In this post I’d like to tell you about some resources I’ve been using or have used some time ago for learning new languages.
Websites where you can learn many languages
In these websites you can study many languages, such as English, Spanish, German, French, Italian, etc.
Duolingo
What’s very interesting about Duolingo is that it uses gamification, so you get points as you learn and that motivates you to learn more. It has a very good mobile app as well, so you can practice during your daily commute.
Go to duolingo.com to create your account, choose a language and start studying.
Memrise
This website is so funny that you’ll laugh out loud with some associations it presents you for you to memorize the words. That’s a great way to learn a language, as we tend to learn better when we’re having fun!
It has many courses about almost any language you can think of, but it doesn’t limit itself to language courses, as it also has some other course categories. It also has a mobile app with an option to download the course to practice offline.
Go to memrise.com and laugh out loud!
Ba Ba Dum
Ba Ba Dum is a very practical online language game, where you hear a word in the language of your choice and see four pictures, so you have to click on the picture that means what you just heard. For that you accumulate points and associate listening with images.
Go to babadum.com/play and have fun!
Lyrics training
In my opinion, one of the best ways for learning a language is listening to music. In this website you can choose a language and complete gaps in the lyrics for the song it’s playing. Among the language choices, you have: English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, German, Dutch, Japanese, Turkish and Catalan
Turn up the volume! Check it out: lyricstraining.com
English
If you want to learn specifically English or to improve your knowledge, these websites are a good choice.
Cambridge Dictionary
I took an English course in Brazil and this dictionary was used very often during classes in order to explain the meaning of some words. There you can also compare British and American versions, as well as listen to them.
Go here and try it with some words.
English Language (ESL) Grammar Quizzes
Test yourself with this selection of 517 free English language quizzes covering grammar, usage and vocabulary for beginner, intermediate and advanced level English students. Simply answer all of the questions in the quiz to see your score and other statistics.
This is a very good resource if you’re studying for an English certification, for example.
Start studying here
Spanish
I learned Spanish mostly during visits to latin countries, but also by taking some courses in Brazil. Besides Duolingo, which is great, I haven’t checked out many websites about it. There’s this website, though, called Spanicity that has a lot of content and also the pronunciation for everything, so you can also practice how you say and try to sound closer to a Spanish person.
French
If French is your current target language, here are some of the websites that I have on my list for studying more someday (Now my focus is on Czech language).
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French verb conjugation: http://www.verb2verbe.com/default.aspx
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Le point du fle: http://www.lepointdufle.net/
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Online French test: http://www.campus-electronique.tm.fr/TestFle/
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About French: http://french.about.com/
Czech
And finally, if you’re thinking about studying Czech, the best way is certainly by being in the country and joining a Czech course, since there’s not as much online material as for other languages. I’ve been studying Czech because I’ve been living in the country and want to understand people here better, how they think and be able to communicate with them. What’s also interesting about studying Czech is that other slavic languages (Slovak, Polish, Russian) start getting clearer the more you know Czech, as they share the same root.
Unfortunately as of this moment, the Czech course on Duolingo is not ready yet, so I could recommend some other resources.
Local Lingo
This is a website for learning Czech with exercises and also audio with pronunciation. See more here.
Mluvite Cesky
A multilingual website to study Czech. As they say: “This website will help you to acquire the basics of Czech, the second most frequently used western Slavic language, as well as medical terminology, all online and all for free.”
Go to mluvitecesky.net and start speaking Czech
If you have any other link you’d like to suggest and share, please leave a comment.