posted by Travel Cat on Jan 5
Join me in learning a new language online for the New Year!
The BBC are offering free online language courses for the new year on their website – so why not take advantage of it!
It’s easy to use online courses as you get visual stimulation with constantly updated and easy to watch videos and activities as opposed to the flat scripts of a language coursebook!
So rather than read to yourself from the text – you can click ‘next’ and hear the words spoken by a native speaker one line at a time rather than on a dodgy tape that you have to keep pausing all the time!
They also offer ‘email tips’ to be sent to your email to help you make the most of the course – and a certificate on completion.
Now what could be easier?
The Course:
Now obviously I have only just started the course – so am on Week 1 out of 12 – but it is great fun.
I have chosen a language that is completely new to me to see how effective it is for a beginner – and so far it is really straight forward – making me feel quite confident after only the first 2 topics.
I must admit it isn’t that easy to find the courses to get started in the first place – and this is in my native language – but once you are started, it lets you pick the activities in order or hop to the bits you like best.
It even has little tests along the way to confirm your learning – or to let you know you need to go back over the chapter again.
You first listen to a conversation, then recognise the order of what is being said (like the hello’s before the goodbye’s) then you get to guess at the words being used for direct translations.
I have looked a hotel reservations, booking rooms and basic directions already and feel quite confident!
It’s quite fun if you do it with other people, as you can all work together to find the right answers – and as the course can be accessed from anywhere, you can go back over it on your own afterwards to check those finer details!
It also recommends other courses, more advanced courses and many other languages including Mandarin, Turkish, Greek and Japanese – although you have to learn a different alphabet for them so could be harder!
So, what are you waiting for – 2011 has already started!

