Product:      Fluent in 3 Months Premium v 2.0 Overall Ranking:  95/100 Price:  $97 life membership Owners:  Benny Lewis Website:  http://fi3mplus.com INTRODUCTION Fluent in 3 Months Premium is a web-based tutorial designed to help you learn a new language in three months.  Beyond learning the language, this product will assist you in being able to … Continue reading FLUENT IN 3 MONTHS – REALLY NOW? →

One of the most difficult aspects of learning a new language is getting over the conviction that language learning is hard.  Benny Lewis, the “Irish polyglot,” has made it his mission to disprove that conviction and help you to become bilingual … or polylingual! Overview His series Why Language Is Easy is comprised of 6 … Continue reading WHY LANGUAGE IS EASY →

Product:  Rosetta Stone Overall Ranking:  75/100 Price:  $179 list for level 1; $499 list for levels 1-5 Owners:  Rosetta Stone Ltd. Website:  RosettaStone.com INTRODUCTION Rosetta Stone seems to be the most popular and widespread language method available, and it’s available for 29 different languages.  Rosetta Stone describes itself as a natural immersion –based method, which … Continue reading ROSETTA STONE – Is it Really the Gold Standard? →

Product:  Italki Overall Ranking:  98/100 Price:       Free to join, some paid features Owners:  italki HK Limited (registered in Hong Kong) Website:  http://www.italki.com INTRODUCTION Italki is an online exchange which connects language learners with native speaking conversation partners and/or teachers in any of 124 languages.  The platform facilitates reading, writing, speaking, and listening in whatever language … Continue reading ITALKI – MY NEW FAVORITE! →

Product:  Conversation Countdown Overall Ranking:   95/100 Price:  $47 Owners: Benny Lewis, FI3M Website: http://fi3mplus.com INTRODUCTION I’ve spoken “restaurant Spanish” for some time. You know, order the food, ask for the check, etc., pretty safe and predictable. Well, yesterday I had my first conversation over Skype with a native Spanish speaker from Columbia. I should have … Continue reading CONVERSATION COUNTDOWN – FIRST STEPS TO FLUENCY →

We’d all like to know the best way to learn a foreign language, especially the best way to learn vocabulary.  With that in mind, here are some tools I have found helpful for learning vocabulary in another language.  Each is available free, although some also have premium (paid) editions.  BYKI, ANKI, and Memrise are all … Continue reading FIVE TOOLS FOR LEARNING VOCABULARY IN ANOTHER LANGUAGE →

Product:  Learning Spanish Like Crazy Overall Ranking:  80/100 Price:   $197 per Level for Levels 1 & 2 Owners:  Learning Like Crazy, Inc (Founded by Patrick Jackson) INTRODUCTION Learning Spanish Like Crazy is a popular program available on CDs.  Founder Patrick Jackson was a New York attorney who learned Spanish by another more formal method and … Continue reading LEARNING LIKE CRAZY – WHY NOT? →