courses

The BBC has recently updated its BBC Languages resources! The new look and features are a considerable upgrade, making it easier to see all the resources available and get learning the languages you want to learn.

BBC Languages has always been a great place to access self-contained beginner courses in Chinese, German, Greek, French, Italian and Portuguese. There are also tidbits and goodies in other languages.

Recently, the BBC has revamped it's entire website for more flexibility, personalization and ease of use. In the languages section, this means it's easier than ever to find online courses, grammar info, learning games, dictionaries, self-assessment tests, resources for tutors, info about going abroad, photos, tips, stories, audio, video, related links, local class finder, cool/slang words and phrases... It's all there and packed with good content!

Also available are the Steps in 12 Weeks free email courses for French, German, Italian and Spanish. Plus, intermediate resources have been created for learning French and Spanish, with more languages to follow.

All in all, the BBC's momentum in the free online language-learning department is not slowing down. They consistently add new resources, new languages and interesting content for learners and educators/tutors alike.

Have a look at the new BBC Languages Website.

The BBC on Free Language

BBC Learning English
BBC Better at Languages

BBC Languages French
BBC Languages German
BBC Languages Italian
BBC Languages Portuguese
BBC Languages Spanish

BBC Afrique News in French
BBC Brasil News in Portuguese
BBC Mundo News in Spanish
BBC News in Arabic
BBC News in Chinese
BBC News in Farsi (Persian)
BBC News in Russian
BBC World News in English

Surfing about this morning and came across a helpful list of free online language courses on About.com. The first page covers Arabic, Armenian, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian and Japanese. Page 2 of the list continues with Korean, Latin, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish.

I was very happy to note that lots of the resources on this list are not yet on Free Language! You better believe they will be soon...

While surfing about today I can across a small but very useful list of resources for learning foreign language online for free.

Of special note (and these will be added to the Free Language main page soon) are MIT OpenCourseWare for Foreign Language and Literature and Carnegie Mellon University's Open Learning Intiative (French).

Just received an email with a link to a nice online Dutch course for beginners and advanced learners.

From Website

Dutch Language Course for Beginners

Is Dutch new to you? This is a beginner’s course for English speakers. The course includes:

• sound files for every letter in the Dutch alphabet
• many examples explanation of grammatical terms that are used a chapter about every word type (parts of speech)
• information on how to make Dutch sentences chapters about questions, negations, and syllables

Dutch is spoken in the Netherlands, Northern Belgium and Surinam.

Advanced Dutch Course

In this advanced course, all subjects of the beginner’s course are included. Therefore beginners can start here too, and it is possible to use this course as a reference. Additional subjects are for example:

• diminutives
• future tense, conditional mood, passive voice
• reflexive and reciprocal pronouns
• detailed description of compound sentences

If Dutch is new to you, you can start here as well. But you will come upon many subjects that are not at beginner’s level.

Visit Valley-Trail.com Online Dutch Courses and Lessons

Received an email about a great podcast for learning the Latin language.

From Website

The Online Latin Course. Learn Latin through Total Immersion. Download our free lessons to your MP3 player, and soak yourself through with the sounds of spoken Latin. Its the only way to rapidly aquire fluency. We offer free lessons in spoken Latin, an expanding repository of readings from classical texts, and a wide range of study materials for every level of learner.

Visit Latinum - The Latin Language Learning Podcast from London

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