Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Foreign Language Dictionaries


We interrupt this summer's tour of libraries to bring you something I should have posted a long time ago. Earlier this month I posted twice on foreign language material and I completely forgot to mention FREELANG. I had been on this site extensively around 2000, but only have been checked back a few times since then and had almost forgotten about it. I was pleasantly surprised when I found a massive update which now includes 248 foreign language dictionaries from the most common (German, French, Spanish) to the utter obscure (Alsatian, Blackfoot, Faroese). Below is a list by language families of all the dictionaries on their site:

Indo-European family

Basque family

Dravidian family

Uralic family

Caucasian family

Altaic family

Japanese family

Ainu family

Korean family

Sino-Tibetan family

Austro-Asiatic family

Afro-Asiatic family

Nilo-Saharan family

Niger-Congo family

Austronesian family

Andamanese family

Creole

Amerindian family

Na-Dene family

Yeniseian family

Eskimo-Aleut family

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Welcome to Summer...and more visits to libraries!!!

Summer is here again and instead of bombarding you with electronic resources, I'm going to post some more libraries that I have visited over the past few years. Yes, when I go on vacation I always make it a point to stop at the local library. I'm always curious how other libraries stack up against the ones I've worked at or used and how they operate. Today's stop is in the infamous town of Helen, GA. Maybe infamous is a bit harsh since this town is much nicer than any other surrounding it for at least 100 miles, but it is fake. Back in the 60's it was decided to turn this town into an Alpine village and make it a tourist destination. Driving in rural Georgia and suddenly arriving at what looks like Bavaria is quite a surreal experience. I was there shortly before Christmas in 2005 and it really did look pretty, but again, I might as well have been in Vegas. At least the library's architecture was in tune with the rest of the village. Helen's library is a branch of the Northeast Georgia Regional Library System.

Posted by at No comments:

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Streaming Video

In reference to last week's post, I would like to bring to your attention the Annenberg Media site which has videos you can stream on learning German, French and Spanish. These programs originally aired on PBS and I distinctly remember watching French in Action on TV back in the 80s. It had a very unique approach of teaching without any instruction in English and I highly recommend this program. In addition to these foreign language programs, there are many others on world history and cultures. You do need to create a free account in order to view the videos online.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Foreign Languages

Looking for something on learning a foreign language? I have never seen a site with as much material as this one. Not only do they have books, which are primarily in pdf format, but also audio, video and cd-rom format. Keep in mind that a lot of their postings are copyrighted material, so use caution when offering a title to a patron. A safer bet would be to use the free database ERIC and use the descriptor "Conversational Language Courses". Here you will find many courses with audio accompaniment and although they may be somewhat dated, they are all in the public domain.
Posted by at No comments:
Labels: ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)