Learning a Language (or Six) in Your Spare Time

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

Steve Kaufmann, who runs www.thelinguistblogs.com, says a few words to get us inspired to learn more languages than we currently know (however many that may be). One great place to start is with our collection of free foreign language lessons. These audio lessons will help you learn over 35 languages, including Arabic, Mandarin, French, German, Italian, English, [...]

A Master List of Free Language Learning Resources

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

TED To China: An Inside View

≡ Category: Foreign Language, Media | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

iPods in Iraq

≡ Category: Apple, Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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, [...]

Teach Your Children Mandarin … They’re Going to Need It

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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, [...]

Learning Spanish with Free Podcasts: The Lay of the Land

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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 [...]

How to Pronounce Beijing Once and For All

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Learning Arabic (and Other Languages) with YouTube

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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 [...]

Learn a Language Online

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Podcasts Can Now Teach You Almost Any Language

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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 [...]

Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

The Automated Publishing House

≡ Category: Books, Business, Foreign Language, Media, Technology | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

How to Learn a Foreign Language

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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.

Subscribe to Our Feed

Learning Foreign Languages the Mango Way

≡ Category: English Language, Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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, [...]

Learning Mandarin (for Free) with Podcasts

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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 [...]

Coffee Break French (and Nine Other Ways to Parler Français)

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Sci Fi with a French Twist

≡ Category: Audio Books, Foreign Language, Sci Fi | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

French Lessons from the BBC and the Peace Corps

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

How to Learn 21 Languages with Your iPod

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Learning English with Podcasts (ESL)

≡ Category: English Language, Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Quick View: Learning the Languages of the New World Powers

≡ Category: Business, Foreign Language | ≅ 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: [...]

Part 4: Learning the Languages of the New World Powers – China

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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 [...]

Part 3: Learning the Languages of the New World Powers – Hindi

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Part 2: Learning the Languages of the New World Powers – Russian

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Learning the Languages of the New World Powers

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

A Not-So-Cliché Valentine’s Day

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

New Italian and German Podcasts (Plus English as a Second Language)

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]

Lifehack for Learning Foreign Languages

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ 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 [...]

The #3 Podcast on iTunes: Coffee Break Spanish & The Threat to Traditional Media

≡ Category: Apple, Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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. [...]

Online Foreign Language Exchange

≡ Category: Foreign Language | ≅ Comments

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 [...]