Review of Skritter
Skritter has been on my radar for quite some time, but the need to sit at a computer was less than ideal. With the release of their iOS apps, however, Skritter has finally been given the touch-based format it deserves.
Review of The Michel Thomas Method
From surviving Nazi internment camps to teaching French to Hollywood stars, Michel Thomas was truly an amazing man. Read on to learn more about his life and his unique language learning approach.
How to Conquer Chinese Characters
Chinese characters are arguably the most intimidating part of getting started in Japanese or Chinese, but I believe they can also be the most enjoyable if tackled correctly. This article shares the tips, tools, and psychology you need to master kanji and hanzi.
Interview with Arkady Zilberman
Arkady Zilberman, creator of Language Bridge and a former simultaneous interpreter in Russia, addresses what is perhaps the greatest impediment to adult language learning success: cross-translation to and from one’s native language.
Review of Brainscape Spanish
If you are learning Spanish on your iPhone, Brainscape’s Spanish! app is definitely worth checking out. Read on to see why.
eBooks: A Language Learner’s Best Friend
Just as the printing press democratized access to the written word, ebooks are again revolutionizing how information is produced, distributed, and consumed, offering language learners a more portable, affordable, and time efficient way to learn.
Review of Busuu
Busuu is a fast growing online language learning community with over a million users as of early October 2010. The site is named after a Cameroon language of the same name, which according to their website, is now spoken by only 8 living people!
Review of LiveMocha
With over 5 million registered users spread across 200 countries, LiveMocha is the world’s largest language learning community. And with sufficient venture capital and corporate partners behind them, the Seattle-based start-up firm has the resources to keep expanding their service offering long into the foreseeable future.
Interview with Clint Schmidt, V.P. LiveMocha
In this interview with Clint Schmidt, LiveMocha’s Vice President of Marketing and Product, he shares what he thinks makes LiveMocha unique and he introduces some exciting new products coming down the pipe. He also responds to some of my grilling questions about the role of grammar in language learning.
Review of Rosetta Stone
With $210,000,000 in sales last year, Rosetta Stone is far and away the best selling language learning product on the market today. But Rosetta Stone’s sales figures say more about the company’s marketing budget than the quality of their products. A quick look around the web reveals a healthy mix of positive and negative feedback about the product, but there is a big problem with objectivity: the positive reviews tend to...
Review of LingQ.com
Pronounced like the word “link” (not “ling-kyu” as it is often mispronounced), LingQ is an an online and iOS app based language learning system created by Steve Kaufmann. The “freemium” site allows users to easily look up and save unknown words and phrases (what they call “LingQing”, hence the name of the site)m with tools for 11 languages: Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish (which happen to be the same 11 languages Steve speaks).
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