Reviews
Hundreds of resources to help you teach yourself
LearnWithOliver: Swedish
Swedish, Audio Lessons, Flashcards, Multimedia, Vocabulary, Websites, Kids
This flashcards-on-steroids website comes from the company Antosch & Lin, whose online offerings I have now used to practice a good dozen languages. I haven’t yet tested their Swedish in a meaningful way, but I have tried out their…
Pimsleur Farsi Persian
Persian, Audio Lessons
Today I finished the thirtieth and final lesson available from Pimsleur for Iranian Persian (also known as Farsi). I am slightly in mourning; I love Pimsleur’s products so much, and I wish they had more lessons for this particular…
The Everything Essential Brazilian Portuguese Book
Portuguese, Books
This small and portable book by Fernanda Ferreira, Ph.D., will work fine as a refresher. I envision it as being appropriate for, say, the businessperson who has studied Brazilian Portuguese in the past, who is hopping on a plane…
Pimsleur Swiss German
German, Audio Lessons
Pimsleur, part of Simon & Schuster, offers 10 excellent roughly half-hour audio lessons for Swiss German, and I did all 10 of them in 24 hours. I absolutely do not recommend this approach—you are supposed to do one per day—but I…
Memrise for Arabic
Arabic, Apps, Audio Lessons, Flashcards, Multimedia, Vocabulary, Websites, Kids
I am now a hard-core Memrise addict. It is all over for me, but stop reading here and you could be saved from a similar fate. Still reading? Beware, compulsive types! If you try this website—which is free, making…
Pimsleur Modern Standard Arabic
Arabic, Audio Lessons
I really, really, really wish Pimsleur offered 90 lessons for Modern Standard Arabic, often referred to as MSA. I love Pimsleur, and 30 lessons aren’t nearly enough! Pimsleur is a great resource for dozens of languages. It is extremely interactive…
Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic
Arabic, Audio Lessons
Pimsleur offers highly interactive audio lessons, each about half an hour long, that have so far impressed me more than any other teach-yourself product for spoken language skills. Everyone has different language-learning tastes, though, so before you buy, I recommend…
Dirty Spanish Flashcards: Everyday Slang From “What’s Up?” to “F*%# Off!”
Spanish, Flashcards, Vocabulary
Oh, my. They weren’t kidding. These are dirty. So, here’s the thing: I have no objection to dirty. And it is indeed the case that if you go the traditional language-learning route—classes…