The No Thick Manuals wiki details how to learn a language efficiently using two free, open source applications. The first is jVLT (java Vocabulary Learning Tool), a completely cross platform flash card application.
There are a number of different ways to study a language, each of which has advantages and disadvantages. You may find a combination of these is best for you.
* Taught courses
* Teaching yourself
* Language exchange
* Picking it up by osmosis
1. Improve your English - I know this might not make sense at first but hear me out. As a person who speaks only one language you have no basis for comparison; all you know is English. In different languages the same idea is often expressed in different ways. Knowing another language gives you a great measuring stick.
The first step is acquiring the materials you will use to teach yourself. The first thing you need is an audio language course. This is essential for developing your basic vocabulary and, more importantly, your pronunciation.
Games, activities and songs
д е ё ж (alphabet): A spaceman introduces himself, then says the alphabet one letter at a time.
д е ё ж (spelling): Learn the alphabet. The answer mode is a kind of dictation: the names of things are spelled. Click the letters you hear to see the picture.
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Podcast for those who want to improve their Russian listening comprehension and expand their vocabulary through listening to excerpts from Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Gogol, Chekhov, and other famous Russian writers. Level: intermediate/advanced.
Why do you need to know a little Russian? Because if you are going to travel to Russia, it will be much easier to make your way around if you can read the Russian alphabet and know a few basic words. Besides, you can make friends much easier. This guide will help you learn the Russian letters, basic grammar, and most key phrases in Russian you will need. To enhance your learning experience, everything is recorded in sounds, so you can hear how it should be pronounced.
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Subscribe and listen to language lessons from around the world. Click on a language lesson in order to listen to the lesson in your default media player. Or you can subscribe to the lessons as podcasts. Learn more about podcasts. Currently, we offer:
* Mandarin Chinese
* Jordanian Arabic
* Malian French
* Kazakh Russian
Webapp Mango offers 11 free foreign language courses in Spanish, Russian, Greek, German, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese, Brazilian Portuguese, French, Italian and Polish. Simply sign up with your email address and you’re ready to go. Choose any of the available courses and view slideshow presentations instantly.
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Open Culture has collected a pretty extensive list of foreign language lesson podcasts. You can find them here.
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