Online Language Training 16 Quality Sites You Can Mix and Match

Online Language Training 16 Quality Sites You Can Mix and Match 16 Superb Sites That Provide Professional, Affordable Online Language Training Is completely and fully learning a language online even possible?Is there enough material online so an absolute beginner can soon sound like a native speaker?Not only that, but can online language training actually be the best way to learn a language?By the end of this post, you’ll be able to answer these questions for yourself. The Advantages of Online Language TrainingIt’s cheapFor all the value it gives you, for the unparalleled insights into languages it offers, online training is remarkably cheap.Just how cheap? Well, many sites give the whole shebang for free! And even if some sites charge a little, what they offer far outweighs what they’re asking for. Thank your lucky stars that you were born at a time when all this is possible.To study a language properly, you used to need to enroll in a class, drive or catch the bus to that institution every day, mark your schedule and  pack some food to go. Learning had so many attendant costs that it turned off many. Today, we rea lly can’t blurt the “it’s too expensive” line because the cost of learning a language has sunk so low it’s now within the reach of everybody.It’s accessibleTechnology has ensured that you can learn a language in your pajamas, on the bus or while having your coffee. The material is so ubiquitous that its virtually impossible to escape it.So, no more driving to class, no more getting stuck in traffic on the way there. In fact, a traffic jam can be a boon for the language learner as they  can spend it learning how to say “hello” in a dozen different languages.Today, your classroom is your bed, or that spot where you stand on the train, or your place in line at the ATM, or even the bathroom. Online language training is so accessible you can have it anywhere, anytime. This virtual classroom never closes, never has holidays and never does lunch breaks.It’s customizableThere’s always something for everybody. You learn better with videos? You got it! You love listening t o podcasts and looking so cool with those really big headphones? You got it!You really have full control of your curriculum, how fast you go, what you want to study next, everything! You can assemble your lessons and mix and match elements from different programs, courses and media. You can do virtually anything so you have the most personal language program that meets all your requirements and quirks for learning.No cookie-cutter solutions here. You don’t have to take those methods or approaches that don’t resonate with you. You’re empowered to chart a personal route to fluency.Next, let’s see what’s available online so you can do just that.16 Superb Sites That Provide Professional, Affordable Online Language TrainingedXEdX is a leading online course provider, hosting university-level courses in  a wide range of disciplines (e.g. science, business, psychology, philosophy). The site is associated with revered institutions like Harvard, MIT and Berkeley, and it has self-pac ed courses for English, Chinese, Japanese, French, Spanish and Italian language learners.The Italian Beginner Course, for example, touches on the four basic language skills (speaking, listening, reading and writing)  by giving you a mix of video, audio and written material. You have situational videos where you follow eight Italian students as they go about their daily activities, giving you a chance to hear authentic Italian conversations. There’s also a discussion board where you get the chance to hone your Italian by interacting with fellow students and discussing  suggested topics.EdX courses come free of charge, although you’ll have to shell out $49 if you want to go for a verified, instructor-signed certificate as proof of the work you’ve done. As with everything else online, the choice is yours. Click here to check out what's currently available on EdX!Foreign Service InstituteThe courses here are brought to you by the United States government, as part of the effort to encourage people  to  learn worldwide languages.The site itself is pretty basic and a little dated, but what it lacks in interface it more than makes up for with the long list of languages it carries. Over and above major languages like Spanish, German and French, the FSI site also features courses in Amharic, Chinyanja, Fula and Hausa. So if you’re feeling hard-pressed to find material for lesser-known languages, then the FSI site is a good place to drop by.The material here mostly comes in the form of audio files, so if you’re the type who delights in listening to lessons while relaxing on your bed, this would work just fine.FluentUFluentU provides rich, engaging, video-based courses in French, German, Chinese, Spanish, English, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Italianâ€"and will soon be offering Arabic and Portuguese.FluentU makes it possible to learn languages from music videos, commercials, news, inspiring talks and more.With FluentU, you hear languages in real-world contextsâ€"t he way that native speakers actually use them. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of FluentU videos on offer:FluentU really takes the grunt work out of learning languages, leaving you with nothing but engaging, effective and efficient learning. It’s already hand-picked the best videos for you and organized them by level and topic. All you have to do is choose any video that strikes your fancy to get started!Each word in the interactive captions comes with a definition, audio, image, example sentences and more.Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and easily review words and phrases from the video under Vocab.You can use FluentU’s unique adaptive quizzes to learn the vocabulary and phrases from the video through fun questions and exercises. Just swipe left or right to see more examples of the word youre studying.The program even keeps track of what you’re learning and tells you exactly when it’s time for review, gi ving you a 100% personalized experience.Start using FluentU on the website with your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes store or Google Play store.DuolingoDuolingo is easily one of the most popular language learning website-slash-apps on the planet with its number of registers users at 120 million strong. It offers free,  bite-sized lessons in some popular languages including Spanish, French, German and Italian (but sadly there are no Chinese or Japanese courses yet).Duolingo teaches and tests skills in listening, reading, writing and translating. You can even get some speaking and pronunciation practice here.All the lessons are “gamified,” so  there’s a variety of game-like challenges given  to train your  different language skills.  As you go, heart-shaped meters tell you how much “life” you have left in the game.  You gain “experience points” (XP) every time you finish a lesson, and you can use these to unlock bonus games and cool new packs of vocabulary to learn.When you answer a question incorrectly, there’s instant feedback during the challenge which will point out why you made a mistake and how you can improve. Still confused? Check out the forum discussion below, where natives and learners alike discuss each question and its answer.YouTubeYouTube. Hey, it’s not just for Vine compilations, viral videos and cute cats chasing laser pointers. It’s also a melting pot of language learning videos.Whatever tongue you’re trying to learn, chances are, there’s a native speaker with a dedicated channel for it. So whether it’s German, French, Spanish or Chinese, somebody has uploaded videos to get you up to speed.And if it’s cultural insights into the language you’re interested in, YouTube is practically unbeatable in this regard. There’s no shortage of native speakers, pointing webcams at their faces, explaining the nuances of their mother tongue like no textbook can. They can take you places and teach you phrases you’ll find in no language program.In YouTube, you’ve got the total amateur, semi-professional, total professional and even big language learning companies converging to give you lessons non-stop.Keep in mind that, if you love the YouTube method, FluentU pulls a great deal of its video content from this site and makes it even more approachable  for learners.iTunesApple wanted the giant media library to contain “everything you need to be entertained.”It might as well have said, “Everything you need to learn a language.”iTunes houses whats probably the largest collection of language learning audiobooks and podcasts in the history of mankind. It continues to grow as more and more language content developers make their voices heard via the media.If your idea of learning is donning your earphones while busying yourself with something else, then iTunes provides you with endless choices. German podcasts?  French audiobooks? Spanish songs? Forget cassette tapes. With iTunes, you can download lessons and learn vocabulary on the go, or pick up useful phrases on the plane before landing in your destination country.ForvoHow do you pronounce the Swedish auto brand Koenigsegg?Forvo has  the answer.Its the largest pronunciation database online, with the goal of having all the words in the world pronounced by their respective native speakers.For the language learner who wants to attain native-level fluency and neutralize their native tongues accent, this is an indispensable tool. You can compare how you pronounce a word with how a native speaker does it. You can even take a listen and compare how different dialects and accents from different regions pronounce the same word in the same language.Like, how do you really pronounce the word “potato?” Find out here!InnovativeLanguage.comSince  its inception in 2005, Innovative Language has become one of the leading language learning content providers today, offering fun and effective lessons i n over 30 different languages. Just to give you a taste of whats available, theres:Spanishpod101Frenchpod101Germanpod101Chineseclass101Russianpod101It focuses on featuring audio and video material made by professional teachers, and its one of the most prolific and consistent language sites in the game. They teach grammar, vocabulary, everyday conversations, real-life situations and culture. So, basically, youve got all your  bases covered.Although they have a paid version of the service, thousands of professionally produced audios and videos are given absolutely free.You can benefit from this flood of language content regardless of your state of fluencyâ€"they’ve got something for absolute beginners as well as advanced learners.AnkiIn the old days, when you needed to memorize vocabulary, you would resort to flashcards. You’d take out a cardboard, a pair of scissors and some colored pens. Today, all of thats digitized and you’ve got apps like Anki.Anki  means “memorization” in Japanese, and what an apt name indeed. Its the leading flashcard application today, and language learners can take full advantage of its unique, multimedia features by  having videos, images and sound on their  digital flashcards. The vocabulary decks you make can be shared, and you can study with decks  made by other learners.Anki uses a little something special called  spaced repetition. Cards don’t appear randomly, but according to your mastery of them. Those that you find difficult (because you often give the wrong answer for them) will show up more often. Those cards that you consistently answer correctly will appear less often. This means youre focusing on the specific parts of the deck that needed more studyâ€"and youre not overstudying terms you already know.MemriseWith Memrise, you can take your pick of  100+ languages.The app can make any time of the day or night the right time for learning, combining all the different types of media (images, videos, sounds, texts, e tc.) to make it very hard for users hard to forget a word.Say youre learning the Spanish word,  el gato  (cat). Youll have all the sensory inputs going for youâ€"an image of a cat will appear, you’ll have a written pronunciation guide and youll listen to  an audio file  so you’ll hear how  el gato  is actually pronounced by natives.Just to hammer the vocabulary into your memory, you’ll be tested many different ways. You’ll be shown a picture of a cat and have to select the correct word from a list. Sometimes you’ll be given a scramble of letters and you’ll have to figure out what the correct word is based on the image.Like Anki, Memrise will adapt to your mastery of specific words, making the things youve learned always pop up for review in a manner thats fresh, timely and essential. The app will come at you with  all sorts of angles and games to make the learning not only fun, but also really effective. It’s a must-have flashcard app for every language learner.Quizlet Quizlet is a “gamified” flashcard app that can be used to memorize a whole lot of different subjects, not just languages. The app has been a study buddy for those bound to take exams like the SAT, ACT and GRE.But its in the learning of languages that Quizlet shines brightest, supporting over 18 different languages. After all, it was initially coded by Andrew Sutherland when his French teacher required that he memorize 111 animal names.You begin by creating your own set of material or picking from the database of cards created by fellow users. There are three  modes you can choose from: Cards Mode, where you study traditional flashcards with translations accompanying the vocabulary, Learn Mode, where you type in the actual answers, and the Game Mode, where you play games and pair up  words and  pictures.italkiThe popular language exchange site italki brings teachers and learners together.Signing up is a breeze, and then youll be able to look for native speakers to converse with ( for free), tutors and  professional teachers. You can make some cool friends (again, free) or book some paid lessons to start face-to-face learning via Skype.Those who want to teach can create a profile and make themselves available to anybody interested in their specific language of instruction. As a language learner, you can help others by offering conversation in  your  mother tongue in exchange for conversation in someone elses  native  language (namely, your target language). For this latter option, no money is exchanged, only languagesâ€"thus the term “language exchange.”The MixxerThis one is hosted by Dickinson College, and everyone’s both a student and a teacher.No need to be shy. To find your language partner, contact several users  and tell them about your availability and your target language.The site is navigable in  nine languages, so  you can explore it easily even if your first language isn’t English. One more excellent feature  of the site is that it displays the people who are presently online, specifying their native language and the languages theyre seeking to learn.Give The Mixxer a try, and you’re sure to find a kindred soul.Easy Language Exchange“It all starts on Easy Language Exchange,” touts the home page.And it could very well start thereâ€"learning a language could, I mean. The site gives you the chance to find your partner right on the very first page. Simply pick from a list of 22 languages to get started. Youll find plenty of people to practice Russian, Vietnamese, Arabic and Chineseâ€"no sweat.Conversationexchange.comHere you can choose from three different ways of corresponding with your language buddy. You can do the penpal route, if you want to improve your reading and writing skills. Select the other two, the  audio and video conversation options, for richer interactions.Authentic Language SitesThe Web is bursting at the seams with authentic content in all world languages.There are sites, blogs, videos, audios, g ames, social media accounts and more run by the native speakers of almost any language. These sites are authentic by virtue of being curated by natives, and because theyre intended to be read by fellow  native speakers of the language.For example, you might opt for a YouTube channel run by an Italian fashion guru speaking to  fellow Italians, a blog by a Spanish lady who  chronicles her daily life for friends and family, a 5-minute cooking lesson by a German woman for all German mothers pressed by time or a Japanese news segment that was originally broadcast to  Japanese audiences.You’ll notice that the language learner isnt the intended audience. Truly authentic content is made for native speakers. There’s no slowing down of pronunciations, no conscious use of simple words to accommodate language beginners, no lessons on usage, grammar or vocabulary. The native speaker simply lets words flow from their mouth with full confidence that theyre  being understood by their  audience. Now, contrast this with a textbook, where each word and its function in the sentence is explained. Or compare this with a Spanish-language podcast for beginners, where the speaker artificially slows down their  speech, clearly articulating each syllable so the listeners can catch up and follow along.The language learner can benefit from studying material that isnt meant for learners. You  can actually hear what Italian sounds like when its being used by native speakers to communicate with each other. There’s no sugarcoating. It’s language in its natural habitat, not in the sterilized air of a language classroom.What do native speakers read in their own language? Those are your sources of authentic material.  For example, if you’re learning Spanish, then go for Spanish magazines, Spanish shows and Spanish news.You have just been immersed in the flood of language materials, lessons and support online.Indeed, you can learn a new language by training online.Many people have done i t, many are doing it.So the only question left is, what are you going to do about it?