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Free Language Learning Software? 24
An anonymous reader asks: "Just curious with all the news in the recent years of MIT having courseware online and such.. Has anyone run across any quality free software/courseware for learning new languages (not programming languages, rather, the verbal ones)? This seems like an integral part to the free flow of information on the WWW."
Esperanto (Score:3, Informative)
You can also find free online courses [pacujo.net] (with a tutor via e-mail).
Re:Esperanto (Score:2)
Nuku (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Nuku (Score:1)
Nuku [versiontracker.com]
sanskrit (Score:2)
or to begin with just a good sanskrit pronunciation guide?
Re:sanskrit (Score:3, Informative)
this appears to be a good online course [iitm.ac.in] in sanskrit hosted at the IIT in madras
from the intro page
i am still interested in hearing from ppl with actual experience in the language as to what they think are good resources - google is great but humans are still the best heuristic
(of passing interest : browsing some of the pronunciation guides on the net,
i just discovered that guru is correctly pronounced
with a very short first u - like the u in put or full;
the second u is a full u)
Re:sanskrit (Score:2, Informative)
zerg (Score:4, Funny)
Re:zerg (Score:2, Funny)
Oh how very true - getting a nice Swedish girlfriend was the only thing that inspired me to learn the language...
Frustrating how I couldn't even cheat and use the babelfish to read her emails - it doesn't do Swedish!
Same sex learning.... (Score:1)
Re:Same sex learning.... (Score:2)
In any case, you're better off talking to as many people as you can who speak the language you're trying to learn rather than just one person.
Re:zerg (Score:2)
However, ploping down in a place where you'd need to learn the lanugage just to get along in daily life would probably give a bit more of a boost in your desire to learn a language.
In learning a language there's no substitute for experience.
There is NO WAY a computer can help you here... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:There is NO WAY a computer can help you here... (Score:1)
The Geek Way (tm) of doing it. (Score:2)
Wrong approach to learning languages. You don't need no learning software to learn new languages, simply use this wonderful site [slashdot.org]! Get corresponding keywords, try different keyword combinations, plot the new language's BNF tree, use your knowledge to write new sentences and see if they translate properly, and finally, try to read an online newspaper in the language you're learning.
Piece of cake. ;-)
Re:The Geek Way (tm) of doing it. (Score:2)
Which Language? (Score:3, Insightful)
Non-free Language Learning Stuff (Score:2)
You can pick them up on Ebay cheaper than retail on a pretty regular basis.
To produce really good language learning content integrated with audio and video is an expensive and pretty repetitive thing to do. Making it free is like making free games, it's one of those areas where the open source free way of doing things falls down.
Suggestions (Score:2, Informative)
That said, the closer you can come to complete immersion, the better off you'll be. I'd suggest (just for fun) setting your computer's localization to the language you want to learn. You'll quickly learn a few bits of vocabulary from the translated menus, etc. Of course, if your target language has a radically different alphabet, you'll probably want to Google [google.com] up a guide to sounding it out. (Arabic and Thai still stop me dead here...)
Next, I'd go looking for some newspapers [onlinenewspapers.com] in your target language published online. You'll doubtless find plenty of cognates (words with similar sounds and meanings across two languages) to words you know, and you'll have an opportunity to start getting an idea of grammar.
You'll probably want to Google [google.com] for a dictionary for your target language, too -- there are good ones available for every language I've ever tried.
Good luck -- this is a great project!
Have you considered ASL? (Score:2, Interesting)
Even if you aren't deaf, it can be a great skill to communicate with others at a distance.
Great software for Chinese+Japanese characters (Score:2)
Hanzim [ucsd.edu] - Score: Excellent
Kanatest [freshmeat.net] - Score: Very Good