How to learn languages. Resoursces

Below is a list of online resources for studying German, Japanese, and French as well as some general resources useful for learning any language. I assembled the list for my own use. I am sharing the list in the hopes that it is useful to other language students. Feel free to comment with any resources that you find useful. Thank you!

• Duolingo
• Duolingo offers free classes in Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, and French. Other languages are in the works.
• Lang-8
• The Lang-8 platform allows you to blog in your target language and receive corrections from native speakers. In return, you build points by correcting blog entries from learners of your native language.
• Livemocha
• Livemocha offers classes in several languages including Ukrainian, Hungarian, Belarusian, Hebrew, and Finnish!
• FSI Courses
• FSI courses are public domain language courses produced by the United States Foreign Service Institute. The courses are older so they may not reflect modern slang. However, they are excellent for drilling and listening practice.
• BBC Languages
• In addition to the major European languages, the BBC also offers language lessons for the languages of the British Isles, including Irish, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh, Cornish, Manx, and Guernésiais
• How to Learn Any Language
• How to Learn Any Language offers advice on how to choose a language to learn, rankings on difficulty for native English learners, and a wonderful forum.
• Fluent in Three Months
• Benny is a fellow vegetarian language learner. He travels the world learning new languages and blogs about his experiences.

• Beolingus
• Beolingus is my preferred dictionary.
• Deutsche Welle
• DW hosts a variety of German learning programs. I particularly recommend the Langsam gesprochene Nachrichten (slowly spoken news) podcast.
• MTV.de
• Sixteen and Pregnant is actually pretty educational in the dubbed over German version. *ducks head*
• Das Erste
• Das Erste is home of Tatort, the long running German crime scene series, as well as a variety of other TV programs.
• Theological German
• Der Spiegel
• Arguably the most famous German news magazine, Der Spiegel is unfortunately often taken to be the gospel on current German opinion. Remember that Der Spiegel does skew liberal.
• Focus
• In comparison with Der Spiegel, Focus skews conservative. Reading both Focus and Der Spiegel can give a broad understanding of any current news topic.
• Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
• FAZ is the German equivalent of The Wall Street Journal.
• German is easy!
• Emanuel's blog is a great resource for going in depth of the meaning of words.
• Learn German
• About.com's German page is a great resource for looking up questions about grammar.

• All Japanese All the Time
• Khatzumoto's approach is intense. I do have some disagreements with his method but I do agree with his focus on making learning fun and trying to immerse yourself in the language as much as possible.
• Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese Grammar
• Tae Kim's guide is one of the best Japanese language resources on the internet.
• Weblio Translate
• Weblio's Translate function is excellent because it gives example sentences which help determine if you are using an ambiguous word correctly.
• How to Set Up an Ameba Blog
• Unfortunately, Ameba has changed some of its options so this guide is not longer up to date. Ameba is one of the major Japanese blogging communities. If you want to torture Japanese people with your bad Japanese, make new friends, or follow your favorite dorama actor/actress, I recommend signing up.
• Human Japanese
• Human Japanese is an excellent Japanese learning app that is available on multiple platforms. They now have an intermediate version as well. This is one of my favorite Japanese learning tools.
• Kanji Koohii
• Kanji Koohii is a great resource for learning the Kanji using the Heisig Method.
• JapanesePod 101
• JapanesePod 101 is a series of podcasts designed to teach you Japanese. I also recommend that you sign up for the daily vocabulary email.
• NihongoPeraPera
• NihongoPeraPera focuses on tips for self-study and passing the Japanese language proficiency test. I give Patrick credit for introducing me to Kanji in Context.
• Rikaichan
• I use Rikaichan to read Japanese language webpages as well as to learn vocabulary and add sentences to my flashcards for learning. Rikaichan is a plugin which integrates a Japanese dictionary into your web browser so that you can mouse over a word and read its translation as well as the pronunciation in hiragana or katakana.
• Rikaikun
• Rikaichan has also been ported to Chrome.
• Hiragana Megane
• Hiragane Megane adds hiragana on top of kanji on webpages. Don't use this as a crutch. When you encounter kanji that you are unfamiliar with, create a flashcard on Anki or your SRS of choice. Copy over the sentence as well as the hiragana reading and learn the kanji in context.
• JOI Japanese Teachers blog
• Each week a Japanese teacher posts a blog entry about Japan and its culture in Japanese. The entries are broken into three parts: kanji, kanji with hiragana, and an English translation.
• Kodomo Asahi
• A children's version of the popular Asahi Shinbun- The articles are lighthearted and content is available at elementary and middle school levels.
• The Kodomo Times
• Similar to the Kodomo Asahi, The Kodomo Times is a children's newspaper put out by Chuunichi Shinbun. Kanji that are difficult for children have the readings in parentheses.
• Traditional Japanese Children's Stories
• Tom Ray has a great page of bilingual texts of Japanese children's stories. The translations are designed to be as literal as possible

French is my newest language so I apologize for the lack of links compared to German and Japanese. If you have any suggestions for resources, I welcome them!

• Resources for students and teachers of French as a second language
• How I Learned French in One Year