This video challenge is keeping us busy… and we love it! So many people have sent in their video submissions and all of them have done a fantastic job speaking their target language, sharing their tips, and showing how their new language fits into their everyday lives.

There have been a couple of questions about the challenge that we will address here:
Q: If my videos aren’t chosen to be put up on the blog, am I still eligible for the Gold Key?
Yes! As long as you submit a minimum of three, 1-5 minute videos before Friday, August 31st, 2012, you will be awarded an all access Livemocha Gold Key ($99 value).
Q: How do I submit my videos?
Once you have made…  read more

The New York Times has come up with a fantastic way for English language learners to strengthen their skills and it starts with a very topical of topics: The Olympics. Check it out!

View the full article and instructions here.

By KATHERINE SCHULTEN, The New York Times, Education Edition, July 27, 2012

We’re announcing a new regular feature on the Learning Network today: “Ideas for E.L.L.s,” a monthly selection of New York Times articles, infographics, videos and photographs that are especially accessible for English language learners around the globe — and that could, of course, be useful forany learner for whom Times content can be difficult.

We’ve asked Larry Ferlazzo, a California teacher, author and “edublogger,” to be our curator. This month, he starts by choosing Times pieces around a single…  read more

This is so cool. We have a hyper polyglot in our midst! Geraldine contacted us wanting to contribute to the Livemocha Blog. How lucky are we that she has shared her tips on how to learn multiple languages (at this point she’s got about six under her belt!)

Here’s Geraldine in her own words:

Hello Livemocha!! I am Geraldine from Bogotá, Colombia.

I was exposed to Spanish and English at a young age (I lived in the States for 4 years) which was a challenge. I could understand everything my parents asked or told me in Spanish but would only answer back in English. Nonetheless, I became fluent once we were back in our home country.

I came to study languages by chance….  read more

In honor of the Brasil Summerfest happening today through the 28th of July in New York City, let’s start our Saturday morning off with some great tunes from Brasil!

sábado feliz

Luísa Maita

Criolo

And this one: Magalenha by Sergio Mendes. If this doesn’t get you movin’, I don’t know what will!

And a little something suggested to me by our contributing writer, Sîon Owen. Apparently an oldie, but a goodie.

Kjera is off on her grand South American adventure. For her second Diary of a language Learner installment, she tells us about how she’s getting along with her intermediate Spanish in a Spanish-speaking country, and shares some tips and resources that are helping her, even while she’s away from home.

by Kjera Nunez Rigotti

Well, Chile is a beautiful country, and I feel so lucky to be here.  People say that the best way to learn a language is to visit a country that speaks the desired language.  I definitely think this is true as far as learning to actually speak the language.  I always wondered how well one must know the language to be able to get by in a foreign country. …  read more

As language learners, we frequently hear that singing along to the words of a song sung in our target language is excellent for language acquisition, but it’s also a great way to learn about the culture of some of the people who speak that language. Well, if you haven’t already found it, NPR Music’s ‘World Café’ series is an outstanding resource for finding new music that is presented by experts in their respective fields. Here, Chicago-based music journalist Catalina Maria Johnson curates the 14th installment of World Cafe’s “Latin Roots” music series. (Click on the image below, then click on the ‘Listen Here’ section to hear the interview and the music. Source: npr.org)

Source: npr.org

We’ll be posting different music from around the world on Saturday mornings……  read more

We stumbled across this great YouTube channel called AlexiBexi that has videos of contemporary English language pop songs translated into German. So fun!

Do you know of any YouTube or other video channels that have similar videos in different languages? Share them in the comments and we’ll share them on the blog.

Dank, und Viel Spaß!

One of my duties as Editor of this blog is to find and share resources with our language-learning community; from time to time I find a gem. Last month I spoke with Deanna Lyles and her husband and business partner Ìñigo Gil who started Bilingual Readers, a Madrid-based publishing company specializing in Spanish/English books for bilingual children and adults.

Why did you start Bilingual Readers?
Íñigo and I started Bilingual Readers three years ago to combine our love of books with our love of languages. As a bicultural (American/Spanish) couple living in Spain, we wanted to create books, which reflected both our languages and backgrounds. Since then we’ve published a series of high quality, bilingual (Spanish/English) books for children…  read more

by Kelly Doscher

After my graduation from the French Studies department at The University of Washington, I decided to treat myself to some cooking classes with a local cooking school. When I registered for the classes I had no idea that the company conducted culinary tours in France. Soon enough, I found myself tutoring one of the owners in preparation for her upcoming tour of Provence. It was great fun teaching my newly learned language to someone who was going to actively use it for her business.

One problem, though – I found myself deeply jealous of her upcoming trip. I realized then that I had found my calling: translating for culinary tours in France.

Two weeks before my student was to…  read more

Hi everyone!

We are busily working on a new, fun, and updated blog page that we will be launching in the coming week or so. We’re excited to say that it will have a lot of entertaining and informational features that we hope will be helpful to you and become a resource for you.

One of the ongoing features that we will be incorporating into the blog will be a series of journals from language learners and teachers.

 We all know that there are both struggles and successes in the language learning and teaching processes, and that sometimes the journey can be frustrating and lonely. We want the learners and teachers in our community to know that they are not alone!!

We…  read more