Good websites for learning languages?

[jbischke]

What good websites are out there for learning foreign languages? Some I know of are eslcafe.com and chinesepod.com. Are there any others? I know there are a bunch of companies that sell products (e.g., Rosetta Stone) or offer classes (e.g. Berlitz) but I'm looking for a site I can go to to learn a language online.

[kyokushin]

Learn Japanese with Japanesepod101.com
¼*°*´ëÇб³ Çѱ¹¾î °*ÁÂ

I'm an aspiring polyglot and after I've spent a lot of time trying out various podcasts and learning software I came to the conclusion that a good textbook with audio is still the most important thing for my language studies. So I would recommend a traditional textbook as the basis of you language studies. I love the Assimil books (learnt most of my Japanese from Assimil).

A good audio course is Pimsleur ... (you can find Pimsleur tapes for most languages), it's a great introduction to a language because it forces you to use the language and create your own sentences. You won't learn very much, but the confidence and the feeling for the language that you will acquire can be a strong fundament for you language studies.

I don't really like Rosetta Stone. You can learn some vocabulary and it's a lot of fun playing around with, but I doubt that it will get you far. (despite what it says, you can learn much faster with a textbook and some audio CDs). But if it can boost your motivation, play around with it. Motivation is probably the single most important thing when it comes to language learning.

I love Japan and the Japanese language and I still have to motivate myself constantly to keep up with my studies.

I'm working on a language learning blog right now (actually an older blog that I'm about to revive).

[jbischke]

Great. What about connecting with tutors? Are there any good sites out there for that?

[Zach]

Learning Languages

Check out the forums there. Also, there are quite a few links to language-learning sites on my blog.

Hope this helps.

[kyokushin]

I forgot to mention that site, it's a great forum that I visit everyday.

@jbischke: The Mixxer
is a place where you find a language exchange partner or tutor over skype. Good luck! What languages do you want to study?

[vaibhavsharma]

Hello Jbischke,

Now I am not aware of any site for learning languages and this might come as an off the mark response to your post. Further I do not receive any monetary benefits from Learning Strategies whatsoever.

Having said that, I would like to suggest EasyLearn Language course from Learning Strategies. You can find more information about it here EasyLearn. I haven't gone through this course so can't offer you any feedback here. However, I will request all other members, if anyone can throw any insight on this course. If anyone of you or your friend has purchased and/or completed this course, please share your experience on the forum.

That's my two cents of advice.

Kind regards
Vaibhav Sharma

[jbischke]

No, that's not off the mark at all. I like the Learning Strategies products and so that's definitely an option.

[GenkiRichard]

Hello,

I made a site to learn Japanese at Learn to speak Japanese, learn katakana and the o-koto

I was also having trouble finding out anything good for learning Korean, so I recently made How to speak Korean for free.

This is another site for learning Thai ( not mine this time!): Thai Language - Learn to Speak Thai

There are also quite a few languages threads over on the Fun and Recreation part of the forum!

Be genki,

Richard

[kyokushin]

Excellent Korean course by the Sogang University: ¼*°*´ëÇб³ Çѱ¹¾î °*ÁÂ

@genkirichard: You're a student of Japanese and Korean? Cool, same here, but I'm still a beginner of Korean.

BTW, does anyone knows why my signature is not displayed on this forum? I have the box "Show Signatures" checked.

[John Wesley]

I'd also suggest trying to read some blogs in the language you want to learn. It makes the learning more varied and interesting. You will be surprised how much you understand. If you're brave you can even leave a comment.

[babuji]

Check out the following site.. Open Culture: Foreign Language Lesson Podcast Collection

It's a site dedicated to helping people learn and get information on all sorts of topics.. The section I would recommend the most is the foreign language section, where you can get tutorials in a bunch of different languages thru itunes or podcasts.. Definitely worth it for those who commute with ipods… nevertheless.. There's a whole bunch of stuff there.. Including audio books as well...

[dor]

BBC - Languages - Homepage

[MGJ]

here's a pretty decent website...

Open Culture: Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

[CHill]

Hi all, I was just reading through old posts about language and thought I'd add this for anyone studying spanish:

Study Spanish has free articles and exercises on many different grammar and vocab topics. I've found it really helpful.

chill