Summary

Busuu is a shiny new language exchange community and free multimedia (image + audio) foreign language lesson archive. The site currently supports English, French, German and Spanish and the founders of Busuu plan to add more languages as quickly as they are able.

The site is based on the Drupal framework, the same platform as Free Language, though they have taken it to quite another level altogether! Clean, crisp, fast-loading and full of fun colorful graphics that change as your language skills improve (called the Busuu Language Garden), Busuu promises to be a contender in the growing social language learning milieu.

The lessons are divided into three levels: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Each lesson has a photo/audio component along with writing practice, native speaker exchange and a review test. You can keep a track record of your studies as you complete them. All lessons are free and can be completed at anytime, letting you choose your study schedule and mark your own progress.

Finding friends is easy through the search function, so discovering practice/exchange partners is fast and simple. Busuu provides a video chat function through the site for easy access to language exchanges without needing to go outside the site or use other utilities.

Altogether a bright, cheery and user-friendly site, Busuu weilds a healthy lessons archive and growing user community. Have a look at the site tour today to find out how to begin improving your English, French, German and Spanish skills. Who knows, by the time you read this article, other languages may have been added...

From Website

busuu.com is a start-up, based in Madrid, which runs an innovative online community for learning languages.

We have personally suffered from the traditional way to learn a new language which we always found expensive, difficult and boring.

Therefore, we decided to create a new concept of language learning by offering you the following advantages:

• Learn from your fellow students: Learn directly from native speakers of the busuu.com community and forget about the horrible grammar sessions you had in school
• Learn what you really want: Be completely flexible in the content you want to learn, from preparing for a job interview to a discotheque pick-up line we can meet all your language needs
• Learn for free: During our beta phase, busuu.com can be used completely for free! Once we launch our next version, you will have the possibility to pay a small amount per month in order to become a premium member and get access to additional learning tools and premium content. But even as a basis-member, you will always enjoy loads of learning content completely for free!

About the founders

Adrian, Co-Founder

Adrian is from Liechtenstein, an impressively small country in the heart of the European Alps.

He is fluent in the lovely Schweitzerdeutsch, German, English, French and really fights hard to finally improve his Spanish.

Bernhard, Co-Founder

Bernhard was born in the beautiful city of Vienna in Austria, famous for Waltz and Sachertorte.

He speaks fluently the charming accent of Viennese German, English, Spanish and improves currently his (Brazilian) Portuguese.

About Busuu

Busuu is a language spoken in Cameroon - based on an ethnological study conducted in the 80ies, apparently only eight people are able to speak this language.

If you happen to know one of these people or know more about the Busuu culture, please let us know.

We have the dream to contribute to the diversity of languages all over the world – therefore we will continuously extend the languages offered at our website.

...and maybe one day, you might even find the possibility to learn Busuu throughout our website…;-)

Visit Busuu.com

Summary

MeGlobe is a web-based instant messenger client with realtime translation into 14+ languages. This Jabber-powered tool lets folks chat interlingually. Users are encouraged to help improve the translation engine's algorithm by suggesting better translations when things fall short.

Languages currently available with MeGlobe.com IM/translation client are: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.

In addition to Jabber, MeGlobe leverages other Free Software projects to build their foundation: Drupal (main site), MediaWiki (help wiki), phpBB (forum). Somehow they managed to get all these working together with one account in Drupal! Nice :)

From Website

MeWho?

MeGlobe™ was built to diminish language barriers from online communication. Our free web client lets you type in your own language, but sends a translated version, in real time, specific to the native tongue of whomever you are chatting with. With MeGlobe™ there is no such thing as 'lost in translation.'

Signing up is quick, easy and FREE. Just click on "Signup," give us some basic info and you're ready to start chatting with people all over the world. No downloads are required, you don't need to install anything and you can use MeGlobe™ from any computer with a browser and Internet connection.

We live in a highly connected global village. Isn't it time we take language out of the equation so we can talk to our neighbors?

Community Powered

We don't throw the word beta around because it's "cool." The fact is, machine translation just isn't ready for primetime. Human-2-human (H2H) interaction, ie chatting with a native buddy from Uzbekistan about last night's rerun of Baywatch just isn't feasible…yet.

Every time you send a message on MeGlobe's™ network you have the opportunity to make our translations better. When you notice that a translation on MeGlobe™ is a little off, let us know by "editing" the translation. Your buddy will immediately see the corrected translation and at the same time you are contributing to our knowledge base.

These contributions are used to teach MeGlobe™ to become a better translator. Every correction from the community brings us closer to our goal of erasing the borders of language.

Creating a universal translator has huge potential, but requires lots of work. By no means has it been perfected, but with your help we're getting better every day.

Put simply, MeGlobe is an instant messaging web application on steroids. While traditional IM tools like Gchat or AIM let you connect with friends, MeGlobe lets you chat online with people even if they don’t speak your language.

MeGlobe is powered by Jabber software, often referred to as "the Linux of instant messaging."

If you ever notice a translation is wrong, you can edit it by clicking the square in the chat box. Your correction will help our algorithm learn the correct translation, so you won’t have to make that edit again.

Visit MeGlobe.com

Summary

Quizlet.com is a great website for effectively learning vocabulary, for languages and anything else! For a quick video on how the whole thing works, check out the demo video. Cool fact: It was started by a 15-year-old high school student!

Basically, you can add and share vocabulary lists, make them public, private or share only with certain groups. Once you have them in the system (or you find an existing set you want to study), you can choose between several options for learning/familiarizing and self-assessment.

The site is slick, fast and has lots of active users. It's really a cool place to learn anything from the Greek Alphabet to TOEFL and SAT vocabulary and plenty more.

There are already gobs of lists available on the site - so many that individual attention is being brought to amazing collections available on the site, such as the HSK Test Vocabulary Preparation Pack and more.

So take a look at Quizlet when you get the chance. It's likely that content already exists for what you need to study! I have added this to all the language sections even though there are not vocabulary stacks yet for all of these. Reason being you can use the site to create any vocabulary lists you want - it's wide open!

From Website

The Quizlet Story

For lack of a professional writer working for Quizlet, here are some ramblings from me, Andrew Sutherland, creator of Quizlet, president of Brainflare, web developer, and high school student.

Quizlet is how I occupy my free time and even some of my non-free time. My mission for Quizlet is to make learning vocabulary not a chore. I know a lot of teachers assign vocabulary to students, but few students actually "absorb" words into their vocabularies after they take their test. Which kind of defeats the purpose, right? So Quizlet is my response - it aims to make learning fun, thus make learning effective. At the very least, it can help students do better on quizzes and tests even if they don't fully "absorb" their words.

I started Quizlet in October 2005, back when I was a mere 15-year-old (human years). I had just received a list of 111 French Animals to memorize from my magnanimous French teacher. I was puttering along with my dad with some call-and-response type quizzing. "Man, I love doing this" was NOT what I was thinking. So I put my thinking cap on, and the first line of code for Quizlet was written that night. Of course, that code was all deleted when I thought about what Quizlet would be. You really should plan first.

Quizlet is a shoestring operation. For its first 420 days, it was the work of only myself. I did all the designing, programming, debugging, and perfecting. The project had no product managers, no marketers, and no venture capitalists. It was just me and my testers. Recently I've realized some things are out of my field of expertise (I'm not a lawyer, for example). So there are a few other people involved these days.

Quizlet is free and will remain free to all users. The current plan is to offer targeted advertising on the non-studying pages. I'm hoping to make some deals with some educational and test-prep companies and perhaps some universities. If you're interested in advertising to my userbase of highly-motivated high-school and college students, shoot me a note (see above right).

Let's see, what haven't I covered? Ahh, the name Quizlet comes from Quizlette, the name of the "little" quizzes my French teacher gives. She could have charged royalties, but that just wouldn't be right…

And because you really want to know, I made Quizlet using only the finest ingredients:

PHP
MySQL
Apache
Mootools Thanks Valerio!
XHTML, CSS, Javascript, JSON, etc etc…

Visit Quizlet.com

Summary

Anki is a cool little app for learning vocabulary words and phrases. It uses spaced repetition to help increase learning speed and memorization by repeating more often the terms you don't know and gradually decreasing those that you do.

The app is free and is available for Debian GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac OS X and as source code here. The software can be used to learn any language - just create the flashcards and it takes care of the spaced repetition for you.

Also available here is an online version of the software that works right through your web browser and stores your vocabulary on the Anki server. Great for people learning in Internet cafés!

From Website

Anki is a program designed to help you remember facts (such as words and phrases in a foreign language) as easily, quickly and efficiently as possible. To do this, it tracks how well you remember each fact, and uses that information to optimally schedule review times. With a minimal amount of effort, you can greatly increase the amount of material you remember, making study more productive, and more fun.

Anki is based on a theory called spaced repetition. In simple terms, it means that each time you review some material, you should wait longer than last time before reviewing it again. This maximizes the time spent studying difficult material and minimizes the time spent reviewing things you already know. The concept is simple, but the vast majority of memory trainers and flashcard programs out there either avoid the concept all together, or implement inflexible and suboptimal methods that were originally designed for pen and paper.

While Anki can be used for studying anything, it also ships with special features designed to make studying Japanese and English easier: integrated dictionary lookups, missing kanji reports, and more. Sample decks are also provided for Russian.

Anki's scheduling algorithm is based on the proven SM2 SuperMemo algorithm. It improves upon the basic SM2 algorithm by adding features like priorities and a revision queue sorted in order of priority.

Visit Anki Free Spaced Repetition Flash Card Software

Summary

Earworms Learning has created a unique product for learners of numerous foreign languages including French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese and Spanish (Arabic coming soon). earworms mbt® Rapid Languages combines language-learning instruction with a variety of music and subtle repitition to engage students and enhance memorization. And it works!

Developed by language teaching experts and leveraging technology for accelerated learning, earworms manages to penetrate the brain in some amazing ways and anchor words and phrases deep into memory. It's the next best thing to learning in your sleep!

Music has frequently been proven effective in memorization. earmworms takes this to the next level by putting tunes together with a language course that follows the Common European Framework for language learning. The result is truly a revolutionary product that marks the beginning of a new era in language learning.

Use earworms to learn languages quickly and effectively while exercising, commuting, meditating, traveling or even working (if you can get away with it!).

From Website

earworms mbt® Rapid Languages puts the words and phrases you need not just on the tip of your tongue, it transports them deeply into your long-term memory, ready for instant recall.

Simply by listening to these specially composed melodies with their rhythmic repetitions a few times, the sound patterns are indelibly burned into your auditory cortex.

You will have successfully learned the phrase and have the correct accent ringing in your ears. Wherever you are, whatever you are doing: In the car, while jogging, in the bath, doing the ironing... you can be learning a language at the same time!

earworms mbt® Rapid Languages is the first language trainer to get your toe tapping.

You know those catchy tunes or 'earworms' that you just can't get out of your head? Voulez-vous coucher avec moi, ce soir? Well, earworms mbt® has put this phenomenon to positive use. Gone are the days of learning pressure and frustration at not being able to remember, the experience of many on conventional language courses. In combination with music, our system automatically and effortlessly anchors the phrases you need deeply into your memory.

Music is the Key

The idea is as simple as it is old. Before the age of writing, ancient historical events e.g. in the Finnish sagas, were recorded in verse and song form, for easy memorisation. In his book 'Songlines' Bruce Chatwin describes how the Australian Aborigines were able to navigate their way across hundreds of miles of desert to their ancestral hunting grounds without maps. And how? The extensive lyrics of their traditional songs were exact descriptions of the routes!

Rhythm and words, i.e. song and verse, have always been a very powerful memory aid, and this is supported by recent scientific research. The advertising industry knows only too well how powerful music can be in getting the message across with brainwashing-like jingles and soundbites.

It really works!

Developed and used over years in the classroom, the earworms mbt® method has shown phenomenal success. In vocabulary tests, pupils using this technique regularly achieve average marks of over 90% compared to less than 50% with conventional book based learning.

Why hasn't music been used more in education up to now?

Imagine kids at school getting a CD of hip-hop songs with all the historical dates they have to learn, or all the French verbs they have to learn, or all the countries and capitals of the world! Wouldn't that make their (and teachers') school lives much easier, much more fun, much more successful?

The Rapid Languages Series

Volume 1 deals with the essentials for your visit abroad. It looks at typical situations: taking a taxi, at the hotel, at the restaurant, requesting, polite phrases, finding your way, numbers, dealing with problems and so on.

Volume 2 will have you talking about yourself and others, past, present and future, likes and dislikes and general conversational items.

The themes of these courses follow closely the Common European Framework for language learning level one, a recognised benchmark of simple conversational language proficiency, and the emphasis is constantly on usefulness to the learner.

Memory Hooks

The accompanying booklet contains all the text on the CD, both English and target language, plus the sounds of the words. An additional aid to learning, 'memory hooks' and comments to assist your memorisation and understanding can be found on the website under 'Extras'. These complement the CD and are really worth checking out. Memory hooks are for example, if you want to memorise the Italian term 'my name is' = 'mi chiamo', imagine 'my name is Micky Armo' - and you will never forget.

How to use Earworms: Don't think, just listen!

Sit back, relax and groove along to the melodies without trying to concentrate too hard. Treat them as songs you hear on the radio. Our recommendation is that you listen a couple of times in quick succession on the first day to 'tune your ear in' to the sounds of the language. Then listen regularly over the period of a week. Thereafter, it is a question of 'refreshing' your memory. There is more on this subject to be found under FAQs. Also, familiarise yourself with the written words in the booklet - at least the first time you listen.

After listening several times, playfully test yourself - cover up the English side of the phrase book and see how many words and phrases you remember. Make a game out of it with your friends and family!

The Science behind Earworms mbt®

The earworms concept encapsulates two of the latest streams of learning thought:

1. How we learn

A large part of learning in general and language learning in particular is to do with the memorisation of words, facts and other significant information. It's a well known fact that we use only a fraction of our brain power and traditional book learning is now recognised as not suiting every learner.

earworms uses simple techniques which open up and exploit more of the brain's native power, and come under the heading of 'accelerated learning'.

In the 1970s, extensive research was carried out into the powers of music in the learning process, by the Bulgarian physician Georgi Lozanov. He revealed that music puts listeners into a state of relaxed alertness, the “alpha state”, the ideal state of consciousness for learning, and his tests were conclusive.

More recently, in the March 2005 issue of the journal "Nature" researchers at Dartmouth College in the US reported that they had pinpointed the region of the brain where ‘ earworms ' or catchy tunes reside, the auditory cortex. They found that the sounds and words that have actually been heard can be readily recalled from the auditory cortex where the brain can listen to them "virtually" again and again. Music it seems is the ideal catalyst to the memorisation of words.

2. What we learn

earworms mbt® adopts the so-called lexical approach to language, as opposed to first concentrating on grammar. In essence, this means we look at language in terms of whole meaningful chunks, then break these down into their component bite-sized, easily digestable, easily absorbable parts and reconstruct them. You not only learn complete, immediately useful phrases, you also intuitively learn something about the structure (the grammar) of the language. These ‘chunks' which the learner can ‘mix and match', gradually build up to cover whole areas of the language.

This may sound logical to the layman, but it is only very recently that this approach (as expounded by Michael Lewis in his book "The Lexical Approach") has been taken up in the classroom with very positive results.

Visit earworms mbt® Rapid Languages.