Author Topic: Language-learning resources!  (Read 30175 times)

mithrysc

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Language-learning resources!
« on: October 30, 2014, 10:07:04 AM »
So, seeing as quite a few of us are trying to learn different languages, we must be learning from somewhere. Any good sites, books, programs, courses, or tips to share? (Preferably include the languages for which the resources are helpful, too.)

Please do not post parents, even if they were the original language-learning resources.  ;)

From previous threads:

General
Duolingo (Spanish, Danish, Irish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch. Swedish is supposedly releasing today)
Memrise (lots of stuff)


Finnish for Foreigners (Finnish, duh)

Nimphy

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #1 on: October 30, 2014, 10:15:57 AM »
So, seeing as quite a few of us are trying to learn different languages, we must be learning from somewhere. Any good sites, books, programs, courses, or tips to share? (Preferably include the languages for which the resources are helpful, too.)

Please do not post parents, even if they were the original language-learning resources.  ;)

From previous threads:

General
Duolingo (Spanish, Danish, Irish, French, Italian, German, Portuguese, Dutch. Swedish is supposedly releasing today)
Memrise (lots of stuff)


Finnish for Foreigners (Finnish, duh)

I think Duolingo is the best out of the bunch, but Memrise is also very good (taught me a few cyrillic characters which I surely won't forget anytime soon). I recently found this thing called FluentU (Chinese, Spanish, French, English, Italian, German, Japanese) which uses videos in foreign languages to teach you that language. It's worth a shot, I think.
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Fen Shen

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #2 on: October 30, 2014, 10:57:54 AM »
I'm learning vocabulary with Babbel, because I can revise on my ipad with the app even without internet connection. But it's not completely for free, you can only access the first lesson from every topic without paying.
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woolly socks

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #3 on: October 30, 2014, 12:08:22 PM »
If you want to hear specific words pronounced, http://www.forvo.com/has pretty good libraries of words pronounced by natives on really many languages. You can also submit words you hope someone will pronounce.

I'm reading words in finnish for them every now and then, it's a nice project!

ruth

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #4 on: October 30, 2014, 02:30:05 PM »
netflix! one of the most useful tools i've used so far for learning languages is watching shows on netflix, using the subtitles (in the original language, of course!) not translated to help me listen where the boundaries between words are in normal, casual speech. it's one thing to hear example sentences on duolingo or babbel, but hearing them as they're actually spoken is a bit tougher. already, using wallander and the bridge i feel like i've gotten better at understanding without subtitles.
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StellersJayC

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #5 on: October 30, 2014, 06:46:01 PM »
Duolingo is definitely a good one.

Then there is my high school German teacher. My school offers Spanish, French, and German. I've been informed by people taking the other languages that the German-learners are the only ones who leave school knowing "any" of the language...

Eich

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #6 on: November 02, 2014, 11:25:11 PM »
So, seeing as quite a few of us are trying to learn different languages, we must be learning from somewhere. Any good sites, books, programs, courses, or tips to share? (Preferably include the languages for which the resources are helpful, too.)

Please do not post parents, even if they were the original language-learning resources.  ;)

Finnish for Foreigners (Finnish, duh)
I would just like to say, I opened this up in a tab yesterday, and haven't closed out of it yet.  I've only looked at it a little bit, but I think I'll keep looking at it, at my own, slow pace.
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kjeks

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #7 on: November 09, 2014, 09:08:18 AM »
If you are not sure how to pronounce a word in any language just check the spelling in the IPA and try this side:

[http://ipa.group.shef.ac.uk/symbols.php

For Norwegian I recomend this site provided by the University of Trondheim. It's totally free and the English-Norwegian set up is nice.

http://www.ntnu.edu/now/intro
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Lenny

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #8 on: November 09, 2014, 03:17:14 PM »

For Norwegian I recomend this site provided by the University of Trondheim. It's totally free and the English-Norwegian set up is nice.

http://www.ntnu.edu/now/intro

They've also got Memrise lessons set up to do in combination with those lessons - it's pretty good.
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mithrysc

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #9 on: November 09, 2014, 09:13:14 PM »
They've also got Memrise lessons set up to do in combination with those lessons - it's pretty good.

I'm trying to work through NoW, and thought those were for the other course by the university, confusingly titled LearnNoW (which is apparently the beginner's course and really confused me for a while) as opposed to NoW. I guess there's an overlap, though.
« Last Edit: November 09, 2014, 09:24:16 PM by mithrysc »

Lenny

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #10 on: November 09, 2014, 11:03:47 PM »
Ah, whoops, you're correct. I wasn't aware there were two courses, somehow XD My apologies.
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Catlet

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #11 on: November 14, 2014, 05:34:51 PM »
Does anyone have any recommendations for free resources to learn Swedish?  I've made a start with Babbel, but am not quite prepared to pay for the non-basic lessons!

mithrysc

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #12 on: November 14, 2014, 05:46:05 PM »
Does anyone have any recommendations for free resources to learn Swedish?  I've made a start with Babbel, but am not quite prepared to pay for the non-basic lessons!

Well, Duolingo has a Swedish course that's set to go into beta any day now, if you're willing to wait.

Solovei

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #13 on: November 14, 2014, 06:23:59 PM »
Well, Duolingo has a Swedish course that's set to go into beta any day now, if you're willing to wait.
As far as I can tell that "any day now" is officially scheduled for Monday, November 17th.
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Solovei

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Re: Language-learning resources!
« Reply #14 on: November 21, 2014, 12:02:01 PM »
Not sure if this will be interesting to anyone (as most of the forum is currently learning either Norwegian or German, it seems) but someone on Duolingo put together a MASSIVE list of online resources for learning swedish, from textbooks to video streaming guides to pronunciation charts.

Can be accessed here:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1aDkKW8cAS5zUwZA2f2SbETqAJc_WL-muMFkeV06zMDw/pub
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