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[a-french-hoe]

Websites to learn languages by reading

Hyplern

Language Crush

Readlang

Vocab Tracker

[a-french-hoe]

Duolingo Alternatives by Language

Disclaimer: I haven't used or tested all of them. All resources have different strengths, e.g. Drops being designed for vocabulary. They often aren't full alternatives for Duolingo or formal classes. I just wanted to compile resources for all languages on Duolingo to make the switch easier, especially for the less popular languages.

Feel free to also check out my collection of free textbooks

If you want a more detailed resource list for any of these languages (or perhaps one not listed here) you can send me an ask and I can see what I can do.

Arabic

AlifBee

Arabic Unlocked

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Infinite Arabic

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Arabic

Catalan

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mondly

Qlango

Chinese

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Chineasy

Clozemaster

Drops

Du Chinese

Hello Chinese

HeyChina

Immersive Chinese

Infinite Chinese

Ling

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingopie

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Pleco Chinese Dictionary

Qlango

Czech

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Ling

LinGo Play

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Danish

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Dutch

Babbel

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Say Something in Dutch

Qlango

Esperanto

Clozemaster

Drops

Esperanto12.net

Kurso de Esperanto

LingQ

Qlango

Finnish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

French

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins French Dictionary

Conjuu

Dr French

Drops

HeyFrance

Infinite French

Lilata

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingvist

LingQ

Listen Up

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford French Dictionary

Qlango

TV5MONDE

Xeropan

German

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins German Dictionary

Conjuu

Drops

DW Learn German

Infinite German

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford German Dictionary

Qlango

Xeropan

Greek

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Greek Alphabet Academy

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Greek

Guaraní

Clozemaster

Guarani Ayvu

Haitian Creole

Bluebird

Mango

Hawaiian

Drops

Mango

ʻŌlelo Online

Hebrew

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Shepha

Write It! Hebrew

High Valyrian

Valyrian Dictionary

Hindi

Bhasha

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Clozemaster

Drops

Hindwi Dictionary

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Hungarian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Indonesian

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Irish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Collins Irish Dictionary

Drops

Easy Irish

Ling

Mango

Teanglann

Italian

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Italian Dictionary

Conjuu

Drops

Infinite Italian

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Oxford Italian Dictionary

Qlango

Japanese

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

HeyJapan

Hiragana Quest

Infinite Japanese

kawaiiDungeon

Ling

Lingodeer

Lingopie

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Oyomi Japanese Reader

renshuu

Takoboto Japanese Dictionary

Todaii

Qlango

Write It! Japanese

Klingon

boQwl! Klingon Language

Klingon Translator

Write It! Klingon

Korean

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Hangul Quest

HeyKorea

Infinite Korean

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingodeer

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Write It! Korean

Latin

Bluebird

Cattus

Clozemaster

Collins Latin Dictionary

Grammaticus Maximus

Latinia

Legentibus

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Perdisco

Qlango

Vice Verba

Navajo

Navajo Language Renaissance

Navajo Language Program

Speak Navajo

Norwegian

Babbel

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Mjolnir Norwegian

Norskappen

Qlango

Polish

Babbel

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Portuguese

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Portuguese Dictionary

Drops

Infinite Portuguese

Ling

Lingodeer

Lingopie

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Qlango

Romanian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Russian

Babbel

Bluebird

Beelinguapp

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Russian Dictionary

Drops

Infinite Russian

Ling

Linga

LinGo Play

Lingopie

Lingodeer

Lingvist

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Qlango

Write It! Russian

Scottish Gaelic

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Go!Gaelic

Mango

Spanish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Bunpo

Busuu

Clozemaster

Collins Spanish Dictionary

ConjuGato

Conjuu

Drops

Infinite Spanish

Ling

Linga

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

Listen Up

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Nextlingua

Say Something in Spanish

SpanishDict

Qlango

Xeropan

Swahili

Bluebird

Bui Bui Swahili App

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Nkenne

Swedish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

Lingvist

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Turkish

Babbel

Beelinguapp

Bluebird

Busuu

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

LyricsTraining

Mango

Mondly

Qlango

Ukrainian

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Drops

Ling

LinGo Play

LingQ

Mango

Mondly

Mova Ukrainian

Qlango

Speak Ukrainian

Vietnamese

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Collins Vietnamese Dictionary

Drops

Learn Vietnamese with Annie

Ling

Lingodeer

LinGo Play

Mango

Mondly

Welsh

BBc Cymru Fyw

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Say Something in Welsh

Yiddish

Bluebird

Clozemaster

Mango

Proste Yiddish

Roni Gal Learn Yiddish

Vaybertaytsh

Yiddish Book Center

Zulu

Bluebird

Nkenne

Bonus: Polygloss which claims to be available for all languages as long as there is another user also learning the same language

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Some free or inexpensive comprehensible input, audio and video lessons, and listening practice stuff for popular languages because idk I felt like googling some stuff today

Arabic: Yale k-16 interactive reading, Arabic Comprehensible, Egyptic

Bengali: Bangla Shekho, Bengali Fairy Tales

Chinese (Mandarin): Comprehensible Chinese, hackingchinese.com, Acquire Mandarin, Comprehensible Mandarin, Blabla Chinese, Easy Mandarin, Mandarin Click

English: English Comprehensible input for ESL beginners, Dreaming English, EnglishClass101, British Council LearnEnglish, News in Slow English

French: French Comprehensible Input, alice ayel, Easy French, innerfrench.com, Little Talk in Slow French, Francais Authentique

German: DW Learn German, Naturlich German, Comprehensible German, Easy German, Löwenzahn, Deutsch Direkt, Learn German With Falk

Greek (modern): Natural Languages TRPS Greek, Helinka, Hellinic American Union, Easy Greek, Greekpod101

Greek (ancient): Easy Latin (Greek Course), Alpha With Angela (biblical [Kione] Greek), Chihon Teaches, Ancient Greek in Action, Athenaze

Hebrew: The Hebrew Adventure, Free Hebrew (Biblical Hebrew), Hebrew Time, thehebrewcafe.com

Hindi: Comprehensible Hindi, HindiPod101, Hindi TV, Easy Hindi

Hungarian: FluentBox, Magyar Hungarian, Speak Hungarian With Angie, Easy Hungarian,

Icelandic: Icelandic For Foreigners, icelandiconline.com, Ylhyra, Viltu laera islensku,

Italian: Italian For Americans, Easy Italian, Learn Italian With Lucrezia, teacherstefano.com

Japanese: Comprehensible Japanese, DailyJapanese, Akane Japanese Class, iroironanihongo, Japanese Immersion With Asami, Speak Japanese Naturally, Learn Japanese with Tanaka san,

Korean: Comprehensible Input Korean, Korean Patch, Immersion in Korean, Intuit Korean, Learn Korean in Korean, Hello Jadoo, MAVOCA, Storytime in Korean, Talk to Me in 100% Korean

Latin: Easy Latin, ScorpioMartianus, Quomodo Dicitur?, Found In Antiquity, The London Latin Course

Portuguese: Teach Yourself Portuguese, The Sounds of Portuguese, Portuguese With Leo, Easy Portuguese

Russian: Comprehensible Russian, Easy Russian, About Russian in Russian, Russian With Max, Russian from Russia, Real Russian Club

Spanish: Dreaming Spanish, Teacher Catalina. Hola Spanish, Easy Spanish,

[a-french-hoe]

Websites to learn languages by reading

Hyplern

Language Crush

Readlang

Vocab Tracker

[a-french-hoe]

The really annoying things about English being the global lingua franca:

1) Everyone learns English even if they are entirely uninterested in the language or culture, many think of English as a compulsory thing they learn in school like what math is to some other people, useful and necessary to an extent but a purely practical skill that has no emotional weight to them. If you learn, say, Hungarian as a foreign language, chances are it's probably out of genuine interest *in the language and culture*

2) Those who learn to speak English very well often experience it as a "better" language than their native language, to the detriment of their native language, which they dislike and don't use as much or as creatively as they would otherwise (a frequent sentiment among German speakers*, Dutch speakers** and speakers of Scandinavian languages***)

3) Everyone who DOESNT speak English well at all often is assumed to speak it well anyway, so there exist tons of terrible translations and cacophonous public announcements by people who don't care enough or don't know any better

*personal experience in school and uni, even among people whose English was objectively mediocre.

** see the book Turbotaal, for example, also seen online

***seen online

[a-french-hoe]

No, learning a foreign language makes you smarter, my intelligence has actually gone down since I started doing this shit

[a-french-hoe]

La lecture avancée en utilisant WikiHow

Advanced reading and Wikihow

WikiHow est un site web avec BEAUCOUP d’articles sur comment faire quelque chose. Alors c’est parfait si on veut apprendre du vocabulaire plus obscure ou spécifique.

Par exemple j’aime la danse et alors je vais apprendre du vocabulaire sur la danse parce que c’est spécifique à mes passe-temps. Il y a beaucoup d’articles sur WikiHow comme « comment faire une pirouette » ou « comment faire du ballet chez vous » etc

En ce qui concerne du vocabulaire obscure. Pour m’aider à mieux converser avec les autres je veux connaître quelques mots à un sujet certain ou en avoir une connaissance générale.

WikiHow is a website with TONNES of articles on how to do certain things. It's therefore perfect for learning more obscure or specific vocab.

For example, I like dance and so I'm going to learn dance-related vocab because it's specific to my hobbies. There's lots of articles on WikiHow on this subject such as 'How to do a pirouette' or 'How to learn ballet at home' etc

In regards to obscure vocab, I like to know a few words to help me better converse with others or have a general knowledge of it.

E.G

Un peu de vocab:

A bit of vocab

1. Sich dehnen = s‘étirer // to stretch

2. erwerben = aquérir // to aquire

3. Handflächen = des palmiers // palms

Vocab:

1. Schenkel = des cuisses // thighs

2. Hüften = les hanches // hips

[a-french-hoe]

How to self study a language without a textbook or course

Hi! I have a very short attention span, and I rarely find it in me to enjoy using only one resource to learn a language, so I often rely on immersion and actively using the language right from the beginning to learn languages. I’ve done this with pretty much all my languages, and it has worked out pretty well for me so far, especially with French! This is heavily inspired by this article on the medium, which changed my whole outlook on languages. I hope I can offer some helpful advice!

Starting off (A0 –> A2)

First of all, you’re going to have to set your goals in the language. What do you want to do in your target language? Do you want to be conversational or fully fluent? Do you want to focus on all the skills (reading, listening, writing, speaking), or only a couple? Which accent/dialect do you want to choose? Set your goals, and give yourself some habits to start sticking to.

In most cases, I would advice learning the alphabet and the pronunciation at first. For the alphabet, find a guide online and learn the stroke order. Keep on writing it over and over again. For languages like Mandarin Chinese or Japanese, where you have to memorise characters, try and memorise the most common characters. Also, find a pronunciation guide on YouTube or somewhere online, and immediately start working on it. Once you have a general idea of what the sounds are, start speaking and try to shadow natives (i.e. repeat what they say after them with the same intonation - you can do this with YouTube videos, or beginners exercises online).  To practice both of these at the same time, you can try reading out loud, and maybe try dictating what you hear sometimes.

Start listening to the language a lot. Try and listen to YouTube videos and podcasts, and get used to the sound of the language. You might even want to watch a TV show or anime in your target language with English subtitles. I’d also recommend reading and listening at the same time, so if you have subtitles in your target language, then that could be great too. The more exposed you are to the natural use of your target language, the less unintelligible they will seem. 

Memorise some basic vocabulary and phrases. There are loads of articles online that have basic vocabulary lists and phrases in different languages (there are even some on this website). Try memorising a few of them. In terms of what exactly you should learn vocab for, I would recommend learning vocab lists for these: numbers, subject pronouns, common greetings, the most common verbs (the first 100 should do) and their most common conjugations, days of the week, months, seasons, years, how to tell the time, how to talk about the weather, family, colours, house vocab, food, money and shopping phrases, common adjectives, common places,  adverbs, parts of the body and medical vocabulary (I got all of this from this post). It’s a lot, but it will give you a strong foundation. You can then start learning vocabulary for your interests specifically. You can do this using multiple methods. First, you could use flashcards, like anki, memrise and Quizlet. You could also play around with apps like Duolingo or Lingodeer. Also, you could write them down, and keep testing yourself on them until you have them memorised (both target language to english, and english to target language). Make sure that you have audio, and that you know how the word/phrase sounds, and the pronunciation.

Start speaking with someone online. I recommend apps like Tandem and HiNative. Start trying to have conversations of basic topics straight away, and make sure you get corrections. Look up the words as you go.

Memorise a few basic grammar structures. This is especially important for languages like Korean or Japanese, which have extremely different grammar structures to English. Learn basic present, past and future tenses, along with basic articles and determiners, agreement, reflexive verbs, basic particles, negation and gender.

Immerse. I would recommend starting off with posts and videos that offer advice about things, since the language used in these tend to be simplistic, but topic specific. You can also use apps like LingQ. When practicing listening and reading, you can use the advice in these two posts (listening, reading). Don’t memorise every word you come across, and slowly try to ease yourself in.

Making the leap to the intermediate stage (A2 –> B1)

Vocabulary: I’ve already talked about methods of memorising vocabulary earlier, so I won’t talk about it again. As for what you should be memorising, I would suggest basing it on your interests and topical issues. When you immerse, and come across certain interesting words, then memorise them. You can also explore the tag for your target language on tumblr, and try and memorise some of the in depth vocabulary lists on here.

Grammar: I would suggest finding a specification, or list of grammar structures for the intermediate level, and learn all of them using articles and youtube videos. Then, try and use the rules regularly in your speaking and writing and receive corrections. Also, do practice questions. 

Listening: I have gone in depth on how to practice listening in the post I mentioned earlier, so I won’t elaborate too much. Overall, I’d say that it is better to make sure that you are listening to the language a lot, and that what you are listening to is comprehensible input. 

Reading: Find some learners exercises online, and keep doing them. You can also just generally try to read more, based on your interests. I would also suggest to apply the methods from the post I mentioned earlier.

Writing: Try and write a few sentences every now and then, and use your new grammar structures and vocabulary as much as possible. Make sure that you receive corrections. I have gone in depth on this subject in this post.

Speaking: Find a speaking buddy online, and try and organise meetings, where you just try and practice speaking. Look up words you don’t know, and be brave: most people are kind, and won’t mind if you make mistakes, so keep trying to move forward.

Going from intermediate to conversational (B1 –> B2)

Vocabulary: Focus on your interests, and areas that will be useful to you. Make sure that you actually use the words that you are memorising while writing and speaking. 

Grammar: I think the same advice as the beginner to intermediate stage is applicable here.

Listening: Listen to both intermediate podcasts and YouTube videos in the target language (innovative languages, iyagi, dreaming spanish, a piece of french, InnerFrench etc.), and also to native material (youtube videos, films, TV shows, vines, tiktoks etc.) that you find interesting. Use transcripts or subtitles (in the target language) to memorise new vocabulary, and then keep repeating the audio until you understand everything. 

Reading: Read whatever you can get your hands on, as long as it is reasonably simple enough. I would recommend kids books, and also translations of books that you have already read in your target language.

Writing: Try starting a journal in your target language, and also try writing letters/e-mails to people, and maybe write some essays on topical issues. Once again, make sure that you get corrections. 

Speaking: Continue having conversations with people in your target language. Let yourself make mistakes and be corrected, because that is the only way to improve. For your accent and pronunciation, shadow native material (I use Easy Languages for this). 

This is as far as I have gotten in terms of my self-study journey, so I’m afraid I won’t be able to offer much more advice. When I eventually reach an advanced C1 level in a language, then I’ll definitely make a post about that. Thank you for reading this post! I hope it was useful to you!

[a-french-hoe]

warm academia

[a-french-hoe]

I haven't taken any beginners level classes for a long time so this is all sooo weird. Like being a beginner when self studying is okay because you're just stupid by yourself but in front of a teacher???

[a-french-hoe]

i wish all people who are learning japanese because of anime, korean because of kpop, french for the aesthetic, etc, a wonderful night <33

i wish all people learning their mother tongue because nobody ever taught it to them the sweetest dreams <33

i wish all people learning languages because they are fond of physical aspects, the writing system, grammar cases, etc, a night with no interruptions, or any harm in their way <33

any and all people that gatekeep languages because "they aren't learning it for the right reasons" or those who say "_____ is so much more than kpop/anime/etc so you can't learn it" can dream of nothing but hellfire and their loved ones dying <33

[a-french-hoe]

Hi my langblr fellas,

I've seen this post make the rounds and I just wanted to guve a heads up: it seems like the website they link to has changed their structure/aim and I think it's mostly focused towards schools.

I've seen this post make the rounds and I just wanted to give a heads up: it seems like the website they link to has changed their structure/aim and I think it's mostly focused towards schools nowadays.

I was very sad when I clicked on the link and it didn't show what I was expecting, so I looked around a bit and found a similar site for german: it's called Deutsch Akademie and, as far as I know, it's completely free to use and practice your German grammar.

I looked around for other languages and found the following:

English: The British Council

German: Deutsch Akademie

Spanish: Todo Claro

French: Le Point du Fle

Italian: Scuola e dintorni

I know it's not a lot but it's better than nothing. If you know of a better resource website, please add it below or put it in my inbox!

[a-french-hoe]

the grad student teaching this linguistics course has said “…but that’s just a theory, because we can’t test it for all kinds of ethical reasons” four times in the past hour and it’s making me start to worry if we’ve been neglecting mad linguists as a form of mad scientists for too long

[a-french-hoe]

Où trouver des choses à lire en français ?

Vous avez du mal à trouver des choses à lire en français ? À trouver des textes à votre niveau, ou à trouver des textes intéressants ? Si vous avez besoin de plus de contenu authentique français, découvrez cette liste avec 9 sites de web où on peut trouver exactement ça.

Webtoon (https://www.webtoons.com/en/)

Un plateforme pour lire des BD (bandes dessinées). Il existe une application et un site de web. Gratuit. Je recommande le webtoon « Adorablement chien ».

Theconversation (https://theconversation.com/fr)

J’ai fait une poste sur theconversation.com, vous pouvez le trouver ici. C’est un site de web où on trouve des articles scientifiques sur des diverses sujets comme la culture ou l’environnement.

Wattpad (https://www.wattpad.com/)

Certes, Wattpad n’a pas la meilleure réputation, mais c’est un plateforme gratuit où tout le monde peut publier des histoires alors il y a beaucoup de choses à lire. Si on cherche, on trouvera des bonnes histoires.

Archive of our own (https://archiveofourown.org/)

Un site pour la fanfiction. Je l’ai pas beaucoup utilisé mais j’ai entendu qu’il y a beaucoup de bon contenu là-bas (si on aime la fan-fiction bien sûr).

Wikipédia (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipédia:Accueil_principal)

Wikipédia a des articles sur presque tout. C’est donc très utile pour trouver des choses à lire, et de plus, c’est pas trop difficile de trouver des articles qu’on trouve intéressants.

Se coucher moins bête (https://secouchermoinsbete.fr/)

Des anecdotes sur tout. Parfois très intéressant, et les textes sont souvent pas trop longs, ce qui est une bonne chose si on n’apprécie pas les textes longs.

Les actualités (par exemple Le Monde, Le Figaro, France Info)

On peut pratiquer sa langue cible en lisant les actualités. Le Monde, Le Figaro et France Info sont des exemples de sources d’actualités qu’on peut trouver en ligne.

Wikisource (https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Accueil)

Une sorte de bibliothèque en ligne. Les textes sont libres d’accès et librement distribuables (souvent parce que le copyright a expiré à cause du temps). On y trouve par exemple les comtes des frères Grimm, tels que Blanche Neige et Jacque Haricot.

[a-french-hoe]

French Etymology #16

École (school)

École comes from the Middle French eschole, from the Old French escole. Escole was borrowed from the Latin schola, which itself originated from the Greek skholḗ. Skholḗ came from the PIE root *seǵʰ-, meaning to hold.

[a-french-hoe]

French Etymology #16

École (school)

École comes from the Middle French eschole, from the Old French escole. Escole was borrowed from the Latin schola, which itself originated from the Greek skholḗ. Skholḗ came from the PIE root *seǵʰ-, meaning to hold.

[a-french-hoe]

All those people who criticise learning a language in high school like “I did Spanish for 4 years and don’t remember anything!” as though this proves something…..ok…. but did you try during that time though??? you can’t just show up to a class and expect to learn a language; what you learn needs to be supplemented by a lot of practice on your own part. And what’s even more bizarre is that I saw this attitude in uni too like, people in my beginner italian class would be so confused at how I remembered most of the stuff from the previous lesson? I was like well I used a flash card app to revise the vocab and they were like :O