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How to learn Spanish online, fast, easy, free

Pavlos — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 00:56:59 +0000

Time for another post on my How To series of learning foreign languages. This time, we set off to learn Spanish! Spoken as a native language by hundreds of millions of people around the world, second in numbers only to Mandarin Chinese. Today, Spanish is an official language in 21 countries.

After a little research, I have gathered what I think are the best and most comprehensive resources for learning how to speak the Spanish language online. All at absolutely no cost for you. E-books, dictionaries, interactive courses, all at the unbeatable price of ? free!

Enjoy, and good luck!

Wikipedia

When you set out to learn any foreign language, it is a good idea to get some general background information first. Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, offers some very informative articles on the Spanish language to get you started.

Wikibooks

Wikibooks is a sister project to Wikipedia, where you can find free books. The book on the Spanish Language has been featured for the quality of its contents and is a very nice textbook to get you started in learning the language. You can view online, or download a copy in PDF.

Spanish

Podcasts – Audio Lessons

Coffee Break Spanish is so great you have to hear it to believe it! There’s more than 60 audio lessons you can listen to online, download on your computer, or store in your portable mp3 player and listen anywhere! You start learning from lesson 1, even you are an absolute beginner. And then pace your learning, listen as often as you can and learn.

Coffee Break Spanish is produced by the Radio Lingua Network and all lessons are well planned out and taught by professionals. You can listen to and download all lessons for free! Also, there is a fee based service through which you can have access to bonus learning material and notes.

Coffee Break Spanish

BBC Languages

I’ve talked often of the wonderful language learning tools of BBC Languages. The work they’ve done on Spanish is brilliant. Whether a first timer in the Spanish language, or someone who want to brush up on their speaking skills, this place has all you need.

BBC Languages – Spanish
The main page, listing all available tools and lessons for learning Spanish with this BBC website.

Spanish Steps
A series of 24 beginner lessons. Very easy to follow, featuring steps by e-mail, vocabulary, language tips and more.

Learn Spanish – Mi Vida Loca
If I was impressed before with the good job the BBC is doing in language teaching, I am now ecstatic! Mi Vida Loca is an interactive video series for learning the Spanish language. It is so well produced, you’d think you’re watching a TV series, only you can click and interact with the story.

You can have subtitles in both Spanish and English if you wish, listen and watch again, pause, or go to specific parts of each video. This one is so good, I would actually give it a raving review even if it was a pay service. The fact it is available for free – makes it my favorite of all learning resources listed here. If you don’t believe me, try it out.

Online Dictionaries – Translation Tools

Every student of any language must have a good dictionary. Although I would advise you to buy a hard copy of a reputable dictionary you can carry with you at all times, there are some very good Spanish-English-Spanish dictionaries and translation tools, available online for free. Here they are:

Traveler Phrasebook

If you plan to travel and have no time for real learning, Wikitravel has a one page (print and go) phrasebook on the Spanish language. Featuring an array of useful words and phrases for any English speaking tourist in a Spanish speaking country. Everything from “Hello” to “Am I under arrest?”.

Spanish phrasebook – Wikitravel

Give and Take, the $100 laptop

Pavlos — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 21:54:07 +0000

I’ve spoken about the One Laptop Per Child project before. It is a wonderful initiative founded by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte. The goal is to promote world education by constructing affordable laptop PCs, best known as the $100 dollar laptops, and branded as the “XO laptops”, and delivering them to children in developing countries.

Earlier this year, on another post, I discussed OLPC’s plans to make their laptops available to the public for purchase, should each buyer agree to also donate one laptop. It seems this plan is becoming a reality.

Head over at the XO laptop giving website to find out more about it. Official launch date for the give one – take one project is November 12th.

Virtual Tours of the Louvre Museum

Pavlos — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 02:52:55 +0000

The Louvre in France is one of the world’s most important museums, as well as one of the most famous. If you’re one of the millions of readers of Dan Brown’s book “The Da Vinci Code”, chances are you’ve visualized a great part of the building’s architecture and art on display, while turning pages.

However, if your imagination isn’t that vivid and you would like the next best thing to actually booking a ticket to Paris and visiting in person, try the Online Virtual Tours over the Louvre’s official website. A wonderful experience really, point your mouse, click and drag and you will almost feel like being there. Among eons of world culture, history and art. Geek!

Louvre Museum – Take A Tour Online (main page)
Virtual Tours – Medieval Louvre (one of my favorite tours – flash required)

Free Movie Downloads at the Internet Archive

Pavlos — Sat, 11 Nov 2006 13:33:32 +0000

The Internet Archive is self described as follows:

“The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.”

I think it is one of the best things on the Internet today.

One of my favorite “departments” of the Internet Archive is the motion picture depository. Being a movie buff and all. There, you will find a growing collection of classic feature films available for free download. File formats in which you can get the movies range from PSP and iPod compatible to VideoCD and DVD.

Most feature films available are productions in black and white from the 1930s to the 60s, such as White Zombie (1932) with Bela Lugosi, His Girl Friday (1940) with Cary Grant, and The Flying Deuces (1939) with Laurel and Hardy at one of their funniest moments.

If you are a classic horror film enthusiast, you’ll think you stepped into classic horror film heaven. Killers From Space (1954), Night of the Living Dead (1968), the must watch Horror Hotel (1960), and of course The Last Man on Earth (1964). Funny enough, there’s even a copy of the 1960 film Last Woman On Earth. Wouldn’t they be happier if they just filmed a “Last Couple On Earth”. Too bad it’s not Halloween anymore.

Of course, feature films are not the only reason the Internet Archive is one of my favorite places. Visit them and you will certainly find at least one reason to visit them again and again. You can also go over to the official blog of the Archive’s Collections Team for the latest news on available content.

Podcast Wednesday

Pavlos — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 17:06:47 +0000

This week Podcast Wednesday is on a Thursday (been busy) and is about Education. Which is very important. And apparently does not have to be boring any more. The two Podcasts I picked for your this week are going to introduce you to information you may otherwise have never come across. All in a quite easy listening manner.

History According to Bob

History as you wish it was told. Teaching history for over 31 years, Bob Packett does not simply have the experience – he has the insight and talent of keeping an audience interested. Not to mention participating, since there are episodes of this wonderful daily Podcast which provide answers to listeners’ questions. Learn something exciting about the history of mankind every day, told in a much more interesting way than you would find in any textbook. What I found particularly enjoyable is how attention is given to the people who shaped history, not just the the events.

Very nice!

Website: History According to Bob – Website
Podcast Feed: History According to Bob – Podcast Feed

BBC Documentary Archive

The BBC’s “download trial” Podcasts keep surprising me, and keep providing some of the best produced content on a Podcast out there. Granted the terms of use are not as liberal as I would like them to be. The BBC’s disclaimer warns listeners they shouldn’t keep the audio files on their computer for more than a week or do anything else with them other than download for their personal, non-commercial use. However, the BBC Documentary Archive remains an excellent source of brilliant information.

You can browse the Archive for documentaries which might be of particular interest to you, or subscribe to the Podcast Feed so as to keep up to date as new content is added.

Website: BBC NEWS – Documentary Archive – Website
Podcast Feed: Podcast Feed

Top Of The Pods

Well, it’s only been a week since the previous time we checked Top Of The Pods, so the top 5 listings of the following, popular Podcast Directories is still pretty much the same.

Yahoo! Podcasts

Odeo

PodcastAlley

How To Learn French Online, fast, easy, free

Pavlos — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 03:07:30 +0000

French is an official language in 30 countries world wide. It is a beautiful language to speak or listen to, and just because I speak it I thought others should speak it as well. How do you go about it though?

If you think self-study is something you can do, the following online resources will guide you step by step into learning more about the language and culture of France. These resources are so good, you really don’t need any more to get started.

Good luck!

Online Courses

BBC – Languages – Learn French
Whether you want to brush up on your French or learn the language from scratch – this is an amazing website. Audio – video and very well planned and delivered courses and other educational material.

Wikibooks

French
Perhaps the best Wikibook on learning a foreign language, and certainly one of my personal favorites. Voted book of the month April / 2006, this Wikibook can be downloaded in PDF, printed easily, has audio and in my not so humble opinion, is near perfect.

Wikipedia

French language
The Wikipedia entry on the French language is a wonderful starting point on all (and perhaps then some) of the information you want to know before you start learning the language.

Reading in French

Project Gutenberg – free eBooks in French
Project Gutenberg offers freely downloadable books in many languages, including French.

Google News – in French
Read the news in French, or at least try to. It’ll help you pick up the language faster, or keep your French fresh.

How to learn Russian online, fast, easy, free

Pavlos — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 05:09:35 +0000

More than 250 million people world wide speak Russian as their primary or secondary language. Ken said he wants to learn it as well. And I bet there’s other people out there who’d like to at least be able to say a few things in Russian.

So here’s what my investigation of online resources for learning Russian has produced.

Happy learning!

Online Courses

Russian Language Lessons
This website offers a comprehensive set of lessons, well structured and enough to give beginners of Russian a perfect introduction to the language. Features include grammar guides, a downloadable dictionary, and an English-Russian version of “Crime & Punishment”.

Way To Russia – Russian Language Tutorial
Another, nice tutorial of the Russian Language designed for beginners and travelers. Includes some grammar notes and also audio read-outs to practice your listening and pronunciation.

Ukindia – Learn to Read Russian
A one page tutorial on how to read Russian. A simple, good introduction.

MasterRussian.com
A website which has a lot of lessons and links to other resources for learning Russian and getting acquainted with both the language and culture of Russia.

BBC – Languages – Quick Fix – Russian
The absolute essential Russian words and phrases, according to the BBC. Audio available.

Textbook Of The Russian Language
A textbook of Russian in Russian, based on a conversational Russian course, for intermediate learners of the language who can already read.

Wikibooks, collection of open-content textbooks

Russian
The Wikibook on the Russian language is a work in progress which does however offer already an insightful introduction to the language, and grammar.

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Online Resources

BUBL LINK: Russian language
BUBL is a catalogue of online academic resources, and this is the BUBL directory on the Russian language.

How to learn Chinese – online, fast, easy and free

Pavlos — Sat, 05 Aug 2006 22:50:13 +0000

Chinese is a language spoken by more than 1.3 billion people word wide. Mandarin is the most commonly used and widely spread dialect of the Chinese language group, and the Official language of the People’s Republic of China.

China is an economy which enjoys a high annual growth and continuously attracts the interest of businesses around the world. Listing Chinese on your resume, is a skill valued by most employers, extremely useful in getting a good job or even if you want your own business to expand with activities in China.

The following hand picked online resources will get you started in the study of Chinese. I’ve used them as well, and highly recommend them. Valuable educational material, well planned courses and learning tools, available freely online.

Wikibooks

The Chinese Mandarin Wikibook is a free – constantly developed and enhanced FREE online textbook. Every online student of Chinese should have this one bookmarked.

Chinese (Mandarin)

Wikipedia

Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, has some very informative and well written articles that will give you an introduction to the language and culture of China. Excellent reading for someone interested in learning the language.

By members of the Academia

Dr. Tianwei Xie of CSULB, has put together one of the early directories of resources for learning Chinese online, over at “Learning Chinese Online”. Complimented with an amazing, free course featuring lessons and audio read-outs. First course I ever took, now also featured in a printed book.

Learning Chinese Online
Conversational Mandarin Chinese Online (the course)

Ting is a wonderful assortment of lessons, interactive games, a dictionary and character flashcard tools for learning Chinese.

Ting – Chinese English Dictionary Study Center

Set up by the Beijing Language And Culture University, Linese features interactive lessons and audiovisual tools that will help you learn Chinese and understand Chinese culture.

Linese

Podcasts

ChinesePod – Learn Mandarin Chinese

The BBC Languages department has set up this “lively introduction to Mandarin Chinese in 10 short parts” as described on site, which is fun and easy to complete, and makes it easy to remember what you learned.

BBC Languages – Real Chinese

zhongwen.com is the ultimate and comprehensive resource for learning and referencing when it comes to Chinese characters.

zhongwen.com – Learn Chinese Characters

Happy learning everybody!

the Vatican Secret Archives unveiled

Pavlos — Wed, 26 Apr 2006 03:14:08 +0000

I was surprised to find out more about the work carried out by the Vatican “Secret” Archives. These archives contain important documents dating eons ago. A unique treasury of history. There are also state of the art restoration and conservation labs, and much of the archives is available to researchers and scholars alike. Some of the most important works are in CD-ROM and electronic format in order to protect them from continuous handling. It really sounds like they’re doing a very important job. And they really don’t sound as “secretive” as popular myth and literature has led people to imagine.

Here are some links to their website which you may find interesting.

Vatican Secret Archives (home page)
Piano Nobile – A virtual tour of the Archives
The Conservation Laboratory
The Documents of the trial against Galileo Galilei (free download)

The Genographic Project

Pavlos — Sun, 26 Feb 2006 17:05:30 +0000

This is interesting. Go over to the National Geographic’s – Genographic project site here.

Apparently, they are charting people’s ancient ancestry, and everyone who can afford the special Genographic Project kit can participate. In return, they get a chart of their personal ancient ancestry. Check it out.