Facilitating Languages Other Than English

Blog post on issues with machine translation

"Learning a language makes an appearance on a lot of bucket lists. People picture themselves strolling through a market in a foreign land, conversing easily with locals - and you always look tanned in the daydream, too. But on the way to becoming the fluent and unaccountably sexier new you, there are a few emotional troughs you have to get through."

""Silence is the language of God, all else is poor translation," Sufi mystic Rumi once said. Words are, however, a way for the worldly to connect with the divine through prayer and worship. For many, developing a greater understanding of a religion extends not only to studying the theological and philosophical points but to learning another language. We spoke to three people studying Arabic, Hebrew and classical Tibetan about the role languages play in their relationship with religion."

The unofficial index to educational hashtags (for use on Twitter / social media / etc.). A very impressive resource!

Association for Language Learning - UK

A great presentation on why presentations are so bad

"To mark World Book Day, we've explained some of the key pieces of research on literacy from the last decade in a nutshell"

Great posters of different sounds in different languages.

Animal sounds in different languages - with audio!

Article about duo lingo and game design for learning a language

Article about duo lingo and game design for learning a language

Google Translate just added a new feature that allows you to easily create a personalized phrasebook with the phrases and sentences you want to memorize and/or find yourself translating repeatedly.

Great article on translator use from a Japanese learning perspective.

Video clips of stars speaking foreign languages. 

"In consultation with classroom teachers, Ibu Hara and bu Jli created these texts to cpmplement topics in Stage 2 and 3 WACE courses for Indonesian. Topics include the influence of Western culture on Balinese youth, Chores and pocket money, smoking and illicit drugs, raising teenagers and religion.The audio files (.mp3) are designed to play on any computer. Right-click o download."

A blog post that reminds us to take SLA into consideration when planning activities for novices/beginners.

Boarding passes from around the world - blank templates!!

The Indonesian Way (TIW) by George Quinn and Uli Kozok consists of 113 lessons and is aimed for beginners of the Indonesian Language (bahasa Indonesia).

GoogleVoice introduction via EnglishCentral