Sure you can buy a cheap phrasebook to get you around in a place that doesn’t speak your language. But why not take the time to learn a little more of that country’s language before you go? You will be surprised at how much it will enrich your travels.
Now, you could take classes at your local university or buy one of those expensive kits like Rosetta Stone. Both options are perfectly fine…if you have the money to spend. But knowing you’re on a budget, here are three sources that will help you learn a new language for free.
LiveMocha
Blending self-paced lessons with the ability to converse with native speakers, LiveMocha is more than just a website with language lessons. It’s a community that encourages you to learn, both through interaction with others and via a points system that doesn’t offer any prizes, but definitely gives Type-A learners a goal to reach with every lesson.
To start, sign up for a free registration. Then choose the language you want to learn and whether you want to start at a beginner level or higher. Currently, LiveMocha offers instruction in English, French, German, Spanish, Mandarin Chinese and Hindi, the six most spoken languages on the planet.
After you gain confidence with your language, you can use what you’ve learned in the lessons in conversing with other users of the site. This type of real world practice helps build your familiarity with the language, before you have to use it on your trip.
Choose LiveMocha if you really want to learn a language by interaction and full immersion. This site gives you the most real world experience with your new language than any other free resource online.
Mango
Mango is another online resource that offers self-paced lessons, but these are presented in a Flash slide show. It uses Flash 9 technology, so if you haven’t updated your browser plug-in for Flash recently, you may have to do so before using this website.
The site offers nine free foreign language courses in Spanish, Russian, Greek, German, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, French and Italian for native English speakers, and two additional courses in English for Spanish speakers and English for Polish speakers. Simply sign up with your email address and you're ready to go.
Each language has at least 100 lessons, presented with both text and audio. The site says a word or phrase in your native language (mostly English), then presents the foreign language version of the same word or phrase. Hover your mouse over a word to see a phonetic pronunciation or replay the audio until you’ve gotten a grasp of that slide, then move on to the next one.
Choose Mango if you don’t want to spend a lot of time in setting up your lessons and just want to jump in and start learning. Once you sign up, you just pick your lesson choice and it begins immediately.
iTunes Podcasts
Many just use iTunes to download the latests songs and TV shows, but it also has a large selection of podcasts available for free and among them are language courses.
Most of the popular languages, including French, Spanish, German, Italian, Chinese and Japanese, are represented. To find them, fire up your iTunes browser (available for free, if you don’t already have it), click on “podcasts”, then when the categories menu appears, choose “education” from the list. Once you’ve downloaded your choice(s), you can either listen at your computer, or transfer it to your iPod or other mp3 player and listen anywhere.
One drawback to using iTunes is that each podcast series is by a different teacher, so you may like the way one teaches, but not another. There’s no uniform teaching method, and you may find one language represented by several different podcast producers. It’s purely trial and error to find one that works for you.
Another drawback is that these courses are audio only, which can make it harder to learn the language if you’re one of the millions who learns via visual cues.
Choose iTunes if you want to learn on the go, without being attached to your computer. Listen to the lessons in your car, while jogging, or anywhere you want.
Why Learn a New Language?
Why not? If you’ve spent all that money to get to your travel destination, shouldn’t you invest some of your time in learning to speak their language, if it’s not your own? It’s also easier to get around if you can just ask for what you’re looking for instead of having to point to a picture in a book while badly mangling their language.
Learning a new language also inspires your wanderlust. Take a language lesson and it might inspire you to visit the country beyond the borders of your hotel or tour group. It’ll enable you to converse with the locals and really get a feel for what it’s like to live there.
Michelle Snow - Michelle Snow been a freelance journalist and photographer for over twenty years, specializing in travel and entertainment. She got her ...
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