Tag: foreign language

Free Resources to Improve your Portuguese

Linguistics

Today, I want to talk about some of the free resources that I use to practice Portuguese. These resources are freely available to the general public and they have provided me with much needed help when I was starting to learn the language. I wrote a post some time ago on this same topic, but in Portuguese. In the future, I’ll try writing a Spanish version as well.

The first resource is Duolingo. If you are currently learning a foreign language, then you might have heard of this free website and phone app. Duolingo provides verbal and written practice in the form of short problems. Each lesson is divided by topic or by grammatical component. Your progress is monitored, and you are also given the option
of working on your weakest areas, based on your progress. Read more

Handspeak: An online ASL resource

Linguistics

Back in August I started learning American Sign Language in order to have more fluent conversations with one of my co-workers. Having someone to talk with five days a week really helps out when learning a new language, and in the same way, having a native signer to practice with helps with learning ASL. At the moment I know basic words and phrases, I can joke around a bit, and I’m fast enough with finger-spelling that spelling a new word does not interrupt the flow of the conversation (thought it may slow it down a bit).

In my day during my free time, whenever there’s something I would like to talk about to my co-worker, I first check out HandSpeak.com, an online ASL dictionary with resources for people who want to learn ASL. Read more

Chinese Skill- First Impression Review

Linguistics

pandaDuring my quest to learn a new language, I came across Duolingo. The nifty app+website does a great job of introducing learners t o a new language through practice and repetition. Though it is clear that Duo is not a comprehensive single source for learning a language, the amount of material it provides, as well as the quick and easy-to-browse interface make it a powerful tool in one’s language practice arsenal. That being said, I was a bit disappointed that there was no Chinese course yet, since I wanted to have a nice phone app that would allow me to practice my Chinese on-the-go. EDIT: Since first writing this post in my previous blog, Duolingo has come out with a Chinese course, which I haven’t tried yet. Read more

Classical Greek 2: Present Active Indicative Verbs

Linguistics

This post is part of a series of Classical Greek lessons I’m compiling.

Today, we’ll cover present active indicative verbs, but before getting our hands dirty, it would be good to go over some basic terminology:

Verbs are “action” words (or, at least, that’s what I learned in school). Specifically, they are words that denote an action, a state, or an occurrence. Verbs in Greek have several properties, including the following: Read more

Latin Practice 2 – Vocab, Conjugation

Linguistics

VOCABULARY (VOCĀBVLA)

mē – me, myself
quid – what
nihil – nothing
nōn – not
saepe – often
sī – if
amō, amāre, amāvī, amātum – to love, amābō tē – please
cōgitō, cōgitāre, cōgitāvī, cōgitātum – think, ponder, consider, plan
dēbeō, dēbēre, dēbuī, dēbitum – owe, ought, must, should
dō, dare, dedī, datum – give, offer
errō, errāre, errāvī, errātum – wander, err, go astray, make a mistake, be mistaken
laudō, laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum – praise
moneō, monēre, monuī, monitum – remind, advise, warn
salveō, salvēre – be well, be in good health, salvē, salvēte – hello, greetings
servō, servāre, servāvī, servātum – preserve, save, keep, guard
cōnservō, cōnservāre, cōnservāvī, cōnservātum – preserve, conserve, maintain
terreō, terrēre, terruī, territum – frighten, terrify
valeō, valēre, valuī, valitūrum – to be strong, have power, be well, valē, valēte – goodbye
videō, vidēre, vīdī, vīsum – see, observe, understand
vocō, vocāre, vocāvī, vocātum – call, summon
Read more

Latin practice 1- Present Verbs

Linguistics

I’ve found some free time at nights before bed, and I’ve decided to use that time to read through my copy of Wheelock’s Latin, a book that, until now, I’ve only been using as a reference on the rare occasion when I run into the language.

As I read through the book, I’ll write these posts as a way to document my progress and practice. Kind of like an online practice notebook of some sort (since I’m bad at keeping my physical notebooks). As a disclaimer, I’m not an expert in Latin, I’m merely a beginner; so the observations I make in these posts are merely what I understand from each chapter as I read it.

Today’s topic is Present Verbs, from Chapter 1 of the book. Read more

Classical Greek 2: Verbs- Present Active Indicative

Linguistics

This post is part of a series of Classical Greek lessons I’m compiling.

Today, we’ll cover present active indicative verbs, but before getting our hands dirty, it would be good to go over some basic concepts about verbs:

Verbs are words that denote an action, a state, or an occurrence. In Greek, verbs have the following properties: Read more