Hats off to our I.T. guy, Greg, for asking me if I had tried
It’s a new one to me. Any experience with it? Did it work? Looks like an online version of a Starbucks, with a language-learning specialization. If you have experience there, please drop us a comment below the online version of this item.
I took a quick look at the site. It looks like an interesting way of learning some language before you head over. I did find 2 concerns from looking at the sign-up page:
1. You are learning to read, write, listen & speak all at the same time. The latest research in language acquisition has shown that listening and speaking are one language, while learning to read and write are equivalent to learning a second language. This is even more true when attempting a language such as Arabic where there can be a major difference between the spoken and written language.
Research is advocating focusing on listening to develop understanding first (for about 2 weeks) and then talking – for at least the first 2 phases of language learning (about 3 months). THEN, you can begin adding in writing and reading. Additional research has shown that if you are in an oral culture, you many not need to add reading and writing until 9 months if at all!
2. You are not actually interacting with a human who is speaking your target language. You can learn some without that interaction, but if you goal is to interact, your learning is greatly increased by actual interaction while learning. (A ratio of 1-1 or 1-2 has been found most effective.) This is especially important when you consider the listening for understanding – by doing this aspect first, you train yourself to skip that “translation” step!
Yes, I used Livemocha to brush up on the Spanish I studied in high school, college and on a summer trip. After learning Spanish, I lived in Greece for three years and learned modern Greek, which has a similar sound system. Then we joined a Bible translation mission and learned KiSwahili, which also has a similar sound system. Finally, we learned Gabbra, the language of a group of nomadic herders in Africa. Gabbra also has a similar sound system. All these language became a mixed up stew in my mind. I could no longer speak Spanish, but would throw in a Greek verb, a Swahili phrase, or a Gabbra word here and there.
Livemocha allowed me to bring back my Spanish skills. I also made some very good Christian friends in the Spanish-speaking world.
I checked it out before our Russia trip but…no Russian. Nyet!
I signed up to try it out. They don’t have my target language, but there are a few people who will help me if I want to try to learn on my own and get their corrections.
I have, however, really enjoyed correcting and “teaching” some English. I have taught ESL in the past, so this is a nice way to keep up my skills. I hope to meet some people I can encourage along the way also.
I think it’s a great site. It has some problems with bugs, but it also has a really innovative approach that makes it worth checking out. I wrote a full review of it on my site here: http://hightreason.net/dispeopler/?p=24
I just learned about this and as I’m was ESL and TOEFL instructor in Japan back in the 50’s and taught ESL at the College level in the US and for the Literacy Council in Washington State I was interested in it. I’m now teaching Japanese to a lady who has already acquired a working knowledge of Japanese while living there but she’s moving so I checked out LiveMocha and found it could help her in the future. I ran into a glitch when I was doing the lesson in Japanese and the summary of what was learned came up in French! I wrote to them and hope this will be cleared up. It is an exciting addition for those not close to a large city who want to learn a foreign language. I’ll check out the French and German instruction also as at one time I spoke those languages too.
Cool. Thanks James!