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BBC Languages

September 10, 2009

Looking to sharpen your Spanish language skills?  Do you need some trustworthy language-learning resources to point customers to, and don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on an online subscription service?

Try BBC Languages.

I was astounded by the amount of language learning material available on their website for free.  The full beginner’s courses (12 weeks long) are available in 4 languages.  The site also provides audio & video courses for learning Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Italian, Portuguese, Greek, Gaelic (!), and so on.  And, finally, the site covers essential phrases in 36 languages.  It is easy to use and the language materials are practical, rather than esoteric.  Congrats BBC on yet another top notch resource.

“BBC Languages”

  1. Anne Peoples Says:
    September 11th, 2009 at 2:19 am

    You should take a look at Radio Lingua Network http://www.radiolingua.com. The podcasts can be downloaded free from iTunes. Spanish and French are well covered and there are shorter courses at a more basic (tourist) level on a host of languages, including Catalan, Irish, Japanese, Norwegian, Romanian etc. You can sign up for the premium service, for which there is a fee, but you don’t have to do this. You can listen to them anywhere on your iPod or whatever – out walking, in the car, around the house.

    I’ve worked my way through Coffee Break Spanish and am now well into Show Time Spanish. I do speak Spanish and I’ve found them a great refresher course but I know others with no previous knowledge of Spanish love them. They are produced in Scotland and have a relaxed and engaging approach.

  2. Patrick Says:
    September 11th, 2009 at 5:44 pm

    I was rather disappointed when Mango Languages went paid-only. It was a very promising platform. This looks like an excellent replacement suggestion however. I’ll be sure to share it with patrons!

  3. Bruce Harpham Says:
    September 12th, 2009 at 9:59 pm

    Thanks for posting about this. I knew that BBC’s World Service has been used by people all over the world to learn English, but I didn’t know the broadcaster offered educational materials in other languages. I also like the layout of the BBC Languages website – they clearly cater to travel interests and those looking to go deeper. I think I will use this to improve my French.

  4. Libology Blog » BBC Languages Says:
    September 15th, 2009 at 12:24 pm

    [...] found via Librarian in Black [...]

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