Learn Irish Gaelic

Language Learning Tips on Using Free Wikimedia Resources

This article points out six useful ways to use Wikimedia content from Wikipedia, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikinews, Wiktionary and Wikiquotes for learning languages free.

What's highlighted here is also great for teachers because it is licensed via Creative Commons and available to use for free.

Spanish is used as an example here, but the same ideas are applicable to all languages for which content is available.

1) Know General Info about Your Target Language

Find out general information about a language by viewing that language's Wikipedia entry. For example, here's the Spanish language entry on Wikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language

It contains loads of general information, as well as specifics about grammar, alphabet, pronunciation, etc.

2) Use Wikibooks and Wikiversity Courses to Get Started

Learn Survival Irish

Wikitravel users have collectively created a free Irish phrasebook with the goal of making it possible for travelers to "get by" while traveling in areas where Irish is spoken.

Wikitravel phrasebooks are available in many languages and each one varies in depth and detail. Most of the phrasebooks include a pronunciation guide, a general phrase list, information about dates and numbers, a color list, transportation-related phrases, vocabulary for shopping and phrases for eating and drinking. Some are even more in depth, and all are free!

Google's Free Translation Engine

Google has an amazing machine translation engine which is also available via their mobile translation website and now available as an android app.

Available in over fifty languages, Google Translate is able to handle words, sentences, paragraphs, websites and documents. Their mobile website is fast and easy to use, and the Android App makes it all available natively on your Android Phone.

From Website

Listen to Words in Dozens of Languages

Forvo is an interesting project which accumulates recordings of existing words in all languages. A lofty and, indeed, ongoing goal!

Language learners interested in finding out just how a word is actually pronounced by a native speaker of a given language will love this website!

Have a look at the languages page and you can quickly see which languages have the most words. There is a handy tag cloud on the side of the page which will show you in a visual way which languages have more words already pronounced.

And if you're interested, feel free to contribute to this collective pronunciation effort!