French Verbs For Dummies Cheat Sheet - dummies

conjugation chart english to french

conjugation chart english to french - win

The many uses of "se voir"

"se voir" is a useful construction I see pretty often and it can be used in numerous different ways, some of which are pretty tricky and don't appear in English.
 
(1) The literal sense, to see yourself (or each other) visually.
Je me vois dans le miroir. - I see myself in the mirror.
Les gens aiment se voir à la télé. - People like to see themselves on television.
J'ai regardé vers le bas et me suis vu en-dessous. - I looked down and saw myself below.
Les chats peuvent se voir par la fenêtre. - The cats can see each other through the window.
 
(2) The passive literal sense: can be seen, is visible, shows.
La tour se voit de loin. - The tower can be seen / is visible from far away.
Le fantôme ne se voit pas. - The ghost cannot be seen.
Le bonheur se voit dans vos yeux. - The happiness shows (can be seen) in your eyes.
More examples: se voit - be seen - se voir - be seen - se voit - shows
 
(3) The figurative sense of see yourself, same as in English. Sometimes followed by an infinitive.
Où tu te vois dans 5 ans ? - Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
Je me vois comme un conseiller. - I see myself as an advisor.
Il se voyait devenir journaliste. - He saw himself becoming a journalist one day.
C'est comme ça qu'il se voit. - That is how he sees himself.
Ils se voient comme des Canadiens. - They see themselves as Canadians.
J'aime bien me voir comme un modèle. - I like to see myself as a role model.
Le soldat s'est vu en tant que volontaire. - The soldier saw himself as a volunteer.
More examples: me vois - see myself - te vois - see yourself - se voit - sees himself - se voit - sees herself - se voit - sees itself - me voir - see myself - se voir - see themselves - s'est vu - saw himself
 
(4) With plural subjects "on", "nous", "ils", etc. this can mean "to see each other" in the sense of "to get together / meet up / hang out". Can also mean in the dating sense.
On se voit à l'hôtel. - I'll see you at the hotel.
On se voit tout le temps. - We see each other all the time.
On ne se voit qu'aux enterrements. - We don't see each other except at funerals.
Ils se voient peu sans moi. - They rarely see each other when I'm not around.
On ne se voit plus, tant mieux. - We're not seeing each other anymore, but it's for the best.
On se voit depuis quelques mois. - We've been seeing each other (dating) for several months.
Il préfère qu'on arrête de se voir. - He wants us to stop seeing each other.
Ils se sont vus il y a un mois. - They saw each other a month ago.
More examples: se voit - I'll see you - se voit - I'll meet you - se voit - we'll meet - se voit - see each other - se voit - get together - se voir - see each other - se voir - get together - se voir - hang out - on se voir - dating
 
(5) When followed by an adjective or past participle, it means "to be" or "to find oneself...". It's similar to être except that the situation is imposed upon the subject by an outside power. To help you remember, think of "je me vois / I see myself" as an out-of-body experience where you're powerless to affect the situation.
On se voit coincés. - We find ourselves trapped.
Je me suis vu expulsé. - I was kicked out.
Je me vois incapable d'accorder cette autorisation. - I find myself unable to grant that permission.
Je me vois obligée de prendre une décision terrible. - I find myself forced to make a very difficult decision.
La société se voit régie par les préceptes de cette religion. - Society finds itself ruled by the precepts of this one religion.
Ahmed s'est vu accordé la permission de séjourner au Royaume-Uni. - Ahmed was given leave to remain in the UK.
L'accès aux petits marchés de capitaux devrait se voir facilité. - Access to small capital markets should be facilitated.
Mon groupe se voit dans l'obligation de voter contre ce rapport. - My group is obliged to vote against this report.
More examples: me vois - find myself - se voit - finds himself - se voient - find themselves - se voir - find themselves - se voit dans l'obligation
 
(6) When followed by an infinitive, it can function like the passive voice in English, making the subject into the direct object. For example:
As in (5), the situation is imposed by an outside power ("finds itself being assigned"). I see this mainly in writing not speech. Note that in this case "vu" is never conjugated as "vue" or "vus" (ref) (but sometimes people do anyway).
Chaque message se voit attribuer une priorité. - Each message is assigned a priority.
Elle se voit retirer ses activités commerciales. - It is being stripped of its commercial activities.
L'école se voit accorder une charte par la province en 1922. - The institution was granted a charter by the province in 1922.
Le Tibet se voit refuser son autonomie culturelle. - Tibet is being denied its cultural autonomy.
Un demandeur d'asile sur trois se voit octroyer la protection internationale. - One in three asylum seekers is granted international protection.
L'État s'est vu remplacer par des organisations violentes. - The State has been replaced by violent organizations.
Les enseignants se sont vu proposer une formation. - The teachers have been offered training.
Les candidats pourront se voir proposer des contrats d'agents. - Candidates may be offered agent positions.
Le président Mugabe doit se voir imposer des sanctions. - We need sanctions to be taken on President Mugabe.
Le président s'est vu empêcher d'y entrer. - The president was prevented from entering.
Les membres de sa famille se sont vu interdire d'assister au procès. - His relatives have been banned from attending the trial.
More examples: se voit attribuer - se voit proposer - se voit retirer - se voit accorder - se voit octroyer - se voit interdire - s'est vu - se sont vu - se sont vus

Expressions

ça se voit or cela se voit is an expression with two meanings:
 
(1) "it shows", "it's obvious", "you can see it", "you can tell", "it's evident", "it can be seen". Examples:
Ça le rend malheureux, ça se voit. - He feels bad about it, you can tell.
Ça se voit tout de suite. - You can see it right away.
Ça se voit dans ses yeux. - You can see it in his eyes.
Ça se voit à un kilomètre. - You can see it from a mile away.
Ça se voit sur ton visage. - It's written all over your face.
Ça se voit quand tu mens. - I can tell when you're lying.
Mais ça se voit, non ? - But it's obvious, right?
Ça se voit pas du tout. - You can't tell at all.
Ils aiment les gens et cela se voit. - They like people, and it shows.
Elle l'aimait, ça se voyait. - She loved him, you could tell.
La France est championne du monde et ça s'est vu. - France is champion of the world, and it showed.
 
(2) "it happens"
Cela se voit régulièrement. - That happens regularly.
Cela ne se voit pas tous les jours. - That's not something you see every day.
Cela ne s’est jamais vu ! - That’s unheard of!
Cela ne se voit plus aujourd'hui. - We don't see that anymore today.
Cela ne se voit pas au Canada. - That doesn't happen in Canada.
Cela s'est vu récemment en Europe. - That happened recently in Europe.
More examples: ça se voit - cela se voit - ça s'est vu - cela s'est vu - ça se voyait - cela se voyait - ça ne se voit pas - ça se voit pas - cela ne se voit pas

References

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An Introduction to Vóssíní

“What is any ocean, but a multitude of drops?” -David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
“Sé mo to ošánúta pozíso, síné to lížo táyéser?” -Dévid Mitčêl, Líónté kía Byúntâser
(“What is the ocean’s composition, if not a legion of drops?” -David Mitchell, Atlas of Clouds)
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Introduction
This is one of my first conlangs, and I’m fairly new to the linguistics realm in general, so any constructive criticism is welcome! I want to make this language a bit less of a relex, but I may need some guides to resources to do that. It’s also not meant to be taken 100% seriously, as the Science Fiction short story I’m writing that features this conlang is fairly Space-Opera-esque and quite over-the-top. I’m curious to see where this language goes!
Vóssíní (from the latin vox) is spoken by the Sákra people on the planet Hyacinth (Dompené in Vóssíní), which has been recently discovered by the United Kingdom Space Fleet in the year 2120. The UKSF is fairly shocked, because for one, the Sákra people are human, and two, because they speak a highly corrupted form of Latin. After much investigation, it’s eventually discovered that the Sákra people’s origin is Earth, more specifically the Roman Empire, but through a strange warp in space time, several towns throughout the Roman Empire mysteriously disappeared at once, and were completely relocated on a planet thousands of light years away.
Obviously, shenanigans and social collapse ensued, but after thousands of years, the Sákra became a complex and vibrant people, if several hundred years behind their Earth counterparts. Another contributor to Vóssíní’s strangeness is that not all of it’s speakers are originally Roman! Across thousands of years, individuals from various places have disappeared from Earth appeared on Hyacinth, mostly Italian and English speakers, but some German and French as well. In fact, one fluent Esperanto speaker was transported to Hyacinth, and consequently became a prominent leader and championed major language reforms.
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Alphabet
The alphabet is Latin based (shocker!), and has 42 letters:
a á â b c č d e é ê f g h i í î j k l m n o ó ô p q q̌ r s š t t́ t̂ u ú û v w y z ž ‘
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Phonology
Consonants
Bi-labial Labio-dental Dental Alveolar Post-Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive p, b t d k, kʷ, g ʔ
Nasal m n ŋ
Fricative f, v θ, ð s, z ʃ, ʒ x h
Approximant ɹ j w
Lateral Approximant l
Affricate t͡s t͡ʃ, d͡ʒ
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Vowels in Vóssíní (which I didn’t put in an IPA chart ‘cause I’m lazy) come in three forms: Neutral, Light, and Dark.
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Neutral form:
a* æ apple
e ɛ elephant
i ɪ iguana
o oʊ oboe
u ə umbrella
*if a is at the end of a word, it is pronounced â (ə)
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Light form:
á ɑ altar
é eɪ say
í i feet
ó ɑ altar
ú u moon
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Dark form:
â ə umbrella
ê ə umbrella
î aɪ sky
ô ə umbrella
û ʊ took
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All consonants are pronounced the same as in English, with these exceptions:
c t͡s pizza
č t͡ʃ choose
q x loch†
q̌ kʷ quail
š ʃ shower
t́ θ three
t̂ ð that
ž ʒ vision
‘ ʔ uh**-**oh
†all pronunciations in the third column are General American, with the exception of loch, which is Scottish
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Syllables & Prosody
These are some of the aspects of linguistics I’m least familiar with, so any advice would be appreciated. Vóssíní’s syllable structure varies, like Latin’s, and like Latin, all syllables have at least one vowel. After linguistic reforms, Vóssíní avoids elision to promote clarity, so when one word ends with a vowel and the other begins with a vowel an additional consonant is added to the second word. For example, “víro oska” (bird + orange) would become “víro toska”. The added consonant depends on the part of speech.
Vóssíní’s prosody is fairly inconsistent: the only constant is that the last syllable of a word with a light form vowel will always be stressed. Individual words have significant variation in stresses. This is partially due to the hybrid nature of the language.
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Grammar
Word Order
Whereas Latin word order is pretty free, Vóssíní is more strict. The most common dialect, Árgesk, uses SVO. A less common but still present dialect, Panlóq, uses either SVO or SOV, depending on context. As for adjectives and nouns, Árgesk uses both adjective-noun and noun-adjective, whereas Panlóq uses only noun-adjective. I’m going to use Árgesk for most of my examples, because again, i’m lazy and it’s the closer dialect to English.
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Nouns
An inanimate noun can end in any consonant or vowel. However, animate nouns must end in a vowel, and come in four forms:
-á (feminine)
-í (masculine)
-ú (third gender)
-o (gender neutral)
For example, a doctor may be referred to as edigá if female, edigí if male, edigú if nonbinary, and edigo if the gender is unknown or in a gender neutral context.
As for noun cases, I’m still learning the nuances of Latin cases, and if anyone has any more resources to help me out than the standard Google search, drop ‘em in the comment section!
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Verbs
A whole ‘nother place I’m entirely unfamiliar with. Conjugation help would be much appreciated. (I learned ASL in high school, which doesn’t have conjugation AT ALL, merely context provided at the beginning of sentences. Conjugation is a whole strange world that terrifies me. Why did I make the life choices I did?)
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Pronouns
Subject Object Possessive Adjective Possessive Pronoun Reflexive
1st person singular ro rot rota rotán rotsí
2nd person singular vo vos vósta vosán vossí
1st person plural (inclusive) no nos nósta nován nossí
1st person plural (exclusive) nomo nomos nómta nomán nomosí
2nd person plural vosé voser voserta voserán vosersí
3rd person singular (feminine) dá edá edáta edán edásí
3rd person singular (masculine) lí elí elíta elísán elísí
3rd person singular (third gender) čú ečú ečúta ečúsán ečúsí
3rd person singular (gender neutral) so eso esota esosán esosí
3rd person singular (thing) id ído ídota ídán idosí
3rd person plural iler ilero ilerota ilerosán ilerosí
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Vocabulary
How on Earth do I come up with these corrupted Latin-based words? Simple. By eating Marshmallows. (I warned you not to take this conlang too seriously!)
Ok, not really. I did start out by saying some words with my mouth full to just see how they sounded, but I ended up just corrupting the vocabulary in my own way. I’ll usually repeat the word again and again until it stops sounding like a word, then slur it a bit, and add in or take out some letters until I feel I’ve gotten the job done. Is it elegant? No, but for the purposes of my S.F. story, it gets the job done.
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iN CoNcLuSiOn
Alright fam, that’s all I have so far for my conlang. I realize it’s a bit bare bones, but I hope there’s something you find worth some interest in it. If you have any advice, resources, or constructive comments, let me know! Also, if I made a mistake with IPA, please lemme know as well. I’m always willing to learn, and I want to ensure this is as effective of a conlang as possible for my purposes!
submitted by coreyjboren to conlangs [link] [comments]

Brandt Duployan -- the best Duployan yet?

Brandt Duployan -- the best Duployan yet?
Duployan Shorthand adapted to English by Carl Brandt, S. J.
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Title Page of Brandt's Theory
The most recent Duployan adaptation I've taken the time to look at, thanks to u/brifoz is this one by Carl Brandt. Until u/brifoz went to London and scanned a copy for us, there was none available available on the Internet, although its existence was referenced in a a number of Shorthand History books. His efforts in research and acquisition, as always, are very much appreciated.
According to the title page, the author also did Danish and Latin adaptations (I'd love to look at that Latin one if anyone knows where to find it). There are several unique qualities not shared by other adaptations and it is (along with Pernin) the most thorough adaptation (at least based upon what is in the text) that I have looked at.
For those new to Duployan shorthand, it is a system (originally for French) without shading or position and with connected vowels. Gregg had learned at least one Duployan adaptation and was certainly influenced by it.
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An excerpt from Melville’s “Typee”
Consonants
The consonant symbols are mostly standard with a few interesting differences.
Th - instead of a T stroke (with a dot above) Brandt uses a kind of horizontal squiggly line. If one feels the need to specify the voiced Th (as in the word "these") it can simply be lengthened, although in practice this would seldom be necessary.
Ch / J -- Instead of the usual large horizontal curve used by other adaptations, Brandt uses another squiggly line written from the upper right to the lower left. Ch and J are differentiated by length (the Ch being the shorter of the two). The advantage of these strokes is that they avoid clashing with the standard Duployan SH. You may remember that Ellis took the approach of changing SH rather than Ch/J. The potential downside is that these are vertical strokes and may contribute to vertical creep, but in my writing this seems not to be an issue. (Gregg, also uses vertical strokes for these phonemes). I have found that one must not put too much of a curve in these strokes and that has required a surprising amount of practice to get right.
NG - Like Ellis, this is an N with a dot. This is used in combination with G or K for words like bank, tank, sang, etc. In other adaptations the use Nasal N+G (or K) for these words is more common, but Brandt specifically says to prefer his method of NG + G or K. When ING at the end of the word is desired, it is instead written with a "mini" N in Brandt's system as an affix.
W -- This letter is written with a large 90 degree arc written upward to the right and can be disambiguated from the diphthong U with a dot inside the arc if necessary.
Y -- As I have written before, I prefer symbols for consonantal Y rather than just writing it as a diphthong and Brandt strikes a kind of middle ground. The stroke is written as a small 180 degree arc open to the right with a dot above. This arc is the same as used by other vowels, but it's fixed position, dot and usual angle formed with following letters makes it very easy do differentiate.
H -- Many systems use a dot with the vowel indicate H but Brandt does something quite unique here. At the start of a word, instead of using a diacritic or dedicated symbol for H, one writes the vowel it is attached to with reversed direction. In Pernin and Gregg and others this is a common method to attach the R sound which is obviously far more common, so I was quite surprised with Brandt's choice to use it for the much less frequent and less important H sound. Medially, if needed, one can put the small macron diacritic underneath the vowel to indicate the H, but if it is a compound word, Brandt recommends writing two words in close proximity with the second word using the reversing principle (as in the word shorthand.) After spending a fair amount of time writing with this system, I have come to rather like Brandt's choice here, especially as the common vowel plus R sound has other expedients.
Vowels
A as in either fat or father -- the usual small circle. The longer version (as in father) can be denoted with a macron above the vowel.
O as in either not or naught -- the medium circle (Brandt doesn't use the large circle). The macron is again used if necessary for the longer version of the vowel. As mentioned previously in my posts, my accent has no difference between the vowel sounds in father, not, and naught, so my choice of using the small or medium circle is usually made based on the words spelling.
OO as in either foot or fool -- here Brandt uses the medium, broken circle. If one needs to specify the longer vowel as in fool, a macron is written above.
Short U as in nut -- This is the first somewhat unique vowel choice: a connected dot (outside angles). My first instinct was to not like this type of stroke as it's not something I've used before, however I noticed quickly that this may actually be an under-utilized bit of stenographic material. It is not difficult to write (just think of writing a circle but small enough that there is no visible "hole"), and quite easy to see in the writing. Why isn't this used more often? Of course, in many systems this vowel sound is simply omitted when writing but this is a more explicit and easy-to-write compromise. I much prefer it to the default large 90 degree arc in other Duployan adaptations.
Long O as in note -- a medium circle with a dot in it. Again, I didn't think I would like this, but it turns out that this vowel is usually obvious without the dot and in the rare case it isn't, writing it in isn't that annoying.
Short E as in net -- typical hook vowel, joined without angle to the next consonant at the beginning of words and the previous consonant medially.
Long A as in nail -- the same hook vowel as the E but disambiguated from it with a dot written below the vowel.
Short I as in knit -- same as above, but with the dot written above the vowel.
EE as in kneel -- again, a hook vowel but with a macron written above it.
Note that most of the time diacritics aren't used or needed.
Diphthongs
I as in isle -- another hook vowel, but this time written with an angle (the opposite rule to regular hook vowels.) This is better than Perrault's short stroke with an acute angle -- something Brandt reserves for more important purposes shown below.
OW as in owl -- medium circle with a small circle in it -- similar to the EA combination in Gregg
OI as in oil -- a medium circle with a hook attached.
U as in Use -- a large 90 degree arc written without angle. This is always the most indistinct vowel stroke in Duployan systems but in the Brandt adaptation with its use limited to the U diphthong, it is relatively rare. Still, writing words like unusually takes some getting used to. (see my writing sample for an example).
Nasals
AN as in pan -- small 90 degree arc (the usual symbol for these strokes in Duployan systems). If it needs to be differentiated from other nasals, an acute symbol written above it is written. Always written without angles to the following letter if it's the first symbol of the outline, or without angle to the previous symbol otherwise. (same rule as hook vowels)
IN as in pin -- same as AN but with a grave written above.
ON as in pond -- same as previous nasals but with a accent below.
UN as in pun -- same as previous but with a grave below.
EN as in pen -- same as previous. No diacritics to denote it. One of my common annoyances with any shorthand system is this notion that when trying to be explicit, you can have an "unmarked" stroke. This is a fallacy because one cannot tell when reading shorthand if a word is being written in a completely explicit fashion or not. So in this particular case there is no way to tell whether an unmarked EN is in fact EN or some other unmarked nasal. Gregg also makes this same, in my opinion, rather poor choice. Of course, one can always come up with something but it really should be an official part of the system.
AM, IM, EM, UM, OM -- these nasals don't have specific symbols but several of them have rules to specify them, i.e. words ending in nasal M can be written with an abbreviated M stroke (a downward left tick) and nasal M before P and B down strokes can be 90 degree small arcs in the backward and downward direction (similar to Perrault).
Briefs/Grammalogues and Affixes, etc.
Now, one could stop here and use the system as is but Brandt included many more ways to abbreviate. A set of one-symbol briefs (I, he, in, on, the, when, etc.), and a set of suffixes and of prefixes are also provided. Brandt's set of affixes is probably the best I've seen in that they compose with each other very well for making compound affixes in a natural way. IMO, Perrault's biggest weakness is in this area and Brandt shows how much better it can be done.
A very useful shortcut is the use of ticks at the end of the word for S and vowel+M. I have often been annoyed at the rather long horizontal stroke required to indicate the possessive and the plural in the Duployan alphabet and Brandt's little stroke resolves that completely. Similar in nature is the rather common M sound at the end of words (i.e. problem, some, tandem, maximum/minimum, etc.) which would normally require a rather large vertical stroke is now resolved with a simple tick. Both these "pain points" in Duployan are fully addressed with Brandt's system.
The common EUR sound can also be written with a shortcut: simply write the dot medially inside the angle of an outline. Again, the vertical creep is minimized with lots of words, not to mention the speed attained. I find that outlines are not in any way less legible or distinct when using this technique and its a big win in my book.
Another great shortcut is the use of a dot (written joined, not disjoint) at the end of an outline for OUS and OUEUR (depending in which side of the previous stroke it is written). This can even be stacked with the S tick for ERS, etc. This combination of sounds is very common in English and again, the shortcut is both very practical and legible. In short, a very nice addition to the theory.
A system for writing numbers more quickly is also provided, but I must admit I haven't really used it much although it appears to be well thought out.
The sum total of these various shortcuts play a large part in my positive appraisal of Brandt's system and they are for most part unique in the Duployan adaptations that I have thus far come across.
Positional Writing
A somewhat unique abbreviating method Brandt offers is the use of position for auxiliary and modal verbs. For instance, a K symbol written above the line means he/she can, on the line it means I can, and below they line it means you can. Adding a small tick makes it plural, i.e. they can, we can, you (pl.) can. And not just the word can is provided: have, shall, will, do, may, must, etc all have symbols to be used in this fashion. A different tick indicates the interrogative version of these briefs, i.e. can I, can he, will they, etc. A small circle added indicates the imperfect, i.e. had, did, could, should, would, might. Finally this technique has ways of adding the verb to be in its various conjugations in a similar way, so i would be,they might be, etc. Even not and been/have been combinations are possible with this technique: they could not have been, we might not be, etc. are possible with one (relatively) brief outline.
I find this to be a very innovative approach to English's extreme reliance on these type of verbal phrases. This is also my first experience with a shorthand system that uses position for not just phonetic purposes but for semantic meaning. I would be curious if anyone knows of other systems that use position for semantics rather than just phonetics.
The primary complaint I would level at this technique is that the meaning of the symbols can be out of order from what would be written. For instance, the added symbols for the imperfect and plural forms is appended to the end of the brief, so it reads like: he/she (by position) -- have -- changed to had (imperfect symbol) -- plural symbol == they had. This would obviously take some getting used to and the benefits gained must be determined by the user for the effort required to learn. Personally, I have been using this technique more and more in my own writing and believe that it may be worth the effort for many common phrases. In any case, this method of abbreviation is unlike anything I've seen in other shorthand systems and was thus very interesting.
"Reporting" Techniques
The final part of the text discusses some "Reporting" shortcuts. This technique involves the use of diacritics and position at the end of an outline to denote both the fact that it has been abbreviated and which "family" of vowels the next vowel in the word would be from. One can use a simple diacritic, a suffix (simple or compound) or begin the next outline in the proper position for this purpose. From what I could tell in Ellis' system, she uses a similar technique, but Brandt goes into more detail. Still, there are some aspects of this technique which aren't totally clear to me and I suspect that it would take quite a bit of time and practice before it could be used effectively.
Presentation
The text provided by Brandt for his system is, while quite thorough from a theory standpoint, still lacking in several respects, IMO. First, it is primarily done in handwriting rather than type. Along with the layout of the text, this makes it somewhat difficult to read and to find specific items when referencing the text. There is no index or table of contents for the theory which further adds to the difficulty of using it as a reference. Affixes are presented within the text rather than (or in addition to) well prepared tables or charts. Finally, there are no exercises provided for practicing the elements of the theory (a place where Pernin excels). I suspect that many of these criticisms are due to the time and money it probably took (especially back then) to create such a text, but it is nevertheless rather unfortunate.
All that said, it is still the most thorough presentation of a fully developed Duployan adaptation that I have come across except for Pernin (and in some respects Sloan -- although that is a greater departure from the original Duployan than the others.)
Final Thoughts
After some weeks of use, I think it is fair to say that Brandt's system has supplanted Perrault's as my preferred Duployan adaptation. The handling of the Short U vowel, the shortcuts for ER, OUR, OUS, the well thought out and composable affixes and the unique use of position for auxilliary and modal verbs make this a very worthy addition to the list of Duployan adaptations. I would recommend that anyone deciding to spend some time with it however, do as I did and create their own lists or tables of affixes and briefs as this greatly assists in the learning process.
The only changes that I would make to system (at least as I write this) is the use of the small circle for not just the short A vowel but any type of A vowel whenever convenient. I would also allow the use of the broken medium circle (usually for just OO) to also be used fort the diphthong U vowel. Perrault's system shows the great utility of both these expedients and they almost never hinder readability. If needed, the use of a dot underneath the small circle can be used to indicate long A (same diacritic as the A hook) -- this does not conflict at all with Brandt's use of the dot so it is totally consistent with the theory. Finally, I think that if one uses the given diphthong U (instead of my proposed broken circle just mentioned) it would be more distinct when joined with an angle rather than without an angle. This being a relatively uncommon sign, the creation of the angle (and it's attendant loss of speed) is not a large concern while the readability can be significantly improved.
Finally, I've included a couple samples of my own writing: the first page of Shorthand Dictation Exercises by Jeanette Hall and a fun paragraph from Melville's Typee. I didn't really make use of the Reporting Style abbreviations, although one could probably do so in a few cases.
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Shorthand Exercises by Jeanette Hall
Feel free to take me to task for any inaccuracies or flawed opinions in my analysis.
Also, special thanks again to u/brifoz for taking the time to scan a copy of Brandt's theory in London!
submitted by acarlow to shorthand [link] [comments]

All Websites for Finding Free Language Courses

The site talkie is one of the biggest names out there for practicing your language skills online with native speakers. Designed for language learners to find native speaking teachers and exchange partners via Skype, the free version of their service includes some great benefits, including access to their learner community. This access allows you to connect with other learners and arrange informal language exchanges via Skype or email.

Websites for Finding Free Language Courses

When most of us think about taking a language course, we’re picturing a classroom full of wobbly desks and chalkboard dust, plus a three- or four-digit tuition fee. For those who are looking for all the structure and formality of a traditional course but aren’t sure about stepping back into the classroom or forking over those fees, check out some of these free online language courses, available in nearly as many languages as there are learners.

1. Live Lingua

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Heading off the list is Live Lingua, the Internet’s largest collection of free public domain language learning materials, according to the site itself. It’s not hard to believe. There are thousands of free e-books, audio recordings and foreign language video materials available in over 130 different languages.
It’s also one of the most user-friendly websites hosting the US Foreign Service Institute’s public domain language courses, which were developed by the US Department of State for expert language learning and are now freely available on various sites across the Web.

2.Learn language .com

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Learn language.com is a website with links to extensive resources on and in 19 different languages. You can learn over 1400 words in your target language for free with their vocabulary lists and verb conjugation charts, and there’s plenty more free learning to be done in the nine languages in which Learn language.com maintains its own Web-based courses.

3. Open Culture

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Open Culture is an e-learning website that hosts “the best free cultural and educational media on the web,” and when it comes to languages, they’re not bluffing. Open Culture maintains a list of free courses in 48 languages across the Web, from Amharic to Yiddish. With these collected resources from governments, universities and respected private institutions across the world, you’re sure to find free, high-quality lessons in 48 languages that are learned far and wide.

4. Surface Languages

Surface Languages maintains an extensive database of free online learning resources, as well as its own beginner audio courses in Italian, Portuguese, French and Polish. Additionally, there’s a handy section with audio and flashcards in Afrikaans and Romanian, and a “recently added” sidebar that shows you the latest additions to their ever-growing language learning library.

5. Internet Polyglot

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Internet Polyglot offers many of the same kinds of resources as the sites listed above, with the awesome added advantage of its “quick start menu,” which allows you to choose not only what language you’re learning but also what language you’re learning it in. Do you already speak Spanish and want to get started on Portuguese? Just select “Spanish” for the language you speak, and get started with a composite mental exercise to strengthen one language while building another.

6. Headstart2 Defense Language Institute

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The Defense Language Institute (DELI), like the Foreign Service Institute, is a government service that makes high-quality language learning programs available for free. Headstart2 is one of the best and most easily navigable services hosting complete DELI courses. After quickly registering for an account, you’ll be launched straight into interactive lessons with maps, images, sound, cultural notes and more.

Websites with Video-based Language Learning Content

The science shows that switching on the TV is great for language learning. If you want your brain to soak up the sights and sounds of what actual everyday speech sounds like and how it’s used in your target language, tune in and kick back for some quality input-based learning with these websites.

7. Streetcar

​
For the tube-loving language learners out there, Streetlamps hard to beat. Although it’s not necessarily designed as a language learning tool, it offers free TV streaming from over 100 countries around the world in nearly as many languages.
This is an especially exciting resource if you’re learning a less commonly studied language with less widely available video material. Tuning into your favorite Albanian or Nepali TV station can easily make up for the lack of other learning materials in your language.

8. Fluent U

​
Fluent U is a totally different world of language learning.
If you’re into learning with video, TV and movies (which you definitely should be), you’ve got to at least grab your free 15-day trial and spend a couple weeks binge-learning here with our video and audio libraries, which feature many of the same things native speakers of your target language are watching in their sweatpants while eating potato chips at home.
Two main features set Fluent U apart from the others on this list. The first is the sheer range of available content: movies, news, documentaries, cartoons, music videos, funny YouTube videos or whatever else you like to watch, it’s there.
The second is that it uses real-world video. Instead of contriving some slowly-spoken and articulately-pronounced (and usually terribly boring) videos for learners, Fluent U directs you to authentic video content appropriate to your level with built-in learning tools that ensure you can keep up.
Starting out with the free trial will give you a priceless learning boost, and if you subscribe after the trial period you’ll be paying less monthly for unlimited video content than you’d be shoveling out hourly for lessons with even the most affordable tutors.
Here’s just a brief taste of the content you’ll find on Fluent U:
​
Fluent U App Browse Screen.
Fluent U has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.
Didn’t catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.
​
Interactive transcript for Carlos Beaut song.
You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with Effluents “learn mode.” Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
​
Fluent U Has Quizzes for Every Video
And Fluent U always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.
Start using Fluent U on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the Fluent U app from the iTunes store or Google Play store.

9. Innovative Language

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Since its inception in 2005, Innovative Language has striven to become one of the leading language lesson providers.
Innovative Language is a massive system of free video and audio lessons in 34 languages. It’s updated with new lessons every week, with material geared towards absolute beginners all the way up to advanced learners nearing fluency. You may recognize it from its podcast sites (for example, Portuguesepod101) These are the language-specific sites you’ll be directed to once you enter your email and pick a language. Here’s just a sampling of the many popular foreign languages they currently offer:
It focuses on featuring audio and video material made by professional teachers, and it’s one of the most prolific and consistent language sites in the game. They teach grammar, vocabulary, everyday conversations, real-life situations and culture. So, basically, you’ve got all your bases covered.
Although they have a paid version of the service, thousands of professionally produced audios and videos are given absolutely free.
You can benefit from this flood of language content regardless of your state of fluency—they’ve got something for absolute beginners as well as advanced learners.

10. YouTube TV Channels

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Did you know that YouTube has an insane number of TV shows available from around the world? Just go to the International TV section and scroll through the shows sorted by language.
This one is particularly helpful for learners of Indian languages, as it includes Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and others widely spoken through the Indian subcontinent, but other options like Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Greek, Danish and more are available as well.

Massively Open Online Courses (Moo Cs) for Free Language Learning

Did we mention that we think technology is awesome? A lot of the world’s best universities agree with us. That’s why so many of them are making lesson materials and entire university courses available online for free. Here are some of the best massively open online courses for learning a language.

11. MIT Open Courseware

📷
MIT was one of the university hipsters making their course content available online before it was cool. Under the amazing Global Studies and Languages section of their Open Course ware website, you’ll find courses ranging from Chinese II to Contemporary French Politics, all designed to help you engage not only with the language you’re studying but also with its greater cultural context.

12. Ed X

📷
Ed X is one of the biggest MOOC (massive open online course) websites out there. You can find a lot of college-level courses here, created and taught by actual professors from top universities. As a language learner, you can consider taking a dedicated language class, or if you’re more advanced, taking a course in your target language. For example, right now you can sign up to take an algebra class entirely in French!
You can actually earn college credits on Ed X, through Arizona State University. Some of the courses have certificates you can get for completing them. In general, it costs money to get a verified certificate for completing a course (so make sure you check the details before you sign up), but many of the courses themselves are still free.

13. Coursers Language Learning

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The courses offered on Coursers are run by professors from world-renowned institutions, and it’s even possible to earn a certificate from many of the courses.
Coursers, another big name in online education, also maintains a Language Learning section under its online catalogue. Many of the courses will be geared toward beginners, like First Step Korean, and others will engage more generally with language learning, like the Miracles of Human Language course from Leiden University. Still other classes are taught on other topics in foreign languages, so you can learn about writing, math, engineering or literature in the foreign language you’re learning—though this approach is recommended for higher-level learners.
On Coursers, there are currently 122 classes taught in Chinese, the second most common language after English, and a long list of other languages trail after. Spanish has 79 classes. French has 41 classes. You get the idea. There are a ton of classes out there for you to try. You can even learn about entrepreneurship in Khmer!
Whatever you find here, it’s coming from a respected university or educational institute, and if it’s not on offer now, sign up to get an alert when it is!

14. Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative

📷
The OIL at Carnegie Mellon isn’t specifically made for language courses, but there are several excellent ones on offer. From elementary Spanish and French to “Arabic for Global Exchange,” you’ll find frequent courses available in the world’s biggest and most commonly learned languages.

15. Alison

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Each of the eight languages offered on Alison’s language learning platform include at least an introductory course, and others include more advanced and detailed courses in popular languages like French. Best of all, if you complete all modules and score at least 80% on all your course assignments, you’ll be rewarded with a fancy (and free) certificate!

16. The Mega List of MOOC from Web Techno and Translation

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The blog Web Techno and Translation smartly and helpfully recommends taking an MOOC given in the foreign language you’re studying, and gives you a decent list to get started on doing so. Once you’ve broken through the intermediate level and are ready to start doing more with your language skills, why not try taking a course conducted in that language? Whether you want to study Croatian history in Croatian or systems administration in Spanish, the goal is the same: by focusing on learning about a topic instead of the language itself, you’ll learn more naturally.

Free Websites for Connecting with Native Speakers of Your Language

The biggest secret to effective language learning isn’t really a secret at all: You’ve gotta talk! And who better to talk with than a native speaker?
It’s okay if you can’t hop on a plane this weekend—instead, just click over to one of these websites, where you can connect with native speakers of your target language for free.

17. talkie

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The site italki is one of the biggest names out there for practicing your language skills online with native speakers. Designed for language learners to find native speaking teachers and exchange partners via Skype, the free version of their service includes some great benefits, including access to their learner community. This access allows you to connect with other learners and arrange informal language exchanges via Skype or email. If you're looking to invest a little more to have a private tutor or teacher at some point, you can do that on talkie too.

18. The Polyglot Club

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The Polyglot Club is an awesome all-purpose language learning website with tons of free features for connecting you with native speakers of your target language. You can find language exchange partners, submit written texts for correction, hang out in chat rooms, browse through target language videos and even attend their language events and meetups for connecting with even more learners!

19. Hi Native

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Hi Native is an innovative app that takes a nontraditional approach. Rather than giving you flashcards and courses or even facilitating Skype sessions, Hi Native allows you to ask questions to native speakers of the language you’re learning. Whether it’s about the difference between two confusing words, getting a pronunciation check or figuring out how and when to use the subjunctive, just send a text and wait for a response.

20. Word2Word

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Word2Word is all about connecting the world, and they aim to do so by providing you with an insane amount of free online language learning resources. Not only are there chat rooms and meetups, but the site hosts resources on everything from typing characters in other alphabets and scripts to a Dictionary of Period Russian Names. If you’re looking for language exchange and don’t mind falling down the rabbit hole of linguistic Gerry, this is definitely the place to get started.

21. Lang-8

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For many of us, speaking comes easily, but when it comes time to put pen to paper and communicate in writing, all of a sudden we feel like we don’t speak a word of the language. Lang-8 is a community of native speakers of various world languages who work together to improve each other’s writing in languages they’re learning by offering revisions and tips on the posts made in their languages—just don’t forget to pay it forward by helping others out with your native language too!

Free Vocabulary Games and Flashcards

There are boring flashcards, and then there are the kind that turn language learning into a game and wake up the competitor in all of us. To build your vocabulary while having some fun, these sites offer some fantastic flashcard exercises and other language learning games.

22. Duo lingo

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How could we even make a list without mentioning everyone’s favorite pushy little green bird? Duo lingo user-friendly vocabulary games made language learning cool again by unlocking the power of gaming for language learning.
They use the gaming strategy to make sure you retain more of what you learn than you would from your standard, flipping-through-printed-flashcards approach. The truly dedicated will be rewarded by being asked to translate sentences of increasingly comical ridiculousness as they work up through the levels of their language.

23. Mesmerism

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Mesmerism gives you a more hands-on option for flashcard learning with its “memes.” You can use the cards provided by Mesmerism and other users, or you can create your own mnemonic devices by composing and finding images for your own cards. Somehow, repetition doesn’t seem so repetitive when you can turn all your flashcards into irreverent memes and personal in-jokes tailored to you and your own brain.

24. Digital Dialects

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For beginners and those suffering from 90s nostalgia, Digital Dialects is a techno-retro online game site with animated and interactive lessons in a couple dozen languages. Listen to the voice as it names fruits, then click them and drag them into a basket, or match English phrases to the ones being spoken in your target language. It’s a simple platform free of distraction, and it offers that j NE said quo for the Nintendo kids who still have a knack for learning in 16-bit.

General Language and Language Learning Resources

For those of us with a deep and passionate love for language and languages, we want to know everything about them. Not just how to get from the airport to your hotel or how to make small talk during your coffee break, but the details.
Who speaks the language we’re learning, and where do they speak it? What’s its history, and what can it teach us about the cultures that created it and that are created by it? These websites include the kind of encyclopedic information necessary for thorough, holistic learning, as well as free courses and learning resources.

25. Omnipotent

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If you’re learning one language or find yourself in a poly amorous love affair with all languages, Omnipotent should live on your browser’s bookmarks bar. This online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages is like the Wikipedia of all things languages and linguistics.
Not only does it provide linguistic and cultural information on hundreds of world languages, but it also offers some of its own free video lessons. Under its “courses” page, Omnipotent maintains an impressive list of links to learning resources for specific languages, most of which are free.

26. BBC Languages

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Another goldmine for the language and linguistics geeks in the room, BBC Languages offers free information and learner resources for 40 world languages. While some are more thorough than others, the seven languages listed on their main Languages homepage include extensive links to target language media (like TV streaming services, online newspapers and magazines in French, Chinese and Greek). The kinds of resources offered vary from language to language, but most include overviews and phrasebooks, as well as BBC’s own introductory lessons, on-site courses and links to help you find classes in your area.

27. Thought Co.

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Thought Co. provides a long list of language learning resources like many others on this list, but also has its own sites dedicated to several of the languages on its list. About French, for example, includes educational videos, blog posts on French learning topics and guides to language essentials. About German offers much of the same. Explore multiple languages and find links to extensive resources across the Web.

28. Wiki travel Phrasebooks

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You don’t have to be planning a vacation to take advantage of Wiki travel! The user-maintained wiki has a compilation of travel phrasebooks, ranging from well-known world languages like Arabic and Portuguese to less popular choices like Kannada and Parliament.
Even some of the most skeleton-like articles on languages like Zulu include guides to pronunciation, basic phrases, numbers, time, transportation, eating, shopping and common problem-solving vocabulary, making it an incredible resource for practically-inclined learners who just want to get out and use their language.

Free Language Learning Websites for Specific Languages

Some of the best free sites out there are the ones that focus on a single language, building an entire website packed with information, lessons and more for learners who know what language they want and know they don’t want to break the bank learning it. Here are some of our favorite websites for learning that one language.
French
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29. The French Experiment — Free French lessons, stories, reviews and cats!
30. London Speaks French — Vocabulary and grammar lessons with a helpful pronunciation tool to compare your voice to natives’ voices.
For dedicated Francophile looking to max out their online learning time, browse through some of these best websites to learn French.
German
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31. Deutschmark.com — With 10 beginner lessons and 24 advanced grammar lessons, this free resource is a great starting point for beginning learners and those intimidated by the infamously frustrating German grammar.
32. Deutschmark — This greeter Online-Deutschmarks has helpful audio clips and interactive lessons, as well as links to in-person courses in Berlin and other parts of Central Europe.
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33. Deutschmark Welles — The German international broadcast’s online Deutschmark offers free courses by level, from beginner to advanced.
For video-loving learners, don’t forget about all the great YouTube videos for German learners out there!
Spanish
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34. Study Spanish.com — Don’t be fooled by the simple name. With exhaustive information and lessons on all aspects of the language, it’s a Spanish linguistic powerhouse and a goldmine for learners.
35. Spanish Games — Learn Spanish with fun, interactive vocabulary games.
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36. 123 Teach Me — A mega-resource for all things Spanish, including free online games, courses, word of the day and a handy verb conjugation.
If you like thinking outside the box when it comes to language learning, you can also try out some nontraditional websites for learning Spanish.
Chinese
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37. CCTV — Chinese public television, as well as a BBC-like array of written media and resources for Chinese language learners.
38. Chinese-Tools.com — A 40-lesson online course with a learner forum and Chinese dictionary.
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39. Zhengzhou Red — In-context vocabulary and culture lessons in a conversation-like format.
More of a bookworm? Try getting started with some free and cheap Chinese e-books!
Japanese
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40. Japanese Online — A simple beginner’s resource with four units on the basics, topic modifiers, sentence structures and Japanese traditions.
41. Easy Japanese — Flashcards and games geared toward writing and speaking the language.
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42. NH World — This Japanese public broadcaster maintains its own online magazine, including language lessons, audio clips and video resources for learners.
Is it grammar that’s got you down? Check out these websites for mastering your Japanese grammar.
Arabic
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43. Arabic Online — This website from the European Union aims to help beginners familiarize themselves with the Arabic language, and offers several paid courses beyond the beginner level.
44. Arabic Keyboard — Aside from helping you with tricky Arabic script and the grammar that goes along with it, this site includes super helpful, practical information about the Arabic language, its dialects and where and how to use them.
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45. Arabic Reading Course — For absolute beginners, this letter-by-letter course is the perfect jump-start to get you reading and writing in Arabic.
Portuguese
46. Learn Portuguese with Rafa — Beyond introductory lessons on things like counting and ordering food, Rafa maintains a sidebar full of links on everything from traditional recipes to doing business in Portuguese.
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47. Tod Munro Pod — An exciting So Paulo-based podcast with basic tips in English and the rest in beautiful Brazilian Portuguese.
48. Practice Portuguese — For those looking to learn Iberian (European) Portuguese, get started with the free Practice Portuguese Podcast.
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49. Really Learn Portuguese — Podcasts and flashcards for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners, all brought to you by two friendly Brazilians.
These 49 websites prove it: Money is no object for determined language learners.
The first step is just clicking one of the links above.
Haven’t started learning any one language yet? Choose your language and head over to Omnipotent or BBC Languages to read up on it. Build up your basic vocab with a flashcard app or your favorite language game, immerse your brain in quality video content and connect with natives around the world via Skype or your social network of choice.
With money concerns firmly out of the picture, now all you need to do is make the time for language learning, and you’re all set to start heading towards fluency!
submitted by saradinto to languagelearning [link] [comments]

All Websites for Finding Free Language Courses

Websites for Finding Free Language Courses
When most of us think about taking a language course, we’re picturing a classroom full of wobbly desks and chalkboard dust, plus a three- or four-digit tuition fee. For those who are looking for all the structure and formality of a traditional course but aren’t sure about stepping back into the classroom or forking over those fees, check out some of these free online language courses, available in nearly as many languages as there are learners.
1. Live Lingua
Heading off the list is Live Lingua, the Internet’s largest collection of free public domain language learning materials, according to the site itself. It’s not hard to believe. There are thousands of free e-books, audio recordings and foreign language video materials available in over 130 different languages.
It’s also one of the most user-friendly websites hosting the US Foreign Service Institute’s public domain language courses, which were developed by the US Department of State for expert language learning and are now freely available on various sites across the Web.
2.Learn language .com
Learn language.com is a website with links to extensive resources on and in 19 different languages. You can learn over 1400 words in your target language for free with their vocabulary lists and verb conjugation charts, and there’s plenty more free learning to be done in the nine languages in which Learn language.com maintains its own Web-based courses.
3. Open Culture
Open Culture is an e-learning website that hosts “the best free cultural and educational media on the web,” and when it comes to languages, they’re not bluffing. Open Culture maintains a list of free courses in 48 languages across the Web, from Amharic to Yiddish. With these collected resources from governments, universities and respected private institutions across the world, you’re sure to find free, high-quality lessons in 48 languages that are learned far and wide.
4. Surface Languages
Surface Languages maintains an extensive database of free online learning resources, as well as its own beginner audio courses in Italian, Portuguese, French and Polish. Additionally, there’s a handy section with audio and flashcards in Afrikaans and Romanian, and a “recently added” sidebar that shows you the latest additions to their ever-growing language learning library.
5. Internet Polyglot
Internet Polyglot offers many of the same kinds of resources as the sites listed above, with the awesome added advantage of its “quick start menu,” which allows you to choose not only what language you’re learning but also what language you’re learning it in. Do you already speak Spanish and want to get started on Portuguese? Just select “Spanish” for the language you speak, and get started with a composite mental exercise to strengthen one language while building another.
6. Headstart2 Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute (DELI), like the Foreign Service Institute, is a government service that makes high-quality language learning programs available for free. Headstart2 is one of the best and most easily navigable services hosting complete DELI courses. After quickly registering for an account, you’ll be launched straight into interactive lessons with maps, images, sound, cultural notes and more.
Websites with Video-based Language Learning Content
The science shows that switching on the TV is great for language learning. If you want your brain to soak up the sights and sounds of what actual everyday speech sounds like and how it’s used in your target language, tune in and kick back for some quality input-based learning with these websites.
7. Streetcar
For the tube-loving language learners out there, Streetlamps hard to beat. Although it’s not necessarily designed as a language learning tool, it offers free TV streaming from over 100 countries around the world in nearly as many languages.
This is an especially exciting resource if you’re learning a less commonly studied language with less widely available video material. Tuning into your favorite Albanian or Nepali TV station can easily make up for the lack of other learning materials in your language.
8. Fluent U
Fluent U is a totally different world of language learning.
If you’re into learning with video, TV and movies (which you definitely should be), you’ve got to at least grab your free 15-day trial and spend a couple weeks binge-learning here with our video and audio libraries, which feature many of the same things native speakers of your target language are watching in their sweatpants while eating potato chips at home.
Two main features set Fluent U apart from the others on this list. The first is the sheer range of available content: movies, news, documentaries, cartoons, music videos, funny YouTube videos or whatever else you like to watch, it’s there.
The second is that it uses real-world video. Instead of contriving some slowly-spoken and articulately-pronounced (and usually terribly boring) videos for learners, Fluent U directs you to authentic video content appropriate to your level with built-in learning tools that ensure you can keep up.
Starting out with the free trial will give you a priceless learning boost, and if you subscribe after the trial period you’ll be paying less monthly for unlimited video content than you’d be shoveling out hourly for lessons with even the most affordable tutors.
Here’s just a brief taste of the content you’ll find on Fluent U:
Fluent U App Browse Screen.
Fluent U has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.
Didn’t catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.
Interactive transcript for Carlos Beaut song.
You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with Effluents “learn mode.” Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
Fluent U Has Quizzes for Every Video
And Fluent U always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.
Start using Fluent U on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the Fluent U app from the iTunes store or Google Play store.
9. Innovative Language
Since its inception in 2005, Innovative Language has striven to become one of the leading language lesson providers.
Innovative Language is a massive system of free video and audio lessons in 34 languages. It’s updated with new lessons every week, with material geared towards absolute beginners all the way up to advanced learners nearing fluency. You may recognize it from its podcast sites (for example, Portuguesepod101) These are the language-specific sites you’ll be directed to once you enter your email and pick a language. Here’s just a sampling of the many popular foreign languages they currently offer:
It focuses on featuring audio and video material made by professional teachers, and it’s one of the most prolific and consistent language sites in the game. They teach grammar, vocabulary, everyday conversations, real-life situations and culture. So, basically, you’ve got all your bases covered.
Although they have a paid version of the service, thousands of professionally produced audios and videos are given absolutely free.
You can benefit from this flood of language content regardless of your state of fluency—they’ve got something for absolute beginners as well as advanced learners.
10. YouTube TV Channels
Did you know that YouTube has an insane number of TV shows available from around the world? Just go to the International TV section and scroll through the shows sorted by language.
This one is particularly helpful for learners of Indian languages, as it includes Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and others widely spoken through the Indian subcontinent, but other options like Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Greek, Danish and more are available as well.
Massively Open Online Courses (Moo Cs) for Free Language Learning
Did we mention that we think technology is awesome? A lot of the world’s best universities agree with us. That’s why so many of them are making lesson materials and entire university courses available online for free. Here are some of the best massively open online courses for learning a language.
11. MIT Open Courseware
📷
MIT was one of the university hipsters making their course content available online before it was cool. Under the amazing Global Studies and Languages section of their Open Course ware website, you’ll find courses ranging from Chinese II to Contemporary French Politics, all designed to help you engage not only with the language you’re studying but also with its greater cultural context.
  1. Ed X
📷
Ed X is one of the biggest MOOC (massive open online course) websites out there. You can find a lot of college-level courses here, created and taught by actual professors from top universities. As a language learner, you can consider taking a dedicated language class, or if you’re more advanced, taking a course in your target language. For example, right now you can sign up to take an algebra class entirely in French!
You can actually earn college credits on Ed X, through Arizona State University. Some of the courses have certificates you can get for completing them. In general, it costs money to get a verified certificate for completing a course (so make sure you check the details before you sign up), but many of the courses themselves are still free.
13. Coursers Language Learning
📷
The courses offered on Coursers are run by professors from world-renowned institutions, and it’s even possible to earn a certificate from many of the courses.
Coursers, another big name in online education, also maintains a Language Learning section under its online catalogue. Many of the courses will be geared toward beginners, like First Step Korean, and others will engage more generally with language learning, like the Miracles of Human Language course from Leiden University. Still other classes are taught on other topics in foreign languages, so you can learn about writing, math, engineering or literature in the foreign language you’re learning—though this approach is recommended for higher-level learners.
On Coursers, there are currently 122 classes taught in Chinese, the second most common language after English, and a long list of other languages trail after. Spanish has 79 classes. French has 41 classes. You get the idea. There are a ton of classes out there for you to try. You can even learn about entrepreneurship in Khmer!
Whatever you find here, it’s coming from a respected university or educational institute, and if it’s not on offer now, sign up to get an alert when it is!
14. Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
📷
The OIL at Carnegie Mellon isn’t specifically made for language courses, but there are several excellent ones on offer. From elementary Spanish and French to “Arabic for Global Exchange,” you’ll find frequent courses available in the world’s biggest and most commonly learned languages.
15. Alison
📷
Each of the eight languages offered on Alison’s language learning platform include at least an introductory course, and others include more advanced and detailed courses in popular languages like French. Best of all, if you complete all modules and score at least 80% on all your course assignments, you’ll be rewarded with a fancy (and free) certificate!
16. The Mega List of MOOC from Web Techno and Translation
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The blog Web Techno and Translation smartly and helpfully recommends taking an MOOC given in the foreign language you’re studying, and gives you a decent list to get started on doing so. Once you’ve broken through the intermediate level and are ready to start doing more with your language skills, why not try taking a course conducted in that language? Whether you want to study Croatian history in Croatian or systems administration in Spanish, the goal is the same: by focusing on learning about a topic instead of the language itself, you’ll learn more naturally.
Free Websites for Connecting with Native Speakers of Your Language
The biggest secret to effective language learning isn’t really a secret at all: You’ve gotta talk! And who better to talk with than a native speaker?
It’s okay if you can’t hop on a plane this weekend—instead, just click over to one of these websites, where you can connect with native speakers of your target language for free.
17. talkie
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The site italki is one of the biggest names out there for practicing your language skills online with native speakers. Designed for language learners to find native speaking teachers and exchange partners via Skype, the free version of their service includes some great benefits, including access to their learner community. This access allows you to connect with other learners and arrange informal language exchanges via Skype or email. If you're looking to invest a little more to have a private tutor or teacher at some point, you can do that on talkie too.
18. The Polyglot Club
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The Polyglot Club is an awesome all-purpose language learning website with tons of free features for connecting you with native speakers of your target language. You can find language exchange partners, submit written texts for correction, hang out in chat rooms, browse through target language videos and even attend their language events and meetups for connecting with even more learners!
19. Hi Native
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Hi Native is an innovative app that takes a nontraditional approach. Rather than giving you flashcards and courses or even facilitating Skype sessions, Hi Native allows you to ask questions to native speakers of the language you’re learning. Whether it’s about the difference between two confusing words, getting a pronunciation check or figuring out how and when to use the subjunctive, just send a text and wait for a response.
20. Word2Word
Word2Word is all about connecting the world, and they aim to do so by providing you with an insane amount of free online language learning resources. Not only are there chat rooms and meetups, but the site hosts resources on everything from typing characters in other alphabets and scripts to a Dictionary of Period Russian Names. If you’re looking for language exchange and don’t mind falling down the rabbit hole of linguistic Gerry, this is definitely the place to get started.
21. Lang-8
For many of us, speaking comes easily, but when it comes time to put pen to paper and communicate in writing, all of a sudden we feel like we don’t speak a word of the language. Lang-8 is a community of native speakers of various world languages who work together to improve each other’s writing in languages they’re learning by offering revisions and tips on the posts made in their languages—just don’t forget to pay it forward by helping others out with your native language too!
Free Vocabulary Games and Flashcards
There are boring flashcards, and then there are the kind that turn language learning into a game and wake up the competitor in all of us. To build your vocabulary while having some fun, these sites offer some fantastic flashcard exercises and other language learning games.
22. Duo lingo
How could we even make a list without mentioning everyone’s favorite pushy little green bird? Duo lingo user-friendly vocabulary games made language learning cool again by unlocking the power of gaming for language learning.
They use the gaming strategy to make sure you retain more of what you learn than you would from your standard, flipping-through-printed-flashcards approach. The truly dedicated will be rewarded by being asked to translate sentences of increasingly comical ridiculousness as they work up through the levels of their language.
23. Mesmerism
Mesmerism gives you a more hands-on option for flashcard learning with its “memes.” You can use the cards provided by Mesmerism and other users, or you can create your own mnemonic devices by composing and finding images for your own cards. Somehow, repetition doesn’t seem so repetitive when you can turn all your flashcards into irreverent memes and personal in-jokes tailored to you and your own brain.
24. Digital Dialects
For beginners and those suffering from 90s nostalgia, Digital Dialects is a techno-retro online game site with animated and interactive lessons in a couple dozen languages. Listen to the voice as it names fruits, then click them and drag them into a basket, or match English phrases to the ones being spoken in your target language. It’s a simple platform free of distraction, and it offers that j NE said quo for the Nintendo kids who still have a knack for learning in 16-bit.
General Language and Language Learning Resources
For those of us with a deep and passionate love for language and languages, we want to know everything about them. Not just how to get from the airport to your hotel or how to make small talk during your coffee break, but the details.
Who speaks the language we’re learning, and where do they speak it? What’s its history, and what can it teach us about the cultures that created it and that are created by it? These websites include the kind of encyclopedic information necessary for thorough, holistic learning, as well as free courses and learning resources.
25. Omnipotent
If you’re learning one language or find yourself in a poly amorous love affair with all languages, Omnipotent should live on your browser’s bookmarks bar. This online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages is like the Wikipedia of all things languages and linguistics.
Not only does it provide linguistic and cultural information on hundreds of world languages, but it also offers some of its own free video lessons. Under its “courses” page, Omnipotent maintains an impressive list of links to learning resources for specific languages, most of which are free.
26. BBC Languages
Another goldmine for the language and linguistics geeks in the room, BBC Languages offers free information and learner resources for 40 world languages. While some are more thorough than others, the seven languages listed on their main Languages homepage include extensive links to target language media (like TV streaming services, online newspapers and magazines in French, Chinese and Greek). The kinds of resources offered vary from language to language, but most include overviews and phrasebooks, as well as BBC’s own introductory lessons, on-site courses and links to help you find classes in your area.
27. Thought Co.
Thought Co. provides a long list of language learning resources like many others on this list, but also has its own sites dedicated to several of the languages on its list. About French, for example, includes educational videos, blog posts on French learning topics and guides to language essentials. About German offers much of the same. Explore multiple languages and find links to extensive resources across the Web.
28. Wiki travel Phrasebooks
You don’t have to be planning a vacation to take advantage of Wiki travel! The user-maintained wiki has a compilation of travel phrasebooks, ranging from well-known world languages like Arabic and Portuguese to less popular choices like Kannada and Parliament.
Even some of the most skeleton-like articles on languages like Zulu include guides to pronunciation, basic phrases, numbers, time, transportation, eating, shopping and common problem-solving vocabulary, making it an incredible resource for practically-inclined learners who just want to get out and use their language.
Free Language Learning Websites for Specific Languages
Some of the best free sites out there are the ones that focus on a single language, building an entire website packed with information, lessons and more for learners who know what language they want and know they don’t want to break the bank learning it. Here are some of our favorite websites for learning that one language.
French
29. The French Experiment — Free French lessons, stories, reviews and cats!
30. London Speaks French — Vocabulary and grammar lessons with a helpful pronunciation tool to compare your voice to natives’ voices.
For dedicated Francophile looking to max out their online learning time, browse through some of these best websites to learn French.
German
31. Deutschmark.com — With 10 beginner lessons and 24 advanced grammar lessons, this free resource is a great starting point for beginning learners and those intimidated by the infamously frustrating German grammar.
32. Deutschmark — This greeter Online-Deutschmarks has helpful audio clips and interactive lessons, as well as links to in-person courses in Berlin and other parts of Central Europe.
33. Deutschmark Welles — The German international broadcast’s online Deutschmark offers free courses by level, from beginner to advanced.
For video-loving learners, don’t forget about all the great YouTube videos for German learners out there!
Spanish
34. Study Spanish.com — Don’t be fooled by the simple name. With exhaustive information and lessons on all aspects of the language, it’s a Spanish linguistic powerhouse and a goldmine for learners.
35. Spanish Games — Learn Spanish with fun, interactive vocabulary games.
36. 123 Teach Me — A mega-resource for all things Spanish, including free online games, courses, word of the day and a handy verb conjugation.
If you like thinking outside the box when it comes to language learning, you can also try out some nontraditional websites for learning Spanish.
Chinese
37. CCTV — Chinese public television, as well as a BBC-like array of written media and resources for Chinese language learners.
38. Chinese-Tools.com — A 40-lesson online course with a learner forum and Chinese dictionary.
39. Zhengzhou Red — In-context vocabulary and culture lessons in a conversation-like format.
More of a bookworm? Try getting started with some free and cheap Chinese e-books!
Japanese
40. Japanese Online — A simple beginner’s resource with four units on the basics, topic modifiers, sentence structures and Japanese traditions.
41. Easy Japanese — Flashcards and games geared toward writing and speaking the language.
42. NH World — This Japanese public broadcaster maintains its own online magazine, including language lessons, audio clips and video resources for learners.
Is it grammar that’s got you down? Check out these websites for mastering your Japanese grammar.
Arabic
43. Arabic Online — This website from the European Union aims to help beginners familiarize themselves with the Arabic language, and offers several paid courses beyond the beginner level.
44. Arabic Keyboard — Aside from helping you with tricky Arabic script and the grammar that goes along with it, this site includes super helpful, practical information about the Arabic language, its dialects and where and how to use them.
45. Arabic Reading Course — For absolute beginners, this letter-by-letter course is the perfect jump-start to get you reading and writing in Arabic.
Portuguese
46. Learn Portuguese with Rafa — Beyond introductory lessons on things like counting and ordering food, Rafa maintains a sidebar full of links on everything from traditional recipes to doing business in Portuguese.
47. Tod Munro Pod — An exciting So Paulo-based podcast with basic tips in English and the rest in beautiful Brazilian Portuguese.
48. Practice Portuguese — For those looking to learn Iberian (European) Portuguese, get started with the free Practice Portuguese Podcast.
49. Really Learn Portuguese — Podcasts and flashcards for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners, all brought to you by two friendly Brazilians.
These 49 websites prove it: Money is no object for determined language learners.
The first step is just clicking one of the links above.
Haven’t started learning any one language yet? Choose your language and head over to Omnipotent or BBC Languages to read up on it. Build up your basic vocab with a flashcard app or your favorite language game, immerse your brain in quality video content and connect with natives around the world via Skype or your social network of choice.
With money concerns firmly out of the picture, now all you need to do is make the time for language learning, and you’re all set to start heading towards fluency!
submitted by saradinto to language_exchange [link] [comments]

Interested in making your own clothes? Pt. 1

Being on this board a lot, I've noticed a general interest in the idea of making (or altering or upcycling) clothes, so as someone who sews/knits the vast majority of my clothing, I thought I'd give a post like this a shot. But mostly, what pushed me to write this is the bountiful amount of questions like "where can I find this?" or "can someone suggest this but cheaper?" or "how do I shop as a plus-size/petite/long-torsoed/large-busted individual?"--and every time I just want to grab them by their digital shoulders and say, "do you understand the power you possess??"
There are so many benefits to making your own clothes: getting exactly what you want 100% of the time, having control over your supply chain, a general sense of pride and happiness and complete fulfillment (okay maybe not really but it's still nice, I promise.) But I'm sure for people who have never tried or considered it, it may seem intimidating and overwhelming, probably like how I feel when I picture "building a car" or "playing a sport". So I thought I'd write a little about how the basics, my experience and some suggestions for moving forward. And yes, I hear you: "I guess I'd consider it, theacctpplcanfind, once I win the lottery and have infinite free time and zero friends"--good points that I'll try to address too.
How does any of this work?
The vast majority of clothing you own was probably made in one of two ways: sewing and knitting. Sewing involves cutting fabric into shapes that you then piece together to fit a body. Knitting involves taking some string and manipulating it into shapes that you then piece together to fit a body. Different as they may seem, one thing that's good to keep in mind is that the underlying principle of "making shapes that fit a human" is the same, and the knowledge transfers over: a knitting schematic vs. a shirt sewing pattern--it's the same stuff.
[Aside: there are other ways to make clothes, of course: crochet, for example, even macrame, and there are plenty of other fiber arts that can contribute to clothing-making: embroidery, dyeing, etc. But if making normal, wearable clothes is your main goal, knitting or sewing should be your primary first concern. All the other stuff you can decide if you'd like to pick up later.]
Both knitting and sewing involve a certain degree of fine motor skills, and there's not much to say about that except You Can Do It. The first time I tried to sew a straight line was not pretty. The first time I tried knitting I made the saddest amorphous blob. But, like tying your shoes or breaking an egg, it's just practice, and then it's muscle memory.
Where do I start?
For a beginner I'd recommend knitting over sewing as a first textile art, because:
I'm also a proponent of starting with knitting because you get a real sense for the materials: because you're using yarn, which is one step down from the supply chain (as in, yarn gets woven into fabric), you're closer to the raw material and can get a richer understanding of different fibers/quality of fibers. The differences between cotton and wool, between rough wool and cashmere, between cheap alpaca and expensive alpaca, are very obvious once you get to squish them at a yarn store. Sourcing is way more transparent with yarn as well (e.g. you can find naturally-dyed small batch yarn made of wool from a blend of Cormo, Targhee, and Corriedale breeds raised in small farms in California and spun in a small mill in Vermont--in fact, it's right here. You'd be hard pressed to find anything more fine-grained than, say, "Italian wool" on fabric). This knowledge will help you tremendously going forward in any textile art.
What if I don't exclusively wear sweaters?
That being said, the range of things you can make with knitting are much more limited than with sewing. You're familiar with knitted garments: sweaters, mostly, and socks, random accessories (hats/beanies, mitts, scarves etc), as well as a surprising range of miscellaneous stuff. But it doesn’t really work well if you're mostly looking for pants, for example, or heavy-duty outerwear. Another major drawback: knitting is pretty slow. As an experienced knitter and sewer, I can bust out a button-down shirt in a night if I needed to, but a sweater is more on the range of weeks.
So perhaps you're leaning towards learning to sew instead. If you'll allow me a comparison, I'd say learning to knit has a learning curve like learning French or Spanish (as a native English speaker)--it's tough at first, but once you figure out the basics of conjugation and grammar, it's pretty smooth sailing. Learning to sew is more like learning Japanese or Mandarin--a slow slough through unfamiliar territory for a long time. That's not to discourage anyone, just fair warning that there are far more intricacies with sewing...after all, there's a reason fashion schools offer multi-year sewing courses, but rarely have programs for hand knitting.
That being said, becoming a proficient home sewer is more than attainable, but I do highly recommend in-person instruction (whereas I think knitting can be learned exclusively over youtube if needed). I personally learned to sew at my local community college, and it gave me amazing foundational skills (and was very affordable for a full semester of instruction). Most cities also have independent fabric stores that offer sewing classes, some even offer a studio where you can pay and hourly fee to use a beautiful sewing set up (eg. drygoods design in Seattle or spool of thread in Vancouver), an awesome way to get started without having to invest in your own machine. Baring anything in person, I really like Craftsy classes for sewing, and they have a startup class for Sewing (I think you can get a free trial if you want to check it out).
But I'm a busy adult with a life?
What about time? I think this is the #1 concern people bring up when I get on this spiel. In fact, whenever I reveal that I made something I'm wearing, 80% of the time the first question is "how long did it take you?", and yet I'm still thrown by it. For some reason, it's a baffling question to me, and I ponder this a lot. I think if you run long-distance or paint or garden or are working on renovating your house, you understand: it's not really something I think about it terms of time. That being said, for the sake of quantifying it:
(Obviously these are complete estimates and will vary wildly depending on stuff like the specific project, the type of fabric you're using, your skill/comfort level with the project, whether the stars align and your machine inexplicably malfunctions only to magically sort itself out after 3 hours and 30 re-threads, etc.)
I don't know how that sounds to you, but as a busy person with a full time job, my personal experience is that I have the time. Usually I'll put in an hour or two after work a few nights a week, or a Saturday afternoon. There are times when I go weeks without sewing a stitch (though I rarely don’t have a knitting project going). It's no more time consuming than any other hobby.
Will I save money?
Ah. So, short story: I've always been a "bah! $x for X? I can do it myself for way cheaper!" type of person, and I originally got into knitting because I wanted a Harry Potter scarf and was affronted by the Warner Bros prices. I bought needles and some acrylic blue and bronze yarn from Joanns for like $8, sat down with youtube and did it myself. So much cheaper, I thought! I'm going to save so much money going forward!
Fast forward about four years. I am waist deep in yarn and fabric. I've bought cross-country plane tickets to go to sheep festivals. "Art supplies" is my largest non-essential budget category. I own a fucking loom.
Making your own clothes can be cheap, don't get me wrong. Information is widely available online for free or very cheaply. Almost all the tools and materials you need can be found at thrift stores for pennies. Vintage sewing machines are cheap and reliable. There are plenty of free or cheap knitting and sewing patterns. You can get a full set of knitting needles for <$10 off ebay.
But it can also be expensive. If you're super discerning about materials, it can be hard to avoid the draw of hand-dyed cashmere, designer boiled wool, pure irish linen. Maybe you decide you need a newer sewing machine with more options. Maybe you need a serger somewhere down the line. Maybe you want a nice set of interchangeable knitting needles in pretty colors. Maybe you even want to attend a crafting retreat for a thousand bucks. Even if you're not dropping $74/skein for cashmere yarn, the prices of raw materials might surprise you if you're expecting to save on Forever 21/H&M type prices.
But, remember to compare apples with apples: the cheapest store-bought clothes are made with cheap materials, so don't compare a $12 acrylic sweater with a sweater's worth of nice merino yarn. In my experience, not only are the prices of made items usually comparable with a store-bought item of the same quality, it might actually not even be possible to find something available in stores to compare it with: how many stores carry baby camel hair sweaters, after all? Or anything that's lined in silk, rather than acetate?
For a realistic view of how much making you own clothes costs, I'm a fan of this post, and this quote:
So even with the top-shelf denim (for my jeans) and a couple of comparatively pricey sweaters in there, I’ve spent a combined average of $87.10 per month on my handmade clothes. If those were the only clothes I had added to my closet this year, and I had spent less than $100 per month, I’d be utterly floored and perfectly satisfied.
So, long story short: making your own clothes isn't necessarily cheaper, especially if you're just comparing shirt vs. shirt or sweater vs. sweater. But here's my shitty chart showing that, as the quality goes up, the price for good quality self-made items are far more sustainable than good-quality storebought. With self-made things, you know exactly what you're paying for: that you can count of the quality and fit to be perfect. And if you're going to be spending the money, wouldn't you want those things?
And wow, that was long--let me know if you found this even remotely helpful. I would love to make more parts that offer more specific details and resources for starting to knit or sew, so let me know if that's something you'd like.
submitted by theacctpplcanfind to femalefashionadvice [link] [comments]

All Websites for Finding Free Language Courses

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Websites for Finding Free Language Courses
When most of us think about taking a language course, we’re picturing a classroom full of wobbly desks and chalkboard dust, plus a three- or four-digit tuition fee. For those who are looking for all the structure and formality of a traditional course but aren’t sure about stepping back into the classroom or forking over those fees, check out some of these free online language courses, available in nearly as many languages as there are learners.
1. Live Lingua
Heading off the list is Live Lingua, the Internet’s largest collection of free public domain language learning materials, according to the site itself. It’s not hard to believe. There are thousands of free e-books, audio recordings and foreign language video materials available in over 130 different languages.
It’s also one of the most user-friendly websites hosting the US Foreign Service Institute’s public domain language courses, which were developed by the US Department of State for expert language learning and are now freely available on various sites across the Web.
2.Learn language .com
Learn language.com is a website with links to extensive resources on and in 19 different languages. You can learn over 1400 words in your target language for free with their vocabulary lists and verb conjugation charts, and there’s plenty more free learning to be done in the nine languages in which Learn language.com maintains its own Web-based courses.
3. Open Culture
Open Culture is an e-learning website that hosts “the best free cultural and educational media on the web,” and when it comes to languages, they’re not bluffing. Open Culture maintains a list of free courses in 48 languages across the Web, from Amharic to Yiddish. With these collected resources from governments, universities and respected private institutions across the world, you’re sure to find free, high-quality lessons in 48 languages that are learned far and wide.
4. Surface Languages
Surface Languages maintains an extensive database of free online learning resources, as well as its own beginner audio courses in Italian, Portuguese, French and Polish. Additionally, there’s a handy section with audio and flashcards in Afrikaans and Romanian, and a “recently added” sidebar that shows you the latest additions to their ever-growing language learning library.
5. Internet Polyglot
Internet Polyglot offers many of the same kinds of resources as the sites listed above, with the awesome added advantage of its “quick start menu,” which allows you to choose not only what language you’re learning but also what language you’re learning it in. Do you already speak Spanish and want to get started on Portuguese? Just select “Spanish” for the language you speak, and get started with a composite mental exercise to strengthen one language while building another.
6. Headstart2 Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute (DELI), like the Foreign Service Institute, is a government service that makes high-quality language learning programs available for free. Headstart2 is one of the best and most easily navigable services hosting complete DELI courses. After quickly registering for an account, you’ll be launched straight into interactive lessons with maps, images, sound, cultural notes and more.
Websites with Video-based Language Learning Content
The science shows that switching on the TV is great for language learning. If you want your brain to soak up the sights and sounds of what actual everyday speech sounds like and how it’s used in your target language, tune in and kick back for some quality input-based learning with these websites.
7. Streetcar
For the tube-loving language learners out there, Streetlamps hard to beat. Although it’s not necessarily designed as a language learning tool, it offers free TV streaming from over 100 countries around the world in nearly as many languages.
This is an especially exciting resource if you’re learning a less commonly studied language with less widely available video material. Tuning into your favorite Albanian or Nepali TV station can easily make up for the lack of other learning materials in your language.
8. Fluent U
Fluent U is a totally different world of language learning.
If you’re into learning with video, TV and movies (which you definitely should be), you’ve got to at least grab your free 15-day trial and spend a couple weeks binge-learning here with our video and audio libraries, which feature many of the same things native speakers of your target language are watching in their sweatpants while eating potato chips at home.
Two main features set Fluent U apart from the others on this list. The first is the sheer range of available content: movies, news, documentaries, cartoons, music videos, funny YouTube videos or whatever else you like to watch, it’s there.
The second is that it uses real-world video. Instead of contriving some slowly-spoken and articulately-pronounced (and usually terribly boring) videos for learners, Fluent U directs you to authentic video content appropriate to your level with built-in learning tools that ensure you can keep up.
Starting out with the free trial will give you a priceless learning boost, and if you subscribe after the trial period you’ll be paying less monthly for unlimited video content than you’d be shoveling out hourly for lessons with even the most affordable tutors.
Here’s just a brief taste of the content you’ll find on Fluent U:
Fluent U App Browse Screen.
Fluent U has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.
Didn’t catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.
Interactive transcript for Carlos Beaut song.
You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with Effluents “learn mode.” Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
Fluent U Has Quizzes for Every Video
And Fluent U always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.
Start using Fluent U on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the Fluent U app from the iTunes store or Google Play store.
9. Innovative Language
Since its inception in 2005, Innovative Language has striven to become one of the leading language lesson providers.
Innovative Language is a massive system of free video and audio lessons in 34 languages. It’s updated with new lessons every week, with material geared towards absolute beginners all the way up to advanced learners nearing fluency. You may recognize it from its podcast sites (for example, Portuguesepod101) These are the language-specific sites you’ll be directed to once you enter your email and pick a language. Here’s just a sampling of the many popular foreign languages they currently offer:
It focuses on featuring audio and video material made by professional teachers, and it’s one of the most prolific and consistent language sites in the game. They teach grammar, vocabulary, everyday conversations, real-life situations and culture. So, basically, you’ve got all your bases covered.
Although they have a paid version of the service, thousands of professionally produced audios and videos are given absolutely free.
You can benefit from this flood of language content regardless of your state of fluency—they’ve got something for absolute beginners as well as advanced learners.
10. YouTube TV Channels
Did you know that YouTube has an insane number of TV shows available from around the world? Just go to the International TV section and scroll through the shows sorted by language.
This one is particularly helpful for learners of Indian languages, as it includes Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and others widely spoken through the Indian subcontinent, but other options like Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Greek, Danish and more are available as well.
Massively Open Online Courses (Moo Cs) for Free Language Learning
Did we mention that we think technology is awesome? A lot of the world’s best universities agree with us. That’s why so many of them are making lesson materials and entire university courses available online for free. Here are some of the best massively open online courses for learning a language.
11. MIT Open Courseware
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MIT was one of the university hipsters making their course content available online before it was cool. Under the amazing Global Studies and Languages section of their Open Course ware website, you’ll find courses ranging from Chinese II to Contemporary French Politics, all designed to help you engage not only with the language you’re studying but also with its greater cultural context.
  1. Ed X
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Ed X is one of the biggest MOOC (massive open online course) websites out there. You can find a lot of college-level courses here, created and taught by actual professors from top universities. As a language learner, you can consider taking a dedicated language class, or if you’re more advanced, taking a course in your target language. For example, right now you can sign up to take an algebra class entirely in French!
You can actually earn college credits on Ed X, through Arizona State University. Some of the courses have certificates you can get for completing them. In general, it costs money to get a verified certificate for completing a course (so make sure you check the details before you sign up), but many of the courses themselves are still free.
13. Coursers Language Learning
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The courses offered on Coursers are run by professors from world-renowned institutions, and it’s even possible to earn a certificate from many of the courses.
Coursers, another big name in online education, also maintains a Language Learning section under its online catalogue. Many of the courses will be geared toward beginners, like First Step Korean, and others will engage more generally with language learning, like the Miracles of Human Language course from Leiden University. Still other classes are taught on other topics in foreign languages, so you can learn about writing, math, engineering or literature in the foreign language you’re learning—though this approach is recommended for higher-level learners.
On Coursers, there are currently 122 classes taught in Chinese, the second most common language after English, and a long list of other languages trail after. Spanish has 79 classes. French has 41 classes. You get the idea. There are a ton of classes out there for you to try. You can even learn about entrepreneurship in Khmer!
Whatever you find here, it’s coming from a respected university or educational institute, and if it’s not on offer now, sign up to get an alert when it is!
14. Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
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The OIL at Carnegie Mellon isn’t specifically made for language courses, but there are several excellent ones on offer. From elementary Spanish and French to “Arabic for Global Exchange,” you’ll find frequent courses available in the world’s biggest and most commonly learned languages.
15. Alison
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Each of the eight languages offered on Alison’s language learning platform include at least an introductory course, and others include more advanced and detailed courses in popular languages like French. Best of all, if you complete all modules and score at least 80% on all your course assignments, you’ll be rewarded with a fancy (and free) certificate!
16. The Mega List of MOOC from Web Techno and Translation
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The blog Web Techno and Translation smartly and helpfully recommends taking an MOOC given in the foreign language you’re studying, and gives you a decent list to get started on doing so. Once you’ve broken through the intermediate level and are ready to start doing more with your language skills, why not try taking a course conducted in that language? Whether you want to study Croatian history in Croatian or systems administration in Spanish, the goal is the same: by focusing on learning about a topic instead of the language itself, you’ll learn more naturally.
Free Websites for Connecting with Native Speakers of Your Language
The biggest secret to effective language learning isn’t really a secret at all: You’ve gotta talk! And who better to talk with than a native speaker?
It’s okay if you can’t hop on a plane this weekend—instead, just click over to one of these websites, where you can connect with native speakers of your target language for free.
17. talkie
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The site italki is one of the biggest names out there for practicing your language skills online with native speakers. Designed for language learners to find native speaking teachers and exchange partners via Skype, the free version of their service includes some great benefits, including access to their learner community. This access allows you to connect with other learners and arrange informal language exchanges via Skype or email. If you're looking to invest a little more to have a private tutor or teacher at some point, you can do that on talkie too.
18. The Polyglot Club
📷
The Polyglot Club is an awesome all-purpose language learning website with tons of free features for connecting you with native speakers of your target language. You can find language exchange partners, submit written texts for correction, hang out in chat rooms, browse through target language videos and even attend their language events and meetups for connecting with even more learners!
19. Hi Native
📷
Hi Native is an innovative app that takes a nontraditional approach. Rather than giving you flashcards and courses or even facilitating Skype sessions, Hi Native allows you to ask questions to native speakers of the language you’re learning. Whether it’s about the difference between two confusing words, getting a pronunciation check or figuring out how and when to use the subjunctive, just send a text and wait for a response.
20. Word2Word
Word2Word is all about connecting the world, and they aim to do so by providing you with an insane amount of free online language learning resources. Not only are there chat rooms and meetups, but the site hosts resources on everything from typing characters in other alphabets and scripts to a Dictionary of Period Russian Names. If you’re looking for language exchange and don’t mind falling down the rabbit hole of linguistic Gerry, this is definitely the place to get started.
21. Lang-8
For many of us, speaking comes easily, but when it comes time to put pen to paper and communicate in writing, all of a sudden we feel like we don’t speak a word of the language. Lang-8 is a community of native speakers of various world languages who work together to improve each other’s writing in languages they’re learning by offering revisions and tips on the posts made in their languages—just don’t forget to pay it forward by helping others out with your native language too!
Free Vocabulary Games and Flashcards
There are boring flashcards, and then there are the kind that turn language learning into a game and wake up the competitor in all of us. To build your vocabulary while having some fun, these sites offer some fantastic flashcard exercises and other language learning games.
22. Duo lingo
How could we even make a list without mentioning everyone’s favorite pushy little green bird? Duo lingo user-friendly vocabulary games made language learning cool again by unlocking the power of gaming for language learning.
They use the gaming strategy to make sure you retain more of what you learn than you would from your standard, flipping-through-printed-flashcards approach. The truly dedicated will be rewarded by being asked to translate sentences of increasingly comical ridiculousness as they work up through the levels of their language.
23. Mesmerism
Mesmerism gives you a more hands-on option for flashcard learning with its “memes.” You can use the cards provided by Mesmerism and other users, or you can create your own mnemonic devices by composing and finding images for your own cards. Somehow, repetition doesn’t seem so repetitive when you can turn all your flashcards into irreverent memes and personal in-jokes tailored to you and your own brain.
24. Digital Dialects
For beginners and those suffering from 90s nostalgia, Digital Dialects is a techno-retro online game site with animated and interactive lessons in a couple dozen languages. Listen to the voice as it names fruits, then click them and drag them into a basket, or match English phrases to the ones being spoken in your target language. It’s a simple platform free of distraction, and it offers that j NE said quo for the Nintendo kids who still have a knack for learning in 16-bit.
General Language and Language Learning Resources
For those of us with a deep and passionate love for language and languages, we want to know everything about them. Not just how to get from the airport to your hotel or how to make small talk during your coffee break, but the details.
Who speaks the language we’re learning, and where do they speak it? What’s its history, and what can it teach us about the cultures that created it and that are created by it? These websites include the kind of encyclopedic information necessary for thorough, holistic learning, as well as free courses and learning resources.
25. Omnipotent
If you’re learning one language or find yourself in a poly amorous love affair with all languages, Omnipotent should live on your browser’s bookmarks bar. This online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages is like the Wikipedia of all things languages and linguistics.
Not only does it provide linguistic and cultural information on hundreds of world languages, but it also offers some of its own free video lessons. Under its “courses” page, Omnipotent maintains an impressive list of links to learning resources for specific languages, most of which are free.
26. BBC Languages
Another goldmine for the language and linguistics geeks in the room, BBC Languages offers free information and learner resources for 40 world languages. While some are more thorough than others, the seven languages listed on their main Languages homepage include extensive links to target language media (like TV streaming services, online newspapers and magazines in French, Chinese and Greek). The kinds of resources offered vary from language to language, but most include overviews and phrasebooks, as well as BBC’s own introductory lessons, on-site courses and links to help you find classes in your area.
27. Thought Co.
Thought Co. provides a long list of language learning resources like many others on this list, but also has its own sites dedicated to several of the languages on its list. About French, for example, includes educational videos, blog posts on French learning topics and guides to language essentials. About German offers much of the same. Explore multiple languages and find links to extensive resources across the Web.
28. Wiki travel Phrasebooks
You don’t have to be planning a vacation to take advantage of Wiki travel! The user-maintained wiki has a compilation of travel phrasebooks, ranging from well-known world languages like Arabic and Portuguese to less popular choices like Kannada and Parliament.
Even some of the most skeleton-like articles on languages like Zulu include guides to pronunciation, basic phrases, numbers, time, transportation, eating, shopping and common problem-solving vocabulary, making it an incredible resource for practically-inclined learners who just want to get out and use their language.
Free Language Learning Websites for Specific Languages
Some of the best free sites out there are the ones that focus on a single language, building an entire website packed with information, lessons and more for learners who know what language they want and know they don’t want to break the bank learning it. Here are some of our favorite websites for learning that one language.
French
29. The French Experiment — Free French lessons, stories, reviews and cats!
30. London Speaks French — Vocabulary and grammar lessons with a helpful pronunciation tool to compare your voice to natives’ voices.
For dedicated Francophile looking to max out their online learning time, browse through some of these best websites to learn French.
German
31. Deutschmark.com — With 10 beginner lessons and 24 advanced grammar lessons, this free resource is a great starting point for beginning learners and those intimidated by the infamously frustrating German grammar.
32. Deutschmark — This greeter Online-Deutschmarks has helpful audio clips and interactive lessons, as well as links to in-person courses in Berlin and other parts of Central Europe.
33. Deutschmark Welles — The German international broadcast’s online Deutschmark offers free courses by level, from beginner to advanced.
For video-loving learners, don’t forget about all the great YouTube videos for German learners out there!
Spanish
34. Study Spanish.com — Don’t be fooled by the simple name. With exhaustive information and lessons on all aspects of the language, it’s a Spanish linguistic powerhouse and a goldmine for learners.
35. Spanish Games — Learn Spanish with fun, interactive vocabulary games.
36. 123 Teach Me — A mega-resource for all things Spanish, including free online games, courses, word of the day and a handy verb conjugation.
If you like thinking outside the box when it comes to language learning, you can also try out some nontraditional websites for learning Spanish.
Chinese
37. CCTV — Chinese public television, as well as a BBC-like array of written media and resources for Chinese language learners.
38. Chinese-Tools.com — A 40-lesson online course with a learner forum and Chinese dictionary.
39. Zhengzhou Red — In-context vocabulary and culture lessons in a conversation-like format.
More of a bookworm? Try getting started with some free and cheap Chinese e-books!
Japanese
40. Japanese Online — A simple beginner’s resource with four units on the basics, topic modifiers, sentence structures and Japanese traditions.
41. Easy Japanese — Flashcards and games geared toward writing and speaking the language.
42. NH World — This Japanese public broadcaster maintains its own online magazine, including language lessons, audio clips and video resources for learners.
Is it grammar that’s got you down? Check out these websites for mastering your Japanese grammar.
Arabic
43. Arabic Online — This website from the European Union aims to help beginners familiarize themselves with the Arabic language, and offers several paid courses beyond the beginner level.
44. Arabic Keyboard — Aside from helping you with tricky Arabic script and the grammar that goes along with it, this site includes super helpful, practical information about the Arabic language, its dialects and where and how to use them.
45. Arabic Reading Course — For absolute beginners, this letter-by-letter course is the perfect jump-start to get you reading and writing in Arabic.
Portuguese
46. Learn Portuguese with Rafa — Beyond introductory lessons on things like counting and ordering food, Rafa maintains a sidebar full of links on everything from traditional recipes to doing business in Portuguese.
47. Tod Munro Pod — An exciting So Paulo-based podcast with basic tips in English and the rest in beautiful Brazilian Portuguese.
48. Practice Portuguese — For those looking to learn Iberian (European) Portuguese, get started with the free Practice Portuguese Podcast.
49. Really Learn Portuguese — Podcasts and flashcards for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners, all brought to you by two friendly Brazilians.
These 49 websites prove it: Money is no object for determined language learners.
The first step is just clicking one of the links above.
Haven’t started learning any one language yet? Choose your language and head over to Omnipotent or BBC Languages to read up on it. Build up your basic vocab with a flashcard app or your favorite language game, immerse your brain in quality video content and connect with natives around the world via Skype or your social network of choice.
With money concerns firmly out of the picture, now all you need to do is make the time for language learning, and you’re all set to start heading towards fluency!
submitted by saradinto to language [link] [comments]

All Websites for Finding Free Language Courses

Websites for Finding Free Language Courses
When most of us think about taking a language course, we’re picturing a classroom full of wobbly desks and chalkboard dust, plus a three- or four-digit tuition fee. For those who are looking for all the structure and formality of a traditional course but aren’t sure about stepping back into the classroom or forking over those fees, check out some of these free online language courses, available in nearly as many languages as there are learners.
1. Live Lingua
Heading off the list is Live Lingua, the Internet’s largest collection of free public domain language learning materials, according to the site itself. It’s not hard to believe. There are thousands of free e-books, audio recordings and foreign language video materials available in over 130 different languages.
It’s also one of the most user-friendly websites hosting the US Foreign Service Institute’s public domain language courses, which were developed by the US Department of State for expert language learning and are now freely available on various sites across the Web.
2.Learn language .com
Learn language.com is a website with links to extensive resources on and in 19 different languages. You can learn over 1400 words in your target language for free with their vocabulary lists and verb conjugation charts, and there’s plenty more free learning to be done in the nine languages in which Learn language.com maintains its own Web-based courses.
3. Open Culture
Open Culture is an e-learning website that hosts “the best free cultural and educational media on the web,” and when it comes to languages, they’re not bluffing. Open Culture maintains a list of free courses in 48 languages across the Web, from Amharic to Yiddish. With these collected resources from governments, universities and respected private institutions across the world, you’re sure to find free, high-quality lessons in 48 languages that are learned far and wide.
4. Surface Languages
Surface Languages maintains an extensive database of free online learning resources, as well as its own beginner audio courses in Italian, Portuguese, French and Polish. Additionally, there’s a handy section with audio and flashcards in Afrikaans and Romanian, and a “recently added” sidebar that shows you the latest additions to their ever-growing language learning library.
5. Internet Polyglot
Internet Polyglot offers many of the same kinds of resources as the sites listed above, with the awesome added advantage of its “quick start menu,” which allows you to choose not only what language you’re learning but also what language you’re learning it in. Do you already speak Spanish and want to get started on Portuguese? Just select “Spanish” for the language you speak, and get started with a composite mental exercise to strengthen one language while building another.
6. Headstart2 Defense Language Institute
The Defense Language Institute (DELI), like the Foreign Service Institute, is a government service that makes high-quality language learning programs available for free. Headstart2 is one of the best and most easily navigable services hosting complete DELI courses. After quickly registering for an account, you’ll be launched straight into interactive lessons with maps, images, sound, cultural notes and more.
Websites with Video-based Language Learning Content
The science shows that switching on the TV is great for language learning. If you want your brain to soak up the sights and sounds of what actual everyday speech sounds like and how it’s used in your target language, tune in and kick back for some quality input-based learning with these websites.
7. Streetcar
For the tube-loving language learners out there, Streetlamps hard to beat. Although it’s not necessarily designed as a language learning tool, it offers free TV streaming from over 100 countries around the world in nearly as many languages.
This is an especially exciting resource if you’re learning a less commonly studied language with less widely available video material. Tuning into your favorite Albanian or Nepali TV station can easily make up for the lack of other learning materials in your language.
8. Fluent U
Fluent U is a totally different world of language learning.
If you’re into learning with video, TV and movies (which you definitely should be), you’ve got to at least grab your free 15-day trialand spend a couple weeks binge-learning here with our video and audio libraries, which feature many of the same things native speakers of your target language are watching in their sweatpants while eating potato chips at home.
Two main features set Fluent U apart from the others on this list. The first is the sheer range of available content: movies, news, documentaries, cartoons, music videos, funny YouTube videos or whatever else you like to watch, it’s there.
The second is that it uses real-world video. Instead of contriving some slowly-spoken and articulately-pronounced (and usually terribly boring) videos for learners, Fluent U directs you to authentic video content appropriate to your level with built-in learning tools that ensure you can keep up.
Starting out with the free trial will give you a priceless learning boost, and if you subscribe after the trial period you’ll be paying less monthly for unlimited video content than you’d be shoveling out hourly for lessons with even the most affordable tutors.
Here’s just a brief taste of the content you’ll find on Fluent U:
Fluent U App Browse Screen.
Fluent U has interactive captions that let you tap on any word to see an image, definition, audio and useful examples. Now native language content is within reach with interactive transcripts.
Didn’t catch something? Go back and listen again. Missed a word? Hover your mouse over the subtitles to instantly view definitions.
Interactive transcript for Carlos Beaut song.
You can learn all the vocabulary in any video with Effluents “learn mode.” Swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you’re learning.
Fluent U Has Quizzes for Every Video
And Fluent U always keeps track of vocabulary that you’re learning. It uses that vocab to give you a 100% personalized experience by recommending videos and examples.
Start using Fluent U on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the Fluent U app from the iTunes store or Google Play store.
9. Innovative Language
Since its inception in 2005, Innovative Language has striven to become one of the leading language lesson providers.
Innovative Language is a massive system of free video and audio lessons in 34 languages. It’s updated with new lessons every week, with material geared towards absolute beginners all the way up to advanced learners nearing fluency. You may recognize it from its podcast sites (for example, Portuguesepod101) These are the language-specific sites you’ll be directed to once you enter your email and pick a language. Here’s just a sampling of the many popular foreign languages they currently offer:
It focuses on featuring audio and video material made by professional teachers, and it’s one of the most prolific and consistent language sites in the game. They teach grammar, vocabulary, everyday conversations, real-life situations and culture. So, basically, you’ve got all your bases covered.
Although they have a paid version of the service, thousands of professionally produced audios and videos are given absolutely free.
You can benefit from this flood of language content regardless of your state of fluency—they’ve got something for absolute beginners as well as advanced learners.
10. YouTube TV Channels
Did you know that YouTube has an insane number of TV shows available from around the world? Just go to the International TV section and scroll through the shows sorted by language.
This one is particularly helpful for learners of Indian languages, as it includes Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and others widely spoken through the Indian subcontinent, but other options like Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Greek, Danish and more are available as well.
Massively Open Online Courses (Moo Cs) for Free Language Learning
Did we mention that we think technology is awesome? A lot of the world’s best universities agree with us. That’s why so many of them are making lesson materials and entire university courses available online for free. Here are some of the best massively open online courses for learning a language.
11. MIT Open Courseware
📷
MIT was one of the university hipsters making their course content available online before it was cool. Under the amazing Global Studies and Languages section of their Open Course ware website, you’ll find courses ranging from Chinese II to Contemporary French Politics, all designed to help you engage not only with the language you’re studying but also with its greater cultural context.
  1. Ed X
📷
Ed X is one of the biggest MOOC (massive open online course) websites out there. You can find a lot of college-level courses here, created and taught by actual professors from top universities. As a language learner, you can consider taking a dedicated language class, or if you’re more advanced, taking a course in your target language. For example, right now you can sign up to take an algebra class entirely in French!
You can actually earn college credits on Ed X, through Arizona State University. Some of the courses have certificates you can get for completing them. In general, it costs money to get a verified certificate for completing a course (so make sure you check the details before you sign up), but many of the courses themselves are still free.
13. Coursers Language Learning
📷
The courses offered on Coursers are run by professors from world-renowned institutions, and it’s even possible to earn a certificate from many of the courses.
Coursers, another big name in online education, also maintains a Language Learning section under its online catalogue. Many of the courses will be geared toward beginners, like First Step Korean, and others will engage more generally with language learning, like the Miracles of Human Language course from Leiden University. Still other classes are taught on other topics in foreign languages, so you can learn about writing, math, engineering or literature in the foreign language you’re learning—though this approach is recommended for higher-level learners.
On Coursers, there are currently 122 classes taught in Chinese, the second most common language after English, and a long list of other languages trail after. Spanish has 79 classes. French has 41 classes. You get the idea. There are a ton of classes out there for you to try. You can even learn about entrepreneurship in Khmer!
Whatever you find here, it’s coming from a respected university or educational institute, and if it’s not on offer now, sign up to get an alert when it is!
14. Carnegie Mellon Open Learning Initiative
📷
The OIL at Carnegie Mellon isn’t specifically made for language courses, but there are several excellent ones on offer. From elementary Spanish and French to “Arabic for Global Exchange,” you’ll find frequent courses available in the world’s biggest and most commonly learned languages.
15. Alison
📷
Each of the eight languages offered on Alison’s language learning platform include at least an introductory course, and others include more advanced and detailed courses in popular languages like French. Best of all, if you complete all modules and score at least 80% on all your course assignments, you’ll be rewarded with a fancy (and free) certificate!
16. The Mega List of MOOC from Web Techno and Translation
📷
The blog Web Techno and Translation smartly and helpfully recommends taking an MOOC given in the foreign language you’re studying, and gives you a decent list to get started on doing so. Once you’ve broken through the intermediate leveland are ready to start doing more with your language skills, why not try taking a course conducted in that language? Whether you want to study Croatian history in Croatian or systems administration in Spanish, the goal is the same: by focusing on learning about a topic instead of the language itself, you’ll learn more naturally.
Free Websites for Connecting with Native Speakers of Your Language
The biggest secret to effective language learning isn’t really a secret at all: You’ve gotta talk! And who better to talk with than a native speaker?
It’s okay if you can’t hop on a plane this weekend—instead, just click over to one of these websites, where you can connect with native speakers of your target language for free.
17. talkie
📷
The site italki is one of the biggest names out there for practicing your language skills online with native speakers. Designed for language learners to find native speaking teachers and exchange partners via Skype, the free version of their service includes some great benefits, including access to their learner community. This access allows you to connect with other learners and arrange informal language exchanges via Skype or email. If you're looking to invest a little more to have a private tutor or teacher at some point, you can do that on talkie too.
18. The Polyglot Club
📷
The Polyglot Club is an awesome all-purpose language learning website with tons of free features for connecting you with native speakers of your target language. You can find language exchange partners, submit written texts for correction, hang out in chat rooms, browse through target language videos and even attend their language events and meetups for connecting with even more learners!
19. Hi Native
📷
Hi Native is an innovative app that takes a nontraditional approach. Rather than giving you flashcards and courses or even facilitating Skype sessions, Hi Native allows you to ask questions to native speakers of the language you’re learning. Whether it’s about the difference between two confusing words, getting a pronunciation check or figuring out how and when to use the subjunctive, just send a text and wait for a response.
20. Word2Word
Word2Word is all about connecting the world, and they aim to do so by providing you with an insane amount of free online language learning resources. Not only are there chat rooms and meetups, but the site hosts resources on everything from typing characters in other alphabets and scripts to a Dictionary of Period Russian Names. If you’re looking for language exchange and don’t mind falling down the rabbit hole of linguistic Gerry, this is definitely the place to get started.
21. Lang-8
For many of us, speaking comes easily, but when it comes time to put pen to paper and communicate in writing, all of a sudden we feel like we don’t speak a word of the language. Lang-8 is a community of native speakers of various world languages who work together to improve each other’s writing in languages they’re learning by offering revisions and tips on the posts made in their languages—just don’t forget to pay it forward by helping others out with your native language too!
Free Vocabulary Games and Flashcards
There are boring flashcards, and then there are the kind that turn language learning into a game and wake up the competitor in all of us. To build your vocabulary while having some fun, these sites offer some fantastic flashcard exercises and other language learning games.
22. Duo lingo
How could we even make a list without mentioning everyone’s favorite pushy little green bird? Duo lingo user-friendly vocabulary games made language learning cool again by unlocking the power of gaming for language learning.
They use the gaming strategy to make sure you retain more of what you learn than you would from your standard, flipping-through-printed-flashcards approach. The truly dedicated will be rewarded by being asked to translate sentences of increasingly comical ridiculousness as they work up through the levels of their language.
23. Mesmerism
Mesmerism gives you a more hands-on option for flashcard learning with its “memes.” You can use the cards provided by Mesmerism and other users, or you can create your own mnemonic devices by composing and finding images for your own cards. Somehow, repetition doesn’t seem so repetitive when you can turn all your flashcards into irreverent memes and personal in-jokes tailored to you and your own brain.
24. Digital Dialects
For beginners and those suffering from 90s nostalgia, Digital Dialects is a techno-retro online game site with animated and interactive lessons in a couple dozen languages. Listen to the voice as it names fruits, then click them and drag them into a basket, or match English phrases to the ones being spoken in your target language. It’s a simple platform free of distraction, and it offers that j NE said quo for the Nintendo kids who still have a knack for learning in 16-bit.
General Language and Language Learning Resources
For those of us with a deep and passionate love for language and languages, we want to know everything about them. Not just how to get from the airport to your hotel or how to make small talk during your coffee break, but the details.
Who speaks the language we’re learning, and where do they speak it? What’s its history, and what can it teach us about the cultures that created it and that are created by it? These websites include the kind of encyclopedic information necessary for thorough, holistic learning, as well as free courses and learning resources.
25. Omnipotent
If you’re learning one language or find yourself in a poly amorous love affair with all languages, Omnipotent should live on your browser’s bookmarks bar. This online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages is like the Wikipedia of all things languages and linguistics.
Not only does it provide linguistic and cultural information on hundreds of world languages, but it also offers some of its own free video lessons. Under its “courses” page, Omnipotent maintains an impressive list of links to learning resources for specific languages, most of which are free.
26. BBC Languages
Another goldmine for the language and linguistics geeks in the room, BBC Languages offers free information and learner resources for 40 world languages. While some are more thorough than others, the seven languages listed on their main Languages homepage include extensive links to target language media (like TV streaming services, online newspapers and magazines in French, Chinese and Greek). The kinds of resources offered vary from language to language, but most include overviews and phrasebooks, as well as BBC’s own introductory lessons, on-site courses and links to help you find classes in your area.
27. Thought Co.
Thought Co. provides a long list of language learning resources like many others on this list, but also has its own sites dedicated to several of the languages on its list. About French, for example, includes educational videos, blog posts on French learning topics and guides to language essentials. About German offers much of the same. Explore multiple languages and find links to extensive resources across the Web.
28. Wiki travel Phrasebooks
You don’t have to be planning a vacation to take advantage of Wiki travel! The user-maintained wiki has a compilation of travel phrasebooks, ranging from well-known world languages like Arabic and Portuguese to less popular choices like Kannada and Parliament.
Even some of the most skeleton-like articles on languages like Zulu include guides to pronunciation, basic phrases, numbers, time, transportation, eating, shopping and common problem-solving vocabulary, making it an incredible resource for practically-inclined learners who just want to get out and use their language.
Free Language Learning Websites for Specific Languages
Some of the best free sites out there are the ones that focus on a single language, building an entire website packed with information, lessons and more for learners who know what language they want and know they don’t want to break the bank learning it. Here are some of our favorite websites for learning that one language.
French
29. The French Experiment — Free French lessons, stories, reviews and cats!
30. London Speaks French — Vocabulary and grammar lessons with a helpful pronunciation tool to compare your voice to natives’ voices.
For dedicated Francophile looking to max out their online learning time, browse through some of these best websites to learn French.
German
31. Deutschmark.com — With 10 beginner lessons and 24 advanced grammar lessons, this free resource is a great starting point for beginning learners and those intimidated by the infamously frustrating German grammar.
32. Deutschmark — This greeter Online-Deutschmarks has helpful audio clips and interactive lessons, as well as links to in-person courses in Berlin and other parts of Central Europe.
33. Deutschmark Welles — The German international broadcast’s online Deutschmark offers free courses by level, from beginner to advanced.
For video-loving learners, don’t forget about all the great YouTube videos for German learners out there!
Spanish
34. Study Spanish.com— Don’t be fooled by the simple name. With exhaustive information and lessons on all aspects of the language, it’s a Spanish linguistic powerhouse and a goldmine for learners.
35. Spanish Games — Learn Spanish with fun, interactive vocabulary games.
36. 123 Teach Me — A mega-resource for all things Spanish, including free online games, courses, word of the day and a handy verb conjugation.
If you like thinking outside the box when it comes to language learning, you can also try out some nontraditional websites for learning Spanish.
Chinese
37. CCTV — Chinese public television, as well as a BBC-like array of written media and resources for Chinese language learners.
38. Chinese-Tools.com — A 40-lesson online course with a learner forum and Chinese dictionary.
39. Zhengzhou Red — In-context vocabulary and culture lessons in a conversation-like format.
More of a bookworm? Try getting started with some free and cheap Chinese e-books!
Japanese
40. Japanese Online — A simple beginner’s resource with four units on the basics, topic modifiers, sentence structures and Japanese traditions.
41. Easy Japanese — Flashcards and games geared toward writing and speaking the language.
42. NH World — This Japanese public broadcaster maintains its own online magazine, including language lessons, audio clips and video resources for learners.
Is it grammar that’s got you down? Check out these websites for mastering your Japanese grammar.
Arabic
43. Arabic Online — This website from the European Union aims to help beginners familiarize themselves with the Arabic language, and offers several paid courses beyond the beginner level.
44. Arabic Keyboard — Aside from helping you with tricky Arabic script and the grammar that goes along with it, this site includes super helpful, practical information about the Arabic language, its dialects and where and how to use them.
45. Arabic Reading Course — For absolute beginners, this letter-by-letter course is the perfect jump-start to get you reading and writing in Arabic.
Portuguese
46. Learn Portuguese with Rafa — Beyond introductory lessons on things like counting and ordering food, Rafa maintains a sidebar full of links on everything from traditional recipes to doing business in Portuguese.
47. Tod Munro Pod — An exciting So Paulo-based podcast with basic tips in English and the rest in beautiful Brazilian Portuguese.
48. Practice Portuguese — For those looking to learn Iberian (European) Portuguese, get started with the free Practice Portuguese Podcast.
49. Really Learn Portuguese — Podcasts and flashcards for beginner, intermediate and advanced learners, all brought to you by two friendly Brazilians.
These 49 websites prove it: Money is no object for determined language learners.
The first step is just clicking one of the links above.
Haven’t started learning any one language yet? Choose your language and head over to Omnipotent or BBC Languages to read up on it. Build up your basic vocab with a flashcard app or your favorite language game, immerse your brain in quality video content and connect with natives around the world via Skype or your social network of choice.
With money concerns firmly out of the picture, now all you need to do is make the time for language learning, and you’re all set to start heading towards fluency!
submitted by saradinto to GetStudying [link] [comments]

conjugation chart english to french video

6 Tips for Easy French Conjugation part 1 - YouTube The 3 French verb groups - YouTube Learn French Conjugation # Discover all the French tenses ... French Greetings (French Essentials Lesson 1) - YouTube Être Conjugation Song ♫ French Conjugation ♫ Learn French ... Learn French in 25 Minutes - ALL the Basics You Need Verb What Time Is It? - part 1 (French Essentials Lesson 15 ... Past Tenses in French (passé composé, imparfait, all ... Basic English Grammar - TO BE verb - YouTube

9 – Six Steps To Master French Verb Conjugation. To master French verb conjugation you should: First understand how to pronounce the verbs; Practice out-loud and with audio with the most useful verbs (no matter whether they are regular or not) Always drill out-loud with the verb and the pronoun at the same time. The two should come naturally If you’re studying French, you need to get a handle on French verbs. Luckily, there’s a pattern to conjugating regular French verbs into the simple and compound tenses, so once you know how to conjugate one, you know hundreds! Learn how to give commands, directions, or requests by studying the imperative conjugations of French verbs. […] The-conjugation.com will help you to correctly conjugate more than 9,000 French verbs. To quickly find a verb, whatever its voice (active voice, passive voice), mode (indicative, conditional, subjunctive, imperative,) or tense, type its infinitive or conjugated mode into our search engine. Jan 16, 2021 - Explore Sally Yuhas's board "Conjugation chart" on Pinterest. See more ideas about vip kid, conjugation chart, kids rewards. chart translation in English - French Reverso dictionary, see also 'chart music',chart topper',album chart',bar chart', examples, definition, conjugation Conjugation English verb to chart in several modes, tenses, voices, numbers, persons : indicative mode, subjunctive, imperative mood, conditional, participle form Still under construction ! French verbs and conjugation pdf How to conjugate verbs in french (faire plusieurs) French verb conjugation rules French verb endings French verb conjugation chart How to conjugate re verbs in french How to conjugate er verbs in french er verbs in french 1600 ir verbs in french 1600 French er verbs list How […] Verb conjugations side-by-side in French, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese. These charts include verb conjugations in French, Italian, Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese, with columns that can be re-arranged to change the order of the languages as well as the option to hide/show languages. Title: French Verb Conjugation Chart Author: LoveToKnow Subject: French Verb Conjugation Chart Created Date: 8/23/2012 8:28:54 AM French conjugation: the best way to learn how to conjugate a French verb. Write the infinitive or a conjugated form and the French Conjugator will provide you a list of all the verb tenses and persons: future, participle, present, subjunctive, auxiliary verb. Translate a French verb in context, with examples of use and see its definition.

conjugation chart english to french top

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6 Tips for Easy French Conjugation part 1 - YouTube

http://www.engvid.com "To be" is the most common verb in English. In this basic grammar lesson, I will teach you how to use this verb correctly. You will lea... http://LFWA.COM presents the 3 VERB GROUPS in French for regular and irregular verbs - Lesson 40 of Alexa’s popular Beginner’s French Essentials course. Cli... #frenchwithvincent #learnfrench #frenchwithvincent #frenchlessons FRENCH4ME.NET # THE BEST PLACE TO LEARN FRENCH Discover my premium platform with 100 000's ... http://LFWA.COM presents some really useful French greetings in Alexa’s popular Beginner’s French Essentials course - Lesson 01. Click the JOIN BUTTON to get... Here is an English grammar lesson about the form of the verb "to be".In this lesson, you will learn the affirmative form (positive), question form and negati... Before you get down to the nitty gritty of learning different past tenses in French, watch this animated video for an overview explained in English.I am a pu... http://LFWA.COM presents a lesson on telling the time in French in Lesson 15 of Alexa’s popular Beginner’s French Essentials course. Click the JOIN BUTTON to... When your native language is English, the French conjugation, is… challenging. So much more difficult to memorize than in English! Here are 6 tips for Easy F... http://www.jublie2.com/LEARN FRENCH - Learn the Conjugation of the Verb Être (to be) in French. La conjugaison du verbe être au présent.Je suis / I amTu es /... Hurry! Click Here to Learn French with a BIG 29% Discount on all FrenchPod101 subscriptions: https://goo.gl/9o42vP ↓ Check how below ↓Step 1: Go to https://g...

conjugation chart english to french

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