Overview

We have just added a language faq section to Free Language! Here you can find many of your burning questions about languages in general and specific languages in particular.

This page is updated daily with fresh frequently asked questions, so be sure to visit back if your question has not yet been answered.

Visit FAQ Sections

Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese, Chinese (Mandarin), English, Farsi (Persian), French, German, Hindi, Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia), Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Body Language. Or view all language FAQs.

Update from ChinesePod.com

This just in from the folks at Praxis Language's ChinesePod:

1000 Lessons!

This month ChinesePod hit an exciting milestone: its 1,000th lesson! Many thanks go to our loyal Poddies for all their support over the last 1,000 podcasts, and especially for the countless creative and useful lesson ideas. We could never have made it without you! So, now that we've covered every topic from toilet talk to being abducted by aliens, we toast a glass of baijiu in your honor, and look forward to what's to come. Have a listen to our special celebratory podcast.

Congratulations!

ChinesePod really is an amazing and fun way to learn Mandarin. Take the tour and find out more!

French, Spanish, Italian and English too!

ChinesePod is the first podcast to be released by the Praxis Language team. Praxis Language bases its products on combined Web-based and mobile learning. Community, fresh media content, talented course design team, array of web-based tools for practice and review. A unique combination of media and method, it's no wonder thousands are using ChinesePod every day.

The success of ChinesePod has enabled the release and growth of FrenchPod, SpanishPod, Learn Italian with ItalianPod and Learn English with EnglishPod.

Praxis's podcast-driven, socially enhanced, user backed language-learning phenomenon is maturing elegantly!

I've just added two more podcasts from the LingQ Podcast Network: ChineseLingQ and ItalianLingQ.

I'd also like to point out LingQCentral, "where you'll find everything related to LingQ". It's the place to stay tuned to all things LingQ. They put out quite a lot of useful content and work very hard to create effective online resources for learning 10 foreign languages, so check them out!

Hopefully one day I will be able to interview Steve himself, though I don't know if he wants to talk to me again after I didn't follow through last time for multiple reasons. He sent me a copy of his book, which I read most of and enjoyed, but was overloaded with life at the time and didn't properly thank him. Steve: if you're out there, thanks and when you want to try again, just drop me a line. :)

LingQ Language Podcast Network

ChineseLingQ
EnglishLingQ
FrenchLingQ
GermanLingQ
ItalianLingQ
JapaneseLingQ
PortugueseLingQ
RussianLingQ
SpanishLingQ
SwedishLingQ

I recently added a podcast for learning Hindi and two articles on more resources from the BBC Languages website: German and Mandarin Chinese.

Namaste Dosti: The Learn Hindi Podcast for Grammar and Vocabulary for Beginners
BBC Languages Mandarin Chinese
BBC Languages German

Here are some of the latest additions to the front page. One of my favorites is the Deutsche Welle German InternetTV Miro Player!

Deutsche Welle Miro Player for Instant Access to DW's Audio and Video Content in German, English and More
BBCChinese.com BBC News in Mandarin Chinese
Simple English Wikipedia Free and Open Encyclopedia for Learning and Teaching through Topics Written in Basic English

Summary

Collins is one of the longest standing publishers of English and bilingual dictionaries. They are currently working to pioneer ways to publish dictionaries for today's world by rapidly increasing the availability of their products in digital format.

The company has created several high-quality, professional digital products that are offered through their online store. Free samples of these products are available for download through the site.

Two of the digital products they currently offer are very useful for travelers and language learners alike: iPhraseFinders and Collins 40-Minute Lessons.

iPhraseFinders are phrasebooks tailored specifically for the iPod. These are currently available in Windows and Mac format for English to the following languages: French, German, Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish. You can download free samples from the link above.

Collins 40-Minute Lessons are beginner lessons designed to empower learners with the essential phrases necessary to navigate daily life in a given foreign language. These lessons are available for English speakers interested in learning Arabic, Cantonese, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. Wow! You can download free samples from the link above.

I know from my experience of testing the free downloads that these digital products are indeed professional, high-quality, practical and useful.

The website also offers a free dictionary search feature, with more comprehensive commercial versions available.

From Website

Free English, Cobuild and Foreign Language Dictionary look-ups available. Subscribe to or download a dictionary to your desktop or mobile device. Learn a language fast with iPhrasefinders and audio courses for iPods and mobiles. Free trials available.

Find out about these products and more at CollinsLanguage.com