Livemocha Anyone?
Thursday April 2, 2009
Things fall through the cracks sometimes, you know? Today I was aghast to find an interesting email from last October in my inbox (heavy sigh). It was from hakozbudak, who was telling me about Livemocha, an international community of people learning languages together. The New York Times is quoted as having called it "a powerful opportunity for people around the world to connect with language partners."
I've never heard of some of the languages listed, so it's a good bet that you'll find someone there who will speak whatever language you're learning. Check it out, and let us know what you think. We're always looking for language sites around here. Pop in the forum. That's the best place to say what's on your mind.
Thanks hakozbudak! My apologies for the tardiness!
Comments
Hi Deb,
livemocha is a nice service – I have been using it some time to improve my Spanish..recently I found another website called http://www.busuu.com – I like the userinterface better and they have structured language courses…itīs free as well…you should have a look!
Eric
It may be a great site to learn a language ,
But it’s also a pick up site, People trying to pick you up online. lure you to other sites
I was shocked to even find this out while ttying to learn Spanish.. Just be cautious..
Oh my, thanks for the heads up about that, Thomas. Unfortunate. I guess you have to be careful anywhere on the internet these days. You certainly don’t want to be lured somewhere you’ll pick up a computer virus.
Eric, thanks for the busuu.com info. I’ll blog about it.
Deb
Hi Deb,
I’d like to mention another site and address Thomas’s concern. @Thomas I think with any site that is free to sign up, particularly if it has forums or social-networking built in, you will get some kind of spammers, whether that’s the Nigerian fraud kind or the I think I’m in love with your from reading your profile kind. Its an unfortunate situation and I think most site managers work hard to police it but they can’t keep up with everything.
@Deb, if you’re looking for another e-learning site to review, let me mention italki.com. (Disclosure: I work for italki). italki has many of the same features as livemocha & busuu, including a global community of language learners (potential language partners), videos, podcasts, and files for various languages. One of our most popular features is social Q&A, where anyone can ask a question and get a response. Our newest feature, is the ability to find a language teacher from any corner of the world to learn online, with the confidence of using our secure payment and ratings system. Feel free to contact me. Twitter: @italki
~ Toffler