04-23-2010, 06:04 AM
Hello.
Here, I have compiled a list of resources that will aid you in learning your target language. I've mostly just posted some useful dictionaries, but there're also other sites that'll be helpful. If there's enough response, I'll expand on this. All material in this compilation is free and legal.
Spanish
Dictionary: http://wordreference.com/
Dictionary: http://www.spanishdict.com/
Learning: http://www.studyspanish.com/
German
Dictionary: http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/
Dictionary: http://dict.leo.org/ende?lang=en&lp=ende&search=
Swedish
Dictionary: http://lexin.nada.kth.se/swe-eng.html
Dictionary: http://tyda.se/set?lang=en&destination=%2F
Forum: http://amerikanska.com/modules.php?name=...wforum&f=5
Learning E-book: http://stashbox.org/868225/swedish.pdf [This e-book is written by me. I have full rights to redistribute it. Note that it isn't complete.]
French
Dictionary: http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/
Dictionary: http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/
Learn: http://www.bonjour.com/
Dutch
Dictionary: http://www.vertaalwoord.nl/translate.cgi...v=vertalen
Dictionary: http://www.freedict.com/onldict/dut.html
Learn: http://www.learndutch.org/
Chinese (Simplified & Traditional)
Dictionary: http://www.nciku.com/
Dictionary: http://hmarty.free.fr/hanzi/index.html
Learn: http://www.zapchinese.com/
Arabic
Learn: http://www.madinaharabic.com/
All languages
Wiktionary: A dictionary that is community driven. It supports many languages.
BYKI: A program that teaches you vocabulary. Also supports many languages.
WordReference Forums: A forum for discussing different languages. A great place to ask questions and to learn.
LiveMocha: An interactive website that appeals to many different learning styles. It supports most major languages.
Verbix: A website that supports many different languages. Its purpose is to show you the conjugations of any verb for your target language. It can also be downloaded as a program.
Interpals: Interpals is a website where you can meet people from all over the world. There're people of all religions, ages, and nationalities. Penpals are a key part of learning a language well.
TellMeMore: TellMeMore is a language learning software that supports major languages, like French, Spanish, German, and more. Don't expect to find lesser languages like Swedish or Czech on here, though. It's my personal favorite.
Misc. Tips
Don't push yourself too hard. I taught myself Swedish, and one mistake I made is I was too hard on myself. Learning a new language, no matter how smart you are, is not going to be easy. You have to teach your brain to think in a completely new way. It's not as simple as thinking, "Oh, well, 'beginner' is 'nybörjare', and 'Hey' is 'Hejsan', so I'll say, 'Hejsan nybörjare.' for 'Hey newbie'." No. When you are good with a language, there's none of that. It's simply, "Hejsan nybörjare." You have to teach your brain how to THINK in that language, just like you would your native. Think how awkward conversation will be if you have to stop and think about the words before speaking. So, when you begin to learn your target language, don't get into the habit of thinking "Well, 'I' is 'yo'..." and so on. Learn the word(s) and try to say what you want to say as fast as you would in your native language. You WILL make mistakes. There is no way around that. For the first TWO YEARS of me learning Swedish, I used the completely wrong word for 'wear' and NO ONE told me. Do you know how surprised I was when I learned that? My point is, DON'T be afraid to make mistakes. Most native speakers don't speak their own language perfectly, so don't expect to yourself.
Another tip is to avoid using colloquialisms when you begin learning your language. In Spanish, for example, some people will write 'k' for "qué", or "kiero" for "quiero". There's no reason to do that, and it'll just give you bad writing/speaking habits. You have no idea how annoying it is to see native Swedish speakers write "kmr" for "kommer" and other silly shortcuts. You are bound to be more understandable if you write properly. You know how you see people online who are clearly foreign, but write with a thousand abbreviations and so on? Most people just ignore them. Don't write in such a manner that'll get you ignored. If it's clear you are serious about trying, people will be willing to help you.
When you begin to learn your target language, switch to the keyboard layout of a country where that language is widely spoken. If you are going to learn Dutch, add the standard Netherlands keyboard layout to your language bar (Windows). To learn how to do this in Windows, click here. For Linux distros, click here. Learning a new layout is hard, ESPECIALLY when your target language doesn't use the Latin alphabet, such as Arabic or Russian. Languages that just use a variant of the English alphabet, such as Swedish or German, are rather easy to learn, but keep in mind that symbols will likely be in totally different places, so just keep practicing. Learn about different hotkeys you can set to switch between keyboard layouts. I prefer left_shift+left_ctrl myself.
I'll add more to this later.
As long as people use this, I'll keep it updated
Here, I have compiled a list of resources that will aid you in learning your target language. I've mostly just posted some useful dictionaries, but there're also other sites that'll be helpful. If there's enough response, I'll expand on this. All material in this compilation is free and legal.
Spanish
Dictionary: http://wordreference.com/
Dictionary: http://www.spanishdict.com/
Learning: http://www.studyspanish.com/
German
Dictionary: http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/
Dictionary: http://dict.leo.org/ende?lang=en&lp=ende&search=
Swedish
Dictionary: http://lexin.nada.kth.se/swe-eng.html
Dictionary: http://tyda.se/set?lang=en&destination=%2F
Forum: http://amerikanska.com/modules.php?name=...wforum&f=5
Learning E-book: http://stashbox.org/868225/swedish.pdf [This e-book is written by me. I have full rights to redistribute it. Note that it isn't complete.]
French
Dictionary: http://www.wordreference.com/enfr/
Dictionary: http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/dictionary/
Learn: http://www.bonjour.com/
Dutch
Dictionary: http://www.vertaalwoord.nl/translate.cgi...v=vertalen
Dictionary: http://www.freedict.com/onldict/dut.html
Learn: http://www.learndutch.org/
Chinese (Simplified & Traditional)
Dictionary: http://www.nciku.com/
Dictionary: http://hmarty.free.fr/hanzi/index.html
Learn: http://www.zapchinese.com/
Arabic
Learn: http://www.madinaharabic.com/
All languages
Wiktionary: A dictionary that is community driven. It supports many languages.
BYKI: A program that teaches you vocabulary. Also supports many languages.
WordReference Forums: A forum for discussing different languages. A great place to ask questions and to learn.
LiveMocha: An interactive website that appeals to many different learning styles. It supports most major languages.
Verbix: A website that supports many different languages. Its purpose is to show you the conjugations of any verb for your target language. It can also be downloaded as a program.
Interpals: Interpals is a website where you can meet people from all over the world. There're people of all religions, ages, and nationalities. Penpals are a key part of learning a language well.
TellMeMore: TellMeMore is a language learning software that supports major languages, like French, Spanish, German, and more. Don't expect to find lesser languages like Swedish or Czech on here, though. It's my personal favorite.
Misc. Tips
Don't push yourself too hard. I taught myself Swedish, and one mistake I made is I was too hard on myself. Learning a new language, no matter how smart you are, is not going to be easy. You have to teach your brain to think in a completely new way. It's not as simple as thinking, "Oh, well, 'beginner' is 'nybörjare', and 'Hey' is 'Hejsan', so I'll say, 'Hejsan nybörjare.' for 'Hey newbie'." No. When you are good with a language, there's none of that. It's simply, "Hejsan nybörjare." You have to teach your brain how to THINK in that language, just like you would your native. Think how awkward conversation will be if you have to stop and think about the words before speaking. So, when you begin to learn your target language, don't get into the habit of thinking "Well, 'I' is 'yo'..." and so on. Learn the word(s) and try to say what you want to say as fast as you would in your native language. You WILL make mistakes. There is no way around that. For the first TWO YEARS of me learning Swedish, I used the completely wrong word for 'wear' and NO ONE told me. Do you know how surprised I was when I learned that? My point is, DON'T be afraid to make mistakes. Most native speakers don't speak their own language perfectly, so don't expect to yourself.
Another tip is to avoid using colloquialisms when you begin learning your language. In Spanish, for example, some people will write 'k' for "qué", or "kiero" for "quiero". There's no reason to do that, and it'll just give you bad writing/speaking habits. You have no idea how annoying it is to see native Swedish speakers write "kmr" for "kommer" and other silly shortcuts. You are bound to be more understandable if you write properly. You know how you see people online who are clearly foreign, but write with a thousand abbreviations and so on? Most people just ignore them. Don't write in such a manner that'll get you ignored. If it's clear you are serious about trying, people will be willing to help you.
When you begin to learn your target language, switch to the keyboard layout of a country where that language is widely spoken. If you are going to learn Dutch, add the standard Netherlands keyboard layout to your language bar (Windows). To learn how to do this in Windows, click here. For Linux distros, click here. Learning a new layout is hard, ESPECIALLY when your target language doesn't use the Latin alphabet, such as Arabic or Russian. Languages that just use a variant of the English alphabet, such as Swedish or German, are rather easy to learn, but keep in mind that symbols will likely be in totally different places, so just keep practicing. Learn about different hotkeys you can set to switch between keyboard layouts. I prefer left_shift+left_ctrl myself.
I'll add more to this later.
As long as people use this, I'll keep it updated
