Language and cultural exchange wiki
Searching for both language learning resources and international media links on the Internet can be overwhelming. The purpose of this wiki is to provide some of the best resources currently available. The resources are divided up into language learning resources for multiple languages, language specific resources, and international media.
We are currently looking for additional great language learning and international podcasts and hope to add these here soon. International podcasts are an excellent way to learn and keep your language skills sharp! Please add to our resources below!
Our companion wiki for cultural exchange resources provides links to Case offices dedicated to helping Case students study aboard, and enrich the experience of international students on the Case campus.
Contents |
[edit] Language Learning Resources for Multiple Languages
[edit] Language Exchange Partners
Sites such as LiveMocha, The Mixxer, and Polyglot Free Language Exchange Community all offer opportunities for language learners to find online language exchange partners. The Mixxer is maintained by a professor at Dickinson College. It is particularly well-suited for instructors wishing to find entire classes for language exchanges, as well as for individual use.
[edit] Online Courses
- The BBC offers many resources for learning foreign languages.
- Languageguide.org offers many excellent vocabulary building exercises in English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Portuguese, and Spanish. Just move your mouse over the pictures to hear the pronunciation and see the word.
[edit] Online Communities
- How-To-Learn-Any-Language is a vibrant forum with thousands of members. They discuss and review language tools that are commercially available, as well as offer tips and insight into the many different languages spoken by the forum's members.
[edit] Resources for Reading
- Word Champ makes it possible to read in a foreign language without a dictionary! Simply visit their site, click on 'Web Reader' in the navigational menu, and specify the language of the text and what language to use in glossing. Then, paste the text in to the box provided, provide a URL, or choose from one of the news sources listed at the bottom of the page.
[edit] Resources for Audio/Video Conferencing
- Media Vision Technology Enhanced Classes (TECs) feature various types of technology. Level 3 classrooms are equipped with great quality video conferencing equipment.
- Skypeis a free program that can be downloaded from the Internet. It allows you to talk to people all over the world for free! It is available on many of the computers in the Freedman Center.
[edit] YouTube.com
No matter what topic you are interested in, you are likely to find relevant video content on YouTube.com. To find international videos, try different searches including either the name of the country or language in English and separate searches using the target language, for example, German, Germany, Deutsch, Deutschland may yield different results.
[edit] Language Specific Resources
[edit] Chinese
- Audio Lessons/Podcasts
- Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk: Learn Mardarin Chinese with theme-based, progressive, and easy to follow lessons offers free podcasts on a number of topics.
- ChinesePod advertises free Chinese podcasts, lesson reviews, and help from experts.
- Learning Chinese Using QQ is a free Chat program. According to the website, there are many native speakers of Chinese participating who wish to make foreign friends.
- Language Exchange Network allows users to register to find language learning partners.
- Media Links for Learners
- Multilingual Books contains links to radio stations in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan.
- Multiple Skills
- Sue-mei Wu's Project Page offers a number of excellent learning resources, including theme-based lessons, and skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) practice.
- Rutgers Multimedia Chinese Teaching System is a multimedia instructional program intended to supplement many levels of Chinese instruction, including beginning level.
- Vocabulary/Character Practice
- Chinese Character Flashcards provides 10 different levels of difficulty to help you learn to recognize Chinese characters.
[edit] ESL
- Audio and Video Lessons/Podcasts
- Randall's ESL Cyber Listening Lab provides a number of listening exercises containing audio files and comprehension questions.
- The Bob and Rob Show provides weekly podcasts for English language learning. Podcasts are available free of charge, with supplementary materials offered for a fee. These podcasts offer an excellent opportunity to learn more about culture and language from these American and British ESL teachers working in Japan.
- english.yabla is a very nice service that features videos in American English with English captions. To use the service, you select the video you are interested in and then select your native language. You can then click on unfamiliar words in the caption and receive a definition in your native language. You can also take a comprehension game. english.yabla is a 'for a fee' service, but you can try it out using the demo videos.
- Yappr.com is similar to yabla, but is free. It offers social networking possibilities such as being able to make comments on videos and the ability to upload videos that you would like to share with others. However, it does not offer an interactive dictionary or comprehension quiz.
- Grammar
- Multi-Cultural Educational Services: Online Activities offers a number of learning resources, including grammar explanations and quizzes, thematic language practice on topics such as nutrition, medicine labels and warnings, and practical skills such as writing a check in the U.S.
- ESL BLUES: Pre-intermediate to high intermediate level English contains interactive exercises and explanations for many different parts of speech, such as adjectives, articles, and adverbs.
- Multiple Skills
- About.com: Learning English for the Advanced Level - ESL EFL Advanced English is an English learning guide that contains links to review advanced grammar, vocabulary, writing, and listening skills.
- Interesting Things for ESL Studentsoffers a large section of resources targeting grammatical knowledge, vocabulary, listening, and reading.
- Pronunciation
- English Pronunciation/Listening from Okanagan College includes videos and exercises to help you learn to distinguish between and make similar sounds accurately.
- For more resources, conduct an Internet search for ESL exercises, podcasts, etc.
[edit] French
- Literature/Reading
- Vive Voix: anthologie sonore de poésie provides a large number of poems that can be accessed by author, title, or alphabetically. Each poem comes with at least one audio file in which the poem is read by a native speaker.
- Multiple Skills
- About.com: French Language contains multiple resources, including listening, vocabulary, culture, lessons, grammar, etc!
- French Radio-Canada's language courses website.
*To access more interactive games and exercises available on the web, search for French plus the topic of your interest (e.g, grammar exercises, vocabulary exercises, games).
[edit] German
- Audio Lessons/Podcasts
- Step into German contains popular German music videos along with lyrics in German and translated into English. It is sponsored by the American Association of Teachers of German and the Goethe-Institut of San Francisco.
- Slow German Podcast contains a number of interesting Podcasts read at a slow pace. Each Podcast contains a written transcript.
- Cultural Sites
- About-Germany.org provides information about travel, literature, music, living in Germany, etc.
- Goethe-Institut is a world-wide institution devoted to teaching German language and culture. The website is available in both English and German, and contains links to cultural and linguistic resources.
- Download the 2009 Creativity in Germany Table Calendar and learn something exciting about German trends in culture, business, science, fashion and more every week in 2009. Save the calendar to your computer desktop, and you can put in your appointments by typing directly in the spaces provided - just make sure to save you changes before closing.
- Multiple Skills
- About.com: German Language contains multiple resources, including listening, vocabulary, culture, lessons, grammar, etc!
*For more interactive exercises and games, search for German plus the topic of your interest (e.g, grammar exercises, vocabulary exercises, games).
[edit] Hebrew
- Grammar
- “Safa-Ivrit” - “The Hebrew Language” provides a thorough review of Hebrew grammar - all in Hebrew!
- AmalNet's "Meida-Lashon" - Grammar Information" was designed to provide Israeli middle and high schools with a review of Hebrew grammar. It is also written entirely in Hebrew.
- Computer support
- Hebrew fonts provides many links to Hebrew fonts for download.
- Literature/Reading
- [Ben Yehuda Project] makes classics of Hebrew literature accessible via the Internet.
- Mechon-mamre - 'Bible and Mishneh Torah for all.'
- Melingo-Morfix can be used for translations and as a search engine.
- Online Courses/Extensive Exercises
- Hebrew Language at the University of Texas at Austin contains numerous videos, audio files, and interactive exercises to support Esther Raizen's beginning and intermediate level Hebrew textbooks.
[edit] Italian
Content needed!
[edit] Japanese
Language Learning
Writing Resources
Dictionaries
Japanese Lessons
[edit] Russian
- Culture
- Art
- Russian Art Gallery is a great resource for learning more about Russian art.
- Library of Congress: The Empire That was Russia provides the Prokudin-Gorskii photographic record of pre-revolutionary Russia.
- The Russian Shop is an online store selling many traditional Russian art objects, including easter eggs and Matryoshka.
- Russia iC provides a wealth of information about Russian life useful for travel and simply becoming more acquainted with Russian society and institutions.
- Digital Library of Stalinka a collection of images of Stalin and his family.
- Russian Art Library
- Pushkin and His Age an online course featuring numerous images.
- Film
- Kinokultura contains reviews of films and TV series.
- Russian Cinema Council sells Russian films.
- Literature/Reading
- From the Ends to the Beginning: A Bilingual Anthology of Russian Poetry contains over two hundred years of the most well-known Russian poetry in Russian and in English translation.
- Literature in Russian is a literary site written completely in Russian.
- Sher's Russian links contains links to literature as well as other cultural sites.
- Music
- Pesnia contains the text and clips of Russian songs and classical poetry.
- Podcasts and News for Learners
- NCLRC Russian Webcasts are prepared for learners of Russian.
- Art
- Online courses and extensive exercises
- RUSSNET is a repository for Russian Language Resources which includes its own collection of Russian Language Modules.
- Russian Web Tutor contains numerous grammar tutorials, exercises, and interactive crossword puzzles.
- Russian Language Tutor is a self-paced Language Maintenance and Development Curriculum for intermediate and advanced students of Russian.
- Russian exercises for the Начало textbook contains 656 exercises!!!
- Conversational Russian Online features an online textbook.
- Search Engines
[edit] Spanish
- Grammar and Learning Resources
- Elmundo.es provides an online, searchable Spanish dictionary.
- Gramática y Ortografía is a listing of links to many free, online Spanish resources.
- Más Arriba provides online grammar activities.
- Verbix is an online resource for conjugating Spanish verbs.
- The BBC provides resources about about Spanish language and culture.
- The BBC also provides the news in Spanish!
- Spanish Language and Culture with Barbara Kuczun Nelson provides resources for Spanish language and culture.
- Language and Cultural Sites
- Lanic provides access to various bibliographic reference and databases.
- Babelia carries international and Spanish news.
- Cervantes TV features online television progams available 24/7.
- The University of Cambridge provides an advanced reading list for Contemporary Latin American Culture.
- CNN offers the news in Spanish.
- E-Misférica is an online journal of performance and politics.
- HJCK has many radio programs available for online listening.
- Instituo Cervantes is a public institution created by Spain in 1991 for the promotion and teaching of Spanish language and for the dissemination of Spanish and Latin American culture.
- Palabra Virtual has poetry audio files.
- The Smithsonian Latino Center provides access to online art and exhibitions.
- Variedades has a cultural magazine (Click in “Suplementos” to read).
- Club Cultura has information about movies, literature, comics, music, and much more!
[edit] International Media Links
[edit] Arabic
Print news
Online Newspapers: Egypt contains links to many Egyptian newspapers.
Radio and TV
Qassimy.com: Arabic TV contains links to numerous Arabic language channels, including documentaries, comedies, cartoons, economics, and religious programming.
[edit] Chinese
Print news
- My Chinese News Digest
- Voice of America includes print stories and TV programming.
- BBC
- Boxun.com
- Beijing Spring
Radio
Television
- China Central Television - news can be read and viewed in Chinese, English, French, and Spanish.
- Multilinugal Books: Chinese Internet Television
[edit] French
Radio
- listenlive.eu: France
- Multilingual Books: French Internet Radio and Online News Radio
- Radio-Canada is the French national broadcast news (equivalent to the BBC, in English Canada it is called CBC, in French Canada, Radio-Canada).
- Radio Canada's Video Site where it is possible to watch the news with RDI, the News Network.
Print
Television Podcasts
- TV5Monde provides online news, documentaries, dictionaries, songs, games, etc.
[edit] German
Radio
- Surf.music.de/bundesland.htm contains links to regional radio stations broadcasting on the Internet.
Television Podcasts
- ard.de - TV program and cultural information. Click on "Nachrichten" to watch the news program Tagesschau live or by downloading saved broadcasts.
- 2DF - Site of another German TV station. Watch or listen to the news by clicking on "heute-Nachrichten" and "Podcast Angebot" under "Services".
- For something fun, visit the website for Die Sendung mit der Maus - a fun and educational children's show. The site contains games, songs, stories, and audio and video downloads.
[edit] Indian
Radio and Movies
- bhejafry.net Bollywood Movies, Live Radio, Live Cricket, Music Videos
- muft tv Bollywood Movies, Hindi Television, Desi Radio, Music
- watch any tv Hindi TV channels
- india fm Radio, Movies, Videos and Music
- Radio Hindi Radio
- Rajshri Hindi TV shows and Films
Print News
Television Podcasts
- top samacharOnline news
- hindi newsOnline news
[edit] Japanese
Television Podcasts
[edit] Russian
Radio
[edit] Hebrew
Radio
Television Podcasts
Libraries and Museums
Case Referrers
Forum Threads
- http://forum.case.edu/read/26/34448 (21 referral)
Other Sites
- http://library.case.edu/ksl/freedmancenter/language/index.html (126 referral)
- SCOLA (2 referral)
- The Freedman Center Language Learning Center in Kelvin Smith Library (2 referral)
- Case Western Reserve University: Kelvin Smith Library Research Guides - Reference Department Training Guide 2009 - Week 3 (4 referral)
- http://researchguides.case.edu/aecontent.php?pid=45590&sid=338010 (2 referral)
- http://start.case.edu/ (32 referral)
- http://library.case.edu/ksl/templates/ct_freedman.aspx?id=5164&PrintThisPage=true (1 referral)
- Site Search - Case International Student Services (1 referral)
- http://library.case.edu/ksl/freedmancenter/language/faculty/sampleactivities.html (2 referral)