Summary

It's difficult to "summarize" the booming expansion that has occurred with the Kaufmann crew since "The Linguist" appeared on Free Language a year ago. That is why Free Language has numerous articles on the various websites and resources available through multilinguist Steve Kaufmann's web entelechy, including the many LinqQ [liŋk] podcasts, the LingQ method, revisiting The Linguist on Language and why not throw in a little thelinguist.com love, too. :)

This particular podcast is ItalianLingQ, a roughly weekly podcast with mp3 audio content for Italian language learners. Transcripts of the podcasts are available through LingQ.

From Website

What is ItalianLingQ?

First of all, the name itself (which is pronounced Italian Link) needs a little explaining. The first part, “Italian”, is fairly obvious since we teach Italian. LingQ is the name of our online learning system which you can find at LingQ.com. At LingQ you’ll study many different languages in a fun, community atmosphere. The “Ling” in LingQ comes from TheLinguist.com the people behind LingQ. Lastly, the “Q” is important because it forms the speech bubble in our logo and throughout our site and because it makes “lingq” sound like “link” (we think!) which is what our system does for you.

At ItalianLingQ...

. we LingQ you to a world of real Italian content
. we LingQ you to our revolutionary learning tools
. we LingQ you to a community of fellow Italian learners

Our podcasts may contain interviews, articles, or audiobook excerpts but are most often just general conversations in Italian. We will usually talk about topics of general interest. Please do send us feedback and topic requests. We’re always happy to hear from you.

After you listen to the podcast, sign up for a free account at LingQ (l-i-n-g-q.com) and study the full transcript using LingQ's revolutionary learning tools.

At LingQ, you may also want to submit writing for correction or join live 1 on 1 and group discussions with our tutors. Plus you will find thousands more podcasts with transcript. Come and find out what LingQ is all about!

Of course, even if you don’t decide to become a member, you can continue listening to the podcasts as long as you like.

Visit ItalianLingQ.com

Subscribe

Subscribe to ItalianLingQ Podcast.
Subscribe to ItalianLingQ Podcast via iTunes.

LingQ Podcast Network

EnglishLingQ
FrenchLingQ
GermanLingQ
ItalianLingQ
JapaneseLingQ
PortugueseLingQ
RussianLingQ
SpanishLingQ
SwedishLingQ

Summary

Babbel.com is the bomb. Not babble or Babel but Babbel! It's a website with slick tools and a smooth interface (modeled after a video game console) geared primarily towards learning and retaining loads of vocabulary terms and key phrases through audio visual.

The interface is pure eye candy and it loads quickly (I use a standard DSL connection) and works solidly. I have been testing Babbel out for a while now and it has never gotten buggy on me. The system tests me on terms and phrases I have already learned while incorporating new ones about topics that I elect and, thus, are more likely to be interesting and useful to me.

This excellent virtual flash card software also allows users to upload images to represent vocabulary items (be they nouns, verbs, phrases or what have you) and improve the learning experience for others. Users rate these images on how relevant they are for the term they represent, collectively choosing what most people feel best represents that term or phrase.

The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat a common theme, such as youth hostels, winter sports, restaurants and eating out, fruits and vegetables, clothing, standard greetings, giving and receiving compliments, etc. With input and contributions from the users, these packages get consistently better as more folks contribute.

Add to this the social twist that Babbel offers - the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing language skills - and you have a well-rounded platform for beginners to excel rapidly in their first weeks and months working with a new language.

Currently, Babbel offers these features for learners of English, French, German, Italian and Spanish. This site is also localized in those languages, so if you like a challenge you can learn German in French, study Spanish in Italian, etc. This is cool for people who already have enough knowledge in a foreign language to understand and navigate the interface and can simultaneously maintain one language while learning a new one! I am learning German through the site, and I have chosen German as the interface language. That's another option for total immersion in the target language.

Thanks and many props to the folks at Babbel. :) I will definitely continue using the site to learn German - and I'll be waiting for more languages to appear on soon.

NB: Babbel isn't just a website, it is a full Web-software-powered environment for foreign language learning built with Flex. You'll need the latest Adobe Flash Player for your browser to enter the learning space. I recommend using Firefox for the best possible browsing experience.

From Website

Babbel.com Brings the Whole World Home

A new website with a social twist makes language learning easy and fun

Up until now, the best way to learn a language -- besides, maybe, in the classroom -- was to pack a bag, get on a plane or a train, and immerse yourself abroad. But what if you could learn, say, French, while eating a croissant in your own home and meet a real Parisienne in the process?

The idea of Babbel.com, the new, free language learning website with a social twist, is just that. This playful application is ideal for a quick start into a new language. With a design inspired by a game console, Babbel makes picking up new vocabulary effortless. But it also enriches and motivates by connecting you with the best teachers around: other Babbel users.

Babbel is truly multimedia, incorporating human voices and user-generated images into the teaching of real-life vocabulary. In Babbel's current languages of English, German, Spanish, French and Italian, you can learn, for example, how to shop for groceries, express your feelings, or flirt. In place of the traditional flash cards, an effective and "intuitive" repetition system makes cementing new content easy. Meanwhile, the unique Refresher tool tracks your learning progress and reminds you what to review.

A participatory experience, Babbel relies on you and its other users to create much of its content. Through a clean, easy-to-use interface, you can make a personal profile, finding a a "Tandem" partner who speaks the language you are learning as a native, or a "learning partner" studying the same language. You also can upload pictures that correspond to vocabulary, and then their relevance is voted on by native speakers before they are included in lesson packages. An extra fun aspect is a high-score tracker, which compares your progress with other users, like a video game.

And now, a new Board multiplies the opportunities for connecting by allowing you to chat real-time about -- or in -- your learning language. It has a section to find and check translations, search for alternatives to fixed phrases, or express spelling or grammatical doubts. There, you can also get in contact with people living in places you may be traveling, ask for tips, or even find a couch to crash on!

As users progress in their language studies, Babbel is fast developing, too. It has just launched full localized interfaces for native Spanish and French speakers, in addition to the current English and German ones.

Babbel is enthusiastically designed by a team of young software experts and language-instruction professionals at the Berlin-based company Lesson Nine. Founders Thomas Holl and Toine Diepstraten have many years of application development, IT management, community cultivation and interactive media experience. The other two founders, Lorenz Heine, was a co-founder and CFO of Native Instruments, and has extensive entrepreneurial experience in the software industry, while Markus Witte has online marketing and management experience, and a solid academic grounding in language, cultural theory and media. Content Manager Ulrike Kerbstat holds Master's degrees in language instruction and interpreting, and is fluent in German, English and French.

Through word-of-mouth, positive response from users, and excitement in the worldwide media, the number of Babbel users has increased at an astounding rate in places as far-flung as Caracas, Manhattan and Mumbai. And the best part is that, for the time being, learning for example how to order a Tapa in a Spanish bar costs a lot less than flying to Madrid: It's free.

Visit Babbel.com and start learning a new language in seconds.

Summary

Café Babel is a multilingual European political, economic and cultural news magazine published by over 20 local teams in many EU countries. The site has news, cultural and linguistic goodies in catalá, Deutsch, English, español, français, italiano and polski.

Café Babel publishes several mini-magazines that bring light to several topics:

• Caffeine
• Tower of Babel (Very cool!)
• Enlarged Europe
• Brunch with...
• Cities
• What's On

The growing network of local teams that makes up Café Babel are European youths interested in and focused on trans-European world affairs, politics, society, economy and culture. To get a more personal look at some of the members of this team (the ladies, at least), have a look at this flickr photo album of The Women of Café Babel. Pretty cool, and it makes it more personal. (Miglena, Araceli, Camelia: if you read this drop me a line. :)

This particular news feed is the Italian language site-wide RSS feed. You can use it to keep up with what's hot over at Café Babel and practice your Italian or give students some current events to work with. Many of the articles are written in multiple languages, providing learners and educators alike with excellent material.

From Website

cafebabel.com is made up of a network of local teams across Europe. Bringing together young people from across the continent, this network aims to contribute to the construction of pan-European public opinion through the cafebabel.com magazine.

The local teams are cafebabel.com’s backbone. Their function? To propose subjects for issues, articles and interviews; to recruit writers and translators; to promote cafebabel.com; and to organise ‘café debates’ and events. Interested in setting up a local cafebabel.com team?

Visit CaféBabel.com

Subscribe

Subscribe to CaféBabel News in Italian
View CaféBabel News in Italian's Feed on Free Language.

Summary

lingro is a truly useful site with a decidedly free and open approach to multi-lingual dictionaries and online web translation. It provides users with quick and powerful online translation dictionaries and study tools, vocabulary lists and games. The site is "committed to building the Web's largest collection of open dictionaries."

I was struck by the straight-forward, no nonsense approach to open content. The site content is empowered and protected by the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 License. In short, this means the multilingual dictionaries can be copied, adapted and distributed with proper attribution. Equally, content editors must allow their additions to continue to be worked with under the same license. Thus, in an open and free way, lingro appeals to the users for help in creating "relevant translations and definitions" for the these language translation dictionaries.

lingro's website is fast-loading, taking advantage of solid web technology to allow translations to be performed and wordlists to be created without reloading multiple web pages. This can improve productivity considerably for folks with slower internet connections.

Additionally, other sites can be browsed right through the lingro website by typing in the web address in the bottom bar. (View Free Language in Lingro.) This allows any word on the page to be instantly translated when highlighted, and quickly added to a user's vocabulary lists. These lists can then be used in games that aid in memorization. Browsing other sites this way slows down the overall browsing experience, but if language-learning is the goal while reading content from anywhere on the web, lingro effectively adds learning tools to the exercise.

Currently, lingro offers tools and dictionaries for English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Polish, with more languages on the horizon.

Bravo to the folks at lingro! :)

From Website

lingro's mission is to create an open and free on-line environment for language learners worldwide. In addition to developing exceptional study tools and games, we're committed to creating and maintaining the largest collection of open dictionaries.

The dictionaries we're creating and improving are all available under free licenses to make sure that they will remain useful to the on-line community forever. This means that you will always be able to download and use any of our complete dictionaries to your computer or PDA free of charge!

lingro's programmers have developed many tools to help ensure that our dictionaries will provide you with relevant translations and definitions. However, maintaining and improving dictionaries requires continuous effort, both from us and from our great community.

We're in the process of building detailed pages for each dictionary, allowing our users to add and improve the most imporant translations.

lingro was conceived in August 2005, when Artur decided to practice his Spanish by reading Harry Potter y la piedra filosofál. As a competent but non-expert speaker, he found that looking up new vocabulary took much more time than the reading itself. Frustrated with how slow existing online dictionaries were, he wrote a program to help him translate and learn words in their original context.

lingro's mission is to create an on-line environment that allows anyone learning a language to quickly look up and learn the vocabulary most important to them. Whenever we're developing new tools for lingro or planning the next big step, there are two principles we always consider:

• Knowledge and information essential to human communication and interaction should be free and accessible to everyone. This is why we created the most comprehensive set of free dictionaries available under open licenses so that anyone can contribute, download, redistribute, and modify the dictionaries for their own needs. These licenses guarantee that they will always remain free and useful to society.

• To have the best dictionaries, you need to have the best tools. Every tool we create, from games, quizzes, and study tools to in-context word lookup is designed for you, the user. To us, this means that they should be intuitive, fast, easy to use, and hopefully fun. :-)

Visit lingro.com

Related Internal Links

Resources Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License

Related External Links

Wikipedia Article on Open Content
Wiktionary the Open Dictionary
FreeDict Free Bilingual Dictionaries
Beolingus Dictionary Wörterbuch dicciónario
Liquid Learning is where I found out about lingro.

Rosetta Stone Italian Level 1 With over 3500 real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons, Italian Level 1, Personal Edition provides up to 250 hours of mastery instruction in Listening Comprehension, Reading, Speaking, and Writing. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. Previews, exercises and tests accompany every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program. Level 1, Personal Edition provides instruction in such categories as People and Talking; Directions; Food, Eating and Drinking; Family Relationships; Telling Time; Numbers to One Hundred; Clothing and Dress; Vehicles, Furniture and Instruments; Shapes, Colors and Location; And Much More. Italian Level 1, Personal Edition comes complete with an illustrated User's Guide and a Curriculum Text book.

Comments

Rosetta Stone has made a name for itself selling proprietary software that allows people to quickly and easily learn languages interactively.

You may have seen them selling their wares in the airport or on TV.

Software License

Rosetta Stone is proprietary software.

View specific license for your country.

Not to be confused with the Free Software GPL Rosetta Stone Library.