A guest article by author Susanna Zaraysky.

The radio, TV and You Tube are free. Use them to learn languages for free.

Music engages more parts of the brain than language does. Use music to help you learn and remember your new language.

Just turn on your radio, relax and get in the groove of your new tongue. Paying attention to media in your target language introduces you to the phonetical and grammatical structure of your target language. After you get used to the melodies of your new languages, then you can insert the grammar and vocabulary. Listen first. Speak later.

Enjoy the learning process and you will learn much more.

Tips on How to Learn a Foreign Language Using The Media for Free 1. Listen Carefully

Learning a new language means you have to change your key and tune. Dancing the cha-cha to waltz music is like speaking a new language, while still using the rhythm of your mother tongue. Let yourself take in the sounds of the language as though you were listening to a new piece of music. Even if you are just a beginner and barely know any words, you can still learn by listening. Pay attention to how people speak. Does it seem like they are reading a phone number or rattling of a list of numbers? Are they angry? Happy? Sometimes, you have to shut off your brain and inclination to interpret to analyze. Listen to the words spoken and to your intuition.

2. Relax and Just Listen

Find music in your target language that you like. It does not matter if at first you do not understand the lyrics. You may start singing along without even knowing what you are singing. You are not only learning the rhythm of the language, you are learning new vocabulary.

Relax and close your eyes. Turn off the lights. Lie down or sit in a comfortable position. Do not try to understand the words, just listen. You might fall asleep or daydream. Give yourself the time to simply listen and not do anything else. Your mind needs to be calm in order to absorb the sounds. Your ears need no other distractions to let them properly hear all the high, medium and low frequencies of the language. Do this regularly.

3. As You Listen Write Down the Lyrics

Listen to music with the lights on, your eyes open and a pencil in hand. Write the lyrics of the songs while listening. You will have to pause the music and rewind or repeat many times to get the words down. Some words will be hard to write because they may be idioms or slang that you have not learned yet, but just write as much as you can understand.

Do not be frustrated with obscure words. Compare the lyrics you noted with the original song and see how well you were able to understand the song. Some CDs come with the lyrics inside the CD case. If you do not have them, look for them online on lyrics websites. Once you have your version of the lyrics and the original, you can see how much you were able to understand from listening to the song. Use your dictionary to translate the words you do not know.

4. Listen to the Radio in this New Language

When you start listening to radio broadcasts, the radio announcers may sound like they are emitting a stream or storm of sounds and not individual words. In time, you will hear familiar words repeated and will learn to distinguish them. You can actively listen to the radio attentively and take notes, listen to it in the background or just close your eyes to listen without straining yourself to understand.

5. Find You Tube videos in other languages

Go on You tube and find music in your target language that you like. Some videos even come with subtitles in the target language or in translation. Look for the lyrics of the song by doing a search online. Type in the name of the song and “lyrics”. The videos may also help you understand what the song is about. This is especially important for visual learners.

6. Watch TV Daily!

Let's say you are learning Spanish. You have found a local Spanish language TV station in your area or you are watching the national Univision news. Even without knowing all the words, you will be able to get the gist of some of the news reports. The images and video footage of events already tell you what the news announcers are talking about. Tune into how they are speaking and the words they are using to describe the images on screen.

Even if you cannot watch TV all the time, it is all right to do errands around the house as you listen to the TV in the background. Think of the TV as background music like you would hear in a cafê or restaurant. Even though it is not at the forefront of your consciousness, your brain is still processing it and getting used to the flow of the language.

So go forth, turn up the music and turn on the language-learning!

You can find out more info about Language is Music online at:

www.languageismusic.com
www.createyourworldbooks.com

About the Author

Susanna speaks seven languages (English, Russian, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, and Serbo-Croatian) with excellent accents because she learn languages like she learns music. She has also studied Hungarian, Hebrew and Arabic. After teaching English in Argentina, Bosnia and the United States, she realized how to make foreign language learning fun and easy through listening exercises and music.

Susanna's Books

Language is Music
Travel Happy, Budget Low

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For those interested in investing in their Spanish education, Freestyle Spanish is a new project that's being worked on by one of the guys at Free Language.

Basically, the idea is to put together all of the existing Spanish language products in one place so people know what they're looking for. Still in it's infant stages, this is just to let people know it's live and being worked on.

Also involved is a developing language learning method, called the Freestyle Spanish Method. Read more below on this.

From Website

The days of one-stop language learning solutions are over. Spanish does not exist in a vacuum. Now you bring together what you need to learn the Spanish you want to speak. You can manage this by basing your studies on the kinds of things you want to read, hear, talk about and perhaps see.
The Freedom to Choose

* Use good tools and materials to build a solid foundation in Spanish.
* Cater Spanish study topics to your individual interests and needs.
* Create a steady flow of interesting Spanish content from wherever you choose.
* Grow your personal vocabulary by exposing yourself to this content consistently.
* Work to become comfortable writing and talking about your chosen interests in Spanish.
* Keep it real and put it to practice through language exchange.

Visit Freestyle Spanish.

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Babbel, the online language learning system, has just introduced some themed language courses that deal with soccer and the World Cup.

They contain special words and exercises to get ready for the sporting event, so you can explain the offside trap to a French fan in his native tongue, or – after a quick vocabulary check on the iPhone –, argue with a Spaniard over the incompetent referee.

The service is available online and on the iPhone for English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish.

Sign up for a free Babbel account and try out the World Cup soccer language course!

Press Release

Babbel Kicks Off a World Cup Course – Foreign Language Learning for Soccer Fans
Seven-lesson course to prepare for the World Cup
Soccer vocabulary on your iPhone with Babbel Mobile
Training in seven languages, making for 42 language combinations

BERLIN, May 19, 2010: This year, there’s just one international language: Soccer. But for whoever might be interested in any other language, the online platform Babbel now offers the Mini-Course “World Cup” in French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese. The Vocabulary for the World Cup contains special words and exercises to get ready for the big soccer event, so you can explain the offside trap to a French fan in his native tongue, or after a quick vocabulary check on the iPhone, argue with a Spaniard over the incompetent referee.

It’s high time there was a little international understanding: Follow the match together, talk shop over the team lineup, or celebrate a goal. The Mini Course on Babbel is made up of three Courses and four new Vocabulary Packages. They bring together all the most important soccer vocabulary on your iPhone or online for convenient learning in your free time

Penalty Kick!

The World Cup Course contains seven short lessons. The first has useful words and phrases about soccer and can be tested for free. And for anyone who wants to give a fuller account of fouls to the Tifosi in the sports bar around the corner, there’s “Advanced World Cup”.

This special language Course is available in 42 language combinations. So any soccer freak can learn words and phrases in one of seven languages. With the Babbel Mobile app, you can learn the Packages easily on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Visit Babbel.com

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We are asked this question quite a lot, and truthfully the answer is not simple. The fact is, a lot depends on what language you are learning and how you learn best.

That said, if you are learning English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish or Swedish, one of the very best triple-faceted combinations of an online learning platform (a "web software"), an offline desktop application and an iPod Touch/iPhone/iPad app we've come across is Babbel.

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Furthermore, an intelligent system organizes all the vocabulary words you've learned. You get a comprehensive overview of everything you've studied - and it signals which are your problem words so you'll know you need to practice them again. This syncs seamlessly with the Babbel Refresh desktop application as well, using your personalized Vocabulary list to calculate reminders for what's best to review next and how often. Wow - talk about helpful!

Add to all of this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing and exchanging language skills, and you have a dynamic Italian-education platform that covers all the bases.

Go ahead and try a Babbel lesson free and see if it works for you. You can select one of various options for your free lesson, too. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible - online, offline and on the go.

If you're interested in our more in-depth reviews of Babbel for the particular language you are learning, have a look at the articles we've published lately:

Babbel English
Babbel French
Babbel German
Babbel Italian
Babbel Portuguese
Babbel Spanish
Babbel Swedish

And we also reviewed Babbel over two years ago - when it was in its nascent stages - for our social language learning section. View this review article with even more info here.

By the way, did you think we were going to say Rosetta Stone? Well, Babbel costs between $6.62 and $11.95 USD per month depending on your subscription option. Compare that that with a whopping $539 for a full Rosetta Stone course, and you could be using Babbel for 67+ months at that price! If you can't get ahead in 67 months using Babbel, we suggest you'd better move to a country where the language you're learning is spoken! After all, nothing can top true immersion, but using Babbel's socially interactive community is about as close as you can get without catching a plane.

Finally, what if you're learning something other than the languages Babbel has to offer? Well, we're going to address that very soon, so please subscribe to our newsletter and/or RSS feed to be the first to know.

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Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning Italian.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your Italian learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual Italian learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study Italian on your mobile device - even if you're offline! Babbel Mobile is free to download for everybody, and access to the Vocabulary is available for free for those who already are subscribers to Babbel. If you're not on Babbel, you can purchase the vocabulary as a stand alone app, which has 3000 words and phrases, for a onetime $7.99 USD.

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Furthermore, an intelligent system organizes all the vocabulary words you've learned. You get a comprehensive overview of everything you've studied - and it signals which are your problem words so you'll know you need to practice them again. This syncs seamlessly with the Babbel Refresh desktop application as well, using your personalized Vocabulary list to calculate reminders for what's best to review next and how often. Wow - talk about helpful!

Add to all of this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing and exchanging language skills, and you have a dynamic Italian-education platform that covers all the bases.

In addition to Italian, Babbel is available for learning Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, German, Spanish and Swedish.

So try a Babbel lesson free and see if it works for you. You can select one of various options for your free lesson, too. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible.

Treat yourself and have some fun learning Italian - go Babbel!

Free or Subscription?

Let's face it: finding resource online for learning Italian is not quite like Spanish or French - it can be tough and take valuable time you could be using to learn! Thus it's well worth subscribing to a paid service to truly open the doors to your virtual classroom.

Having researched and tested free and paid options extensively, we definitely say that Babbel sits right at the top of your options - it's incredibly fun and intuitive, offers online and offline solutions and is amazingly fairly priced: between $6.62 and $11.95 USD per month depending on your subscription option. (Compare that with $539 for the full Rosetta Stone Italian course, for example. You could use Babbel for 67+ months at that price!)

For most people's needs, we recommend the 3-month option which runs $7.95 per month. It's a great way to leap ahead.

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read more

Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning English.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your English learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual English learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study English on your mobile device - even if you're offline! Babbel Mobile is free to download for everybody, and access to the Vocabulary is available for free for those who already are subscribers to Babbel. If you're not on Babbel, you can purchase the vocabulary as a stand alone app, which has 3000 words and phrases, for a onetime $7.99 USD.

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Furthermore, an intelligent system organizes all the vocabulary words you've learned. You get a comprehensive overview of everything you've studied - and it signals which are your problem words so you'll know you need to practice them again. This syncs seamlessly with the Babbel Refresh desktop application as well, using your personalized Vocabulary list to calculate reminders for what's best to review next and how often. Wow - talk about helpful!

Add to all of this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing and exchanging language skills, and you have a dynamic English-education platform that covers all the bases.

In addition to English, Babbel is available for learning Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.

So try a Babbel lesson free and see if it works for you. You can select one of various options for your free lesson, too. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible.

Treat yourself and have some fun learning English - go Babbel!

Free or Subscription?

Wading through the resources for learning English online is tough! Thus it's well worth subscribing to a paid service to truly open the doors to your virtual classroom.

Having researched and tested free and paid options extensively, we definitely say that Babbel sits right at the top of your options - it's incredibly fun and intuitive, offers online and offline solutions and is amazingly fairly priced: between $6.62 and $11.95 USD per month depending on your subscription option. (Compare that with $539 for the full Rosetta Stone English course, for example. You could use Babbel for 67+ months - that's over 5 years - at that price!)

For most people's needs, we recommend the 3-month option which runs $7.95 per month. It's a great way to leap ahead.

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read more

Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning Swedish.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your Swedish learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual Swedish learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study Swedish on your mobile device - even if you're offline! Babbel Mobile is free to download for everybody, and access to the Vocabulary is available for free for those who already are subscribers to Babbel. If you're not on Babbel, you can purchase the vocabulary as a stand alone app, which has 3000 words and phrases, for a onetime $7.99 USD.

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Furthermore, an intelligent system organizes all the vocabulary words you've learned. You get a comprehensive overview of everything you've studied - and it signals which are your problem words so you'll know you need to practice them again. This syncs seamlessly with the Babbel Refresh desktop application as well, using your personalized Vocabulary list to calculate reminders for what's best to review next and how often. Wow - talk about helpful!

Add to all of this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing and exchanging language skills, and you have a dynamic Swedish-education platform that covers all the bases.

In addition to Swedish, Babbel is available for learning Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

So try a Babbel lesson free and see if it works for you. You can select one of various options for your free lesson, too. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible.

Treat yourself and have some fun learning Swedish - go Babbel!

Free or Subscription?

Let's face it: finding resource online for learning Swedish is not quite like Spanish or French - it's tough! Thus it's well worth subscribing to a paid service to truly open the doors to your virtual classroom.

Having researched and tested free and paid options extensively, we definitely say that Babbel sits right at the top of your options - it's incredibly fun and intuitive, offers online and offline solutions and is amazingly fairly priced: between $6.62 and $11.95 USD per month depending on your subscription option. (Compare that with $539 for the full Rosetta Stone Swedish course, for example. You could use Babbel for 67+ months at that price!)

For most people's needs, we recommend the 3-month option which runs $7.95 per month. It's a great way to leap ahead.

Advertisement:

read more

Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning Portuguese.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your Portuguese learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual Portuguese learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study Portuguese on your mobile device - even if you're offline! Babbel Mobile is free to download for everybody, and access to the Vocabulary is available for free for those who already are subscribers to Babbel. If you're not on Babbel, you can purchase the vocabulary as a stand alone app, which has 3000 words and phrases, for a onetime $7.99 USD.

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Furthermore, an intelligent system organizes all the vocabulary words you've learned. You get a comprehensive overview of everything you've studied - and it signals which are your problem words so you'll know you need to practice them again. This syncs seamlessly with the Babbel Refresh desktop application as well, using your personalized Vocabulary list to calculate reminders for what's best to review next and how often. Wow - talk about helpful!

Add to all of this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing and exchanging language skills, and you have a dynamic Portuguese-education platform that covers all the bases.

In addition to Portuguese, Babbel is available for learning English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.

So try a Babbel lesson free and see if it works for you. You can select one of various options for your free lesson, too. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible.

Treat yourself and have some fun learning Portuguese - go Babbel!

Free or Subscription?

Wading through the options for learning Portuguese online (and off) can be difficult. Thus it's well worth subscribing to a paid service to truly open the doors to your virtual classroom.

Having researched and tested free and paid options extensively, we definitely say that Babbel sits right at the top of your options - it's incredibly fun and intuitive, offers online and offline solutions and is amazingly fairly priced: between $6.62 and $11.95 USD per month depending on your subscription option. (Compare that with $539 for the full Rosetta Stone Portuguese course, for example. You could use Babbel for 67+ months at that price!)

For most people's needs, we recommend the 3-month option which runs $7.95 per month. It's a great way to leap ahead.

From Website

Language Learning Made Simple

Babbel is a comprehensive system that combines effective language learning methods with state-of-the-art technology.

• Interactive and entertaining: Fun makes learning easy
• Diverse kinds of exercises with images, text, and audio
• Additional access on your iPhone, iPhone Touch or iPad
• Downloadable vocabulary trainer
• Bite-sized units, long-term retention

Babbel is based on a combination of educational methodology and state-of-the-art technology that makes learning languages easy. Lively multi-media courses and exercises are not only fun, but make for enduring success. The learning system determines your level and offers you a selection of courses appropriate to your abilities and interests. Whether on Babbel.com, on Babbel Mobile or with Babbel Refresh for Windows and Mac OS, with Babbel you can learn easily.

One of the things that makes Babbel unique has always been its high degree of personalization: Babbel’s features keep track and tailor themselves to each learner’s individual progress.

All the words and phrases you’ve ever studied on Babbel are added to your personal Vocabulary. Then, by encouraging you to review items at optimal intervals, a sophisticated Review Manager further helps you to commit vocabulary to long-term memory. It tracks your successes and errors, and calculates what is best to review, when. This innovative system not only makes learning close to effortless, but also makes it a lot more efficient.

Babbel Refresh

We at Babbel think that in order to make progress in learning, it’s important to stay present with the language. That means, instead of straining to slog through long lessons, it can actually be more efficient to review with short, bite-sized units — as long as they’re consistent and evenly spaced.

With this in mind, we’ve innovated Babbel Refresh, an application that you download and run locally on your computer. It individually calculates optimal intervals between sessions, chooses words and phrases from your Personal Vocabulary that are due to review, and gently reminds you to engage with the language you are studying. It’s a great tool for staying motivated!

Babbel Mobile

We are excited to announce that with some new features and software clients, we have just made a leap toward becoming a language learning system unlike any other.

Babbel has never been just a website, but was rather built as a server client application. It’s no wonder, then, that we’d develop new platforms. Our objective has always been to make learning as simple, accessible and effective as possible using today’s state-of-the-art methods and technologies.

We’ve created Babbel Mobile, an iPhone app that can be used alone or as a complement to Babbel.com. You can now refresh your vocabulary anywhere and anytime, whether or not you’re on the internet. Then, with Babbel Refresh, the new desktop application for PC and Mac, you’ll always remember to review. Thirdly, a new list-view of your Personal Vocabulary also makes it simple to print out a vocabulary list, to remove words from the Refresher system or to get a full overview of your learning progress.

Visit Babbel.com

Advertisement:

Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning French.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your French learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual French learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study French on your mobile device - even if you're offline! Babbel Mobile is free to download for everybody, and access to the Vocabulary is available for free for those who already are subscribers to Babbel. If you're not on Babbel, you can purchase the vocabulary as a stand alone app, which has 3000 words and phrases, for a onetime $7.99 USD.

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Furthermore, an intelligent system organizes all the vocabulary words you've learned. You get a comprehensive overview of everything you've studied - and it signals which are your problem words so you'll know you need to practice them again. This syncs seamlessly with the Babbel Refresh desktop application as well, using your personalized Vocabulary list to calculate reminders for what's best to review next and how often. Wow - talk about helpful!

Add to all of this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing and exchanging language skills, and you have a dynamic French-education platform that covers all the bases.

In addition to French, Babbel is available for learning Brazilian Portuguese, English, German, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.

So try a Babbel lesson free and see if it works for you. You can select one of various options for your free lesson, too. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible.

Treat yourself and have some fun learning French - go Babbel!

Free or Subscription?

Wading through the options for learning French online (and off) can be difficult. Thus it's well worth subscribing to a paid service to truly open the doors to your virtual classroom.

Having researched and tested free and paid options extensively, we definitely say that Babbel sits right at the top of your options - it's incredibly fun and intuitive, offers online and offline solutions and is amazingly fairly priced: between $6.62 and $11.95 USD per month depending on your subscription option. (Compare that with $539 for the full Rosetta Stone French course, for example. You could use Babbel for 67+ months at that price!)

For most people's needs, we recommend the 3-month option which runs $7.95 per month. It's a great way to leap ahead.

From Website

Language Learning Made Simple

Babbel is a comprehensive system that combines effective language learning methods with state-of-the-art technology.

• Interactive and entertaining: Fun makes learning easy
• Diverse kinds of exercises with images, text, and audio
• Additional access on your iPhone, iPhone Touch or iPad
• Downloadable vocabulary trainer
• Bite-sized units, long-term retention

Babbel is based on a combination of educational methodology and state-of-the-art technology that makes learning languages easy. Lively multi-media courses and exercises are not only fun, but make for enduring success. The learning system determines your level and offers you a selection of courses appropriate to your abilities and interests. Whether on Babbel.com, on Babbel Mobile or with Babbel Refresh for Windows and Mac OS, with Babbel you can learn easily.

One of the things that makes Babbel unique has always been its high degree of personalization: Babbel’s features keep track and tailor themselves to each learner’s individual progress.

All the words and phrases you’ve ever studied on Babbel are added to your personal Vocabulary. Then, by encouraging you to review items at optimal intervals, a sophisticated Review Manager further helps you to commit vocabulary to long-term memory. It tracks your successes and errors, and calculates what is best to review, when. This innovative system not only makes learning close to effortless, but also makes it a lot more efficient.

Babbel Refresh

We at Babbel think that in order to make progress in learning, it’s important to stay present with the language. That means, instead of straining to slog through long lessons, it can actually be more efficient to review with short, bite-sized units — as long as they’re consistent and evenly spaced.

With this in mind, we’ve innovated Babbel Refresh, an application that you download and run locally on your computer. It individually calculates optimal intervals between sessions, chooses words and phrases from your Personal Vocabulary that are due to review, and gently reminds you to engage with the language you are studying. It’s a great tool for staying motivated!

Babbel Mobile

We are excited to announce that with some new features and software clients, we have just made a leap toward becoming a language learning system unlike any other.

Babbel has never been just a website, but was rather built as a server client application. It’s no wonder, then, that we’d develop new platforms. Our objective has always been to make learning as simple, accessible and effective as possible using today’s state-of-the-art methods and technologies.

We’ve created Babbel Mobile, an iPhone app that can be used alone or as a complement to Babbel.com. You can now refresh your vocabulary anywhere and anytime, whether or not you’re on the internet. Then, with Babbel Refresh, the new desktop application for PC and Mac, you’ll always remember to review. Thirdly, a new list-view of your Personal Vocabulary also makes it simple to print out a vocabulary list, to remove words from the Refresher system or to get a full overview of your learning progress.

Visit Babbel.comFrench

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Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning German.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your German learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual German learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac. More info below.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study German on your mobile device - even if you're offline! ($7.99 USD, works on and offline. More info below.)

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Add to this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing language skills, and you have a dynamic German-education platform that covers all the bases.

In addition to German, Babbel is available for learning Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, Italian, Spanish and Swedish.

So try Babbel for a week for free and see if it works for you. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible.

Have some fun learning German - go Babbel!

From Website

Language Learning Made Simple

Babbel is a comprehensive system that combines effective language learning methods with state-of-the-art technology.

• Interactive and entertaining: Fun makes learning easy
• Diverse kinds of exercises with images, text, and audio
• Additional access on your iPhone, iPhone Touch or iPad
• Downloadable vocabulary trainer
• Bite-sized units, long-term retention

Babbel is based on a combination of educational methodology and state-of-the-art technology that makes learning languages easy. Lively multi-media courses and exercises are not only fun, but make for enduring success. The learning system determines your level and offers you a selection of courses appropriate to your abilities and interests. Whether on Babbel.com, on Babbel Mobile or with Babbel Refresh for Windows and Mac OS, with Babbel you can learn easily.

One of the things that makes Babbel unique has always been its high degree of personalization: Babbel’s features keep track and tailor themselves to each learner’s individual progress.

All the words and phrases you’ve ever studied on Babbel are added to your personal Vocabulary. Then, by encouraging you to review items at optimal intervals, a sophisticated Review Manager further helps you to commit vocabulary to long-term memory. It tracks your successes and errors, and calculates what is best to review, when. This innovative system not only makes learning close to effortless, but also makes it a lot more efficient.

Babbel Refresh

We at Babbel think that in order to make progress in learning, it’s important to stay present with the language. That means, instead of straining to slog through long lessons, it can actually be more efficient to review with short, bite-sized units — as long as they’re consistent and evenly spaced.

With this in mind, we’ve innovated Babbel Refresh, an application that you download and run locally on your computer. It individually calculates optimal intervals between sessions, chooses words and phrases from your Personal Vocabulary that are due to review, and gently reminds you to engage with the language you are studying. It’s a great tool for staying motivated!

Babbel Mobile

We are excited to announce that with some new features and software clients, we have just made a leap toward becoming a language learning system unlike any other.

Babbel has never been just a website, but was rather built as a server client application. It’s no wonder, then, that we’d develop new platforms. Our objective has always been to make learning as simple, accessible and effective as possible using today’s state-of-the-art methods and technologies.

We’ve created Babbel Mobile, an iPhone app that can be used alone or as a complement to Babbel.com. You can now refresh your vocabulary anywhere and anytime, whether or not you’re on the internet. Then, with Babbel Refresh, the new desktop application for PC and Mac, you’ll always remember to review. Thirdly, a new list-view of your Personal Vocabulary also makes it simple to print out a vocabulary list, to remove words from the Refresher system or to get a full overview of your learning progress.

Visit Babbel.com

Advertisement:

Summary

Babbel combines multi-media visual and auditory learning, social networking interactivity, sound educational methodology, mobile apps (for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad - Babbel Mobile) and desktop goodies (Babbel Refresh) in a one-stop integrated platform for learning Spanish.

They've very recently expanded their platform by adding loads of new features to the Web interface as well as mobile and desktop apps to enhance your Spanish learning efforts online - and take them mobile:

Babbel Refresh: Bite-sized units catered to your individual Spanish learning program, spaced out appropriately and delivered to your via a free desktop app! (Free, works with Windows and Mac. More info below.)

Babbel Mobile: Synchronizes your Babbel account with iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad, allowing you to study Spanish on your mobile device - even if you're offline! ($7.99 USD, works on and offline. More info below.)

Babbel's interface is the definition of eye candy, works on any modern Web browser, loads quickly and runs solidly. The dynamic learning system reviews you on terms and phrases you've learned while seamlessly incorporating new ones on topics you select. This guarantees you'll be interested in what you're studying - and that it will be the most applicable to your specific needs and goals.

Part of the Babbel learning system involves media-rich (and user shared) virtual flash cards. The flash card stacks are organized into "packages" (groups of cards) that treat common themes (eg, 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 contributions flow in.

Add to this Babbel's social networking tools, including the ability to hook up with other users interested in sharing language skills, and you have a dynamic Spanish-education platform that covers all the bases.

In addition to Spanish, Babbel is available for learning Brazilian Portuguese, English, French, German, Italian and Swedish.

So try Babbel for a week for free and see if it works for you. Chances are you'll be up and learning in no time, making friends to share with, quizzing yourself on the go and progressing more quickly than you thought possible.

Have some fun learning Spanish - go Babbel!

From Website

Language Learning Made Simple

Babbel is a comprehensive system that combines effective language learning methods with state-of-the-art technology.

• Interactive and entertaining: Fun makes learning easy
• Diverse kinds of exercises with images, text, and audio
• Additional access on your iPhone, iPhone Touch or iPad
• Downloadable vocabulary trainer
• Bite-sized units, long-term retention

Babbel is based on a combination of educational methodology and state-of-the-art technology that makes learning languages easy. Lively multi-media courses and exercises are not only fun, but make for enduring success. The learning system determines your level and offers you a selection of courses appropriate to your abilities and interests. Whether on Babbel.com, on Babbel Mobile or with Babbel Refresh for Windows and Mac OS, with Babbel you can learn easily.

One of the things that makes Babbel unique has always been its high degree of personalization: Babbel’s features keep track and tailor themselves to each learner’s individual progress.

All the words and phrases you’ve ever studied on Babbel are added to your personal Vocabulary. Then, by encouraging you to review items at optimal intervals, a sophisticated Review Manager further helps you to commit vocabulary to long-term memory. It tracks your successes and errors, and calculates what is best to review, when. This innovative system not only makes learning close to effortless, but also makes it a lot more efficient.

Babbel Refresh

We at Babbel think that in order to make progress in learning, it’s important to stay present with the language. That means, instead of straining to slog through long lessons, it can actually be more efficient to review with short, bite-sized units — as long as they’re consistent and evenly spaced.

With this in mind, we’ve innovated Babbel Refresh, an application that you download and run locally on your computer. It individually calculates optimal intervals between sessions, chooses words and phrases from your Personal Vocabulary that are due to review, and gently reminds you to engage with the language you are studying. It’s a great tool for staying motivated!

Babbel Mobile

We are excited to announce that with some new features and software clients, we have just made a leap toward becoming a language learning system unlike any other.

Babbel has never been just a website, but was rather built as a server client application. It’s no wonder, then, that we’d develop new platforms. Our objective has always been to make learning as simple, accessible and effective as possible using today’s state-of-the-art methods and technologies.

We’ve created Babbel Mobile, an iPhone app that can be used alone or as a complement to Babbel.com. You can now refresh your vocabulary anywhere and anytime, whether or not you’re on the internet. Then, with Babbel Refresh, the new desktop application for PC and Mac, you’ll always remember to review. Thirdly, a new list-view of your Personal Vocabulary also makes it simple to print out a vocabulary list, to remove words from the Refresher system or to get a full overview of your learning progress.

Visit Babbel.com

Advertisement:

Our language deal store has recently moved and been upgraded, and we are now offering amazing deals on many Michel Thomas products.

Michel Thomas has proven to be amongst the most effective listening language courses of all time, helping millions of people learn French, German, Italian and Spanish. Since his death, disciples of his method have continued to create more courses using his method, and have broadened the languages to include Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Greek, Japanese, Polish, Portuguese and Russian.

The Michel Thomas courses create an environment in which you are one of three students learning directly from Michel himself. You are part of a class with two other students who are genuinely learning the language as they go along! This creates a fun environment in which to learn, and allows you to learn whenever you have free time: in the car, walking, jogging, on the plane or just sitting at home.

Since Michel gets right to the nitty gritty of learning what you really need to know to express yourself in real situations, many students have found they progress far faster with this method than with others.

For more on Michel Thomas and his method, read below!

Michel Thomas Language Programs

These are programs which feature Michel Thomas himself as the teacher:

Michel Thomas Spanish
Michel Thomas French
Michel Thomas German
Michel Thomas Italian

These are programs which feature disciples of the Michel Thomas Method as the teachers:

Michel Thomas Arabic
Michel Thomas Chinese
Michel Thomas Dutch
Michel Thomas Greek
Michel Thomas Japanese
Michel Thomas Polish
Michel Thomas Portuguese
Michel Thomas Russian

Or view all available Michel Thomas deals.

Michel Thomas and his World Famous Language-Learning Method

The following information has been adapted from Wikipedia.

Michel Thomas (born Moniek (Moshe) Kroskof, February 3, 1914 – January 8, 2005) was a polyglot linguist, language teacher and decorated war veteran. He survived Nazi persecution, served in the French Resistance and worked with the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps during World War II. After the war, Thomas emigrated to the United States, where he developed a language-teaching system known as the Michel Thomas Method. In 2004 he was awarded the Silver Star by the U.S. Army.

The Michel Thomas Method is an original method developed by Michel Thomas for teaching languages. Thomas stated that his students would be conversationally proficient after a few days' study.

Thomas was hired by Raquel Welch, Barbra Streisand, Emma Thompson, Woody Allen and by Grace Kelly when she had to learn French rapidly after becoming engaged to Prince Rainier of Monaco. The method first came to prominence in Britain, following a BBC television science documentary The Language Master, in which he taught French to sixth form students for five days at a further education college in London in 1997. As a result of the interest generated by this documentary, UK publisher Hodder and Stoughton commissioned Thomas to produce commercial versions of his courses.

With Thomas's method, the teacher cautions students to avoid making notes and to refrain from making conscious attempts to memorise, promising that the teacher will "be taking full responsibility" for their learning. Thomas stated that keeping the students relaxed, focused and stretched with a feeling of mounting successful achievement, is at the heart of the method. The removal of the stress and anxiety 'of being put on the spot' of conventional language learning, especially school language learning, is a key goal of the method.

Interviewed for the documentary The Language Master, Margaret Thompson, the headmistress of the school in which the documentary was filmed, commented that in general teachers "try and ... capture their (students) interest by finding them interesting materials that are supposedly related to their interests" but that what Thomas had demonstrated to her was that "it's the learning process itself that motivates these kids", not the material used.

The teacher then introduces short words and phrases in the target language. The students are asked 'How would you say?' an English phrase into the target language, starting with trivially simple sentences and gradually building up to more advanced constructions. The phrases are chosen as common building blocks of the expression of thoughts. When a student gives a correct answer, the teacher repeats the whole sentence with correct pronunciation. When the student's answer is wrong, the teacher assists the student to understand their mistake and to correct it. The most important words and phrases are reviewed repeatedly during the course. The method does not insist on perfect pronunciation from the beginning, instead providing progressive feedback and continual improvement by the process of shaping student response over the course of these repetitions.

In the courses recorded by Thomas himself (Spanish, French, Italian and German), the teaching focuses on verb conjugations and modal verb constructions such as "I want to go": the vocabulary used in the course is fairly small, focussing mainly on function words in preference to lexical words. Grammar rules are introduced gradually, and grammatical terminology is generally avoided. In this way, the course builds complexity quickly, focusing on the skills required to translate sentences like "I want to know why you don't have it for me now, because it is very important for me and I need it", while avoiding much of the vocabulary and fixed-phrases presented in most mainstream courses. For example, Thomas does not teach counting, days of the week or months of the year.

Michel Thomas often links cognates in the target language with their equivalents in the student's home language, and in his courses in the Romance languages, many of the Latinate borrowings in English are highlighted to allow the student to incorporate their existing vocabulary into the target language.

More Michel Thomas

More courses have been recorded in recent years by disciples of Michel Thomas. These courses widen the range offered by Michel Thomas himself and include Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Polish, Japanese, Portuguese, Greek and Russian!

Michel Thomas Links

More on the Michel Thomas Method.
More on Michel Thomas.
Michel Thomas Official Website
Michel Thomas Method Official Website (The image on this page is credited to them.)

Get your Michel Thomas course now!

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