Saturday, October 19, 2013

LanguageComics

https://www.languagecomics.com/





https://www.youtube.com/user/LanguageComicsTeam/featured


LanguageComics is a great free resource for people learning either Spanish or French. You can read an easy comic with translations for practice. If you go to their Youtube pages, you can also watch some of the comics and hear it read to you.

More on this later.

Hope you like it!

Love,
Destiny

Monday, October 7, 2013

mySpanishgames

Someone on a forum was struggling with telling time on a Spanish forum, so I searched "cómo decir la hora"  and I came across THIS website. This wonderful, fantastic Spanish learning website!

It is called mySpanishgames and it is 100% free.

It runs on donations, so if you can afford it, please donate.


There are different categories, including Stories, Songs, Games, Vocabulary, Fun Grammar, a book store and a teacher's corner.


The website has quite a few fun games. You don't have to know Spanish to play the games, but a little knowledge does help.


One of the games is called ¿Quiénes? If you have ever played Guess Who? you will love ¿Quiénes? Eliminate the suspects according the clues given If the game says "Lleva zapatos negros" or "Is wearing black shoes", click on the people that aren't wearing black shoes to eliminate them.


You can also read and listen to some fun stories on this site. They are very easy for beginners to understand.


In the fun grammar section, the grammar lessons are also basically games. Above is a lesson indirect objects.


All of the games and lessons on this site are tons of fun, so go and try it out! It's definitely a winner.

Love,
Destiny


Sunday, October 6, 2013

Busuu

This is an online language course I've been hesitant to review, BUT it does have a free area (and way more free content than Babbel).

The biggest con? You can only study ONE language as a free member.

However, there is quite a bit of free content, so pick your favourite language and sign up.

Busuu uses cues for both the visual and auditory parts of the language. A picture along with the word. This is really helpful for learning the language.


Busuu gives you a review of everything you've learned. There are a few different activities. In this one the speaker says a word or phrase and you must select the picture she is talking about. Once you select the picture, the word will appear underneath it.


This is another fun activity on Busuu. You match the words on the left side of the screen to their meanings on the right. Just like the criss-cross puzzles you do (or did) in school.

This activity forces you to think about how the words are spelled in the language.

One of the major PROS of Busuu is the writing activity. In just about every section, after you learn the vocabulary, you can choose WRITING after you've gone through VOCABULARY and DIALOGUE or you can review first. A question is asked in the language you are learning, and you must answer it in the language. Native speakers will comment and correct you. They will also give you stars based on how good your writing was.


Here is an example of a WRITING exercise that was corrected by a native speaker.

Some other key points about Busuu.
You earn Busuu berries that you can shop in a little store with. You can use your Busuu berries to buy discounts on the paid course or you can buy cute little animals for your garden.

Busuu also has a chat feature. After you've studied a lesson, Busuu offers you the chance to select a native speaker to chat with. This is a great way to practice the language.
And that's the main reason I give Busuu 4 stars.

Enjoy!

Love,
Destiny

Languages: English, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese