The Web Way To Learn a Language

theodp writes "Thanks to Tim Berners-Lee, you can now sit in your underwear in Omaha and learn French from a tutor in Paris. The NY Times has a round-up of ways to learn a language over the Web. 'We offer modern-day pen pals facilitated with voice over I.P.,' said Tom Adams, CEO of RosettaStone, whose learning options include RosettaStudio, a place where a user can talk to a native speaker via video chat. TellMeMore offers a speech recognition component that analyzes pronunciation, graphs your speech, and suggests how to perfect it. Free-as-in-beer offerings include BBC Languages, where you'll find varying levels of instruction for 36 languages, with features including audio and video playback and translation. Things have certainly come a long way since the PLATO Foreign Languages Project of the '70s."

Music, comedy and something else of interest

[eihab]

I have found that two of the best free ways to learn a foreign language online is to listen to music in that language as well as watching stand up comedy in it.

The music gives you something catchy to repeat and will allow you to memorize certain words, common phrases, etc. while the comedy will give you more of an insight into the culture (and culturally applicable words) since most comedians criticize or magnify people's behavior, discuss current topics and issues and usually use good vocabulary.

Youtube can generally take care of those two.

If you can also find websites that cover a topic you're interested and have a background in (e.g. programming or math) in that language, it won't be as harsh of a transition as you'll know about the topic before hand or you'd be very interested in it which allow you to translate your knowledge in that domain, gaining you more vocabulary/grammar.

This obviously doesn't work across the board and you may need a book or some formal training for the basics to be able to distinguish between slang and proper use of the language. But if you're already on your way (and with the abundance of free online dictionaries) it can be a huge push forward.

IRC or other online chatting systems can also help validate what you have learned and help you improve your conversation skills.

Discovered for myself a few weeks ago...

[O('_')O_Bush]

I found this for myself a few weeks ago, and have been slowly working on learning Scottish Gaelic.

It's a lot more fun than when I was forced to learn Spanish in high school.

Poor foreigners

[IBBoard]

...you can now sit in your underwear in Omaha and learn French from a tutor in Paris.

and

...RosettaStudio, a place where a user can talk to a native speaker via video chat.

Poor foreigners with languages that people want to learn. They hope to teach people the delights of their own language rather than being forced to speak American (or even real English - that's what we speak in England ;) ) and end up having a webcam foreign languages session with some guy in his briefs!

Hmmm...

[hkdm]

I've also found it useful to change every interface that I use into the language that I'm learning. For instance, I've changed my PS3, iPod, and various websites into my desired language. For Asian languages it helps a lot with reading, and I've already increased my reading speed as a result. I would say it's a good supplement to a standard language course.

Re:A very geek way to learn greek.

[bbqsrc]

I took a look at your friend's site, but didn't get too far with it. I'm afraid it's all Greek to me.

Promote that man! And seriously, you can't possibly consider that someone can learn a language by simply "reading" in that language. It requires some sort of introduction, at least a transliteration of the characters from the Greek to Latin alphabet. All in all, staring at encrypted data for years wont get you any closer to decrypting it without some idea of how.

Odd Reference to Berners-Lee

[timeOday]

HTTP 1.0 has almost nothing to do with voice (or video) over the Internet.

Re:Music, comedy and something else of interest

[Inda]

I have a real problem talking to foreigners on a social level because of my slang. I try hard to tone it down but fail every time, innit?

I can't help the slang, or the local way of speaking, you. (UK, west country with a hint of mockney, some west midlands thrown in for good measure, and some Geordie because of the railways workers who came to my town many years ago, like). I finish sentences with "innit you" or "ah boy" or "like" and people struggle - ju know what I'm sayin' like?

And then there's the accent that I try and hide. No "T" and no "R" sounds. Butter does not sound like butter when I say it. Bu'aa.

When the mockney creeps out, there are no "Th" sounds. They are hard "F" sounds. Fink them foreigners cope well, you?

So, all the people suggesting these sites where you have 1-to-1 sessions with foreigners, just make sure you don't find someone like me to teach you English. You'll end up sounding like a street wise farmer.

Re:How to learn a language

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, thanks! This is one of the single-most helpful posts I've read on the internet in a long while. Yay internet!