Watching Documentaries

By documentaries I'm not talking about those films Michael Moore makes...

But the genre can be pretty educational since a lot of them don't have a happy ending where the hero rides off into the sunset. Just like life.

I like watching documentaries because many of them make me think about what is really true, what can I really believe?

This site has a pretty good list of documentaries you can watch for free.

http://www.tv-links.cc/documentary/index.html

To make it a complete learning experience I recommend you write a short summary of what you learned or how you react to what you have watched. Unless you do this, you're just another passive consumer. And talk to somebody about what you see. Discuss the chances that what you see resembles what the truth.

Is this the tool you have been waiting for?

Eureka!!


So what can you do with this tool?

Basically, you can link any text you are reading to a variety of dictionaries. This saves a lot of time looking up words.

How do I use it?

It's very easy to use.
1. First go to http://www.esldesk.com/esl-reading/esl-reader.aspx and paste in the text you want to read and click the "Read Text" button.

2. Use the References drop-down menu to choose "Cambridge" to get an easy-to-understand definition in English and some example sentences or perhaps "Wikipedia" if it would be better to look it up in an encyclopedia, in English of course.

3. If you would like the word translated into German, use the "Languages" drop-down menu to choose "German I", which links to beolingus or "German II" which links to dict.cc. You can easy look it up in both to see which one gives you the best results.

4. Use Search drop-down menu to see how word is used on other internet pages. I recommend Ask.com or Google of course.

Here's the link one more time.

http://www.esldesk.com/esl-reading/esl-reader.aspx

Bookmark it immediately and also add it to your reading page in your Learning Portfolio, so you can use it during your very next workout.

If you are smart and have set up a free account for the Vocabulary Trainer available at either of the two German dictionary sites, then you can review the words you have looked up at a later date and greatly increase your chances of remembering them.

Enjoy reading!!

Can the Internet be archived?

In one word...AWESOME!

From the site:

The Internet Archive is building a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form. Like a paper library, we provide free access to researchers, historians, scholars, and the general public.

Tag cloud for Preminger archives

TV ads

Jim Becker is a language freak

Jim is a professor at the University of Northern Iowa and apparently loves collecting language learning links.

I found several nice ones at his multilingual site

http://www.uni.edu/becker/

For English:
http://www.uni.edu/becker/TESOL_ESL2.html


and he even has a page full of Travel links
http://www.uni.edu/becker/Travel2.html

The World According to the Simpsons

The World According to the Simpsons

It's about time I introduced one of my favorite radio programs of all time: Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders. It's hosted by Jean Feraca and in this show, her guests discuss the impact of the Simpsons around the world.

She always has intelligent people (professors, authors, and other non-yellow characters) on the show whose IQ must be double or even triple that of Homer S.!

The topics are often quite interesting, like this one about Bart and Marge and the rest of the gang, especially the cultural programs.

You can find Jean's blog here, where she discusses the latest shows.

The forum gives people a chance to add their two cents.

For this show the questions were:

* Are the Simpons really the typical American family?
* How do you feel about Homer and Bart as American ambassadors?


Then there are the related links which will keep you up way past your bedtime

* Official site of The Simpsons
* Wikipedia: The Simpsons
* The Simpsons entry in The Museum of Television Encyclopedia
* Matt McAllister
* Steven Keslowitz and his book
* Aeon Skoble
* The Simpsons Archive

I will end by quoting one Listener's Comments:

* John 7/19/06: "I think the Simpsons Cartoon demonstrates to the world that Americans have an insight into what's dysfunctional in our own culture by allowing the world to laugh with us at our beer guts and lazy intellect."

I think that says it all. Americans are not as stupid as they seem to the unsophisticated European.

Live Mocha

New site that uses social networking to help you connect with other people around the world who are interested in learning foreign languages as well as friendly native speakers of those languages who are willing to help you practice your skills.

From what I can see, your level of English will probably be much higher than the level of German most learners of German have, but that should not be a problem at all. You help them with their German and they help you with your English. For free!

The most exciting part in my view is the concept of community. Quoting from the site...

Community
Livemocha contains a friendly community of like-minded language learners. You'll make friends with and connect with native speakers.
Interacting with people from around he world will quickly develop your conversational skills and give you insight into regional language nuances, customs, and culture.

Here are two videos to watch explaining how livemocha works. Watch them and then just jump in and join the community!

http://www.livemocha.com/help/view/intro_to_lessons

http://www.livemocha.com/help/view/making_friends

The Traveler IQ Challenge

This game is lots of fun and a real challenge, even for those of us who have circumnavigated the globe and think they are pretty good at geography.

Here's how it works:
You have a world map in your browser. After you click START! you are shown the name of a city, for example Paris, and you have to click on the map, hopefully somewhere in the center of what you know to be France. The points you get depend how close you are to where Paris is actually located and the speed at which you place your little pin. So no dilly-dallying!

FYI the first (and so far only time) I played this game I got to Level 10 out of 12 and scored 387,101 points. My Travel IQ is 113, which is not too bad I guess. The map is small, but that's part of the fun!

So give it a try!
http://www.travelpod.com/traveler-iq

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Do you understand this perfectly grammatical English sentence?

Well, I didn't either at first.

But if you read the wikipedia article and try really hard you will see the light...


And here's a link to the spoken word version (read by a native speaker, NOT a computer!)

If a non-American can read the Declaration of Independence, then I see no reason why an Austrian should not read any article he or she wants to read. In English I mean.

Here is how you are supposed to record the article you have chosen:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia


Why not start with the one about Arnie for example? If you are from Styria, you may even sound just like him!! On second thought...that one is a bit long and has a lot of big words, like California...


So why not try a shorter article like the Grazer Schloßberg

Classic Dylan

Dylan.
aka Robert Zimmerman...which all you trivia buffs already knew of course...

This man made some really good music.
Check out this cool way to send your friend a message ,in a rather unique way, with Bob d.'s help...

VSL Very Short List

I like this site because this is where I discovered a few new cool websites like the Scrabble one,

From the VSL About page:

Very Short List (VSL) is a free, daily e-mail that points to excellent new (and sometimes vintage) entertainment and media that haven’t been hyped to within an inch of their lives. Each weekday, we tell our subscribers about a single recommended gem from among the vast pile of feature films and documentaries (in theatres and on DVD), television shows, novels, nonfiction books, magazine articles, Web sites and services, CDs, radio programs, and more. The focus is on products that really deserve attention but haven’t already been subject to giant media pile-ons.

If you don't want to subscribe and get the daily email, then you can still check out their archive to find interesting things under the headings
LOOK HEAR READ

Musicovery

Nice site which lets you pick the music that matches your mood.

The brilliance of Musicovery is in its ability to create free playlists for users based on a mixture of factors: mood (you can choose among “dark,” “energetic,” “positive,” and “calm”), era, tempo, genre.

Most of the songs I saw and heard here are in English, but I also saw Spanish and French and Arabic too!, so you can always say you're practicing your listening comprehension...!

You can definitely discover some new music, hence...

MUSICOVERY

We like!!

Time magazine's 50 Best Websites 2007

Try some of these and you may even become a "power user".

Your life might get more interesting...

or productive.

Comment on the sites that you like!

Netvibes

Looks incredibly useful!!!!

Yabla

Yabla is a pretty cool site.
It provides "supported" video clips in English French or Spanish. You can see the text in the original-language and English captions while listening to the audio. You can also easily replay any segment and control the playback speed (normal or slow). In addition, clicking on any word in the captions provides dictionary definitions in English.

One interesting experiment to start with might be to watch the same content delivered by three different women in three different languages and make a few comparisons.

First in English. Click on "Try Yabla for free"!

Then try the same information presented by Julieta from Argentina here. Remember you can always slow it down or pause and get a definition.

Finally it's time for French. Remember you can always slow it down or pause and get a definition.

So what do you think? Is Yabla an interesting kind of website for language learners?

Voki

Add a picture and a voice to your blog!

It's fun! And very easy!

It took me about 5 minutes to register at VOKI.COM , create and then add Mike the Moose to my blog.

You can add your own pictures and backgrounds as well as voices or audio files. I didn't have my microphone handy so I just typed in what I wanted Mike the Moose to say and picked a voice to read it for me. (Mike was a little embarrassed about his Canadian accent...) Maybe at some point I will sing a song, record it and add a picture of Frank Sinatra and let people believe it that Ol Blues Eyes has lost the ability to sing.

At any rate, have fun with this new tool!

How to write the 5 paragraph essay: the movie

Short and yet surprisingly informative movie about this topic.

Cool!

Too bad most of the movies require subscription, but some stuff is free.

Anyway, you can get a free 14 day trial subscription here.

Some people are so creative it's amazing!

Just click on the title and enjoy this woman's creativity. Makes me want to buy her book.