Practicing a language can become quite tiring if all you are doing is vocabulary memorization through traditional books and flashcards. So today I will highlight three fun and *free websites you can use to help make your language learning varied and captivating.
Duolingo.com
This website, after signing up, shows you a list of words in the language you are wanting to learn and asks you to translate them back to your native tongue. This practice is interactive as it will show you translations of the words you do not know.
Duolingo.com
This website, after signing up, shows you a list of words in the language you are wanting to learn and asks you to translate them back to your native tongue. This practice is interactive as it will show you translations of the words you do not know.
Mango Languages
Mango gives a nice free trial of their software, although after a period you will have to pay if you wish to continue the service. This website focuses on getting you immersed into language learning quickly. The online software has a native speaker who provides common phrases to you. Then you will be asked to repeat the phrase to practice your pronunciation. Additionally, you will start to slowly understand the grammar as you are seeing everything written in both your native tongue and the language you are learning. This practice is interactive as each slide has new information and all the content is broken up into chapters.
Mango gives a nice free trial of their software, although after a period you will have to pay if you wish to continue the service. This website focuses on getting you immersed into language learning quickly. The online software has a native speaker who provides common phrases to you. Then you will be asked to repeat the phrase to practice your pronunciation. Additionally, you will start to slowly understand the grammar as you are seeing everything written in both your native tongue and the language you are learning. This practice is interactive as each slide has new information and all the content is broken up into chapters.
Livemocha.com
Lastly, Livemocha is a free* (payed services available) language learning community. On this site, individuals can work through lessons provided by Livemocha. In order to unlock these lessons, members must assist others by rating other users submissions of written or spoken activities by other users. Helping others gives you points which you can then spend on lessons. If you are not willing or do not have the time to support others in their learning, you can purchase "beans", LiveMocha's currency, to purchase these lessons. Each lesson is 99 beans and the company sells the lessons for 99 beans each. This service is truly unique as it is entirely based on the language learning community to fuel the service.
Personally, I have used both LiveMocha (the old version) and Mango Languages (free trial). I have enjoyed and learned from both. They are so interactive and make learning fun. Unfortunately LiveMocha updated it's software and has not added all the languages it use to have, so Norwegian is no longer on the site as of now.
Lykke til!
Lastly, Livemocha is a free* (payed services available) language learning community. On this site, individuals can work through lessons provided by Livemocha. In order to unlock these lessons, members must assist others by rating other users submissions of written or spoken activities by other users. Helping others gives you points which you can then spend on lessons. If you are not willing or do not have the time to support others in their learning, you can purchase "beans", LiveMocha's currency, to purchase these lessons. Each lesson is 99 beans and the company sells the lessons for 99 beans each. This service is truly unique as it is entirely based on the language learning community to fuel the service.
Personally, I have used both LiveMocha (the old version) and Mango Languages (free trial). I have enjoyed and learned from both. They are so interactive and make learning fun. Unfortunately LiveMocha updated it's software and has not added all the languages it use to have, so Norwegian is no longer on the site as of now.
Lykke til!