Summary

ArabicPod.net is a quality podcast for learning the Arabic language. The audio podcast lessons are free! and two levels of membership are also available for a nominal price. These include transcriptions of the lessons and additional study materials.

Lessons are well-structured and tackle many difficult aspects of learning the Arabic language, such as difficult letters to pronounce and cultural idiomatic expressions. Meet the teachers here.

ArabicPod.net also has a number of videos available. Most of these are for paid subscribers but there are also some for free. You will also find a forum on the website. If you are a premium member, you have access to a place to share documents, images, links and more with other users.

The dialect taught on this podcast is "common colloquial" Arabic, common across all Arabic dialects, as well as Standard Arabic. Read more about this.

From Website

What is ArabicPod?

ArabicPod is a website dedicated to providing the most innovative and effective methods for learning Arabic. We use the latest technologies in web 2.0 to provide a rich learning experience delivering podcasts, videos, games and much more.

Where is it based?

ArabicPod is based in London. If you’re around town, then why don’t you contact us and arrange to meet the ArabicPod team or even join us as a guest in some of our lessons.

Is it free?

All of our audio podcasts can be freely listened to and downloaded. For most of the other content, there is a subscription fee which is setup to cover the costs of running the website.

Visit ArabicPod.net Podcast.

Subscribe

Subscribe to ArabicPod.net.
Subscribe to ArabicPod.net Podcast via iTunes.
View ArabicPod.net's Feed on Free Language.

Summary

The Rocket Spanish product from Rocket Languages has proved to be a highly successful, fun! and fast method for beginners to learn the Spanish language. The Rocket Languages team has designed a multi-faceted course including extensive audio lessons, software and learning games, grammar lessons with audio clips and a member's forum for help on demand.

I have personally been using Rocket Languages Japanese now as a total beginner with next to no knowledge of the Japanese language and the results have been excellent. I have used a lot of different language-learning methods (as you can tell from this website!) and the Rocket method is both quick and interesting, and I always find myself looking forward to the next lesson.

Don't just take my word for it. Try it out and if you don't like the results, you can get all your cash back for 60 days after you place an order. No risk there!

From Website

Rocket Spanish is designed to be the easiest to follow system for learning how to speak Spanish available. It is an interactive course that makes you want to study. Also, it's practical. You'll discover exactly what to say in virtually all situations.

With Rocket Spanish, you are going to learn Spanish rapidly, effectively, and easily. You are going to be able to speak at a restaurant, at an airport, with new friends...

With the Rocket Languages Spanish Program you get:

A Rocket Languages Interactive Audio Course that prompts you to speak Spanish in a conversational and friendly way so that the words just stick in your mind! Learn a language the easy way!

Mega Software Learning Games that are specifically designed to increase your vocabulary and understanding of Spanish and allow you to have fun in the process!

Fully illustrated and easy-to-follow Grammar Lessons, for those of you who love to know how Spanish works. Most of these come with embedded audio clips in the lessons so that you can hear exactly how the words are pronounced!

If you have any questions, you can either email us or post a message on our Members Only Learners Forums, where our team of language experts and fellow enthusiasts will respond to your needs. With every Premium order you get unlimited and full access to our Forum - imagine having a teacher, virtually "on call" 24 hours a day!

And of course all Rocket Languages products are backed by a 60 Day 100% Money Back Guarantee. We're that confident, and it's that simple.

Rocket Languages will teach you how to speak Spanish naturally, so you can read, write, speak, and understand the language as though you have lived there all your life - these are truly cutting-edge multimedia courses!

Find out more about Rocket Spanish.

Summary

Busuu is a shiny new language exchange community and free multimedia (image + audio) foreign language lesson archive. The site currently supports English, French, German and Spanish and the founders of Busuu plan to add more languages as quickly as they are able.

The site is based on the Drupal framework, the same platform as Free Language, though they have taken it to quite another level altogether! Clean, crisp, fast-loading and full of fun colorful graphics that change as your language skills improve (called the Busuu Language Garden), Busuu promises to be a contender in the growing social language learning milieu.

The lessons are divided into three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Each lesson has a photo/audio component along with writing practice, native speaker exchange and a review test. You can keep a track record of your studies as you complete them. All lessons are free and can be completed at anytime, letting you choose your study schedule and mark your own progress.

Finding friends is easy through the search function, so discovering practice/exchange partners is fast and simple. Busuu provides a video chat function through the site for easy access to language exchanges without needing to go outside the site or use other utilities.

Altogether a bright, cheery and user-friendly site, Busuu weilds a healthy lessons archive and growing user community. Have a look at the site tour today to find out how to begin improving your English, French, German and Spanish skills. Who knows, by the time you read this article, other languages may have been added...

From Website

busuu.com is a start-up, based in Madrid, which runs an innovative online community for learning languages.

We have personally suffered from the traditional way to learn a new language which we always found expensive, difficult and boring.

Therefore, we decided to create a new concept of language learning by offering you the following advantages:

• Learn from your fellow students: Learn directly from native speakers of the busuu.com community and forget about the horrible grammar sessions you had in school
• Learn what you really want: Be completely flexible in the content you want to learn, from preparing for a job interview to a discotheque pick-up line we can meet all your language needs
• Learn for free: During our beta phase, busuu.com can be used completely for free! Once we launch our next version, you will have the possibility to pay a small amount per month in order to become a premium member and get access to additional learning tools and premium content. But even as a basis-member, you will always enjoy loads of learning content completely for free!

About the founders

Adrian, Co-Founder

Adrian is from Liechtenstein, an impressively small country in the heart of the European Alps.

He is fluent in the lovely Schweitzerdeutsch, German, English, French and really fights hard to finally improve his Spanish.

Bernhard, Co-Founder

Bernhard was born in the beautiful city of Vienna in Austria, famous for Waltz and Sachertorte.

He speaks fluently the charming accent of Viennese German, English, Spanish and improves currently his (Brazilian) Portuguese.

About Busuu

Busuu is a language spoken in Cameroon - based on an ethnological study conducted in the 80ies, apparently only eight people are able to speak this language.

If you happen to know one of these people or know more about the Busuu culture, please let us know.

We have the dream to contribute to the diversity of languages all over the world – therefore we will continuously extend the languages offered at our website.

...and maybe one day, you might even find the possibility to learn Busuu throughout our website…;-)

Visit Busuu.com

Summary

TheChineseReader is an very useful website for people learning to read Mandarin Chinese. You can paste in any text in Mandarin and the website will use a large variety of tools (see Resources & Credits below) to transform the text into clickable annotations.

This is wonderful for anyone having difficulty with a Chinese text and wanting that extra bit of help. It could also give some idea to people who know no Mandarin (or read no Mandarin) and are attempting to understand a website written in Chinese characters.

Excellent tool - many thanks Adam!

From Website

About the Reader

This project came about in response to the continually increasing number of english-speakers learning chinese. After many years studying chinese myself, and seeing friends do likewise, there were a number of tedious functions I came to feel a computer was better suited to do. Some hair-pulling web-development later, the TheChineseReader™ (TCR) was born.

The feautures of this site are constantly under development, though the speed of that development may not be all too impressive. If you have suggestions for fixes, new features, or other general feedback & inquiries, please contact feedback@thechinesereader.com

TCR is not a commercial site per se, though we are supported by sponsored advertisements, which help cover the costs of hosting, development, and maintenance. Thanks for understanding.

About the Creator

My name is Adam. I am a recent graduate of UPenn, now living in San Francisco. I work for a Management Consultancy, which leaves not that much time to work on this site. =) But I'll try to keep it up to date and add features when time permits.

Resources & Credits

The reader would not function very well without the unsung contributions of all those behind the technologies and data-resources used in this site—particularly those in the open-source community. I would like to take a moment to acknowledge them:

Unihan Database: this database provides the foundation for all of the single character entries and cantonese functionality. It is being used here under the GNU license, and is available at the Unicode website.

CeDict Database: this database proides the data behind all multi-character lookups. An incredible amount of work has gone into this project, and I applaud the people who make it possible. It is being used here under the GNU license, and is available at the Cedict website.

Ruby On Rails: the entire site is coded in the Ruby On Rails (RoR) framework. RoR is a web-application development paradigm that is 100% open-source, and in this developers opinion, the best in class. Again, profuse thanks to those who enable this and so many other sites to be realized through their efforts.

MySQL: alongside the RoR, this site is powered by a MySQL database. MySQL is arguably the most powerful open-source relational-DB package in the world. And it has contributed more than its fair share to web-apps everywhere.

Wenlin Software: Wenlin (文林) is a piece of commerical software whose aid to chinese-learners is almost unquantifiable. I include it in the credits here because thier mouse-over dictionary lookup is the rightful inspiration for the reader's core functionality.

Visit TheChineseReader.com

Summary

Avatar Languages offers a unique English language-learning experience in Second Life. Second Life is a virtual world with plenty of people from all over the world wandering around in digital forms, known as avatars. Avatar Languages has a language school for English learners right there in Second Life. You can log on and go there to learn!

This is a unique language-learning model, made possible only very recently thanks to our speedy technology. The possibilities are broad, as you can teleport to anywhere you want! Sushi in Tokyo with an English teacher? No problem. A tour of London with an English tutor? No worries!

Avatar Languages brings these and other possiblities to users of Second Life, combined with private tutors and an innovative language learning environment. You can chat via Skype, collaborate with Google Docs, learn with online whiteboards and more - all as part of their method.

Currently English is the only language offered. Spanish, Aymara and Quechua will be taught soon as well, and it could very well grow from there. Check them out for a free intro lesson to see if it will work for you.

From Avatar Languages

Learn English in Second Life

Let your Avatar take you to new worlds and advance your English. Learn English speaking with real teachers in a virtual school. An innovative new language school in Second Life - virtually the best English school in the world.

Professionalism

Qualified Teachers: we are all qualified, experienced, native English speakers. Meet the teachers...

Cutting Edge Methods: we will get you talking and using your English in real situations.

Free Trial Lesson

We offer a 15 minute lesson, absolutely free with no commitment. The free trial lesson includes access to our virtual campus in Second Life.

During the lesson we will assess your level of English and help you to determine your learning goals.

How it Works

You can be learning English with us within minutes - you probably already have everything you need!

* Internet
* Microphone & Speakers
* Computer
* Second Life Avatar (basic account)
* Skype, MSN or Yahoo

Virtual Fun

Meet other students in our student cafe and practice your English. You will get to know other students both in Second Life and real life.

Allow yourself to escape into a world where your imagination can go wild. You will learn by playing and having fun.

See how exciting it will be...

Visit Avatar Languages

From Second Life

Second Life® is a 3-D virtual world created by its Residents. Since opening to the public in 2003, it has grown explosively and today is inhabited by millions of Residents from around the globe.

From the moment you enter the World you'll discover a vast digital continent, teeming with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity. Once you've explored a bit, perhaps you'll find a perfect parcel of land to build your house or business.

You'll also be surrounded by the Creations of your fellow Residents. Because Residents retain intellectual property rights in their digital creations, they can buy, sell and trade with other Residents.

The Marketplace currently supports millions of US dollars in monthly transactions. This commerce is handled with the inworld unit of trade, the Linden™ dollar, which can be converted to US dollars at several thriving online Linden dollar exchanges.

Welcome to the Second Life world. We look forward to seeing you inworld.

Visit Second Life