Language Immersion Using Social Media
In this guest post, website developer, language tutor, and language enthusiast Teddy Nee shares how you can learn a foreign language better by immersing yourself via social media networks, plus some powerful little features that you might not know about.
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.
Interview with Jason West of English Out There
In my interview with Jason West, the creator of English Out There, we discuss the weaknesses of traditional English schools, methodologies, and materials, and how his approach aims to overcome them.
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.
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 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).