Linglot

Eleena from Voices of Español has been commenting on some of my posts here, and I discovered her excellent blog and podcast. I’m really shocked that I didn’t see this before, as it seems to be a fantastic site. It is written bilingually, with both English and Spanish versions, and the Spanish version is good practice for me. The podcasts are great, and can be listened to via the online flash player if you don’t have iTunes. This is pretty handy, especially for me while at the university computer lab, where iTunes isn’t installed. For archiving and putting on an iPod or other mp3 player, iTunes makes it easy to download all of the episodes.

The only thing I’m wondering about (it’s not a complaint, just a curiosity), is why does the author speak in her podcasts with the ceceo? She is from the United States, but speaks Spanish with the accent of someone from Madrid. This accent isn’t common in the USA, or the majority of Central and South America, for that matter. Perhaps she just likes the sound of it. I personally prefer the sound of the seseo.

One day while browsing my favorite store ever, Barnes and Noble, I checked the clearance shelf, and sitting there was Michel Thomas Spanish Language Builder. It was cheap, so I thought I’d try it out. When I first listened to it, I knew I was hooked.

I listened to the CDs and read the accompanying manual over and over until I had the entire thing committed to memory. And that didn’t really take very long, because (in my experience) the Michel Thomas method is really effective. After I had mastered this, I went to the library and checked out a ton of Spanish learning material, and also found some free podcasts on iTunes. I basically tried to completely immerse myself in the language, as that’s the way to be the most successful when studying language.

And so here I am, working on my second foreign language, and also tinkering with a couple others. My experience in Spanish has made other languages easier to learn. I believe that when a second language is mastered, others are easier to learn, even if they are not even related. I’m not completely fluent in Spanish yet, but I can converse and read quite well. I still dedicate 20 minutes or so each day to it, and frequently chat with Spanish speakers via SharedTalk, instant messenger, and on IRC (Internet Relay Chat).

I’ve never taken a language class, and all of my language education has been self-taught. I’ve been considering taking a conversational Spanish class at the college here sometime, because I don’t get consistent opportunities to meet with people and talk in Spanish. As I said, complete immersion is the key to being successful in a language, and the more ways that can be found to practice and study a language, the easier it will be and the less time it will take.

Learning is an ongoing process, and there always are new things to learn.

It can be hard sometimes to find quality learning material, and it’s very frustrating to buy something only to find out that it’s a piece of crap.

I have launched a store featuring language-learning products that I have found to be extremely useful (even essential), and also products that I’ve read good reviews about and am considering adding to my library. Below is a sample of the products available in the new store.

Sales are handled through Amazon.com, so they are as secure as can be. I get a small commission (currently 4%) per item sold, so if you like this site and are interested in supporting it, I’d really appreciate it if you buy through the store.

It’s still a work in progress, and new things are continually being added, so be sure to check back often!

Everybody loves free stuff, me especially, and I can never pass up the opportunity for free language-learning material. FSI-Language-Courses.com is the home for language courses developed by the US Government, with the taxpayer’s dollar (okay, so they’re not entirely free..), and are public domain, meaning there are no copyrights in place and the material can be traded freely.

There are over 30 language courses available, from Spanish to Thai to Hungarian, and more are continually added. They are organized into lessons in mp3 format, with accompanying text in PDF format. The lessons are of pretty good quality, and are organized well. They can be burned to CD or added to an iPod, and the text can be printed out or read on a PDF reader.

Definitely worth the time and blank CDs.

Brought to you by the same people who brought Rosetta Stone language education software, SharedTalk is a highly-interactive community where people from all nations of the world can come together and learn languages from each other. Users create an account and a profile on the site detailing their language interests and experience, and the system makes it easy for them to match up with other users who know the target language, and vice versa.

There is a text chat platform, with chat rooms for several languages, as well as a “multi-language” room for conversation in any language. In addition, when I logged into the chat system, I received several requests for one-on-one mutual learning. I got to have conversations with native speakers of Spanish (I was working on my Spanish) who wanted to learn English. It was a win-win situation.

For those who don’t care for the chat room environment, messages can be sent e-mail style on the website to other SharedTalk users. Language partners can be found with an easy-to-use search box. Searching for Spanish partners brought up an impressive list of over 8,400. So, there’s no shortage of people to interact with. You can read their profiles, where they’re from, and if you’re interested in contacting them you can do so with the on-site message system.

Also, there is a voice chat system. It’s not very popular yet, but it’s still new, and I think there is a lot of potential for it. Voice chat would be excellent for working on one’s listening comprehension and accent. I have heard of people doing this via Skype, and reporting it as essential to their language success.

SharedTalk is completely free, and is a neat community with a nicely-designed, modern website.