Good Tips on How to Learn Languages

Here's an article by TED that has some good advice on how to learn.

Hi! Welcome to this language learning blog.

For anyone who wants to learn a language here are some good FREE resources that I have used to learn or maintain some of my languages. This is a work in progress, so I will update this with many more language specific resources eventually.

Measuring Your Language Ability - Get a Baseline!

• The interagency language roundtable (ILR) (website here) language scale is used by many government agencies to measure language ability. There are scores for numerous abilities such as reading, speaking, and listening.
• Scores range from level 0 (no proficiency) up to level 5 (functionally native proficiency) increasing in 1/2 increments. 
• Knowing your score is useful so you can ensure you are using material that is up to your level and challenging enough for you. 
• If you do not know what your level is, there are numerous tools to assess your ability. My personal favorite is the Online Diagnostic Assessment (ODA), which offers both reading and listening tests for numerous languages. 

Practicing languages:

• Knowing what your baseline language score is will help you achieve tailored language instruction that is right for your level. 
• SharedTalk is a great place to practice language learning with other learners and native speakers. This website is hosted by Rosetta Stone and is free to use. You can either text chat or voice chat with other users. You can sort who you want to talk with by their native language and or their practicing language. I have found it very useful to practice foreign languages and to help others learn your native or acquired languages. 
• Defense Language Institute has numerous language learning resources that are excellent. (Note that some of these have a focus on military terminology.) 
• One of the best websites I have found to practice languages is called Gloss. This website allows you to search for authentic material (tv clips, newspaper cutouts, etc.) based on your ILR skill level (which you can determine via the ODA tool mentioned in the Baseline section above). 
• This language familiarization website may be helpful if you just want to be able to say common phrases and have a basic understanding of the language. There are language survival kits and other cultural resources for various countries.
• The Foreign Service Institute has developed several free courses that are in the public domain. The languages have a student text version (PDF) along with accompanying audio tapes. Some of the content is older, but the material is excellent for learning intermediate levels. The student text explains the grammar and other important information such as accents, etc. on language use.
• Memrise is a community based learning website that also offers language courses. There are over 200 languages and various difficulty levels. I have not used this site, but the reviews seem to be good. 

• Language Specific Resources
• German: 
• This website by Deutsche Welle (DW) is great. I has content tailored to you based you on your skill (Note: the language scale is different from the ILR scale. It is a European scale called the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR) that goes from level A1, the lowest, to Level C2, the highest). You can take a placement test on this website if you are not sure what level you are.  DW offers language learning courses that are tailored to your native language.
• One of my favorite resources on this site is a TV series called "Jojo sucht das Glück" which is at the B1/B2 levels. Each episode has a vocab list etc., or you can just watch it for fun. 
• Another great resource on this website is the news section. It offers news broadcasts spoken at a regular pace or at a slow pace. It also has news broadcasts tailored to different levels.   
• This web based dictionary, LEO, is an excellent way to keep track of new words you are learning in German. It translates to and from German in a variety of languages and is generally better than google translate for providing more definitions and good context and examples for when to use a particular word or phrase. You can sign in and keep a list of words that you are learning.
• Spanish
• The Real Academia Española provides a comprehensive dictionary of the Spanish language that is updated every year. It also has sections that focus on correcting common grammar and orthographic mistakes.
• This website offers phone conversations in Argentinian, Cuban, Ecuadoran, Honduran, Mexican, and Peruvian Spanish in a variety of topics, from Food and Drink to Shopping. 
• The Defense Language Institute offers an accent library for Spanish for ILR levels 2, 2+, and 3 in a variety of Spanish accents. 

• Apps
• Duolingo is a great app to help you learn languages for iOS and Android. It provides incentives to keep learning (such as streaks, points etc.) and you can share you progress with friends.
• Tunein Radio is a great app for iOS and Android that lets you listen to actual radio stations in your target language. You can browse by location, genre, etc. Great for improving your listening skills. This is one of my favorite apps. 
• Mango has apps for iOS and Android. This app is pretty good as well. You can get certain access for free as an individual. Many libraries also offer a subscription. So check your local library or login to your library online and typically they have a access information you can use to access free content on mango. 
• Busuu has both android and iOS apps. I have not used this app as much, but it has plenty of material on the free side and you can upgrade with a paid account for more features.
• Scola is an app based off the resources its website offers that has a bunch of native news content (video, radio, text, etc) to improve your language ability.
• Memrise is a relatively new language learning website that also offers an iOS and Andriod app. 

• Newspapers
• Spanish
• Elmundo is one of the leading Spanish newspapers that is available for free. 
• Radio Televisión Española  (RTVE) is also a great resource to listen to news broadcasts. They also have an app which is ok (not great). 
• German
• Die Zeit is a pretty good German newspaper. 
• Deutsche Welle is a great German news website that has video and articles to learn about news in German. You can also read the news in your native language (well if it is one of the 30 languages currently offered).