Reviews

Hundreds of resources to help you teach yourself

Test Yourself for Free!

4 Arabic, English, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Tests

This company has free online quizzes for German, Italian, Spanish, French, Chinese, Arabic, Russian, and English.  Try one! They’re fun. Although I haven’t tested all of them, the ones I have taken struck me as very…

A Caveat: The Learning Spanish Like Crazy Website Is Confusing

Spanish, Audio Lessons, Multimedia

I haven’t tried Learning Spanish Like Crazy, but one of my readers described it as “right up there with Pimsleur in my opinion, but focus[ing] on more informal Spanish than what’s in Pimsleur’s course.” My impression,…

I Love(d) These

5 Spanish, Flashcards, Vocabulary

I am a huge fan of flashcards, and this box of 1,000 cards is great. You can take a handful in your purse on the subway or to your doctor’s office or wherever, or study while you are waiting in…

Forvo: For Pronunciations of the World's Words

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

Forvo’s tagline says it all: “All the words in the world. Pronounced.” Okay, maybe not all, but it is good to have a goal. There are 300 languages on Forvo’s language list, from German and Spanish to…

A Spanish Pronoun Exploration That Could Have Been More Effective

2-5 Spanish, Books

The idea of a book on Spanish pronouns is appealing, because English speakers have much to learn regarding how this part of speech operates in Spanish. Unfortunately, Practice Makes Perfect: Spanish Pronouns Up Close by Eric Vogt…

MLA Headquarters, 26 Broadway

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

This eminent 130-year-old organization “provides opportunities for its members to share their scholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to discuss trends in the academy.” The Modern Language Association publishes prolifically, academics congregate annually at their annual convention,…

Me with My Rosetta Stone Headset

2-5 Spanish, Multimedia

Rosetta Stone is a sprawling multimedia language-learning product, one whose marketing has been so effective that it is the first thing most people hearing of this website ask me about. Although Rosetta Stone can be fun initially—in part…

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…

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…