Store
About the Products Listed Here
I have only included products and services that:
- I have personally used myself.
- Are a good bang for your buck.
- Actually work.
You now have three choices:
- You can be a stud/studette and buy some of the products here via the links provided, giving me a small percentage of each sale as affiliate income. This helps support the blog and ensure I have the time and resources to continue churning out the highest-quality content possible.
- You can read the reviews here and then go search for the products on Amazon or another site. You will end up paying the same price, but for each purchase you make in this way, a cute kitten will die somewhere in the world…
- You can continue putting off your dream of learning foreign languages altogether.
“Freemium” Language Sites
Here are a few of my favorite language learning sites that include both free and paid content, using what Chris Anderson calls the “freemium” model in his excellent book Free: The Future of a Radical Price.
ChinesePod, SpanishPod
, EnglishPod, FrenchPod
& ItalianPod
There are countless language sites and podcasts out there today, but few can beat the quality and content/feature diversity offered by Praxis Language (the makers of ChinesePod
, SpanishPod
, EnglishPod, FrenchPod
& ItalianPod
). And don’t just take my word for it: CNN, NBC, The New York Times, The Economist and Time Magazine back up my love for Praxis.
Praxis offers 4 account types:
- Free Subscriptions: Newbie level podcasts for each language are available as free downloads via iTunes.
- Basic Subscriptions: For $14 per month, you gain access to all 5 podcast levels for one language (newbie, elementary, intermediate, upper-intermediate and advanced), plus PDF transcripts of each episode and a custom RSS lesson feed so you only get the levels you want downloaded to iTunes.
- Premium Subscriptions: In addition to all the lessons, transcripts and custom RSS feeds offered by a basic subscription, a $29 premium subscription also gives you access to additional study tools on the web or your mobile device, including audio reviews, flashcards, and more.
- Praxis Pass: At $39 per month, The Praxis Pass gives you full premium access to all five award-winning sites: ChinesePod, SpanishPod, FrenchPod, ItalianPod and EnglishPod.
Sign up for a free 7-day trial at ChinesePod, SpanishPod
, EnglishPod, FrenchPod
& ItalianPod or buy/give a Praxis Pass to all 5 languages.
LingQ
LingQ is the brainchild of Steve Kaufmann, an accomplished language learner who wanted to create a simple, community driven language learning service that matched the way he learned his eleven languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish).
The beauty of LingQ is that when you save new or unknown vocabulary items (which are automatically highlighted in blue until you mark them as known or save them as new “LingQs”), these words will then appear highlighted in yellow in all future texts you study so you can quickly recognize them. You have the choice of adding your own hint for each word or copying/pasting from the integrated multilingual dictionaries.
There are heaps of lessons covering the entire spectrum of abilities and interests, and you can even import your own, personalized content. You can then keep this content private or share them with the LingQ community. For each person who uses your shared content, you get LingQ points that can be used to speak with tutors or have your writing corrected.
There are four account levels to choose from:
- Free: With a free membership, you get up to 100 LingQs and can import 5 of your own lessons. You can also access your LingQs in the free flashcard app available for iPhones, iPod touches and iPads.
- Basic: For $10 a month, you get unlimited LingQs and imported lessons, a 50% discount on points, and access to iLingQ, a more complete Apple app that allows you to access all your LingQ lessons (text and audio), flashcards,
- Plus: For $39 a month, you get 3,000 complimentary points in addition to the benefits offered by a basic membership.
- Premium: For $79 a month, the complimentary points go up 7,500, giving you plenty of room to have frequent chats with tutors and get lots of writing correction.
Sign up for a LingQ membership.
Pimsleur Audio CDs
Pimsleur audio CDs are a little pricey compared with the web-based tools above, but if you will be moving to a foreign land next week and need to get your ears and mouth used to the language in the absolute quickest way possible, the Pimsleur approach, including the groud-breaking and now frequently copied “GIR” (graduated interval recall) can’t be beat.
Here is a list of their level 1 materials (in alphabetical order). Given the cost of the CDs, I would recommend moving on to the above language learning sites or authentic materials after completing level 1 (though Pimsleur does offer additional levels for each language).
Pimsleur Brazilian Portuguese 1
Pimsleur English for Spanish Speakers (Inglés) 1
Pimsleur English for Mandarin Speakers 1