Libraries, Archives, & Museums: Language Learning: Foreign Languages

Foreign Language Learning

Alaska's subscription to Mango Languages was discontinued on June 30, 2016, as a cost-saving measure. The resources listed here may help to fill the void. Many libraries provide language learning resources, so be sure to check with your library if your language isn't listed here or you'd just like more or different tools.

Check it out: the Library of Congress shares some translations of the Declaration of Independence.

Duolingo
Learn the basics with their extensive tutorial, and then practice a language by translating web pages. Done with small snippets, so there's not a great time commitment. The basic app provides a similar experience to Mango Language's app.
Memrise
A general learning site, Memrise includes many language modules. It's community driven, so there's some variation in functions and quality of the modules. There is a premium version available for a fee, but it's not necessary for a full learning experience. The basic app provides a similar experience to Mango Language's app.
RadioLingua
Provides fun and educational audio learning for several languages. For free materials, mouse over Free Lessons, then select your preferred language. There are fees for most other resources on the site.
Digital Dialects
"Games for learning phrases, numbers, useful words, spelling, verb conjugation and alphabets." Site is Flash intensive.
Defense Language Institute
Click on the Online Learning tab for free online resources for learning and assessment on foreign languages and cultures. Many languages are covered, but there is a focus on areas where the military is active, including extensive resources for Spanish and Arabic.

Language Reference

Oxford Reference Collection
Find bilingual dictionaries.

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Languages include English and:

Business French
Business Spanish
French
German
Irish
Italian
Latin
Spanish
Welsh

Fuente Académica
Scholarly academic journals in Spanish in all major subject areas.
MedicLatina
Spanish language medical research and investigative journals.

Forvo: The pronunciation guide
Audio pronunciations in over 200 languages. You can join to add content, but it's not required to use the service.

Language Practice

French language practice group
Fridays, 12-1
Available in person in Juneau and via videoconference statewide.

BrainPop
Spanish and French versions are available for this fun educational resource, which includes short animated films on science, social studies, English, math, engineering & tech, heath, and arts and music. Students may also take quizzes and do activities.

Omniglot news sources
Find a newspaper in the language you're studying. In addition to language practice, you'll keep up on the news, and learn about different cultures and perspectives.
News sites for foreign language students, from MIT
These resources are specifically chosen for language learners in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish.
Language Immersion plugin for Google Chrome browser
"Language Immersion for Chrome is an experimental extension that aims to simulate the experience of being immersed in a foreign language. By switching certain words and phrases from English into a language of your choice, the websites you already visit can provide a way to experience the world from a different perspective." Just click on the highlighted words to see the English, to check yourself or learn words you didn't know.
Unite for Literacy
Follow along with children's books read aloud. Languages include C'upik, Iñupiaq, French, Spanish, English and more. Set the language you like by clicking on the image of a globe, and the books available in that language will appear. Searching for a specific language instead doesn't appear to be available.

Keyboard shortcuts

Many foreign languages use different characters than we do in English. Here are some resources for accessing them from Windows or Mac machines.

Computing with accents, symbols, & foreign scripts
From Penn State University.
Alt codes for foreign language letters with accents
This list is fairly small - good for languages that use a mostly Latin alphabet - and is in a nice, easy to use format