Born somewhere between the snow forests of the Ural Mountains and the bend of the mighty Volga, the Finnish language has thrived against great odds.
…Study with Sisu: Your Comprehensive Guide to Learning FinnishRead More »
Wearing khaki as you watch a tiger stalk a jackal. Hunting for mummies, nuggets of gold, and sparkling cubic zirconia.
Wishing for a cushy job as a millionaire mogul. Doing a magic trick.
…$5.99
For learners of languages that use unfamiliar writing systems, the Lang Workbooks series can be a helpful and practical way to master the intricacies of writing in their target languages. Among numerous other writing systems, the series includes the Korean, Russian Cyrillic, and Armenian alphabets; Persian and Thai script; the Hindi Devanāgarī abugida; Chinese characters; and Japanese Hiragana and Katakana. The series also covers languages that use the Latin alphabet with diacritical (accent) marks, such as French, German, and Portuguese. Many books in the series have been translated into other languages, such as Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. The series also covers writing systems that may have fewer available resources for learners, such as Lao script and the Cherokee syllabary. Each book in the series presents its featured writing system with suggested pronunciations. The practice pages in each workbook have useful features for each letter, symbol, or character, such as a recommended stroke order, font variations, example words, and a “Trace and Learn” section. Each workbook is relatively inexpensive. In addition, the publishers of the series have granted teachers and students a license to make photocopies of the workbook pages for personal use, so you can get unlimited chances to practice. Considering the depth of information in each language’s workbook, the books in this series can provide great value for learners.
Free
Persian Language Online is a website that makes online Persian lessons available, free of charge, to anyone who is interested in learning the language at a basic through intermediate level. The lessons teach vocabulary and grammar for the Iranian Farsi standard of the language. (You can get information about the Afghan (Dari) and Tajiki Persian standards on Persian Language Online’s blog.) The videos that start each lesson add a little color, but include no text or explanations. More comprehensive video lessons can be found on the Persian Learning channel, Reza Nazari’s Persian Lessons channel, the Learn Persian Online channel, and PersianPod101’s channel. Persian Language Online might work best as a supplement to other programs. While the lessons are easy to navigate, some of the design could be improved to facilitate learning. For example, more bilingual content might help beginner-level learners. The resource’s strengths include its downloadable sound clips from real speakers, its transcripts and translations, its cultural notes, and its glossaries. The online exercises provide some vocab and grammar practice, although you will probably need other resources such as Persian textbooks to get a more well-rounded foundation in Persian grammar. Overall, I found that Persian Language Online is a resource worth considering, even though it appears to have some shortcomings. A more gamified, interactive approach from the same developers is the Gorbeh series for iOS or Android, which was designed for children.
Kindle books range from $2.99 – $3.43
The André Klein Graded Readers can help build reading skills for German learners at different levels through fun, easily digestible stories. The books are structured to be accessible for learners, while teaching vocabulary in the context of phrases (rather than isolated words). Lower-level beginners might like the Learning German With Stories And Pictures series or the Learn German With Less Text, More Fun series, both of which intersperse short sentences with numerous drawings depicting their meaning. Upper-level beginners might prefer to start with the Dino lernt Deutsch (Dino Learns German) series, which uses simple vocabulary and repetition of related phrases for reinforcement. Intermediate learners can try the Baumgartner & Momsen detective series. Aschkalon, a fantasy adventure series, was written for advanced learners. It seems fairly easy to follow the stories. The multiple-choice questions after each text help you gauge your understanding. The glossaries tend to be formatted as large text blocks of German phrases and English definitions, which can be difficult to scan. In the Dino lernt Deutsch series, readers may find the pervasive boldfacing in the texts distracting. For the amount of money and time invested, you can gain better reading comprehension, increase your German vocabulary, and build your confidence as a German learner — all in an entertaining and low-stress way.
West of the Indus River in Pakistan and south of the river Amu Darya in Afghanistan, the ancestral homeland of the Pashtun people awaits you.
…From Kabul to Quetta: Plan Your Journey to Pashto FluencyRead More »
$ 9.49
Progress with Lawless French is a branded French study program created in partnership between the Kwiziq platform and the Lawless French site. This program concentrates primarily on grammar, including prepositions, articles, agreement, and verb conjugations. There is a free membership tier with limited options. The program also offers a few options for a paid membership level. The longer your subscription term, the less you pay per month. The program starts with a French placement test, based on the CEFR levels. You can then access lessons, quizzes, listening and dictation exercises, and writing challenges. Grammar is taught primarily through text-based lessons, with examples and audio clips, and tested with micro-quizzes. The lessons include a question forum, with answers from both Kwiziq staff and community members. There are lots of metrics to show your progress, although some of them are not intuitive. The grammar lessons seem very thorough and well-organized. There appears to be no speaking component to the program, however. If you’d like to practice your speaking and listening comprehension, you can start out at the Bavardons! (Let’s Chat!) membership level of the main Lawless French site, which also has plenty of free vocab and grammar reference material in a blog format.
Premium subscriptions start at $37/month
The Italian in Your Pocket program offers a mini-course, a series of training videos, and two membership tiers for learners (paid monthly). A basic membership includes downloadable lessons with dialogues, synchronized audio (phrases highlighted as the dialogue audio plays), and progress checks. At the more expensive VIP level, you’d get coaching calls with a native speaker and access to a private Facebook community, in addition to all the basic membership features. The program doesn’t promote itself as being a fast learning solution, but a thorough one. Learners are asked spend 30 to 60 minutes daily on their Italian in Your Pocket lessons, much of which is audio material. Based on previews and testimonials, the program appears to be comprehensive and well-organized. Its focus on Italian conversation and culture could give it extra value for learners. However, it’s a greater investment of time and money compared to other Italian courses. Casual learners would probably find it too pricey, although serious learners might consider it. While there’s a 30-day, money-back guarantee for this resource, there are no “try-before-you-buy” options. Also, no mobile app seems to exist for the program. Instead, subscribers are given instructions for mobile access. UPDATE, February 2021: To access the sign-up links for Italian in Your Pocket programs, you will need to click on the rounded orange buttons with the white text on the main page of the website. (The links in the Pinterest-style images above the buttons are defunct.)
When you think of Romance languages, you probably think about French. Or Spanish. Or Italian. Or Portuguese.
Despite the clue in the name of the language, Romanian may not come to mind.
…A Wealth of Courses, Apps, and Media for Mastering RomanianRead More »
$ 0.00
Quizlet is a flashcard-based learning system. Community-contributed flashcards are available for numerous languages. These vary in quality, but you can preview them to see how well they meet your needs. Each set of flashcards powers other activities: In Learn mode, you demonstrate your mastery of each word or phrase by using multiple choice to select the correct definition. There are also spelling and writing exercises. The spelling exercises can be frustrating, as they sometimes require the addition of alternate word endings that are not always pronounced by the speaker. A space-themed word game and a “Concentration”-style matching game inject some extra fun into your study time. Recent changes to Quizlet mean that you are now required to sign in to use the flashcard sets. As Quizlet is now promoting two premium plans — the modestly priced “Quizlet Plus” and the less-expensive “Quizlet Go” — you may encounter several promotions for these paid versions. We have not tried the paid tier at this time. Overall, Quizlet can be a fun, effective way to learn new vocabulary. It has the tools to help with auditory comprehension and spelling in your target language. It covers many languages, even some harder-to-find ones. However, not all of the flashcard sets are high quality.
