I’ve been interested in learning a new language for awhile now, and have to say this sounds pretty interesting. Filter by license to discover only free or Open Source alternatives. I decided to try out Swahili (which I speak) and Greek (which I don’t) to see what the audio lessons are like. It was also quite interactive (despite the fact you’re simply listening to a lesson) and engaging as you focus on what he says, the explanations he gives, and the sentences you build together with him and his student. The Language Transfer platform is very easy to use as there is just one page which hosts all of the audio files that make up each course. Self-declared introvert fascinated by people. As such you gradually build up in difficulty and after a while, you can say complex sentences such as ‘we are waiting for the beginning of spring’ and know a couple of expressions. Change ), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Just one guy, Mihalis, creates all of the content and I was very impressed at the quality and the in-depth look he offers up of the various languages on the site. Language Transfer Review – Better Than A Lot Of Expensive Courses, All Language Resources is an independent review site. Hi! The Swahili course, for instance, was very well done and at the end, you come away having learned lots of complex grammar in an easy and non-intimidating way. All Language Resources is an independent review site. I was quite impressed to see how within no time at all, the student knew how to ask questions, give commands and build sentences, using the words and grammar points that Mihalis gave her. There are no settings for you to choose from, you just need to listen to the lessons and pause when necessary to stop, think and give your response to Mihalis’ questions. As aforementioned, the Language Transfer courses are completely free and so you really can just go to the website and try out the language lessons for yourself. Sign-up to get a huge list of free resources tailored to the language you’re studying. If you just listen to the lessons and don’t participate, in Mihalis’ words, you will learn “about Spanish” but not how to speak Spanish. Enjoys telling stories & creating unique things. My brother is currently trying to learn Spanish so I’ll be letting him know about it as well. Consequently, I can definitely recommend giving the courses a go. The lessons kind of progress in a strange manner as you don’t follow a traditional language learning route, such as starting off with greetings, etc. So you can’t listen to it while doing push-ups or taking a walk or driving the car; you have to sit or even lie down (at your own discretion; his voice can get sleep-inducing sometimes), focused on learning Spanish. Alternatives to Language Transfer for iPhone, Windows, Mac, Web, iPad and more. Let’s take a more in-depth look at what the lessons are actually like. Also, what accent has he? It couldn’t be easier to start learning a language with the Language Transfer as all you need to do is go to the ‘Free Courses’ page on the website, scroll through the different languages and choose the one you want to learn. Chapter 4 presents the results of three experimental tasks, They’re free! Some of the languages on the Language Transfer are a work in process and so more German lessons should be added to the 50 that are already on the site in the near future. Yeah, you can’t ditch the dictionary. The Language Transfer courses don’t pretend to have the answer to all of your learning needs. Mihalis will also continue to develop new courses in the future depending on funding. Hello My Long Post Titles, Thank you for sharing this because I had not heard of the free Language Transfer courses before, though I wish that they had an Esperanto course for English speakers since that is the language that I am currently studying (maybe one day they will make a course for it), but it is good to know that they have Spanish and French et cetera courses in case I ever … so you don’t sound like a “gringo”, Thorough understanding of the language mechanics. While lots of courses start off teaching you introductions and greetings, for example, I didn’t see them come up in either the early Greek or Swahili lessons and basic words such as ‘yes’ and ‘no’ only come up very late on in the Swahili course. Chapter transfer 3 is a detailed description of the study in terms of its research questions, research methods, and participants. Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube. I shall give it a try. (if you’re sincerely participating though, hitting the pause is not even necessary as she goes at a fairly natural pace.). Indeed, I’m quite certain that if you complete the Swahili course you’ll have a very good starting base from which to continue learning the language. For instance, a lot of lessons start with a random verb and while I suppose this does teach you to think intuitively and learn how to build sentences through them, the untraditional learning path could put some people off the Language Transfer. This is again how the ‘Thinking Method’ works as it gets you to view language as building blocks and construct words and sentences with what you know. And no memorization or rote technique involved here. learn how to say ‘he/she is waiting for me’, how to ask ‘is he/she waiting for me’ as well as how to say something in the negative. I have chosen Language Transfer and am enjoying the lessons. Description: "Language Transfer offers free language courses with the most engaging and effective methodology available: The Thinking Method. The Greek course works largely in the same way as you slowly build up your knowledge of grammar, vocabulary and indeed punctuation over the lessons. So what is it like if you use the Language Transfer for a while? French is a popular language, if will find something perfect for you…. The Michel Thomas Method is a popular approach in language learning, with a range of language courses available for beginners. I’m going to check out this method of learning Spanish. Unsubscribe at any time. In my case, the Thinking method did it. Not yet; not ever. He is fluent in several languages and enjoys traveling frequently. For each language, the course is created independently and follows its own learning path. Negative and positive transfer due to lexical reasons: Cognates and false cognates are a good example of how L1 interferes with the second language, in this case English. Super awkward! Whereas others such as French, Arabic and Turkish serve more as introductions to the language with only have 40, 38 and 44 lessons available for each of those. Look up words and phrases in comprehensive, reliable bilingual dictionaries and search through billions of online translations. If you’re familiar with the Michel Thomas courses, you can draw the similarities. It doesn’t unnecessarily spoon-feed you though. I think though that this does show that the Language Transfer isn’t like other courses and that the whole look to it is very basic with all of the focus on providing you with quality content for free. Cognates in linguistics are They go into lots of depth on how each language works, teaching you all of the main grammar points and giving you the tools needed to learn independently and intuitively. Using the Language Transfer Supports Introduction to Language Transfer Issues English learners arrive at the doors of our schools from many different countries and every walk of life. Lol In French, you say zut when you can’t swear, it’s similar to ‘damn it’ or ‘heck! This is interesting. This time however he doesn’t admit that he is speculating and it comes across more as fact. But after starting Language Transfer, I’ve realized that it’s definitely not the most efficient. After having said your word or sentence out loud, you can continue playing the audio file and listen to a student’s response and Mihalis who will either correct them or confirm that what they have said is correct. It’s certainly the best Swahili course I’ve come across and so I can certainly recommend using it to learn this wonderful East African language. Eats, drinks and breathes books. This was described to me as "a completely free and more intelligent version of Michel Thomas" which had me very intrigued. I had taken the intermediate classes a few years back and wanted to continue with it…. Whether you’re a beginner starting with the basics or looking to practice your reading, writing, and … I’m not saying other methods of learning are stupid; if something works for you better than the rest you stick with it! Don’t let the basic look of the Language Transfer fool you – all of the material is very well thought out and presented and the audio lessons are well recorded. The introductory courses are meant to give you a basic understanding of the language and give you the skills that you need to continue learning the language on your own. The study of native language influence in Second Language Acquisition has undergone significant changes over the past few decades. I was quite surprised however to see that Mihalis only teaches you ‘yes’ and ‘no’ right at the end of the 110 lessons in the Swahili course in lesson 109. At around six to eight minutes in length, they are not too long and so the information is easily digestible. What I like about this is you follow along with her at a natural pace, so you feel like it is a real experience, not a rehearsed one. Over the six-minute long lesson, the student (and you!) Buy French Language Tutorial as an e-book! I listened to the first 3 lessons and I’m a fan. ( Log Out /  For instance, while his knowledge of Swahili seems to be very good, it couldn’t really pass as a ‘native accent’ and it sometimes comes off as a bit Spanish. View all posts by The Eccentric Blogger. Now Language transfer has a slight unfair advantage in that the other methods laid some foundation. If you add ‘ni’ (I) and ‘na’ (the present tense marker) you then get ‘ninalala’ which means ‘I sleep’ or ‘I am sleeping’. They make so much sense." Let me know how you like it…. At the end of the course, you will again have a great starting base from which to continue on your Greek learning adventure. Thanks for dropping by.. I’ve just nominated you for the Sunshine Blogger Award ❤ https://lifeputsimple77.wordpress.com/2018/01/21/sunshine-blogger-award-2/, Great post & must say the name of your blog is really creative, Lovely post! Most Spanish (or any language) learning theories roots for “basic” words that every learner must memorize in the beginning of their course, so they can put together “helpful” sentences like “the blue boy has a red mouth” Language Transfer doesn’t believe in this. There is no time wasted in the lessons and everything is geared to you getting as much out of each of them as possible. We can wait for it, or start with some other for a while! Both grammar points and vocabulary are given to you in equal measure and so you’re constantly learning how to use them together. Michel thomas courses are cool if you don’t mind his accent He does go on to say however that all courses have been checked by native speakers so that sort of allayed any fears I had about the material and after working through a number of the lessons, I could tell that he really knew his stuff. Thanks. . It seems to me that he is stretching it a bit though by comparing it with to chuckle in English. In the lessons, Mihalis teaches to a real student who is learning the material for the first time. Language Transfer needs your help to train new teachers and keep all this awesomeness coming! One thing you’ll realize is nothing is as difficult as it’s made out to be once you start thinking about it. Translate texts with the world's best machine translation technology, developed by the creators of Linguee. So if you’ve a nice word to say about Language Transfer, please say it there! Thanks for the recommendation:-), Same here…now I wish I had found this before spending on those other courses–not that they were totally useless, but I love this method more<3, Yeah it’s a nice one. Aka, the cream of the crop! The only thing I’m not sure about in this early lesson is Mihalis saying that ‘kulala’ is ‘probably’ an echo sound of someone singing someone to sleep through a lullaby and that that’s where the word ‘maybe’ derives from. If you like the courses I would definitely recommend making a contribution as it’s just Mihalis producing all of this amazing content. With Greek, for instance, you immediately learn how to say ‘I stay’ or ‘I’m staying’ and Mihalis explains some of the grammar behind it and gets the student to pronounce and answer his questions as they build from the simple word. Sound like a “ gringo ”, Thorough understanding of the course, simply! 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