100 Best Web Tools to Teach Yourself a New Language

Posted by Site Administrator in Learning, Teaching Dec 15th, 2008

Americans aren’t always known for their multilingual skills, but it’s not too late to change. Thanks to the Internet, learning a new language doesn’t have to be as hard as moving to another country or taking expensive courses. There are a vast number of learning tools online, including games that introduce you to new languages, alphabets and glossaries for practicing the basics, and even widgets and toolbars that keep you learning new words everyday. Here are just 100 of our favorites.

Alphabets

Some languages like Mandarin and Greek require the mastery of a whole new alphabet. Use these tools to get started in your studies.

1. Indian alphabets: Learn the alphabet for Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali and more here.
2. Coptic Language and Alphabets: Learn this Egyptian language and about its dialects here.
3. Sign Language: Here you’ll find sign language alphabets from Spain, Russia, Sweden, the U.S., Greek and more.
4. Phonics, Alphabet and Language Worksheets: ESL students can practice the American alphabet and phonics here.
5. New to Japan: Practice the Japanese alphabet using this worksheet.
6. Chinese Character Learning System: This website teaches the complex nature of Chinese characters and their meaning.
7. The Greek Alphabet: View the alphabet, get pronunciation help and learn about ancient texts from this site.
8. Portuguese alphabet: Start learning Portuguese by mastering its alphabet first.
9. Vietnamese alphabet: Learn consonants and vowels from the Vietnamese alphabet in this wiki.
10. Abjad’s Rainbow Pyramid: Learn the Arabic alphabet with this kid-friendly system.

Dictionaries and Glossaries

From glossaries that list useful phrases to tools for business travelers, these dictionaries and glossaries are extremely helpful for language students.

11. French-English Dictionary: Learn French grammar, phrases and more from this British site.
12. Oxford Spanish Dictionary: Look up Spanish words with this dictionary.
13. Useful Russian Phrases: Learn how to say things like "Good morning" and "How do you say…in Russian?" here.
14. Basic Arabic Phrases: Here you can look up and practice useful Arabic greetings and more.
15. Mandarin Glossary: Each word here comes with an audio clip to clarify pronunciation.
16. Business German: Learn business and finance words and phrases in German from this site.
17. Glossaries by Language: From Albanian to Finnish to Hebrew, you can find all types of picture dictionaries and more.
18. Word Online: Choose a language and then choose a field or subject matter to find all types of niche glossaries.
19. Urban Dictionary: Even native English speakers can learn new slang here.
20. Argot: French Slang: Learn key French slang words and phrases, called "argot," here.
21. Italian Steps: Learn key phrases for traveling to Italy.
22. Weird Words: Learn weird words and phrases in languages like Welsh, Japanese and Polish here.
23. Dutch travel and tourism: Phrases like "bargaining stone" and "double room" are translated here.
24. Foreign Language Online Dictionaries: Browse glossaries for languages like Yiddish, Umbrian, Turkish, Latvian, Nepalese and many more.

Social Media Sites

Join a social media site for another country to immediately immerse yourself in the slang and everyday vocabulary of native speakers.

25. Darabet: Darabet is kind of like the Arabic version of Digg.
26. Xing: The professional networking site Xing can be translated into languages like German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and more.
27. Scoopeo: This French-language social bookmarking site can be a great way to practice your vocabulary and keep up with French culture.
28. studiVZ: studiVZ is sort of like a German Facebook.
29. Nico Nico Douga: Nico Nico Douga is a Japanese photo sharing site.
30. Nettby: Nettby is an incredibly popular social media site in Norway.

Audio Resources

These podcasts and recordings will help with your pronunciation, rhythm, and ability to understand conversations at a regular pace.

31. byki Free language software: Listen to languages like Swahili, Bulgarian and Italian here.
32. Radio France: Listen to a radio station online like Radio France to hear native speakers discuss the news, pop culture and more.
33. Google Language Tools: Paste the text you want translated into the text box and listen to its pronunciation here.
34. Language Learning Podcast: Find podcasts for learning Spanish, Greek and more here.
35. Learn Italian Pod: This site offers free Italian podcasts.
36. French Pod Class: Listen to podcasts about different news and culture items in France, view preview sheets to help you follow along and even find language exercises and games that go along with podcasts.
37. Japanese Pod 101: Get free Japanese podcasts and over 800 lessons here.
38. Russian Literature Language Podcasts: Listen to excerpts from Tolstoy, Chekhov and Dostoevsky from UCLA.
39. Coffee Break Spanish: Subscribe to this language learning tool on iTunes and listen to the Radio Lingua network.
40. Sexy Spanish: Nancy Rosales teaches you pick-up lines and more sexy talk in Spanish.

Games

Play fun games like crosswords and International Cafe to practice your vocabulary.

41. French crosswords: The BBC’s French crossword games are great for practicing vocabulary.
42. LanguageGames.org: Solve crosswords, play hangman and more in languages like German, Italian and French.
43. Japanese language toy chest: Play Japanese word games and word searches here.
44. Spanish parts of the face game: Learn the Spanish words for mouth, hair, nose and more with this game.
45. French test: Test your French skills with this quiz.
46. Don Quijote: Play Spanish language games here.
47. Activities for ESL students: Play seasonal games and learn grammar here.
48. International Cafe: Practice five languages like Spanish and French in this fun game.
49. Advanced Games: If you can already speak Arabic fairly well, try playing these games.
50. Clothes in Polish game: Visit a department store to learn clothing items in Polish.

Understanding Language

If you’re not convinced that learning a new language can benefit you, check out these resources that list languages spoken in each country, give the history of languages and more.

51. Standard Mandarin: Learn about Mandarin’s tones, dialects and more here.
52. Korean Language history: Learn which people speak Korean and the characteristics that make this language unique.
53. CIA World Factbook - Languages: Look up which languages are spoken in different countries here.
54. Romance Languages: Learn about the Romance Languages and their evolution here.

Music and Radio

Learn folk songs, pop songs and even Christmas carols in other languages to perfect your idioms, slang and overall understanding.

55. Christmas Songs in Spanish: Learn carols like "Angels We Have Heard on High" in Spanish.
56. Radio Locator: Get connected to radio station websites around the world with this tool.
57. Foreign Internet Radio and Online News Radio: Listen to radio stations online in Indonesian, Turkish, Polish and more.
58. German Music - Folk Songs: Get English translations and sheet music for German folk songs here.
59. Russian folk music downloads: Download Russian folk songs like "Birch-tree" and "Andreev’s Waltz" from this site.
60. Worldwide Radio: Tune into radio stations in Africa, Eastern Europe, South America and more.
61. Happy Birthday: Get lyrics to the birthday song in Spanish, Turkish, Serbian and other languages.
62. Calabash: Listen to and buy music from all over the world, including Africa, Oceania and Europe, from Calabash.
63. music-seek: Search for music, mp3s and other multimedia here.
64. French Christmas Carols: Get lyrics for popular "chants de Noel" here.

General Websites

These websites have resources and tools for many different languages all in one.

65. RosettaStone: Shop for language learning tools and explore different countries here.
66. Omniglot: Get tips on learning new languages and discover new alphabets here.
67. World Wide Language Institute: Learn Cantonese and Mandarin by using the glossary and other tools at WWLI.
68. BBC Languages: The BBC’s language site has numerous resources for listening to other languages, learning basic phrases, practicing vocabulary and more.
69. One Minute Languages: Languages like Catalan, Danish, Polish, Romanian and more are taught in short lessons here.
70. Digital Dialects: Play free interactive games to learn languages like Basque, Ukrainian, Russian, Danish, German, Korean and more.
71. Language Guide: Find resources for learning Russian, Hebrew, Spanish and more languages here.
72. Language Impact: This site has features like a Language Learning Talk e-mail discussion group and other tools for learning languages.
73. Lingua Scope: This fun website has games, instant messaging and other tools for early learners, intermediate levels and more.
74. edufind: Here you can get all types of language learning tools for languages from Hawaiian to Urdu.

Tips and Articles

For tips on mastering another language, read these article and guides.

75. Tips for Learning Mandarin Chinese: Learning this complicated language pays off in the end. If you’re feeling frustrated, get tips for sticking with it here.
76. Some hints and tips on learning Dutch: The Netherlands Guide from justlanded.com has tips for learning Dutch the fun way.
77. Take a French Lover, and other tips for learning the language: Jane Watt offers innovative and practical tips for learning French.
78. How to Learn (but not master) Any Language in 1 Hour: The Four Hour Work Week blog offers tips for cramming your language study into an hour. An excellent resource for people like phlebotomy technicians who just need passable language skills.
79. How to learn a foreign language: Pick the Brain offers straightforward tips for learning a new language.
80. Weekly Tips on Learning Mandarin: Subscribe to this service from the Hangzhou Expat Forum and get daily conversation tips, a guide to life in Shanghai and more.
81. The Linguist on Language: This blog is "for people who love languages or would, but are discouraged." You’ll find encouragement for learning new languages and more.
82. 5 Ways to learn a new language (and 5 reasons why you should): This article argues that more journalists should become bilingual or multilingual.
83. Why Learn a Second Language?: Tamim Ansary from MSN Encarta encourages everyone to learn a second language.
84. How to Learn Any Language: wikiHow recommends practicing native intonations and buying current magazines in other languages to learn faster and more accurately.

Applications, Widgets and Add-Ons

Add these web tools to your toolbar or browser to get language help all day everyday.

85. Word Reference: These translator buttons can be added to Internet Explorer and Firefox.
86. Learnit: Learnit Lists display short lists of vocabulary words in English and the language you’re trying to learn.
87. Learn Sign Language: With this widget, you’ll see an interactive sign language model that teaches you signs.
88. Language Translator: This widget displays text boxes in the original language and English so that you can compare both selections.
89. Foreign Word Game: This vocabulary game is available for Russian, Spanish, Italian, French and more.
90. Persian Language Pack: View your Firefox pages in Persian with this add-on.
91. Vietnamese Language Pack: This is another Firefox tool that displays your pages in Vietnamese.
92. WordLearner toolbar: This toolbar helps you learn new words instantly.
93. Quick Locale Switcher: Switch your system to a different language default so that you can better use the dictionary and spell check features.
94. Jenerator: Japanese learners can use this widget which generates one definition and character at a time, all day.

Tutors and Online Courses

Find tutors and online courses when you use these tools.

95. Free Online Language Courses: Click on a language to find online courses.
96. Online Business Spanish Certificate Program: The University of Wisconsin-Madison offers this online course for business professionals who frequently work with people from Spain and Latin America.
97. LearnPlus: Here you can enroll in German and Spanish language courses online.
98. Language School Teachers: Use this site to find language teachers and tutors around the country.
99. TutorNation: This site connects students to tutors, including foreign language tutors and teachers.
100. WyzAnt: This company currently has nearly 4500 language tutors registered.