Comments on: Language courses, courtesy of the United States government (and some devoted language learners)

Language courses, courtesy of the United States government (and some devoted language learners)

anjamu — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:35:14 -0800

By: anjamu

anjamu — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:35:32 -0800

These courses were designed by the Foreign Service Institute for use in their training programs as well as in other branches of government. The site features Cantonese, French, German, Greek, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, Standard Chinese, and Turkish. More from the Defense Language Institute: beginning language courses and lessons designed to improve analytical skills for more advanced students. Languages vary widely among the two and tend toward the more defense-centric, natch. LiTgloss seeks to annotate meaningful texts from a variety of languages to enhance learning. The Jesus film, a tool used by missionaries, has been translated into 900+ languages, 800+ of which are available online. Along the same lines is Every Tongue, which boasts Scripture in 5,457 languages online. Find a language you've never heard of before (and you will)? Look it up on Ethnologue. Disclaimer: In no way is this post intended to proselytize; it just happens that these particular religious groups have compiled incredibly rich collections of audio files of rare languages, and their sites allow you to listen and read side by side with languages you know.

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 01:47:31 -0800

Nice one! ta!

By: IronLizard

IronLizard — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 02:30:57 -0800

This is wonderful, now I can put off learning another language secure in the knowledge that the material is available to me free and whenever I want it. (Really, nice find)

By: jfuller

jfuller — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 02:44:46 -0800

Yes, especially since there are outfits out there slapping these on CDs and recycling them at three or four hundred dollars a pop. Super find!

By: jfuller

jfuller — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 02:45:53 -0800

And, oh yeah, serious hat tip to the people who put up the site and made the material available.

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 02:45:59 -0800

now I can put off learning another language ...while I can give myself an excuse to buy an mp3 player. This place has everything!

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 02:58:34 -0800

Some day ... I hope to find enough time to maybe go outside, visits friends or take in a movie. This ain't helping.

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 03:06:00 -0800

Dear Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone, Suck it. Love, Optamystic

By: caddis

caddis — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 03:21:35 -0800

Very nice.

By: rdr

rdr — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 03:31:05 -0800

Anjamu, you are a wonderful person.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 03:35:28 -0800

This is a huge (and overdue) service, especially providing the audio. The text would be much more useful if it were actually text, instead of images, but perhaps in time. The FSI materials are fantastic, even if they're a little dated, and a little stodgy. I've spent ages turning FSI stuff into supermemo collections and it really changed the way I think about language learning. These used to be available directly from the state department for a very small fee, but they stopped doing that at some point and companies started charging a mint for the books, and absolutely an arm and a leg for the audio materials. I've had it in the back of the mind to do a site like this for the ones I have; now maybe I can contribute to this one instead. Thanks for the post.

By: unmake

unmake — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:26:51 -0800

BBC Language Instruction (French, Spanish, German, Italian, +), Learning German (at Deutsche Welle), Learning French from Radio France.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:32:23 -0800

Very nice post!

By: Tzarius

Tzarius — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 04:41:08 -0800

Anybody seen any good Swedish materials? Perhaps a forum for those learning the language?

By: Alison

Alison — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:00:21 -0800

Beautiful. There is a good chance that I will have to learn Greek and Turkish for my job.

By: Civil_Disobedient

Civil_Disobedient — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:01:24 -0800

For those who'd like to rip an entire section more easily, I recommend the DownloadThemAll! Mozilla extension.

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:07:10 -0800

I used to be self-conscious about doing the Pimsleur thing on my iPod. Now and march through downtown chattering "bù xiǎng, xièxie nǐ. kěshì, wǒ xiǎng hē yīdiǎ'r dōngxi." and pretending I'm trying to pick up a girl on Long Peace Street. Winos avoid me.

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:33:28 -0800

This is so excellent, and, of course, by that I mean: What IronLizard said!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:49:59 -0800

Holy crap. Best of the web, indeed. I've acquired a number of those FSI books over the years (mostly for languages they're not going to be putting online any time soon, like Amharic and Fula), and they're really wonderful ("stodgy" indeed! what, you need HAPPY FUN MULTIMEDIA to learn a language?). Thanks, anjamu!

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 05:52:21 -0800

chattering "bù xiǎng, xièxie nǐ. kěshì, wǒ xiǎng hē yīdiǎ'r dōngxi." Weird how that one little 'r brings back that Beijing whine I hated so much when I heard it in Taiwan. Yidian, dammit, yidian!

By: RavinDave

RavinDave — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:01:26 -0800

Yeah, well ... Pimsleur Mandarin has a Northen bias. What can I say? Drives me up a wall too. By the way, LH ... what do they use for texts at Monterey? I was thinking they used FSI material, but I'm probably wrong. And if the Government won't supply copies anymore -- is this stuff just rotting on a shelf somewhere?

By: Floydd

Floydd — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:20:18 -0800

What IronLizard said. Gracias!!

By: JanetLand

JanetLand — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:31:57 -0800

I am going to use that + add to favorites link for the very first time.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:37:57 -0800

what do they use for texts at Monterey? No idea, sorry.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:40:57 -0800

("stodgy" indeed! what, you need HAPPY FUN MULTIMEDIA to learn a language?) Did you notice that I described them as "fantastic" there? And I've recommended the FSI courses repeatedly in the green and still think they're one of the best resources available. It doesn't really change the fact that, if you don't add something a little more up-to-date to your learning regimen, the conversational skills you develop are going to be excellent for someone from the 1950s who likes to talk about crops and the state department. Hence, "stodgy". Personally, I don't need HAPPY FUN MULTIMEDIA and I don't need your incessant, condescending shit, either. If there was any point to that parenthetical aside other than condescension, sorry I missed it.

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:44:23 -0800

Wolfdog got the rabies.

By: davehat

davehat — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 06:49:27 -0800

This is great. I want to brush up on my French (for which you can actualy read "I need to re-learn French). Now if anyone can find me a decent Kiswahili course available on-line...

By: languagehat

languagehat — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 07:19:46 -0800

Jeez, Wolfdog, it was a joke. Lighten up. Besides, I am someone from the 1950s who likes to talk about crops and the state department. "My state department has excellent crops! And yours?" My wife and I sit around all day exchanging remarks like that. In six languages.

By: parmanparman

parmanparman — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 07:24:28 -0800

this is such a great post, I never sign up in time for the German courses at the local Goethe Institute. Now maybe if I can find a willing German language partner...

By: Hal Mumkin

Hal Mumkin — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 07:59:15 -0800

what do they use for texts at Monterey? They use their own "in-house" materials, for everything from presenting grammar, practicing listening and reading, of course for military subjects and also for cultural studies. You get, especially at the beginning, original passages and essays ("My Family", "Renting and Apartment", that sort of basic thing that you need to establish a foundation), but they also have reams of "authentic materials" ranging from ads and menus and letters to newspaper articles. Recently they might also use a lot of stuff from the internet in class, especially the bbc news sites in foreign languages. Of course, I can't speak for all the programs there. And for the advanced courses they have a different set of materials, I hear they do a lot more reading of actual books, but don't quote me on that. I know I've seen their stuff being peddled on eBay before.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:19:01 -0800

This is awesome, thanks! The g/f and I were just looking at Rosetta Stone for Spanish. Why is the Spanish course here labelled "programmatic"? Do you learn "El C++"? ;)

By: jiawen

jiawen — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 08:43:48 -0800

Yeah, well ... Pimsleur Mandarin has a Northen bias. What can I say? Drives me up a wall too. Except they also have things like zhe4li3, which is decidedly not a Northern word. In the north, it'd be zher4.

By: fake

fake — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 09:34:28 -0800

Besides, I am someone from the 1950s who likes to talk about crops and the state department. "My state department has excellent crops! And yours?" My wife and I sit around all day exchanging remarks like that. In six languages. The Impossible Dream!

By: ?!

?! — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 12:42:11 -0800

I now see languagehat in a cardigan with the Beav running up the stairs, "Bonjour, Papa!" and Eddie Haskell ribbing Lumpy with "Je ne parle pas Dork."

By: snsranch

snsranch — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 17:34:19 -0800

If only they had the dirty words too. The only Turkish I know. "Ibne sin!" To any Turks, just kidding.

By: blacklite

blacklite — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 16:50:50 -0800

This is awesome and I wish I had seen it on August 17 instead of today. But I was already too busy. I still am. But this is great.