≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
Looking to learn a new language this summer? Then give this list a good look. The folks at Universitiesandcolleges.org have created “The Master List of Free Language Learning Resources,” which pulls together materials found across a range of different media. Here, you’ll find podcasts, open courses, iphone apps, and more. And the list notably includes our ever-popular [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language, Media | ≅ 1 Comment
Today, we’re featuring a guest piece by Tony Yet, a Chinese student, who is helping lead an effort to bring TEDTalks to China. This is part of a larger TED Open Translation Project, which wants to move TEDTalks “beyond the English-speaking world by offering subtitles, time-coded transcripts and the ability for any talk to be translated [...]
≡ Category: Apple, Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
There’s a curious little piece over at TUAW.com. Apparently American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan are being supplied (on a limited basis) with iPods equipped with special software that will help them communicate in Iraqi Arabic, Kurdish, Dari and Pushto. The software will handily “display a phonetic translation, speak a phrase through an attached speaker, [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 5 Comments
Thomas Friedman’s latest opinion piece in the New York Times starts like this:
After attending the spectacular closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics and feeling the vibrations from hundreds of Chinese drummers pulsating in my own chest, I was tempted to conclude two things: “Holy mackerel, the energy coming out of this country is unrivaled.” And, [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 3 Comments
Today we have the pleasure of welcoming a guest contribution by Eleena de Lisser, who runs Voices en Español, a bilingual blog and conversational Spanish podcast (iTunes - RSS Feed). In this post, Eleena draws on her experience and offers an overview of the best free podcasts that will teach you Spanish (which happens to [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
Is it Bay-jing? Or Bay-zhing, as some American broadcasters are inclined to say it? Below, you’ll find the answer according to Two Chinese Characters, a video team composed of Carsey Yee from China, and John B. Weinstein who teaches Chinese at an American university. Give a watch. It’s intentionally campy and amusing. And for more [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 2 Comments
YouTube’s Trendspotting Tuesday focused this past week on the growing number of videos that can teach you a foreign language (for free, of course). Among the 12 video collections featured here, you’ll find ones that offer lessons in French, Spanish, Modern Greek, Latin, Japanese and Swahili, among others. They also highlight clips that demonstrate how [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
MSN-Sympatico has been running a piece that covers the ins-and-outs of learning a foreign language online. The piece highlights free resources that you can access on the web, including our collection of Free Foreign Language Lesson Podcasts, but also many other worthwhile materials. Free language dictionaries, flash cards, interactive games, language learning communities, international news [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 2 Comments
We have recently spent some time updating our Foreign Language Lesson Podcast Collection. And, along the way, one thing became clear. During the past six months, the number of podcasts offering free lessons in foreign languages has greatly increased, and the lessons now extend far beyond the traditional languages that you’d expect. In addition to [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here is a quick “lifehack” for you. You can now learn foreign languages and stay current on politics all at once. How so? By taking advantage of a smart podcast concept being used by French and German broadcasters. Radio France Internationale (RFI) issues a daily podcast called Le Journal en français facile (iTunes - feed [...]
≡ Category: Books, Business, Foreign Language, Media, Technology | ≅ Leave a Comment
The New York Times has a great article on a professor of management science who has founded an almost completely automated publishing company. The 200,000 books he’s published sound, well, terrible, and terribly overpriced: “Among the books published under his name are ‘The Official Patient’s Sourcebook on Acne Rosacea’ ($24.95 and 168 pages long); ‘Stickler [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 2 Comments
We stumbled across this video (below) over on YouTube. It offers a quick survey of web resources that will teach you foreign languages for free. Among other items, the video mentions our Foreign Language Podcast Collection and, for that, we wanted to say thanks to whoever put this together.
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≡ Category: English Language, Foreign Language | ≅ 1 Comment
What’s an easy way to learn a new language at no cost, whenever and wherever you want? One is to take advantage of our extensive collection of foreign language podcasts. Another is to check out Mango Languages, a web site that offers free online language courses that will teach you the basics in French, German, [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 7 Comments
China is on the upswing politically and economically. According to Goldman Sachs, China’s economy may outsize every other economy (except that of the U.S.) by 2016, and it could even surpass the American economy by 2039. Given this, the hottest language being studied right now by business travelers is Mandarin (see this New York Times [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 1 Comment
Although facing no shortage of competition, Coffee Break Spanish (iTunes - Feed - Web Site) has remained the most popular foreign language lesson podcast, bar none. The popularity rankings on iTunes have continually attested to that.
From this position of strength, the producers of Coffee Break Spanish have smartly moved into new European territories, rolling out [...]
≡ Category: Audio Books, Foreign Language, Sci Fi | ≅ 1 Comment
Thanks BoingBoing for spotting this one: Utopod (iTunes - Feed - Web Site) is a free French-language podcast, created by Lucas Moreno and and Marc Tiefenauer, that offers readings of fantasy and sci fi stories written by noted authors across the Francophone world. New episodes come out once every 2-3 weeks, and it’s not too [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
Whenever traffic flows to to our Foreign Language Lesson Podcasts, one good outcome is that we almost always learn of new podcasts to add to the list. (Just as an fyi, we now have 64 individual podcasts that offer instruction on 22 different languages.)
Last week didn’t disappoint. We learned of a few good new [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 1 Comment
We have recently updated our collection of Foreign Language Lesson Podcasts, and it seemed like a good time to highlight some of the latest additions (see below). Overall, the collection now covers 21 different languages and includes 52 individual podcasts. This means that you can learn most any major language you want with the help [...]
≡ Category: English Language, Foreign Language | ≅ 1 Comment
These days, Open Culture has been attracting an international audience. To give you a littlesample, 43% of our readers come from outside the US, and they come chiefly from Taiwan (lots from Taiwan lately), Germany, China, Japan, France, Spain, India, Mexico and Brazil. But if you count them all up over the past week, we [...]
≡ Category: Business, Foreign Language | ≅ 3 Comments
This page will give you quick access to our four-part series, Learning the Languages of the New
World Powers. Here, you’ll find articles highlighting free podcasts that will help you travel and do business in China, India, Russia and Brazil. Below, we’ve listed the links to each article, plus the podcasts mentioned in each:
Part 1: [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 2 Comments
China is the 800 pound gorilla among the new emerging world powers Its economy, says Goldman Sachs, may outsize every economy except the United States by 2016, and even surpass the US as soon as 2039. There is no point in belaboring things. China will be a force to be reckoned with.
According to yesterday’s New [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
If you take even the slightest time to read the newspaper these days, you’ll know that the two
most important emerging powers are India and China. Goldman Sachs maintains that India has positioned itself to become a dominant global supplier of manufactured goods and services, and, in the coming decades, it’s economy will likely grow faster [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
Along with Brazil, Russia is the other junior member of the BRICs (see Part 1 for more on the BRIC concept.)
While it’s not necessarily the country that’s first on America’s list of future economic competitors, it’s expected to be a player. And, if Goldman Sachs is right, Russia, a resource-rich nation, will overtake Italy’s economy [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 1 Comment
According to a much discussed report by Goldman Sachs, the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, and China — or what they collectively call the BRICs — are rapidly growing and could overshadow today’s major economic powers (including the US) by 2050. What does that mean for you? One thing is for sure: To stay competitive [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
The folks at Radio Lingua (whose foreign language podcasts we’ve promoted on previous occasions) shot us a quick note today, which seemed worth posting in full. Why? Because it will give you a chance to be something other than predictable and cliché on Valentine’s Day. And they’ll help you look pretty clever.
Here it goes:
"We [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
Here’s a good catch by one of our readers: The folks at Radio Lingua
International, who produce the very popular podcast, “Coffee Break Spanish,” haven’t wasted their momentum. They have recently released two new podcasts that will help you learn Italian (iTunes Feed Web Site) and German (iTunes Feed Web Site). Each podcast teaches [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 25 Comments
See our complete collection of foreign language lesson podcasts.
Here is a quick “lifehack” for you. You can now learn foreign languages and stay current on politics all at once. How so? By taking advantage of a smart podcast concept being used by French and German broadcasters. Radio France Internationale (RFI) issues a daily [...]
≡ Category: Apple, Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
They say that the advent of the blogosphere marked a critical turning point when the little guy, with some moxie and smarts, could start credibly competing against the major newspapers. (Goodbye CNN.com, hello Daily Kos.) Now, with iPods becoming ubiquitous, the corporate media establishment is suddenly finding its position being threatened on a new front. [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Leave a Comment
Because our foreign language lesson podcasts have generated a lot of interest this week, we wanted to mention another intriguing foreign language resource: The Mixxer.
An excellent way to learn a language is to participate in a language exchange. Years ago, when I set out to learn French, I went to Paris and found someone (a [...]
≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 104 Comments
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A great way to learn 37 languages for free. Spanish, French, English, Mandarin, Russian and much more. You can listen to all audio lessons on your computer and mp3 player. Download and you’re good to go.
Arabic
Arabic Language Lessons iTunes Feed Web Site
The US Peace Corps serves up 10 lessons [...]
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