The folks at Busuu continue to be hard at work pushing the limits blending self-instruction via web with social language learning online.

Recently, they have teamed up with PONS, a leading European language publisher based in Germany, to offer amazingly comprehensive grammar guides online.

View this announcement on the Busuu blog or read it below!

Today is a very important day in the history of busuu.com – we are pleased to announce a new partnership with PONS, one of Europe´s leading language learning publishers!

PONS, based in Stuttgart and belonging to Germany´s second largest publishing house Klett Group, develops for already more than 30 years language learning material and dictionaries. PONS offers more than 500 dictionaries and language material for various skill levels from beginners to professional users – and that in over 35 languages from Arabic to Turkish.

As a first step within this partnership, we will offer exhaustive PONS Grammar Guides fully integrated into our existing learning material. The PONS Grammar Guides provide you with detailed grammar explanations and are directly linked to our existing grammar units. From now on, by clicking on the new PONS button within the grammar units you will receive detailed explanations about this corresponding grammar topic.

Additionally, you can directly access the PONS Grammar Guides directly via the new PONS tab you will find in your language area.

The new PONS Grammar Guides are currently available for German and Spanish native speakers learning English, French, Italian, Spanish and German. In the near future we are planning to launch the guides as well for all other native speakers of our fast growing community.

The Grammar Guides are just the first step of this strategic partnership. we are planning to co-develop business courses and courses for advanced speakers together with PONS which will be launched in the near future.

We from busuu.com are very proud to partner up with such a renowned brand within the language learning industry. The expertise of PONS will further enhance the language learning experience of our users and we are looking forward to exciting new features and material to be offered very soon on our website!

PS: Take advantage now of our 10% off introductory discount by using the promotion code: JAN2010 when upgrading your account - only valid until end of January 2010!

Visit Busuu.com

2009 Language Show in Olympia, London

The Language Show is going to be an amazing event for language learners, language teachers/instructors/educators, language lovers and linguists alike. There will be loads of exhibitors from all kinds of language-related industries, for a full list view this page.

Also available are intensive language classes in Chinese, German, Italian, Arabic, Spanish, French, Japanese, Polish and Russian as well as "taster classes" in all the above languages plus Persian, Sign Language, Hindi, Catalan, Hungarian, Czech, Turkish and Norwegian.

If you are in the London area and are into languages, this is not to be missed!

From Website

The Language Show is the UK’s biggest event for language learners, teachers, linguists and anyone with a love for languages. The show offers language enthusiasts all the help, advice and resources needed to learn or teach languages all under one roof. Plus, there's a dedicated Language Careers Fair for job seekers.

Over 100 FREE seminars and 185 exhibitors cover every aspect of language teaching and learning in a fun and entertaining way.

Visit thelanguageshow.co.uk for more information.

Quickly Shop, Find and Buy Language Products on your Mobile Device

Thanks to feedback from the online community, we have decided to launch a mobile language shop for users who are using mobile devices (iPod Touch, iPhone, Blackberry, Nokia, etc) to surf the web to shop and buy language products.

We have worked to make this new website as fast, simple to use and easy to read from a mobile device as possible. We have spared the bling and whatnot to give you a site that just plain works for shopping online via your mobile phone, with features and searches already in place specifically for language products.

We feel this is a valuable service for anyone interested in finding and purchasing language products online via any mobile device!

This just in from the Babbel blog:

From Babbel.com Blog

There’s always a little bit of anxiety that comes along with traveling abroad, whether for business or for pleasure. Possible scenario, night before — for example — the flight to Berlin, a sudden pang: “Oh right, they speak German in Germany, and I don’t even know how to say ‘how are you’. How am I going to manage to order my morning coffee?!?”

We at Babbel have now developed a stress-reducing linguistic survival kit (and perhaps path to that caffeine fix in a foreign country) for the last-minute language learner: the Mini-Vocab Package. Compiled especially for the spontaneous traveler, it offers essential words and phrases - in German, French, Spanish, Italian and English - to get through that first encounter with the locals unscathed.

For those who’ve got a little more time before the big trip, besides the Mini-Vocab, there are twenty other in-depth packages for all relevant situations while traveling, from leaving the airport to arriving at the car rental desk. There is of course also the opportunity to hook up with someone from Babbel’s now more than 350,000-strong community to chat, trade travel tips or set up a language exchange.

To go directly to the newly compiled Mini-Vocab package, click here. If you are not already registered at Babbel, after a quick and easy registration you will be taken straight through to travel vocabulary. For our press release, click here.

From Mara at Babbel

Hello, Hola, Bonjour, Buongiorno, Hallo!

Babbel.com, the intuitively designed online language learning platform, has just released a Mini-Vocab Package specially designed for the last minute traveler. It offers all the essential vocabulary for that first encounter with the locals in Spanish, French, German, Italian and English.

Take a look at the Babbel Blog (http://blog.babbel.com) for more information.

Thanks and happy learning!

Mara

Visit Babbel.com
Read about this on the Babbel blog.
Read Free Language's review of Babbel.

In Britain: Get Michel Thomas Spanish Intro CDs Free

If you buy The Guardian on Saturday, July 4th, 2009, and The Observer on Sunday, you will receive two free Michel Thomas Introductory Spanish CDs (~£15).

If you aren't in Britain, but are interested in Michel Thomas, view our deal finder links at the bottom of this entry. It's not free, but certainly cheaper than full price.

From Guardian.co.uk

Improve your Spanish with our 2 free CDs on Saturday 4 and Sunday 5 July, plus 5 handy phrasebooks to collect from Monday 6 July.

For those lucky enough to be packing their bags and heading south this summer, brush up on your languages and experience your destination as the locals do.
Even if you're staying put, you'll soon be able to order that tapas with a new-found confidence.

Starting this weekend, get the two-CD Michel Thomas Method Introductory Spanish course absolutely free with the Guardian and the Observer. The two CDs will allow complete beginners to understand and construct simple phrases using Michel Thomas's unique method of teaching. You learn through listening and speaking - no pens, no homework, no memorizing.

Then every day from Monday collect one of five handy phrasebooks that will cover everything from how to book in at the campsite to bluffing your way in politics and sport. It even covers the key aspects of non-verbal communication for the more passionate discussions....

Monday: Travel & Accommodation
Tuesday: Food & Shopping
Wednesday: Culture & Sport
Thursday: Family & Relationships
Friday: Business & Politics

PLUS, Guardian and Observer readers are being offered an exclusive 50% off the entire Michel Thomas languages range. Simply visit http://www.michelthomasoffers.com for details (P&P applicable).

From: http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/competition/2009/jun/25/learn-spanish

Source/Credit

We initially found out about this thanks to a Free Language user who contacted us. Thanks, Jane!

Find New and Used Discount Michel Thomas

You can use our handy language deal finder to get additional Michel Thomas courses for Spanish and all other available languages. Here are some quick links to help out with this:

Michel Thomas Spanish
Michel Thomas French
Michel Thomas German
Michel Thomas Italian

Or view all Michel Thomas deals.

Learn the Oromo Language (Afaan Oromoo) Online

Recently we received an email from someone interested in learning the Oromo language online, free of course! Oromo is a language spoken in Ethiopia and Kenya.

Well... we looked around for a while and found four resources that, together, give an introductory self-guided course in this African tongue. This is nothing profound, but will provide the very basics about the language, some useful phrases for travel, a humble dictionary and some other useful goodies.

We thought we'd share this here for everyone, all on one neat page, so you don't have to scour around like we did!

http://www.digitaldialects.com/Oromo.htm
http://www.oromoenglish.com
http://www.freelang.net/dictionary/oromo.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oromo_language

About Oromo Language

Oromo, also known as Afaan Oromoo, Oromiffa(a), Afan Boran, Afan Arsi, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names (Oromic, Afan Oromo, etc.), is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. It is spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and neighboring peoples in Ethiopia and Kenya, such as the Werji. Older publications refer to the language as "Galla", a term that is resented by Oromo people and no longer used.

Read more on Wikipedia.

More Minority Languages Coming

We are currently building a directory to promote minority languages worldwide, and will be posting more resources for learning many lesser-known and lesser-spoken languages here on the site soon. Stay tuned!