Comments on: Babbel: Help Me, Help You Learn A New Language

By: get smart, look fabulous | transient travels

get smart, look fabulous | transient travels — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:12:11 +0000

[...] language tools. So check out, The Top Websites: Learn a new language for free, TechCrunch’s review of Babbel & Get Rich Slowly’s Word2Word: Free Online Language Tools. Or try volunteering – she [...]

By: Maxime

Maxime — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:42:48 +0000

This site doesn’t provide language course on-line but it can help you to find a language course abroad:
http://www.my-l...age-travel.com/

Good luck!

By: peter

peter — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 20:10:53 +0000

I noticed another site http://www.econtrader.com
which offers language learning too and it provides basic to a more advanced conversation. Its interface is game like and has cartoon graphics with it. You should check it out as well.

By: Fab

Fab — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:05:26 +0000

to start in a language, it is a great tool… who can start to talk with somebody, without any knowledge in the language????? to start to talk, you muss have a basis, for that is babbl perfect….

By: gluck

gluck — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 12:31:40 +0000

I AM LEARNING GERMEN ;I NEED SOMBODY WHO CAN HELP ME IN ODER TO LEARN THE LANGUAGE :

By: this week’s travel finds: get smart, look fabulous « transient travels

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:35:23 +0000

By: Ben

Ben — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:42:28 +0000

to learn languages abroad, try

http://www.eurolanguages.com/

By: Babbel wins funding, enters crowded language market | NewsMeToday

Babbel wins funding, enters crowded language market | NewsMeToday — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 10:02:29 +0000

[...] now Babbel, the Berlin-based language learning startup which we wrote about in January and which appeared at our London TechCrunch Pitch! event, has secured an undisclosed amount of [...]

By: Babbel wins funding, enters crowded language market | The Human Network (Usability and Design) (HCI IDC Alumni Blog)

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 18:40:54 +0000

[...] the Berlin-based language learning startup which techcrunch covered in Januaryand which appeared at London TechCrunch Pitch! event, has secured an undisclosed amount of funding [...]

By: Babbel wins funding, enters crowded language market

Babbel wins funding, enters crowded language market — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 16:48:15 +0000

[...] now Babbel, the Berlin-based language learning startup which we wrote about in January and which appeared at our London TechCrunch Pitch! event, has secured an undisclosed amount of [...]

By: TechCrunch UK » Blog Archive » Babbel secures funding for language learning

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 15:59:41 +0000

[...] the Berlin-based language learning startup which we wrote about in January and which appeared at our London TechCrunch Pitch! event, has secured an undisclosed amount of [...]

By: janderson013

janderson013 — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 05:53:33 +0000

Great resource. I’ve never heard of this before, but I’ll definitely have to check it out. Thanks!

By: Imparare le lingue con Babbel | maestroalberto

Imparare le lingue con Babbel | maestroalberto — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 16:22:37 +0000

[...] Via | TechCrunch [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:26:07 +0000

As usual, when it comes to language learning there is a lot of conflicting advice out there, not to mention competing systems.

On that note, we have a system at http://www.lingq.com. We have a system built around learning from matching audio and text files. We want our members to choose content of interest to them and identify the vocabulary they want to learn. They use our tools to do so.

In addition, we provide tutoring in the form of online discussions through Skype and writing correction. It’s a comprehensive program and we are adding in more and more social interaction. Right now our members are creating content for each other to learn from and in the future they will be tutoring each other using our tools.

Techcrunch, come see for yourself!

By: Babbel, mejora tu vocabulario en otras lenguas

Babbel, mejora tu vocabulario en otras lenguas — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 15:50:38 +0000

[...] Enlace: Babbel | Vía: Techcrunch [...]

By: Rocamadour

Rocamadour — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:17:04 +0000

I think http://www.palabea.net is more complet plattform. In palabea you can more as learn a language with vocabulary. You can make a lot of things to improve a foreign language. And it also for free. Please take a look! I´m enjoying it and for me it´s very special beacause is something new

By: Fajro

Fajro — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 05:27:09 +0000

Hey Techcrunch, review this:

http://www.lernu.net

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 03:24:42 +0000

I can tell you first and foremost that the best way to learn a language is to actually speak it!! As a high school Spanish teacher, I put my students in a variety of activities to build vocabulary, grammar and context through speaking skills. I even have my own podcast called “Learn Spanish – Survival Guide” and we are currently ranked in the top 5 in iTunes for the Education category of podcasting. I build in time in my podcast for people to repeat what they here and the longer phrases are broken down for correct pronunciation. When I first started podcasting, I was amazed that no other Spanish learning podcast had this feature. It’s been a year and a half and after 3 million downloads and consistency in the top 10, I have to say we’re doing it right. Check us out at

http://survival....libsyn.com/rss or search us in iTunes.

Thanks!

By: Jeff Hock

Jeff Hock — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 20:09:17 +0000

Social networks for language learning has been around for a while. One of the pioneer websites, Phrasebase.com has been around since for 8 years, but gets no mention in Techcrunch just because of that reason.

http://www.phrasebase.com

Anyone interested in investing?

http://www.jeff...l-investor.html

By: Cindy

Cindy — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:41:02 +0000

It looks like they’ve done a great job with the technologies and interface. I love the concept. I’m curious about the revenue model and quality assurance for user generated lessons.

We have a live webcam tutoring site offering Spanish lessons with professional tutors in Latin America, which also creates better income and empowerment for the tutors. People love being able to connect with other people. It still surprises a lot of people that they can learn languages this way, but I think it will soon be commonplace.

I believe that these new tools and human connections will revolutionize not only language learning but the cultural perceptions of our generation and those to come.

By: Raza Imam

Raza Imam — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:27:37 +0000

I love learning languages. I spent 3 months learning Arabic in Egypt when I was in college and I learned what most people are echoing in this thread… language is a combo of vocab and grammar. You to understand how the language is structured (grammar) and then build on it by adding to your vocabulary.

I’m a sucker for any tool that teaches language. I guess it helps to know that there’s no silver bullet and that the only real way to learn a language (or anything) is immersion and practice.

Raza Imam
http://BoycottS...eSweatshops.com

By: Rollo

Rollo — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:53:13 +0000

Monoglot adults are not biologically programmed to learn new languages. That’s the elephant in the room. But human optimism is incurable and nothing is impossible, given sufficient determination. What counts is vocabulary-vocabulary-vocabulary and (of course) practice-practice-practice. Grammar will follow on its own. (In my experience, having learned and taught it.)

Babbel looks promising. But technology is already revolutionising vocab learning. Lingro is great. Even simpler are any number of Firefox plugins (Dictionarysearch, Mycroft, Research Word etc) which make it entirely practical to look up the same word 5 times (by which time you definitely will have learned it!).

By: Webepags

Webepags — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:18:45 +0000

Good Idea. Do they have any plans to add chinese to the languages?

http://www.webepags.com

By: Ken Carroll

Ken Carroll — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:16:40 +0000

It’s interesting that no one has mentioned http://chinesepod.com in this discussion. Since September 2005 we’ve run the gauntlet in the web 2.0 space, and built social networking and other elements into it – elements that these newcomers are only startign to try out now. These have also been incorporated into http://spanishpod.com/ too.)

By: Markus

Markus — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 11:00:01 +0000

Hello Nick,

thanks a lot for this friendly review. As always, Techcrunch seems to
be on top of things.

The drawbacks you name are absolutely valid! Then again, it’s the first public version and we are still developing at a hight pace. Audio chat will be available in a future version and grammar lessons will be integrated nicely into the existing package structure.

Right now we are celebrating that people really seem to like Babbel.
Several hundred people already joined in the first few hours of the
public beta phase. We’ll do our best to make it worth their while.

Markus,
Managing Director at Babbel
http://www.babbel.com