20 Places to Learn about Languages and Cultures
October 22, 2009 by Karen Schweitzer
Filed under Online Trainings
The best way to learn about languages and cultures is to travel. Of course, most people don’t have the funds needed to travel to all the countries they’re interested in. If you fall into this category, you should know that there are ways to visit areas around the globe without ever leaving your home. The Internet is a great resource for anyone who wants to explore various languages and cultures. There are numerous sites designed specifically for this purpose–many of them are free to everyone. Here are 20 no-cost sites to visit at your leisure:
The Linguist List – The Linguist List is a large online resource for finding information on language, language analysis, and linguistics. The site features over 2,000 web pages and 25,000 subscribers worldwide.
Your Language Guide – This online guide explores languages and cultures of the world. Throughout this site, users can find language learning strategies and methods, language lore, culture information, and multicultural stories.
Unilang – Unilang is a free online language community for learning, discussing, and practicing languages. This site allows you to connect with and learn from others around the world.
Ethnologue - Enthnologue is a reference site that catalogs the world’s languages. The catalogs reference all the world’s 6,909 languages by country and language names.
Language Tutoring - The Language Tutoring site features over 80 expertly written articles covering language learning and history. Through this site, you can find information on language evolution, endangerment, history, and learning techniques.
Palabea - With this online language learning site, users can connect with people from around the globe to learn languages as well as share information about different cultures. Palabea also allows users to meet native speakers that are in their own hometowns.
MyHappyPlanet - MyHappyPlanet is a free online language community that connects you with language partners worldwide. As a member of this community you have to ability to send and receive messages, learn about languages and cultures through member generated lessons, and watch multi-language videos.
Busuu - Those interested in worldwide languages and cultures, should check out Busuu. This free language learning site features interactive courses, lessons, and a global community of members.
EveryTongue.com - EveryTongue.com is an online language site that provides recordings of 5,457 languages. Within this site, you can browse different languages, learn by listening, compare written languages, and much more.
Vistawide - This free informational site provides resources for language learners and enthusiasts. Vistawide covers all the bases–from cultural information to grammar lessons. This site can even help you in your quest to find the perfect language to study.
Word2Word - Word2Word is an online language resource site that is dedicated to providing a free way to break down the language barriers. Within this site, you can find language dictionaries, courses, videos, chats, communities, blogs, podcasts, and much more.
Parlo - With Parlo, you can learn about the language, culture, and life for five different languages. Not all of the courses are no-cost, but this site does allow you to freely explore culture through articles, video, music, and pen pals.
Speak Mania – Speak Mania is a free way to learn about cultures and languages through pen pals. The site features a language exchange program with audio and video chat.
BBC - This site provides free resources for learning over 36 languages through audio and video lessons. The BBC Online is a great place for beginner to advanced language enthusiasts to learn and explore several languages on one site.
Livemocha - Livemocha is a fun and effective social learning community. Through this community language enthusiasts can learn about languages and cultures from native speakers.
iLoveLanguages - This site features a comprehensive set of links to lessons, dictionaries, translations, software, schools, and cultural information.
SharedTalk - SharedTalk is a free language learning community dedicated to helping people around the world learn a new language. Language communities are a great way to learn about language and culture since you are in essence immersing yourself in a giving culture.
EveryCulture – This site provides an in-depth look at cultures around the world through a series of informative articles. The articles cover all the cultures around the world in alphabetical order.
iTalki – iTalki gives you a comprehensive look at languages through language exchange partners and free resources. With this site, you can also ask cultural questions and speak in discussion groups with foreign speakers.
ForeignLanguageHome.com – This site provides a large language school directory, free resources, and links to online language courses.
About the Author
Karen Schweitzer is the About.com Guide to Business School. She also writes about online school for Online School.net.
Thanks for this useful list of resources. I knew about some of these but many are new to me.
Our site PocketCultures also helps people to learn about different countries and cultures. We post regular articles looking at cultural issues which are writen by or based on contributions by people around the world. I’d love to know what you think of it!