Lingro launches new free language learning tools

Lingro have translated their site into French, Spanish, German, Italian and Polish, so massively expanding their targe user base.

And they've launched some brand new FREE language learning tools (again I ask, HOW are they doing it???). I've not had a chance to play properly with everything, but I've grabbed two of their widgets to help ESL readers of my blog.

The first of these is a badge that enables users to open my page in Lingro. This means they can then translate it to the language of their choice. If this is helpful for any of my readers who have English as a second language, please please let me know! It's near the bottom of the right-hand column - try it out now.

The second widget for your blog or website displays a real depth of thought from the Lingro team. When users find a translation missing in Lingro, they can use the widget to contribute a translation for the missing word. This is clever because although the Lingro team have put a huge up-front effort into creating their tools and resources before launching, the Web 2.0 model of their ongoing project requires user-generated content to continually add value. Disseminating widgets to where their people might need them most is a great idea.

I haven't had time to check out the other tools, so if anyone has a go and wants to feedback here, they're more than welcome!

New FREE Lingro language learning tools include:

- a "sentence history" page that lets you see the sites you've visited through Lingro, the words you clicked on and the sentences they were in.
- A new dictionary building tool that lets people enter translations of missing words.
- A Swedish dictionary which translates back and forth between all the other languages on Lingro (Lingro say they've had loads of requests for it from users).

I'm a fan of Lingro...but I'd love to know what other people think! Post a comment with what you think of Lingro's new tools.

Check out my previous post on Lingro for more info on the website and tools.

Lingro.com - open source language learning

lingro.com is a cool new language-learning website I've been using this week.

lingro is different from other language-learning sites I've seen. First of all, it's free. Working with an open-source philosophy, lingro has created dictionaries for learners of English, Spanish, French, German, Italian and Polish.

The dictionaries are open-source - if you don't find a word, you can add it. Or if you're using a derivative of a root word, you can link to the root word (not sure if what I link to affects what other people see, or if it's just my dictionary).

But lingro isn't just a collection of open-source dictionaries. The lingro team have cleverly linked together a series of tools. First you can look up a word in the dictionary. You'll get a definition(s), perhaps a phrase, and in some cases audio.

You can then add this word to your wordlist. From your wordlist you can then review words, or go to the games section to learn them. At the moment, the only game is a basic flashcard game, but the team are working on putting more together.

Apart from the dictionaries, you can also use their web viewer. The web viewer doesn't translate an entire page from one language to the next - it enables you to click individual words for a translation. I know I've used something like this in Firefox before - it's a great little tool for someone who's trying to improve their understanding, but is lacking key words. You can add the words you look up to your wordlist - giving you a list of vocab you need to work on.

Lastly, lingro has a file viewer, which enables you to open a file (.txt, .doc, or .pdf) in your web browser. You can then click each individual word in that doc for a translation, and add words to your word list for further learning.

For a test, I tried opening my 60 page word doc of 'Le Petit Prince' with images. Lingro's file viewer was able to cope with this long, image-heavy doc and quickly opened the file ready for use. Pretty cool.

Essentially, a lot of what lingro offers is not new. Language dictionaries aren't. Word lists aren't. Page viewers and integrated translators aren't. Flashcards certainly aren't. But what lingro does is it joins the dots...everything is integrated. It streamlines the process. It's pretty simple to use. And it's free.

The lingro.com team is made up of Artur Janc, Paul Kastner and Holmes Wilson who are all lingotechnophiles (I just made that word up!). They seem to be a pretty cool bunch, who are all for making it easy for people to learn and be creative using opensource technologies.

But guys...here's a question from someone who's trying to create online language learning resources, who loves opensource, who loves web 2.0, who believes learning shoudl be free and open to everyone...how are you funding your work??? I'd love to be creating free language learning materials for Irish, but can't get a model that enables me to create quality materials and interesting learning engines while not starving...and certainly no model that interests the funders!