Language Hacking
As many of you know, after three years in Serbia, I finally decided to start learning the Serbian language. I was extremely lucky to find a truly brilliant teacher to help me*. Additionally, it turns out that the old myth that adults find it very hard to learn languages may be bunk.
I am now interested in the topic of Hacking Foreign Language Learning. I am looking for any tips, tricks and shortcuts one can adopt to speed up language learning.
So far I have found the following resources:
How to Learn (But Not Master) Any Language in 1 Hour
A Simple Trick to Turbo Charge Learning a Foreign Language.
I was contacted about Edufire, which looks pretty interesting. It offers live video tutoring in 18 languages (with more being added all the time).
I hear that the Rosetta Stone system is superb (pity there is no Serbian) but a bit expensive for most.
xLingo is a nice idea, you “Find Language Exchange partners from around the world to practice and improve your language skills.”
If anyone has any recommendations, please contact me with your ideas.
* My Serbian teacher’s name is Mira and she is highly experienced and uses the latest teaching techniques (this was confirmed by my girlfriend, who is a linguistics expert and university lecturer). She can be contacted by email: mira22 AT eunet DOT yu .
Tray free language learning software from http://www.valodas.com
Tray free language learning software from http://www.valodas.com !
I think I responded to this elsewhere but definitely try eduFire. Personalized instruction from a native speaking in the comfort of your living room!
http://www.edufire.com
I did find another one, apart from the ones in the comments: http://www.studentteacherexchange.com/ which is completely free and uses chat/video/voice and whiteboards as well. They are new but my guess is they will be booming soon since they charge nothing.