Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Free Lessons in 40 Languages
Have you been thinking about learning a new language, but don't want to waste your money a new language just to find out it's too difficult. Or maybe you want to learn a foreign language, but you aren't sure if you want to learn Romanian, Armenian, or Croatian? Well I found the perfect free resource. Just go to Pimsleur Free Lessons. Just download the free lessons to your computer or mp3 player, and start listening to them while you workout, commute, cook, etc. Enjoy the free lessons, and leave me a comment letting me know what you think.
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Free Resources to Learn French
A fellow blogger inquired as to why French was not in the list of languages I was studying. Besides time, the main reason I am not studying any more languages is so I will not get any more confused. I catch myself all the time interchanging words in Portuguese and Italian. I also don't need any more false cognates between the languages. "Yes" in Swedish and "No" in Albanian are almost identical. Ok, that's enough of my excuses, let's get on to the free French resources.
The first place you should start when you want a free education on almost anything is OpenCulture, and French is no exception. OpenCulture has 10 French podcasts on it's list of language podcasts. I have not personally checked out these podcasts, but I am sure you should at least be able to get the basics from these podcasts.
If you would just like a one week sample of French to see if you want to get serious and devote some time learning the language, then I would recommend the free Rocket French 6 Day Course. I have checked out their free 6 day course for sign language and it was nicely done.
Once you have decided that you would like a little more in depth French course then you need to head over to the BBC. The BBC has a free 12 week course called French Steps. You even receive a certificate of completion when you have completed the course. I have not personally taken this course, but I'm willing to bet it will be good quality coming from the BBC.
Ok, so now you are ready to take some free college level French courses. I would recommend heading over to the website for the University of Texas. The University of Texas World Lecture Hall has a free online French Course which I spent about 30 minutes checking out. I really enjoyed this course because it contains video, audio, and translation based learning methods. Once you finish UT's course, then you need to further your college education in French over at CMU. Carnegie Mellon University's free online French course is more difficult in my opinion because it contains people speaking French naturally(aka really fast). Once you have completed CMU's course you can start taking the more advanced French courses at both universities.
Hope you enjoyed learning about all the free French resources. Au revoir,
Ray J
The first place you should start when you want a free education on almost anything is OpenCulture, and French is no exception. OpenCulture has 10 French podcasts on it's list of language podcasts. I have not personally checked out these podcasts, but I am sure you should at least be able to get the basics from these podcasts.
If you would just like a one week sample of French to see if you want to get serious and devote some time learning the language, then I would recommend the free Rocket French 6 Day Course. I have checked out their free 6 day course for sign language and it was nicely done.
Once you have decided that you would like a little more in depth French course then you need to head over to the BBC. The BBC has a free 12 week course called French Steps. You even receive a certificate of completion when you have completed the course. I have not personally taken this course, but I'm willing to bet it will be good quality coming from the BBC.
Ok, so now you are ready to take some free college level French courses. I would recommend heading over to the website for the University of Texas. The University of Texas World Lecture Hall has a free online French Course which I spent about 30 minutes checking out. I really enjoyed this course because it contains video, audio, and translation based learning methods. Once you finish UT's course, then you need to further your college education in French over at CMU. Carnegie Mellon University's free online French course is more difficult in my opinion because it contains people speaking French naturally(aka really fast). Once you have completed CMU's course you can start taking the more advanced French courses at both universities.
Hope you enjoyed learning about all the free French resources. Au revoir,
Ray J
Monday, March 10, 2008
The Best Reason to Learn a Foreign Language
I am often asked why I study as many foreign languages as I do. I have studied Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Russian, Hindi, and Albanian. I have only used four of the above mentioned languages in conversation. Are the other three languages I studied a waste of my time? Absolutely not. I plan on using every language I learn in a country where it is the native language. Why travel to a foreign country to speak the language when I could use an online resource such as My Language Exchange? I prefer to travel abroad because I know every trip will be something new, stimulating, and create a new life experience.
There are many things that contribute to creating these life experiences in my opinion: breathtaking views, sensuous flavors, new customs, and meeting new people from different cultures. The people are by far, in my opinion, the most important part of these life experiences, and I believe to truly understand a new culture, you must learn the language before you visit the country. That is why I have the Rosetta Stone Hindi CD in my computer right now.
I simply cannot imagine not being able to communicate with the majority of the world in their native tongue. Even if you were fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English, you would still be unable to communicate with over three billion people in the world. I want to create as many new life experiences as possible with as many cultures as possible, and the only way to do that is to learn many foreign languages.
There are many things that contribute to creating these life experiences in my opinion: breathtaking views, sensuous flavors, new customs, and meeting new people from different cultures. The people are by far, in my opinion, the most important part of these life experiences, and I believe to truly understand a new culture, you must learn the language before you visit the country. That is why I have the Rosetta Stone Hindi CD in my computer right now.
I simply cannot imagine not being able to communicate with the majority of the world in their native tongue. Even if you were fluent in Mandarin Chinese and English, you would still be unable to communicate with over three billion people in the world. I want to create as many new life experiences as possible with as many cultures as possible, and the only way to do that is to learn many foreign languages.
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