In 2010, the folks who publish the Macmillan Dictionary launched the ‘What’s your English?’ campaign. They then spent a good year traveling across the globe, visiting nations where English is spoken, and asking experts and everyday speakers to talk about their regional dialects. The United States, Australia, Ireland, Scotland and Canada were obvious stops. But the tour also swept through India, Russia, Brazil, China, Mexico and beyond. Now, to cap things off, Macmillan has posted a “rap battle” between British and Canadian English, featuring “Baba Brinkman” and hip hop emcee “Professor Elemental.” Get the lyrics/script here. H/T Metafilter.
We can’t help you get fit (at least physically) in the new year. But we can help you learn a new language. Our collection of Free Language Lessons covers 37 languages, and we have now developed sections dedicated to commonly sought after languages. (See below.) Please keep in mind that the collection also features less frequently spoken languages–Maori, Luxembourgish, Tagalog, Yiddish and beyond. For all languages, please visit the full collection How to Learn Languages for Free: Spanish, English, Chinese & 37 Other Languages:
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 collection How to Learn Languages for Free: Spanish, English, Chinese & 37 Other Languages, which will teach you about 40 different languages. Just download the audio lessons to your computer or mp3 player and you’ll be learning new languages on the go, at no cost.
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 by volunteers worldwide.” Tony speaks very eloquently about how he got involved with this project and what he hopes to achieve, and how the connections between East and West can hopefully become closer. Take it away Tony and check out his web site TEDtoChina…
I have been watching TEDTalks for nearly three years. I originally found them by serendipity on iTunes. The very first few talks (notably from Al Gore, David Pogue and Sir Ken Robinson) grabbed me like a magnet, and I couldn’t resist watching them again and again. There were quite a few sentences and phrases in each of these talks that fell on a deaf ear for me, as I couldn’t quite understand some slang English. I worked with the TED videos at home with a computer and a notebook. And yes, I’ve got to admit that I am taking each TED screening as a valuable learning experience, and they did help me in broadening my horizons and enriching my understanding of the world.
Then, in the summer of 2008, I decided that merely watching was not enough, at least not enough in coming to a full understanding of the talks, as many of the meanings are hidden in the semantics. Thus I embarked upon a project to translate TEDTalks into Chinese. I started with some familiar ones, like Erin McKean’s talk on redefining dictionaries, and Alex Steffen’s talk on a bright green future. It proved to be a mind-enriching experience. Before making any attempt to translate a talk, I would probe into the depth of the background of the speaker and relevant concepts and ideas. This was a great learning process. It helped me build up a clear picture of the talk and its significance, and also reshape my understanding of many ideas across the whole spectrum of arts and science.
As I was pushing forward with my endeavor, I found that it would be better if we can have more people joining in this joyful journey of intellectual mining through translation. So I posted the message on a community website for translators. Then it started to get kicked off. People jumped in the boat and offered help. It was a most gratifying experience to know that your efforts in spreading the idea of TED generated so much energy and so rich a welcoming response. (more…)
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, display the phrase in local writing, or demonstrate hand gestures that are common in Arabic.” Surely this is a candidate for our once popular piece: 10 Unexpected Uses of the iPhone.
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, two: “We are so cooked. Start teaching your kids Mandarin.”
There’s probably a good deal of truth to his last point. So to keep your kids (or yourself) competitive in the global marketplace, we’re highlighting a series of free Mandarin podcasts, all of which can be permanently found in our Foreign Language Lesson Podcast Collection. And, as a quick aside, I should note that Rosetta Stone is currently running a sale (through the end of August) that will let you get 10% off their audio products, which includes instruction in Mandarin and many other languages. (Click here for more info)
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 audio lessons that will teach you Spanish (which happens to be the number one second language studied in the United States). Other Spanish lessons can be found in our larger collection How to Learn Languages for Free: Spanish, English, Chinese & 37 Other Languages. Many thanks Eleena, and take it away…
Learning Spanish today is as easy as sitting in front of your computer and downloading online audio to your MP3 player. If you’re motivated, you can learn a great deal of Spanish at little to no cost without ever leaving the comfort of home. A tremendous range of instructional Spanish language podcasts, from the beginner level to advanced, are widely available on the internet and many of them are free. (Some charge for accompanying transcripts and written practice exercises.) So whether you are a raw beginner or a seasoned language study veteran, there is a podcast out there to suit you. Here are the details on a handful of educational Spanish language podcasts that are worth a closer look:
Coffee Break Spanish (iTunes — Feed — Web Site), whose slogan is “language learning with your latte,” is undoubtedly king of the instructional podcast hill, with a large and loyal fanbase. It is ideally suited for beginners and other students seeking a review of basic Spanish grammar and phrases. Mark Pentleton, the producer and instructor, and Kara, his student, are Scottish, so while you won’t be hearing a native Spanish speaker’s pronunciation in the initial episodes, that seems to add to the charm of the program for some listeners.
Another popular instructional series is Notes in Spanish (iTunes — Feed — Web Site), produced by Ben Curtis and Marina Diez, a husband-and-wife team out of Madrid, Spain. Ben is British and Marina is Spanish, and they too have built quite a large following for their conversational Spanish podcasts (for beginners, intermediates and advanced students), which promise to teach listeners “real Spanish” the way it is actually spoken every day in Spain.
LingusTV (iTunes — Feed — Web Site) is a unique entry into the instructional language podcasts arena. It’s an educational video podcast done in the form of a television sit-com (situation comedy), laugh track included. While the actors speak solely in Spanish, subtitles are provided and explanations of vocabulary and grammar points are provided on the web site.
SpanishPod101 (iTunes — Feed — Web Site) distinguishes itself from other currently available instructional podcasts by providing lessons that feature different accents from around the Spanish-speaking world. Dialogues are repeated multiple times and an English translation is provided, to further aid learning.
For advanced language students seeking a change of pace and a break from grammar drills, there are my two podcasts: Voices en Español (iTunes — Feed — Web Site), which contains interviews and literature readings with native Spanish speakers from all walks of life, and Cody’s Cuentos (iTunes — Feed — Web Site), a Spanish-language podcast of classic fairy tales and legends. While Cody’s Cuentos isn’t a conventional instructional podcast, the fact that you probably already know the story in English will aid your comprehension of understanding the tale in Spanish. Transcripts for the stories are available on the Cody’s Cuentos blog so that you can read and follow along in the text while listening to the audio.
This is just a small sample of the kind of Spanish language programming currently available online. Several more Spanish learning podcasts are listed here in our collection of Free Language Lessons.
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