Summary

The Firefox web browser from Mozilla is not only a great open source web browser. It's also a fabulous tool for language learners! It would take a long time to list and go through all of the cool things you can do with the addons (extensions of Firefox's core functionality) in the language section of Firefox Addons. Several articles have already been published a few of articles on the topic (see related articles below), one of which contains a link to Firefox addons for translation.

However, another, cooler, resource has just popped up on the radar and anyone dealing with learning languages online, translation, researching and/or reading content in foreign languages on the Web is encouraged to check out this amazing repository for Firefox addons for Language support. The link has been pre-defined for showing the addons that have been updated most recently, both experimental and stable. Here are a few more pre-defined links that will sort the addons by number of downloads, rating and name.

There is a lot of them, but it's definitely worth the time to sift through and find the ones that work for you.

Cheers to CodePublic.org for the link! Below is an example of an addon listing for a Chinese pop-up translator.

From Website

Add-ons extend Firefox, letting you personalize your browsing experience. Take a look around and make Firefox your own.

Related Articles

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Summary

FSI is an acronym for the Foreign Service Institute, "the (US) Federal Government's primary training institution for officers and support personnel of the U.S. foreign affairs community".

Over the years, the FSI has researched, designed and taught language courses to Foreign Service staff and diplomats. These courses are now available and licensed to the Public Domain.

FSI-Language-Courses.com (and .net) is a sweet and simple website that provides users with the ability to view and download the Foreign Service Institute's courses for 31+ languages. The content is provided by individuals donating time and resources in an overall effort to provide quality languages-learning materials for free worldwide.

Sounds good to me. :)

In the Hebrew section of the site, there is currently an entire level one audio course available. This course is for beginners and has 40 units.

From Website

Welcome to fsi-language-courses.com, the home for language courses developed by the Foreign Service Institute. These courses were developed by the United States government and are in the public domain.

This site is dedicated to making these language courses freely available in an electronic format. This site is not affiliated in any way with any government entity; it is an independent, non-profit effort to foster the learning of worldwide languages. Courses here are made available through the private efforts of individuals who are donating their time and resources to provide quality materials for language learning.

Visit FSI-Language-Courses.com Hebrew Courses.

Summary

LearnHebrewPod is a well-produced podcast with quality content for students of the Hebrew language. All of the audio is available for free download or streaming via a Flash player on the site. Some transcriptions are also available for free.

There is a membership section as well, which provides extra learning materials and all the transcriptions, etc.

The animateur of this podcast is a professional Biblical and Conversational Hebrew teacher, so the method is quite professional.

From Website

Honored with the privilege of being the instructor of this first Conversational Hebrew Course by Podcasts, I would love to share some of my personal thoughts and recent history with you.

For the past three years, I have been teaching Biblical and Conversational Hebrew in New York and New Jersey. English is almost considered a second language in Israel, so communicating with Americans in their own language has been a wonderful and enjoyable opportunity for me. Nevertheless, being far from home for a long period of time can create a longing for one's mother tongue. During these years, I came to realize how fortunate I am to have the opportunity to use and practice my Hebrew. Holding a teaching diploma from the University of Tel Aviv, I have been offered teaching positions in many different Jewish congregations, Christian institutes, as well as teaching various private students.

Many of these opportunities have revealed to me the fact that a lot of my students are very interested in studying and understanding Biblical Hebrew and are equally interested in Modern Conversational Hebrew, the language that had ceased to function as a living language more than 2000 years ago, and has made such an incredible "come back" during the 20th century!

As I conduct my life these days, "on the line" between Israel and the US, this "developed need" in me, to share my knowledge and technique of teaching Biblical and Conversational Hebrew, has definitely not faded. I find the opportunity of doing this on the Learn Hebrew Pod web site, especially as the State of Israel enters its 60th anniversary year, unique, satisfying and most pleasurable!

Teaching and studying a language are both acts of communication. Knowing others, understanding others, opening our selves up to another culture, approaching, reaching - acts of peace. Using podcasts and the Internet reinforce that fact, due to the amazing accessibility and democratic nature of these media. All in all, this is a web site that was created out of love, created for each and every one of you personally, while, at the same time, "at its root", it holds a global vision of peace and understanding.

Visit LearnHebrewPod.com

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Subscribe to LearnHebrewPod.
Subscribe to LearnHebrewPod via iTunes.
View LearnHebrewPod Feed on Free Language.

Summary

Hebrew Podcasts is a fresh new podcast resource for Hebrew learners. Currently, there are six lessons for beginner Hebrew learners on topics ranging from asking directions, school, alphabet, telling time and a family visit. Thus far, the lessons have been fairly consistent with about one new lesson every week and a half, and the quality of the production is good.

These podcasts are available for free, and there is a membership option for learners who want all of the transcripts and additional information and exercises.

It's great to see Hebrew podcasts emerging!

From Website

Hebrew Podcasts makes learning conversational Hebrew practical and enjoyable. Each podcast covers a topic with a Hebrew dialog that is explained in detail. You can learn at your leisure and on the go by listening while you rest, travel, or do your chores. Each lesson is further enhanced by a lesson guide that provides further information. The guide includes a full transcript, translation, explanations, additional examples, and exercises.

Visit HebrewPodcasts.com

Subscribe

Subscribe to Hebrew Podcasts.
Subscribe to Hebrew Podcasts via iTunes.
View Hebrew Podcasts Feed on Free Language.

Summary

Palabea is a social network site for practicing, learning, teaching and otherwise communicating in foreign languages. It has a beautiful site design and its features are quite strong.

After testing thoroughly the entire user interface, I am convinced that this is one of the most solid social language learning network platforms in cyberspace. It has a clean and friendly interface, the site loads quickly and the wide variety of features were well thought-out and executed.

The features include:

• uploading and sharing audio, video, photos and documents
• managing friends and meeting new people
• creating and partcipating in virtual classrooms
• watching videolectures, reading documents and listening to podcasts from other users
• calling friends and translating on the fly
• tool for recording audio and video right through their site!

There are plenty of others, too. And the team seems to be active in developing more features and improving upon those already available.

Palabea is currently ad-free! I'm not sure what their business model is, but they've partnered with Deutsche Welle, Babylon and Café Babel. They partnered with Babylon on the widget to translate on the fly while talking with someone (or just surfing), but I am not sure exactly how they are affiliated with the other two - both of which are very cool, by the way!

The site is localized in 6 languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish.

So congrats to the folks at Palabea! I know I'll be stopping in over there.

From Website

Learning a new language just became fun, easy and free.

palabea.net is an e-learning website and social community that offers opportunities to learn and practice foreign languages. It offers a wide range of tools and technologies which support its users with their learning endeavours, and allows people to communicate and learn about different cultures.

Changes in society triggered by the effects of globalization developed the need to learn and respect cultural diversity. To maintain a dialogue between people in different countries, and to forge multicultural relationships, learning foreign languages is essential. Some obstacles in learning a foreign language, including: lack of motivation and time, and high costs, but using palabea.net everyone has the opportunity to learn a foreign language and communicate with people around the world without leaving their home.

palabea.net users are able to:

- Access a portal of contents (video lessons, podcast and multimedia educational material), information on language schools, au pair opportunities and traveling abroad. More information will be added as the portal develops.

- Have online conversations in a foreign language: palabea users can easily find friends who share similar interests, and who will help them learn and practice languages. Users will be able to speak about any topics, or if they prefer, use lessons or situation games designed for to improve language skills -Practice comprehension with audio and video applications. The users can listen to podcasts in other languages or watch video lessons, which help explain grammatical aspects of the language. -Play teacher and assist others in learning their native language which allows for innovative ways in collaborative learning.

- Generate their own content, as individuals or a group. People can present themselves with information, pictures/videos. - Unlike other social networks, palabea.net offers an integrated video-chat system that appears on the page and doesn't require users to download an extra application. -palabea has created virtual classes to help users practice their written language skills. In these classes the users collaborate with documents and assist each in learning languages. These virtual classes can be created by a group of users, or if the user prefers, they can request the services of a professional language teacher.

Palabea.net complements traditional language schools rather than competing against them. It is another distinctive aspect of palabea.net, who from the outset, worked with many schools to help produce e-learning applications that are both be easy to use and effective.

Palabea.net was founded by Sebastian Schkudlara, Guido Veth and Patricia Sierra Fernandez in Berlin. The Palabea.net team is a small and international group of multilingual speakers, with three official languages: English, German and Spanish.

Visit Palabea.net