Posted by Migo on Oct 29th, 2007
With my wife and I both studying new languages, her more than myself, I thought I’d bring up a couple of useful programs for Linux that will help you learn a new language. This time, I’ll be focusing on two of the most widely spoken Asian languages in the world, Mandarin Chinese and Japanese (Mandarin Chinese being #1 worldwide and Japanese being #9 worldwide).
Mandarin Chinese
ZDT — ZDT or Zhongwen Development Tool is an easy-to-use flash card application for Linux. Flash cards, as anyone who has ever tried to learn an Asian language will tell you, are a very useful tool for learning the written characters.
Features include import/export of new characters, support for simplified and traditional characters, and cross-platform compatibility. That last one means that not only is it available for Linux, but Windows and Mac as well. And of course, it’s open source, which is something we always like to see here at Way of the Geek. Other flash card applications are available for Linux, but this was definitely the most impressive one that I have found.
Chinese Pod — While it’s not an application, but a podcast, there’s also a torrent of all 500 lessons from Chinese Pod, a Chinese instructional podcast (all fully-legal), written about from the Praxis language blog the parent company of Chinese Pod. It is a 3.1GB file, so be prepared for a heck of a wait while you’re grabbing it, but it is very good. If you buy a subscription through Chinese Pod you can also download PDFs with the characters for each lesson. A seven-day free trial is also available.
Japanese
Kiten — Kiten is a kanji learning tool. Features include search via english keyword/kanji/romaji, very fast interface, browse kanji by learning level. Having this one installed on my own computer, I can say that this is a solid program.
Kana Test — Kana test is a flashcard application to help with learning kana (hiragana and katakana). Random characters are displayed and the user answers with the correct romaji (english language) answer. Features include a built-in kana chart, per-test statistic collection, 15 lessons with multiple kana per lesson, & configurable font and color for kana.
NHK World Radio Japan — Since I plugged a podcast for Chinese, I might as well do the same thing for Japanese. So, NHK offers a series of Japanese lessons available in 17 different languages. These files are in Real Audio, however so the audio isn’t amazing, but it’s free and you can still make out what is being said easily. So, it’s not really a big deal. There aren’t 500 lessons like there are with Chinese Pod, but there are 104 files available covering two lessons each. If you look online hard enough there are also graphical “cards” to go along with these lessons.
Other Resources
Free Language — Free Language is a website that aggregates links for language lessons, podcasts, and other learning materials. Learning materials are available for a multitude of languages, 19 in total, ranging from Afrikaans to Spanish.
Digital Dialects — Yet another free site that offers beginner lessons in over 52 languages ranging from Afrikaans to Vietnamese.
I know a lot of you are waiting for me to list Rosetta Stone as a resource, but you’re waiting for nothing. Rosetta Stone, from my usage, is a good product, but I’m not willing to upwards of between $209 and $339 USD.
There you have it, a few tips and resources to help you learn a second, or maybe even a third, language with the power of your computer.
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Interesting. Do they do German on Digital Dialects? ;-)
Yup, as well as 51 other languages.
Great write-up! Thanks for mentioning freelanguage.org - I have received some traffic from this article.
I just wanted to state that not all the content on freelanguage.org is aggregated. The front page articles (write-ups on language-learning resources) are all researched and composed by me. The blog posts are from various different users (OK, mostly just me using different pseudonyms!).
Then there is also a feeds section that aggregates feeds from various sources, including language-learning podcasts, blogs and news in multiple languages.
Also - thanks for bringing to my attention some resources I had not yet seen such as Kiten and Kana Test. I’ll research those and add them to Free Language.
Cheers!