Summary

BBC Radio's 6 Minute English Podcast is great for weekly doses of useful English for practical situations. It is one of many podcasts from the BBC.

From BBC Website

Learn and practise useful English language for everyday situations with the BBC. Your weekly instruction manual for saying or doing something in English is published every Wednesday. Each programme is six minutes long and contains examples and explanations to help you improve your knowledge of the English language across a wide range of topics.

Visit BBC Radio's 6 Minute English Podcast.

Welcome to the tenth edition of the Free Language Letter!

51 new resources for 12 languages are included in this newsletter! There are also many additional resources not specific to any language but useful for all. See below...

What's Inside

• Featured Resource: Byki Free Software for Learning 70+ Foreign Languages
• 51 new resources for 12 languages! (Arabic, Chinese, English, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Polish, Russian, Silbo Gomero and Spanish)
• Mobile Language Learning with iTunes U (iPod, iPhone)
• New Social Language Learning Resource: Busuu.com
• Multilingual Flashcard Services and Software
• Multilingual Online Instant Messenger
• Online Distance Language Learning
• The Linguists Documentary Film
• Free Multilingual Verb Conjugation Software
• eBook on How to Learn Languages Faster and Better
• Study Abroad Programs and Directories
• Constructed Languages (Conlangs)
• Blog Buzz: edufire.com names Free Language in top 20 language bloggers!
• Language Factoid: Silbo Gomero

Featured Resource

Language Freeware for over 70 Languages

Byki offers a free version of their software for learning the basics of 74 languages, including many less-commonly taught languages. An optional upgrade to the commercial product is available if you choose to continue. The software works on Windows and Mac and is certified friendly and spyware free!

Read the full article on Free Language.

Arabic

ArabicPod.net Podcast with Free Common Colloquial and Standard Arabic Audio Lessons
LQToronto.com Download Free Texts and View Free Video Courses to Learn the Language of the Quran with Full Madinah Arabic Course

Chinese (Mandarin)

ChinesePod.com Celebrates the 1,000 Free Mandarin Chinese Audio Lessons Milestone!
ChinesePod.com Olympics Site with Free Mandarin Lessons, Interactive Map of Beijing, Written and Spoken Country Names
Chinese-Course.com Free Mandarin Course with Flashcards/Sentence Manager and Chinese Character Explanations/Annotations
TheChineseReader.com The Chinese Reader Helps Learn to Read Mandarin with Free Chinese Character Text Annotation
Semanda.com Free Chinese Vocabulary Cards with Downloadable PDFs plus Multiple Choice Quizzes for Children (Kids)
hskflashcards.com Free Download HSK Vocabulary Cards in PDF Format + Print New Practical Chinese Reader Text Flash Cards (NPCR)
RocketLanguages.com Rocket Chinese (Mandarin) Complete Language Audio and Software Course for Total Beginners

English

EnglishPod.com EnglishPod Learn English Podcast for Web-Based and Mobile Learning using iPhone and iPod Touch
China232.com China232 Fun and Business English Lessons via Free Audio Podcast Lessons with Transcripts
AvatarLanguages.com Avatar Languages Learn English in Second Life Virtual World plus Tutors via Skype, Google Docs, Whiteboards
StudyEnglishNews.com Study English News for Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced Levels plus English Proficiency Test and Grammar
Vocabulix.com English, German and Spanish Verb Conjugator, Conjugation Tools, Vocabulary Building, Self-Test Tool, Friend Finder
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve an English Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: London, England, Ireland...

Finnish

Two Resources to Learn the Finnish Language for Free: Online Wikibooks and Byki Freeware

French

French-Flashcards.com Online French Flashcard System, Text Analyzer, Vocabulary List Manager with Audio and Dictionary
french.about.com French Learning+Teaching Resources, French Verb Conjugator, Proficiency Tests, French Grammar Help
RocketLanguages.com Rocket French Language Audio and Software Course from Rocket Languages
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve a French Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: Paris, France, Provence, Nice...

German

German-Flashcards.com Free German Flashcard Course with Dictionary and German Text Annotation
PukkaGerman.com Pukka German Podcast, German Slang, Colloquial German, Idioms, Funny German Sayings for Intermediate to Advanced
Radio Lingua's A Flavour of German Podcast Teaches German Idioms (Idiomatic Expressions) via Audio Lessons
german.about.com German Learning+Teaching Resources, Verb Conjugator, Audio Listening Lab, Grammar, Geneology, Culture, Lessons
Vocabulix.com English, German and Spanish Verb Conjugator, Conjugation Tools, Vocabulary Building, Self-Test Tool, Friend Finder

Hebrew

Omniglot.com Abjad Consonant Alphabet about Hebrew Script with Images, Example Text and Audio

Italian

ItalianPod.com ItalianPod Praxis Italian Lessons Podcast with Free Educational Resources and MP3 Audio
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve an Italian Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: Rome, Italy, Venice, Ski...
Italian-Flashcards.com Online Italian Flashcard System, Text Analyzer, Vocabulary List Manager with Audio and Dictionary

Polish

Polish Wikibook with Basic Polish Language Course

Russian

LearningRussian.Net Learning Russian Website with Beginner Lessons, Grammar Overview and Russian-English Dual-Language Texts

Silbo Gomero

Learn Silbo Gomero, a Whistled Language from La Isla Gomera in the Canary Islands, on Busuu.com

Spanish

Online-Spanish-Course.com Free Online Spanish Course with Flashcards+Sentence Manager and Spanish Text Annotation
RocketLanguages.com Rocket Spanish Language Audio and Software Course from Rocket Languages
spanish.about.com Spanish Learning+Teaching Resources, Vocabulary, Pronunciation, Grammar Glossary, Culture, Course Lessons
SpanishNewsBites.com Spanish NewsBites Free Audio News Bites with Transcriptions about Spanish and Latin America
Useful Spanish Phrases for Travel with Downloadable Audio Recordings for Total Beginners from the Omniglot Website
Vocabulix.com English, German and Spanish Verb Conjugator, Conjugation Tools, Vocabulary Building, Self-Test Tool, Friend Finder
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve a Spanish Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: Madrid, Spain, Valencia...
BBC Spanish Interactive Mystery Thriller Web Video Course for Total Beginners with Spanish Syllabus and Guide for Teachers+Users

Mobile Language Learning with iTunes U (iPod, iPhone)

New iTunes U: Download Educational Podcast Courses to Learn Language with Audio and Video on your iPod for Mobile Learning

Social Language Learning

Busuu.com Busuu Social Language Exchange Partner Community plus Multimedia Photo-Audio Lesson Archives and Video Chat Interface

Multilingual Flashcard Services and Software

Anki Free Flash Card Software for Debian GNU Linux, Mac OS X and Windows Based on Spaced Repetition
Quizlet.com Quizlet Vocabulary Trainer w/Flashcards, Games, Quizzes and Tests w/Multiple Choice, Fill in the Blank, Matching

Multilingual Online Instant Messenger

MeGlobe.com Jabber-Powered, Web-Based Instant Messenger with Automatic Realtime Machine Translation in 14+ Languages

Online Distance Language Learning

Linkua.com Linkua Online Distance Language Learning with Live Video Tutors, One-on-One Lessons and Web Classes

The Linguists Documentary Film

TheLinguists.com The Linguists Independent Documentary Film (Movie) Explores Dangers to Record Dying Languages

Free Multilingual Verb Conjugation Software

Verbix.com Verbix Free Verb Conjugation Website (WebVerbix), Verb Wiki and Windows Freeware (FreeVerbix) for 100+ Languages

eBook on How to Learn Languages Faster and Better

Learn That Language Now! ebook with Quick, Easy and Efficient Method for Learning Any Foreign Language

Study Abroad Programs and Directories

Directory List of International Foreign Language Schools and Language Study Abroad Programs
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve an English Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: London, England, Ireland...
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve a Spanish Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: Madrid, Spain, Valencia...
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve a French Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: Paris, France, Provence, Nice...
eurolanguages.com Find and Reserve an Italian Study Abroad Program or Language School Free Online: Rome, Italy, Venice, Ski...

Constructed Languages (Conlangs)

LinguistList.org Links Page Covers Linguistics plus Constructed (Conlangs), Endangered and Natural Languages and Writing Systems

Blog Buzz

Free Language was written up as one of the top language blogs on the Web!

eduFire.com Blogs about Top 20 Language Bloggers on the Web

Language Factoid: Silbo Gomero

Silbo Gomero is not spoken - it is whistled! (silbar = to whistle in Spanish). This whistled tongue is used by the people of Gomera, one of the Canary Islands off Spain, to communicate between long distances and over rough terrain.

Become a Silbador!

The existence of the whistled language of Silbo Gomero on the beautiful Spanish island of La Gomera has for years fascinated linguists and language enthusiasts alike.

Silbo Gomero was invented in order to facilitate communication between the people of the island across the deep gorges and valleys long before mobile phones were invented. The tradition continues even now with the local government including it in the educational system of the island.

Learn more about Silbo Gomero and watch a video of it being used!

Do widzenia!

Chapman
Free Language
http://freelanguage.org

LingQ has just announced a major upgrade to their unique online language-learning platform. Following is the announcement from LingQ Central.

New Features for LingQ Platform

Major New Release Coming Thursday, November 20

It's been a little over a year since we launched LingQ and we have been constantly improving the site since then. One of the most frequent comments we have received is that users don't understand what to do. "Where do I start?", "What should I do now?", etc...

We know that if we can get people started on LingQ, they will like it and they will stay. The more people that stay, the better the community and the experience for all members.

Courses

With that in mind we created courses. You will now land on the Courses page when you login to LingQ. If you don't yet have a course, you will be asked to pick one from the list of Available Courses. If you already have a course or courses, your most recently opened course will be displayed.

In every language there will be one free Self-Directed Course as well as Directed courses which are offered by our tutors.

All existing members will already have the Self-Directed Course, containing all the lessons you currently have in your account. The Self-Directed Course is basically the old WorkDesk list. From here you can open your lessons and study them as before.

Directed Courses are identified by level and are made up of 12 lessons selected by the course tutor. Courses are 12 weeks long and include a writing assignment and a conversation each week as part of the lesson. Participants will be able to email their tutor anytime, will be answered on the Ask a Tutor forum and will receive monthly reports. Directed Courses can be bought with a credit card or with points. Directed Courses are a great way to commit to your learning for a specific period of time.

If you do sign up for a Directed Course, you can also have one or more other courses active at the same time including your Self-Directed Course.

Active Assignment Limits Removed, New Active LingQs Limit for Free Accounts

You will be happy to know that all assignment limits will be removed from LingQ. The only remaining limitation will be a 300 LingQ limit on Free accounts. This means that Free members will only be allowed to keep 300 LingQs in their accounts at any one time. If you hit your limit, you will have to either delete LingQs or upgrade. All Basic, Plus and Premium members may create unlimited LingQs in their accounts.

New 5 Steps for Each Lesson and Simplified Lesson Status

Following up on our theme of simplification, we have removed the old assignment page. In fact, we have removed all references to assignments and items. Now we only refer to lessons. Furthermore, we no longer have multiple statuses for each lesson; New, Open, Updated, Completed, Archived, etc.... Now your lessons are either in your active list or they are archived. You will see that you move them from active to archived or vice versa by simply ticking or unticking a tickbox.

In addition, for each lesson we now assign 5 Steps. These steps are visible on the right hand side of the Lesson page. These steps will help new members, and really, all members get more out of LingQ. Progress indicators show how many steps you have completed for each lesson.

Everyone can post questions on Ask a Tutor

We are also opening up the Ask a Tutor forum to all members. Now, Free and Basic members can also post questions here. Tutors will only be expected to answer questions from Plus and Premium members but I'm sure many of our members will be happy to answer each others questions as well.

New Navigation and a New User Interface

Finally, you will notice the new design and the new navigation. We think you're really going to like the new design which gives a more lively look to the site.

The navigation has been changed to make it simpler for the first time user. There are now two main tabs for Courses and Community. All other tabs are now in a sub menu that is visible once the main tab is opened. There will also be a Welcome tab that is visible when you first open your account. This page is there to help newbies but can be removed once you no longer find it useful.

We realize our existing members will have to get used to the new navigation. We did not do this to confuse you! Rather, we did it to make things more obvious for a newbie. Thanks for your patience and we think that once you are used to it, you will find it at least as convenient as the previous navigation.

We realize we haven't provided too many images of the new LingQ. We're just trying to build up suspense! :-) You'll see it all on November 20th!

As with all changes, we want your feedback. Let us know what you like and what you don't like. We will try to respond to frequent requests. And, of course, although we would hope that you won't find any bugs, please let us know if some squeak through!

Enjoy the new LingQ!

Summary

LearningRussian.Net is a good entry point for beginner Russian learners. The site provides clear lessons on the basics of the Russian language, including the alphabet, verb conjugations and aspects, case forms, pronouns, numerals, mood and more. There is also a number of introductory level lessons on meeting and greeting, introductions, fun and games, directions and congratulations - with more lessons being added regularly.

Of special note are their Russian-English dual-language texts available right through the site! Currently the beginning chapters of two novels are available in dual-text format: Anna Karenina by Lev Tolstoy and Notes from the Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

Audio is also being integrated into the site as this article goes to press, so expect more audio soon.

From Website

Learn Russian language with Free Lessons

If you are feeling excited about learning how to speak and understand Russian, this is the right place to be. Designed to become the best online destination for Russian language study, our website offers free high-quality Russian lessons with audio recordings, online dictionaries, original texts of Russian literature classics, and other practical resources to help you learn the Russian language. Our site is absolutely free for you to use and we plan to keep running it as a totally free service for everyone.

Visit LearningRussian.Net

Summary

Italian-Flashcards.com is a fast-loading, useful site for Italian learners to manage and practice vocabulary lists (words and sentences). There are many existing word and sentence lists created by other users that you can snag and use right away. You can also create your own lists and sentences on-the-fly and test yourself until you know them all. As a result, this resource works for Italian students of all levels, beginner to advanced. The self-testing is done via built-in flashcard software that you control.

The website has an integrated dictionary that gives explanations of individual terms and includes examples of how these are used in real sentences. In addition, when you view a sentence, you can scroll over the Italian words and view annotations. NB: You can copy and paste any Italian text you want into the site's Text Analyzer and it provides you with what you see below (see grey scroll-over pop-up in image for annotation). Words that are not in the system with be displayed in grey, such as the word "Mike" below.

Something you might find useful is the site's Sentence of the Day email. This sends a different sentence every day complete with a translation of the sentence.

If you upgrade to a premuim membership (~$5/month) you can also hear audio for the sentence. In fact, the only thing you cannot do without a membership is hear the audio on the site.

Bravo Oliver for this excellent site and keep up the great work!

From Website

Introduction

Our first flashcard website started in 2005. A lot of time has been invested to design an efficient system which enables you to learn new words in the shortest time possible. Make sure to read this introduction carefully so you understand how the system works. Once you know how this website works and you use it regularly it will become an important tool to learn Italian. Ideally make time each day for 2 or 3 sessions a day, each lasting about 10 - 15 minutes.

Once you have created your own account you can set up your own word list. There are basically two different modes on how to add new words to your word list. One is automatically and one is manually.

Automatically

If you choose "automatically" then the system will choose random words for you to practice. Within the Auto-Mode there are two different choices. The first is "completely random words" and the second is "frequent words first". Obviously if you are a beginner you should focus on those frequent words first, so if you chose the level "Complete Newbie", "Basic" or "Intermediate" the system will just do that. If you chose the level "Upper Intermediate" or "Advanced" completely random words will be added to your word list.

Manually

If you would like more control over which word you learn switch to the manually mode. In this mode you have to choose which word you will learn, not the system. There are a few ways to add words manually. The first is to use the search function in the navigation bar on the left-hand side. You can search for Italian or English words. On the result page every found word has an "Add Word" link next to it. Click it to add this word to your personal list. After you click it the link text will change to "Remove Word", so you can immediately remove the word from your list if you have added it by mistake.

The second way to add words manually is to click the link "Add new Words" in the navigation. This will show random words for you to add. They are sorted by frequency, the most common words will be at the top of this random list, while the rare words will be at the bottom of the list.

Finally you can add words manually by browsing through the "public word lists". These lists have been created by other users. These public lists normally have a common theme, like "animals", "computer terms", "fruits", etc. You can either pick some words of these public lists or copy the whole list.

You can also combine these methods, add words automatically but also occasionally add words manually.

Adding words automatically is the default setting. If you do not want to add words automatically you can change this in the settings.

The Loop

The main problem of learning new words is that over time word lists grow very big. This means that the learner feels overwhelmed and the time between word repetitions becomes too long. Thats where the Loop comes to the rescue.

The Loop consists of a subset of only 20 words out of your word list. This means you can concentrate on a few words only, until you have memorized them properly. To keep a flashcard in the loop click on the "Loop" button.

If you have become familiar with a new word which is in the Loop click on "1 day", "7 days", "30 days" etc. Which means that the word will be shown only after the indicated time has passed. If you know a word very well click on "30 Days" or "3 Months" so the word will be shown only after a long time. After the indicated time has passed the word will be put into the Queue.

Once you remove a word from the Loop another one will be put in the Loop. The system will first check if there are any words in the "Queue". If the Queue is empty and you are in Auto-Mode the system will choose a new word for you and add it to your word list and into the Loop. If you are in the "manual mode" the system will tell you that you need to add more words in order to continue.

If you click "Remove Word" then the word will be removed from your word list. "Permanently Block" will do the same except that it will also prevent the word from coming back in the "Automatic Mode" where the system chooses words for you. By default there are 20 words in the loop. You can change the number of words in the loop in the settings.

Word Lists

If the Loop system sounds too complicated to you, then you can also set up simple word lists. To do this click on "[Manage Lists]" in the navigation. Then click on "[Add List]" to create a new list. If you want to share this word list with other users select the box "Public List". If you want to immediately add new words to this list select "Also Activate". You can create as many lists as you want. In the navigation bar you can always see which list is active at the moment. Words will be added to the currently active list. To go back to the master list (which uses the loop), click on "[Manage Lists]" and the "[Leave List Mode]".

Visit Italian-Flashcards.com