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Founded in 2010 and based in Minde, Portugal, the Interdisciplinary Centre for Social and Language Documentation (CIDLeS) is “dedicated to the documentation and preservation of the linguistic and cultural heritage in Europe.”

Barron’s Italian Verb Workbook: Some Good Content, But Not My Favorite Exercise Design

3 Italian, Books

Barron’s Italian Verb Workbook by Marcel Danesi is intended to work for true beginners, but I think showing up with a little background would be helpful, since you start right in on present-tense conjugations on the…

Pimsleur Italian Unlimited at the Bookstore, 2012

5 Italian, Audio Lessons, Multimedia

When I first studied Italian back in 2009, I did 90 Pimsleur Italian lessons in less than three weeks. You are supposed to do one a day. I guess that is an indication of how much I loved them. I would absolutely 100…

German Verb Drills, with Coffee

4 German, Books

German Verb Drills by Astrid Henschel claims to be “perfect for beginning and intermediate learners.” I would say you should be at least an advanced beginner, though. We are talking German verbs, after all! Even a relatively advanced…

You Can Speak the Word You Want Translated...

5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Apps, Dictionaries

I have a tendency not to get around to downloading iPhone apps onto my iPhone, but fortunately I have a husband who will take my phone and do it for me. I’m very glad he stuck this app on…

Teach Yourself Hindi: This Is an Earnest Book

4 Hindi, Books

I found Teach Yourself Hindi* by Mohini Rao at Bhutala Emporium in Little India in Queens. The subtitle was enticing: “A Unique and Authentic Language Learning Kit from the Country’s Leading Publishing House” (the country being India,…

Global Language List!

4 General, Websites

This Wikipedia entry has a table listing the world’s languages in descending order by number of speakers. Besides the quantitative information, the table also displays the countries in which the languages are spoken and provides some helpful notes. For…

A Confidently Titled Italian Grammar

3 Italian, Books

I have mixed feelings about Barron’s Mastering Italian Grammar by Beatrice Rovere-Fenati. I find the grammar explanations responsible and thorough, but there are annoying popout bubbles that interrupt the larger grammatical narrative and brightly tell me…

Test Your Grammar Skills

3-5 Italian, Flashcards

Guess what! Since I began writing this review, I have learned that these are now out of print. They are, or were, a box of 600 flashcards focusing on grammar rather than the usual vocabulary. I believe I bought them by…

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