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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."

2 of 165 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A very geek way to learn greek. by Rary · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    --

    "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

  2. How to learn a language by Bragador · · Score: 5, Informative

    1) Go to http://fsi-language-courses.org/Content.php and get the free classes you want.

    2) Study words using a free software like http://ichi2.net/anki/

    3) Try to live as much as possible in the language studied. Listen to music in that language, TV shows, movies, etc.

    4) Make friends on a website like http://lang-8.com/ where the goal is learn new languages. If you want to learn French, French people will correct you and speak with you over Skype and you do the same by helping them learn English.

    Have fun!