Online Language Communities

In my recent article on language communities I wrote about how easy they are to use, how they are often free and how you can get lots of content and access to a great learning community with the same goals as yourself. What I could only touch on in the short article, however, is just how may of these sites there are on the internet. There really are dozens of them, with such a wide variety of features that virtually anyone can find one (or more) that helps them to achieve their language learning goals. I encourage anyone to investigate a few of them for yourself to see if you can fit them into your learning plan. You may find exactly what you need. See a short list of language communities and other sites.

Language Communities

There are a growing number of language community sites on the internet. I know I've mentioned Lingq and Livemocha before. Mango Languages is another such site that comes highly recommended.

These 'language community' sites have lots of features for language learners. There are tutorials, lots of audio, podcasts, ways to track your progress as you learn and interactions with teachers and other language learners. Most have plenty of free resources and features, but reserve upgraded features for a fee.

The lines can be very blurry as to what constitutes a 'language community' from a 'language exchange' site or even a tutorial, penpal site or forum. Take a close look at as many sites as possible to get a feel for them and what they offer. Choose one or two that most interest you or you can best fit into your study routine. These sites, when used properly and diligently, can form the core of your study for a long time.