Reviews

Hundreds of resources to help you teach yourself

Wow, 2014 Marks the 129th Convention!

Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Yiddish, Conferences/Lectures

The Modern Language Association holds an annual convention each year in a different city—2013 in Boston, 2014 in Chicago, and 2018 in New York City. You do not need to be a member to attend. I have never gone myself, but when…

I Tried to Teach Myself with This, But Couldn't

2 Greek, Books, Multimedia

This Teach Yourself Greek book-CD combination is one of numerous offerings for different languages in the Teach Yourself series from McGraw-Hill. To date I have not found any book-CD combination products in this series that…

FlashcardExchange.com: Find Flashcards for Your Target Language

4 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Apps, Flashcards, Vocabulary, Websites, Kids

FlashcardExchange.com claims to be the “world’s largest flashcard library.” It was founded in 2001 by a guy named Culley Harrelson, who was studying for an exam using a giant stack of paper flashcards. Apparently he didn’t find…

Your First 100 Words in Greek: Kind of Fun, But Not Very Effective

3 Greek, Books, Flashcards, Vocabulary

Your First 100 Words in Greek by Ioanna Psalti helps you develop basic vocabulary and a familiarity with Greek script. The vocabulary is divided into various thematic categories, such as animals, clothing, household items, etc.—helpful stuff…

Mid-Manhattan Library, at 40th and Fifth

4-5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Bookstores/Libraries, Kids

The Mid-Manhattan Library, at 40th Street and Fifth Avenue, is the main language-learning repository of the New York Public Library. I used it a lot in 2009 and 2010, mostly for Pimsleur audio lessons, but also borrowed books and other resources as…

CafePress Sells Hebrew Alphabet Mugs!

4 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Yiddish, Shopping, Kids

According to its website, CafePress has “the world’s largest selection of artist-designed t-shirts, clothing, accessories, housewares and gifts.” I have included this company here because they happen to sell numerous foreign-language items, such as mugs, hoodies, posters, clocks, and…

Read & Speak Greek for Beginners: Kind of Cute

3 Greek, Books, Multimedia

On the title page, this Read & Speak Greek for Beginners book/CD combo annoyingly promises to be “the easiest way to learn to communicate right away!” Ridiculous. But it’s cute for what it is. There are…

Me, About to Take My Spanish Test from Alta Language Services

4-5 Arabic, Dutch, English, French, General, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Tests

I do not profess to be an expert in testing services. After a Google search, I chose Alta Language Services for my own testing needs because it is efficient and inexpensive. Alta Language Services, according to its website, is “a…