERMAN, FRENCH, ITALIAN, and YIDDISH.

 

How to play Polyglot

Instructions are included in all of the languages, except Yiddish (though it could just be missing from my game). Read the instructions in English below. Click on the images to make them larger.

Polyglot Board Game Instructions Polyglot Board Game Instructions 2

 

Polyglot Vocabulary Cards

The two decks of cards include 1,800 words in each of the six languages plus 150 commonly used phrases. Phonetic pronunciation is included for each word and phrase. Even if you don’t have any polyglot friends nearby to play the game with, you can just use the cards to study vocabulary.

White cards are for individual words:

I’m not sure why the Romance languages are split up among German and Yiddish, as I think it’s easier to learn them side-by-side. [Take a look at my Romance languages comparative vocabulary lists if you want to learn several languages together and be able to choose which languages are next to each other.]

Yellow cards are for phrases:

 

The Polyglot Board

And the Tower of Babel board:

Polyglot Board Game board that resembles the Tower of Babel

I bought my Polyglot board game at the International Book Centre in Shelby Township in Michigan back in 2005.

If you’d like your own copy, you are in luck because there are some third-party sellers offering it at Amazon!

Has anyone else ever heard of this game or played it? Know of any other polyglot or multilingual board games?

Intercomprehension Websites for Learning Multiple Languages

Intercomprehension Websites for Learning Multiple Languages

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Explore Some Intercomprehension Websites

Learning to Comprehend Several Languages at the Same Time

I have previously posted about comparative books for learning several languages together, including EuROM5 which has an accompanying website. Here are some other intercomprehension websites for learning multiple languages at the same time. These projects focus on comprehending languages related to your native language or learning to understand closely related languages. Some of these projects offer explanations in English while others remain in the target languages only (usually Romance languages).

Union Latine – Some Romance language activities in Catalan, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian; six modules for learning all six languages (Romance Itineraries) and the game Limbo for learning Spanish and Portuguese

Euro-mania – Twenty lessons in six languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Occitan, and Romanian) on the topics of science, history, geography, technology and math

Euromania - Learn Six Languages Together

Sample page from first module of Euro-mania with integrated sound files

 

Micrela – Mutual intelligibility of closely related languages project with language game to test how well you can understand a European language related to your native language

European Awareness and Intercomprehension – Platform for comprehending 11 European languages (Bulgarian, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish or Turkish) based around traveling in Europe, with videos

Intermar – project designed to facilitate the reciprocal understanding and learning of languages through intercomprehension in a maritime context; materials in English (as the lingua franca at sea), Romance, Germanic, and Baltic languages

FluentU vs Yabla Language Learning with Authentic Video

FluentU vs Yabla – Language Learning with Authentic Video

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FluentU vs Yabla for Learning Languages through Video Immersion

and are subscription websites for learning languages with authentic videos. Because they include subtitles (as well as English translations), the videos are a great way to improve your comprehension and learn new vocabulary. In this FluentU vs Yabla review, we’ll start with what both websites offer and then focus on the advantages of one over the other.

Features of both FluentU and Yabla:

  • available in multiple languages
  • ability to show or hide the subtitles and English translation
  • click on a word to see the translation, and add it to a set of flashcards to review later
  • play short sections in loops if you want to focus on a particular phrase or sentence
  • a large library of videos with new videos added each week
  • free videos to check them out before committing to a paid subscription
  • schools/classroom subscriptions for teachers who want to assign videos as homework and track their students’ progress

FluentU

offers videos in Spanish, French, Italian, German, English, Russian, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. (Italian seems to have fewer content than the other languages, and Portuguese appears to be in the works.) FluentU costs $15/month or $120/year for the Basic plan and $30/month or $240/year for the Plus plan.

FluentU prices

The video interface is quite neat and clean, with the translations appearing when you hover over the word. Clicking on the word gives you more sample sentences and the option to add the word to a flashcard set.

FluentU vs Yabla Video Interface

If you are learning several languages, then FluentU will be perfect for you because your subscription gives you access to ALL languages. Fifteen dollars a month to learn nine languages is a pretty great deal.

Yabla

Yabla offers videos in , , , , , and . Yabla costs $9.95 a month, BUT each language is a separate subscription, i.e. if you wanted to subscribe to both Spanish and French, you would need to pay $9.95/month two times.

Yabla prices

The video interface includes the dictionary on the right if you click on a word, as well as options to slow the video down and play a vocabulary game:

FluentU vs Yabla Language Learning with Authentic Video

Note that you can use the dictionary to look up any words, not just those that are used in the video you are watching.

How to Choose between FluentU and Yabla

I recommend both websites because they offer invaluable exposure to authentic language. So is there a clear winner in the FluentU vs Yabla competition? The best way to decide between the two basically depends on how many and which languages you are learning:

If you are learning only one language (either , , , , , or ), then Yabla will be slightly cheaper.

If you are learning two or more languages, then will be a better deal especially on the Basic plan.

If you are learning Italian, there is currently more content available at.

If you are learning Japanese, Korean, or Russian, your only option is .

Let me know your thoughts on these websites!

 

This post was last updated March 2018.

 

Learn the Romance Languages Together: Resources You Need

Learn the Romance Languages Together: Resources You Need

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If you want to learn the Romance languages together, you need to use resources that compare the languages.

Romance language books written in English

One of the oldest books intended to help you learn the Romance languages together is Comparative Grammar of French, Italian, Spanish & Portuguese Languages by Edwin A. Notley. This book was published in 1868 so it’s in the public domain and you can download a PDF that I created. Since it is so old, however, there are few spellings and words that are no longer used in the contemporary languages, so you will need to augment your study with more recent materials. Some copies show up on amazon.com every once in a while, but at a ridiculous price ($1,500!)

The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages by Frederick Bodmer actually compares four Romance languages (French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese) as well as four Germanic languages (German, Dutch, Swedish and Danish), and offers advice on how to study multiple languages at the same time. Though a bit outdated, it is still my favorite book. You can get a copy at amazon.com for a relatively cheap price. I previously posted a review of this book if you’d like to know more.

Learn the Romance Languages Together - The Loom of Language: An Approach to the Mastery of Many Languages

The Seven Sieves: How to read all the Romance languages right away by EuroCom is a new initiative to promote intercomprehension of Romance languages. You can buy the book in PDF or paperback through Shaker Verlag (site in German) and the paperback through amazon.com.

Another great book is Comparative Practical Grammar of French, Spanish and Italian by O.H. Heatwole. The main drawback is that there are only three languages, and since it’s out of print, it can be a bit difficult to find online. Third-party sellers do sell it on Amazon but it’s usually rather expensive.

Comparative Practical Grammar of French, Spanish and Italian

 

Romance language books not written in English

EuRom5 (2011) is the most recent multilingual book I’ve seen yet. It focuses on learning to read and comprehend five Romance languages. The book is written in French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan and Portuguese (so it is designed for native/advanced users of any of those languages) with texts and audio files available on the website. You can buy it from dicoland.com or hoepli.it for under 30€. Amazon.fr also sells it for 30-40€ and a few copies are available on amazon.com. This book is not quite as “comparative” as the other books in the list since it offers 20 articles in one language with some words glossed in the other 4 languages (i.e. the entire articles are not translated in the other languages). You can also read my summary/review.

One of my multilingual books: EuRom5 - Read and Understand Five Romance Languages

Comprendre les langues romanes: Du français à l’espagnol, au portugais, à l’italien & au roumain. Méthode d’intercompréhension by Paul Teyssier (2004) is obviously written in French for French-speakers to learn to comprehend Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian. A new edition came out in 2012, but I don’t know if/how it is different from the 2004 edition, which is what I bought. Both editions are available via amazon.com or amazon.fr or you can order it from Librairie Portugaise & Brésilienne in Paris for 29€, and they do ship worldwide. I believe translations of this book in the other languages exist, but I’m not sure where to buy them.

One of my multilingual books: Comprendre les langues romanes - Understand the Romance languages

 

Romance language resources at ielanguages.com

If you want to study vocabulary lists to learn the Romance languages, I have many lists available at Romance Languages Vocabulary Lists as well as some verb conjugations. The tables are set up so that English is first, followed by French, Italian, Spanish and then Portuguese. I chose this order due to how similar the languages are to each other. However, this may not be the order that you want to study the Romance languages in. Luckily, you can drag the columns in any order that you like! Simply click on the name of the language in the first column and drag it left or right. You can also hide/show languages that you are not studying or when you want to quickly test your memory. A few topics also have fill-in-the-blank exercises, such as days of the week:

Multilingual vocabulary lists - Days in the Romance languages available at ielanguages.com

Lastly, I’ve been creating videos that teach French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese together. (I have also created a few videos to teach French and Spanish together.) Subscribe to the Youtube channel to be notified when any new videos are available.

I am really interested in finding other books, websites, or videos that help you learn the Romance languages together. Has anyone found other useful resources?

Intercomprehension of Romance Languages

Intercomprehension of Romance Languages

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Learning to Comprehend the Romance Languages

If you understand French and are interested in learning other Romance languages, the MOOC Enseigner l’intercompréhension en langues romanes à un jeune public might be helpful. This MOOC, or CLOM in French, begins November 10, 2015, and lasts 4 weeks. It is designed for language teachers and students or anyone who is interested in multilingualism.

The concept of intercomprehension refers to the ability of users of closely related languages to understand each other thanks to linguistic similarities. It appears that this particular MOOC will focus on the six main Romance languages of French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan and Romanian. Since it is developed by the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, the language used to teach about intercompréhension is French.

You can sign up now to join the MOOC.

 

Related:

Comparative Vocabulary and Verb Lists: Romance and Germanic Languages

Comparative and Multilingual Books for Learning Languages Simultaneously

Comparative Grammar of French, Italian, Spanish & Portuguese Available as PDF

FluentU Review

FluentU Review: Language Learning with Authentic Videos

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FluentU Review: Great site for authentic videos

If you haven’t been using authentic videos with transcripts to learn languages, you are missing out on an effective way to increase your comprehension of spoken language as well as your knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical patterns. One website that offers many authentic videos and that I highly recommend is .

FluentU currently offers videos in French, Spanish, German, English, Chinese and Japanese, with Italian coming soon. As you can see in the screenshots, you can easily choose the difficulty level as well as the format of videos you are interested in: clips, movie trailers, commercials, etc.

The transcript and translation appears below the video and hovering over a word also shows the translation of that word. FluentU recently released their iPad app if you are a mobile learner, with an Android app also in development.

There is currently a free option if you’d like to create an account to check out the videos and captions. The , which includes unlimited watching and listening with interactive captions, only costs $15 per month or $120 per year. The costs $30 per month or $240 per year and also includes unlimited personalized learn mode, courses, flashcard sets and PDF printouts of the transcripts. Also note that you have access to ALL languages on FluentU rather than only one language so it is great for learners of multiple languages. You can change languages in Settings under Study Settings.

EuRom5 - Learn to read five Romance languages

Review of EuRom5: Read and Understand Five Romance Languages

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Review of EuRom5: Read and Understand Five Romance Languages

EuRom5 is a multilingual book and accompanying website for learning to read and understand five Romance languages (Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan, Italian and French). It is written for a native or advanced speaker of one of these languages, so there are no English translations. The book is divided into three main sections: the introduction that explains the theoretical background and research on comprehension of multiple languages, 20 short articles for each of the five languages with some words and phrases glossed in the other languages, and a grammar section with tables to show the main differences in structures among the languages. The texts are not translated into the other languages so there are 100 articles total from various European newspapers and news websites.

EuRom5 Cover

The major selling point for this book is the website which offers recordings of all of the articles that you can listen to online or download. You will need to register for an account by answering a question about the book (something like, what is the third word in the fourth Italian text?). Even though you can choose any one of the five languages for the website interface, some parts are still left in Italian. Once you’ve created an account and logged in, click on Matériel didactique or go directly to the Textes page from here. (Signing in through the Description and Textes links seems to put you in a loop that keeps telling you to log in when you are already logged in.)

You can also turn on or off various notes and translations so that when you mouse over a word, you can see translations in the other languages. If you listen to the recording online, each phrase will be highlighted in yellow so you can follow along while reading.

For some grammatical structures (in pink), you can also click on the word(s) to open a PDF of the grammar tables from the back of the book.

Since this is a European project, the articles and accents are obviously European as well. You can buy the book on amazon.fr, dicoland.com, or through the publisher hoepli.it for 25€ to 40€ (plus shipping).

If you’re interested in other multilingual books, check out a previous post on Comparative and Multilingual Books for Learning Languages Simultaneously that I continue to update.