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Practice with Native Speakers

4/24/2030

2 Comments

 
You can use use Skype, Kakao, Voip on Android or iPhone, etc. to practice talking online with native speakers. The following sites help you find someone who (A) speaks the language you want and (B) wants to learn your language, so you can talk together first in one language, then the other. Both of you will practice at no cost:
  • My Language Exchange free, many people
  • LingoGlobe free, can select skill level, common interests, writing or talking
  • Mixxer free, can select a country, in order to practice that country's accent
  • Italki free or paid
  • SpeakSurfing free or paid, 3-way trade may help if you speak an uncommon language.
  • Conversation Exchange free
  • Fluent Future free or paid
  • Tongue Out free
  • Exchange a Language free, few people
  • Open Language Exchange €2/month
  • Shared Talk free, written, but can arrange voice sessions 
  • Easy Language Exchange free, no indication whether written or voice
  • Teach Speech free, speak with other learners, not native speakers

After you find someone, you email to decide if you can both use Skype, Kakao or other free connection, set a time and start talking. As with any Internet contact, do not trust they are who they say they are. Do not tell them private information, such as when you will be away from home. Take your birth date and other personal information out of your Skype or Kakao profile. Another site has a good discussion of privacy for language learners and teachers.

Besides these well-organized sites, there are forums with long lists of people, not sorted by language, which are not as useful, though if you need a common language, you may find someone who just posted a request: ESL Teachers, Skype community, or Babelan.
2 Comments

Learn Oasis

8/2/2029

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Review of LearnOasis.com  Stella
Web+Apps, No pronunciation scores, Free, ★
A UK company was paid by the European Union to develop courses. They cover greetings in 5 languages, with text in the target language and the teaching language. A few words are presented individually, and you can repeatedly listen to phrases. They do not provide slow recordings, grammar, or MP3 downloads. Screens load slowly.

They teach Danish, Hungarian and Spanish to English speakers. They teach English to Czech, German, Hungarian and Italian speakers. In these languages they teach greetings, shopping, numbers 1-20, and time. They do not provide explanations of pronunciation, nor the ability to record yourself in these languages.

They teach Arabic to English speakers. Some explanations are available in German, Italian, Lithuanian, and Portuguese. Some explanations are in English only. You can record yourself in Arabic and compare to the speakers, but there are no scores or graphs. Arabic is the only language for which they have an app.

They present greetings and introductions  in Arabic between native English-speakers and native Arabic speakers (no particular country is specified). Lessons cover the following:
  1. Long phrases spoken in Arabic and printed in Arabic, with Roman letters too. English text is optional. You can repeatedly listen to phrases, but not individual words.
  2. Arabic script for the phrases, but not broken down into letters.
  3. This lesson breaks words into letters.
  4. How to pronounce some letters not found in English.
  5. Literal meaning of the greetings.
  6. Claims to offer pronunciation in Egyptian, Iraqi, Gulf, Moroccan, and Omani Arabic, and none of them had sound.
They say the main myth about Arabic is that the language is "uniquely difficult." I have never seen that myth. The US Foreign Service Institute does say it is one of the 4 hardest languages for English-speakers, along with Chinese, Japanese and Korean, based on their 50 years of teaching it.

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Deutsche Welle

8/2/2029

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Review of Deutsche Welle language teaching, DW.de
Web+MP3, No pronunciation scores, free, ★
Their website has over 100 German lessons with explanations in 30 languages ("Deutsch - warum nicht?"). The audio of some lessons calls them a "Radio Language Course" However they do not say that the lessons are broadcast.

The goal seems more to understand German than to practice pronunciation. Each lesson has large amounts of explanation, interspersed with a few minutes of German scenes. In the last few minutes they repeat the German dialog with few interruptions. There are no pauses for you to repeat, and the pace is uneven, so it would be hard to learn by speaking along with the German speakers.

You can also download pdf files to read in German and your own language.

The vocabulary appendix shows 400 words, and a few not shown there are also used in the lessons, such as numbers.

Their teaching series "Radio D" is similar, and it uses sound effects to help show the situation, along with spoken explanations (not all 30 languages).

Their vocabulary series "Deutsch Interaktiv" gives vocabulary in your language (not all 30), then twice in German, by a man and woman, then a single pause before giving the next word or phrase. Lesson 7 includes numbers 1-9.

Their series "Mission Europe" has fast-paced scenes of international intrigue in German, French or Polish, with partial explanations in your language. It seems designed more for practice than learning a new language, similar to listening to German, French or Polish programs on the radio.
0 Comments

Alison

8/1/2029

1 Comment

 
Review of Alison.com
Web, No pronunciation scores, Free
Alison has different approaches for the 8 languages it teaches. All instructions are in English and embedded in graphics where a translation program, like the Chrome browser, cannot translate them. All lessons need to be watched online; you cannot download to practice away from a computer. Courses are free. Completion certificates cost €15 or more.

For Arabic ★★★ they have 13 video lessons from Dalarna University in Sweden. They teach the alphabet better than I have seen elsewhere, though the letters shown on the slides are small and fuzzy. Each lesson is a lecture with slides, but it gives few repetitions of the Arabic sounds and no time for the learner to speak. They include numbers 1-10; simple grammar, short sentences and pronunciation rules.

For Chinese ★★★ they have 7 courses in Mandarin, starting with basics in Pinyin. They introduce all the sounds first, with charts where you can repeat each letter as many times as needed. They say where the tongue is for each consonant. Memorizing all these sounds at the beginning, without context, is hard. The first context is provided by greetings, with a rather large vocabulary, also hard to learn. Learners may want to open 2 windows, so they can see these examples and the earlier explanations at the same time. It cries out for graphs of your and the teachers' pitch, as in Transparent, and slower enunciation, so you can learn the rising and falling tones. One confusion is that they say the letter "i" at the end of a syllable is pronounced "eee," and most examples sound like that, but examples of zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi, and ri sound like "u" as in "turn." The sounds seem correct, but Alison should not have given such an incorrect rule early in the course. It would also help to say whether other consonants change the sound of a vowel.

For teaching English ★ they have many intermediate lessons, most from the British Council, most without practice in speaking English. Click the loudspeaker to listen, without pauses. For listening and writing these give extensive free practice. Be aware some of the speakers (such as the Japanese woman in the first lesson) have foreign accents, so learn from the native speakers. Also the spoken and on-screen text differ by a few words in each lesson. This will not confuse intermediate learners. One course, "Introduction to Conversational English" starts with the alphabet, saying each letter twice and comparing similar sounds. The course then goes to other topics with no repetitions or explanation. 

For French they have many video lessons from Joella Andriantsivohony ★★★★★. Even more lessons are at youlearnfrench.blogspot.com. She says each word or phrase twice, followed by long pauses, with French and English spelling on the screen, which you do not have to look at if you want to concentrate on the sound. She has an excellent accent, though she does not say if she is a native speaker. She gives several lessons on numbers, from 0 to 999 billion (milliards), prepositions, telling time, adjectives, adverbs, and many more. It is great that she has a lesson on the alphabet, though she picks very hard sample words for the letters (many r sounds).

They also have French lessons from the University of Texas at Austin ★. These are inaccurately excerpted from laits.utexas.edu/fi. For example the Alison version misspells français, géographie, littérature. Do not trust it. UTexas is one of the nation's great universities, and its version seems accurately spelled, but inaccurately spoken; not all are native speakers. The course also includes videos of Texas students speaking bad French to native speakers, and difficult songs, often recorded by foreigners. Recorded lessons do not repeat any words for learners. They do say the alphabet, without any sample words. A model lesson shows a student needing help with "rencontrer", so the teacher says it twice quickly, has the class say it once and moves on. They start with difficult social conversations, and you cannot pick topics you need to study.

For German ★ they have 11 lessons on colors, numbers, letters, times, verbs, clothes, and likes. The native speaker from Berlin has many more at DeutschMitJulia.wordpress.com. Phrases are repeated with brief pauses, not quite long enough to say the phrase. The lessons are for intermediate learners, though beginners can start with the lessons on colors and the alphabet. In other lessons the phrases are too long and full of new words to be good for beginners.

For Irish ★ they have 15 lessons on basic vocabulary, including numbers 1-1000, which are also on youtube.com/user/Dioluin. They do teach simple words, but very quickly, with no repetitions, interspersed with English translations. Perhaps you could memorize them by watching repeatedly.

For Spanish ★★★ they have 4 lessons on very basic vocabulary, including numbers 0-trillion, days, months and dates. You can play individual words as often as you need to. There are dialogues showing context, but without pauses to repeat.

For Swedish ★ they have 10 lessons on verbs, nouns, pronouns, and adjectives from Lund University. The male narrator says he is from Sweden; the woman says she is from Russia, though I cannot tell if she really is or is a native Swedish speaker. Each lesson is a lecture with slides, but few repetitions of the Swedish sounds and no time for the learner to speak.

Alison courses are not accredited. They do issue their own certificates in some fields: "The main standards we adhere to – which apply to over half our courses - are those instituted by the ECDL Foundation / Microsoft Corporation, (IT Literacy), the British Council (English Learning), and the Australian High School standards (maths courses, science courses, etc.).  To keep the courses freely accessible online, we do not issue, and cannot issue, certifications directly from these particular institutions (as they would all involve fees which would have to be passed on to the learner). However, we do provide a Certificate of Completion to state that the individual has learned the same required knowledge/skill-set.  Where ALISON has a distinct advantage on all institutional certification is that an ALISON graduate can be challenged to sit an ALISON test at anytime online to prove that they retain the standard of knowledge certified by the Certification of Completion." Anyone can also check for forged certificates.

Certificates, even for the simplest courses, can be €15 or more. The price is shown after you finish the course. Free certificates are not available for languages. Certificates from Alison are free for the following Microsoft and Irish Health and Safety Authority courses.
  • Microsoft Digital Literacy - IT Basics, Internet & Productivity Programs
  • Microsoft Office 2010 Training
  • Updating Your Spreadsheet Skills with Microsoft Excel 2010
  • Updating Your Word Processing Skills with Microsoft Word 2010
  • Updating Your Database Processing Skills with Microsoft Access 2010
  • Updating Your Presentation Skills with Microsoft PowerPoint 2010
  • Improving Productivity Using Microsoft Outlook 2010
  • Cloud Document Collaboration Using Microsoft SharePoint 2010

  • Safety and Health in Construction
  • An Introduction to Managing Safety and Health in Schools
  • Safety and Health in the Science Laboratory for Teachers
  • Get Safe - Work Safe - Safety and Health for Senior Cycle Students
  • Safety and Health in the Technology Classroom for Teachers

  • U.S. Citizenship Test Preparation

Alison displays advertising, which can be reduced for €30 per year and eliminated for €75 per year.
1 Comment

First Voices

7/17/2012

0 Comments

 
_Review of FirstVoices.com (Canada)
Web+MP3+Apps, No pronunciation scores, Free, ★
They offer text and sound in each of 40 languages spoken by First Nations (Native Americans) in Canada. They have multiple regional variations for several of the languages. The content varies widely from about 50 words and phrases in some languages to over 2,000 in a few. On their site you can find languages by map or name of the group. Some languages are available in apps.

Words and phrases cam be seen in lists (like activities, or animals) but not in full sentences. For some languages the words are spoken once in English and twice in the target language. Other languages speak them only in the target language. The web page always shows the word in English and the target language. Most explanations are in English, with a little in French. There is no option to slow the sound, and no grammar.

The site is sponsored by First Peoples' Cultural Council.

World Language Maps

Useful background are maps of the locations and relationships of the original languages in North America, the United States, South America, Africa and Asia.
0 Comments

Peace Corps

5/21/2012

0 Comments

 
Review of Peace Corps courses at LiveLingua.com and Yojik.eu
Text, MP3 in many languages, No pronunciation scores, Free, ★
These introductory courses for 100 languages were written by Peace Corps trainers and volunteers. Most courses are no longer on the Peace Corps website, but they are on the two private sites. For Kenyan and Zambian Sign Language, there remain only posters. The most complete is the LiveLingua site, with text (and audio where available). Yojik is a backup source for text but not audio. Peace Corps itself has audio for three languages, and text for a dozen languages, including three which are not yet at LiveLingua or Yojik: Rwanda-Rundi (Kinyarwanda), Tongan and Zulu.

For some languages, these are the only courses available, or the only ones in English. For other languages, there are better courses available; see "Best Courses" above. These Peace Corps courses were designed to be used when a volunteer is immersed with a host family, and can be hard for others to use.

They list English courses, but these are manuals to advise English teachers, not courses which learners can use.

The audio files have very few repetitions, so expect to rewind a lot. For example in Arabic they give English, then the Arabic word twice, quickly, then a pause, then go on to the next word. In Mandarin they give English, then Chinese from a native speaker, Chinese from an American, no pauses. In Bambara, French, and Thai they give the target language once, then English, with never much pause at all. In Ukrainian they give English, Ukrainian, pause, Ukrainian. In Russian they give English and Russian from an American, then English and Russian from a Kazakh, no pauses.
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