“As the world’s largest online language learning community,” reads the Livemocha site, “Livemocha fuses traditional learning methods with online practice and interaction with native language speakers from around the world. Livemocha delivers an unparalleled learning experience that promises conversational fluency.”

I’ve barely tried Livemocha, so I can’t attest to that. A few years ago I went through the Greek beginner-level section and got a kick out of it as a fun thing to try, but I never went back to it. Those basic lessons were free. The better things I guess you have to pay for, and I haven’t. 

Readers of my blog who have used Livemocha have mentioned it as a way to get practice with native speakers (there is a social media aspect to it) and to take language classes online. Livemocha offers courses in 38 languages—“because,” as it says on its website, “being monolingual is so passé.”