World Languages Resources -- Please share what you've used

[Soliloquy]

Please share what you have used or even know about, even if you haven't used it. If you've used it and want to leave a review, please do that, too.

As people post, I will edit this one with a summary organized by language.

Some of these programs may have personal user reviews further down the thread. Feel free to post questions. Even if you see a program already listed, feel free to add your own personal review in the thread.

A listing here is not a recommendation by GCM, simply a starting point for you own research.

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French:

Monarch/Switched on Schoolhouse. This is focused on the culture and geography of France and is a little light on language. $90. https://www.aop.com/curriculum/shop-monarch/french-i

French Essentials for Homeschool. A downloadable interactive curriculum. Free sample. 10 day refund policy. Haven't used it but it looks pretty good. https://www.science.edu/acellus/cour...llus-french-i/

Power Homeschool: https://www.science.edu/acellus/cour...llus-french-i/ They also have a middle school version. Haven't used it but it looks good. Downside is I don't think it can be purchased separately, only as part of their packaged homeschool program.

Francais Interactif https://www.laits.utexas.edu/fi/home This is FREE. It is part of the Center for Open Educational Resources and Language Learning at the Univ of Texas Austin.

Houghton Mifflin homeschool French curriculum, Bien Dit. https://www.hmhco.com/search/shop/ho...ategory=french

French in Action. Free interactive online curriculum. https://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html#

Learn French with Alexa. Free lessons on YouTube and also a Purchased curriculum

Classic Academic Press

Breaking the Barrier https://tobreak.com

Getting Started With French, by William Linney



Chinese:

Yoyo Chinese https://www.yoyochinese.com/landing

Michel Thomas https://www.michelthomas.com/


Spanish:

¡Avancemos! Houghton Mifflin homeschool. https://www.hmhco.com/search/shop/ho...tegory=spanish

Salsa video series on PBS. Immersion, all Spanish. Geared toward younger kids. https://www.pbs.org/show/salsa/

BJU

Classic Academic Press

Breaking the Barrier https://tobreak.com

Getting Started With Spanish, by William Linney



Japanese:

Japanese From Zero. http://www.yesjapan.com/

Irasshai. Free language learning video on PBS. https://www.pbs.org/show/irasshai/


Dutch:

Get Lost, 15 modules for beginners. jekanmewat.nl


Korean:

Korean From Zero. http://www.koreanfromzero.com/



German:

Deutsche im Blik. Free interactive program. http://coerll.utexas.edu/coerll/proj...utsch-im-blick


American Sign Language (ASL):

Signing Time DVDs available from retailers, also some are on Amazon Prime and PBS. Aimed at younger children.
Signing Online https://signingonline.com/
Life Print http://www.lifeprint.com/




Latin:

Getting Started With Latin, by William Linney




Greek:

Classical Academic Press has Latin and Koine Greek For Children


Resources for several languages:
Center for Openness in Education and Language Learning. I am just starting to explore this site but, at first glance, it has some amazing resources that are all FREE.
Duolingo. Free app and website.
Memrise
Rosetta Stone
Pimsleur
Mango
Homeschool Buyers Co-Op
BJU
Abeka
Well Trained Mind Academy
Fluent Forever https://fluent-forever.com/
Book Box https://www.bookbox.com/
Muzzy (for younger kids)
Tuttle Publishing, mainly Asian languages https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/brands/Language.html
Michel Thomas https://www.michelthomas.com/

[Mother of Sons]

We use yoyo chinese

[Soliloquy]

Added a bunch.

[Quiteria]

koreanfromzero.com Available as free interactive online content, downloadable pdf, or printed textbook.

Tuttle Publishing--All kinds of language learning books, including textbook courses, supplements such dictionaries and alphabet practice, literature for language learners, crafts, history, culture, etc. Specializing in Asian languages. https://www.tuttlepublishing.com/brands/Language.html

ASL
Signing Online--appears to be set up similar to college credit, includes all the standard components of a full course such as vocabulary, grammar, culture, receptive and expressive practice, etc. www.signingonline.com

LifePrint www.lifeprint.com
Free self-study ASL lessons...for some reason, my dd didn't like these, but they are free to explore to find out.

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Spanish
https://www.pbs.org/show/salsa/ Immersive video (all Spanish, no English) Geared toward elementary. Designed to be comprehensible for beginners. Uses familiar stories such as Goldilocks. Kind of like Sesame Street.

[Tasmanian Saint]

We use jekanmewat.nl for Dutch. It's supposed to get you to A1 level in the European language coding system. It uses Adobe Flash and the latest update on my Linux system stopped working but all the content is in the PDF boekjes (but without the audio, obviously).
ETA warning: module 10 has a spanking story.

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Also, I love the Fluent Forever method and I think the app, which will be out soon, will be amazing. https://fluent-forever.com

Bookbox.com has stories in heaps of languages.

[Soliloquy]

Originally Posted by Tasmanian Saint

We use jekanmewat.nl for Dutch. It's supposed to get you to A1 level in the European language coding system. It uses Adobe Flash and the latest update on my Linux system stopped working but all the content is in the PDF boekjes (but without the audio, obviously).
ETA warning: module 10 has a spanking story.

---------- Post added at 10:35 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:42 AM ----------

Also, I love the Fluent Forever method and I think the app, which will be out soon, will be amazing. https://fluent-forever.com

Bookbox.com has stories in heaps of languages.

All sites/programs using Flash will have to switch to something else. Adobe will no longer support Flash after 2020. Often, when this happens, they stop fixing little problems right away. The site we're currently using for core subjects is flash based, also.

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If I missed one, let me know, it wasn't intentional.

I love all the variety we have at GCM! Our kids are learning some exciting things!

[Tasmanian Saint]

Originally Posted by Soliloquy

All sites/programs using Flash will have to switch to something else. Adobe will no longer support Flash after 2020...

Yeah, I know. I'm pretty sure this website isn't actively supported, it's just sitting there. But I might try emailing the webmaster and see if they can make the audio files available without Flash JIC they exist
Either way, the booklets are awesome if you can find a native speaker to read them for you.

[MaybeGracie]

For French, we've been going through the free lessons by Learn French with Alexa on YouTube. She also has full courses for purchase, which we haven't tried but might pursue in the fall.

[Mother of Sons]

Tiny correction.. it’s pimsleur (m instead of n) dd used it for Spanish and liked it. Michel Thomas was good for Chinese too. Dd thought it was boring but it is really effective. Similar to pimsleur in method. Duolingo was useless for Chinese

[Soliloquy]

Thank you!

[Quiteria]

I don't know if it's similar, but Duolingo only recently added Japanese. I believe the problem was that Japanese isn't alphabetic exactly...most of the kana do represent sounds, until you get to the ones borrowed from Chinese, but they represent entire syllables rather than single sounds. Anyhow...there was a big hold up for years while they tried to figure out how to adapt their platform to accommodate it. I wonder if that's why their Chinese was useless...being a newer offering squeezed onto a platform originally designed around alphabetic languages.

[Pragmatist]

Rosetta Stone

I purchased discs 1-5 for Spanish when there was a discount. I wish I wouldn't have. We never got past disc 1. I think it could be a decent program but the pronunciation part of it never worked for us (technical issues). It's expensive, especially when you don't end up using it.

[charla]

We have used Rosetta Stone for Spanish throughout the years mostly because I felt like we had to use it because we had bought it and it was so very expensive and I felt like I couldn't afford to buy another program. My kids did not like it. They felt like the information was vague and left questions about what words/phrases they were actually speaking. It uses pictures along with the Spanish word or phrase, but sometimes it is hard to tell from the picture what the Spanish words are referring to. Like Pragmatist, we also have had some crazy technical issues that required us to spend more money than we wished to fix.

[Mother of Sons]

Originally Posted by Quiteria

I don't know if it's similar, but Duolingo only recently added Japanese. I believe the problem was that Japanese isn't alphabetic exactly...most of the kana do represent sounds, until you get to the ones borrowed from Chinese, but they represent entire syllables rather than single sounds. Anyhow...there was a big hold up for years while they tried to figure out how to adapt their platform to accommodate it. I wonder if that's why their Chinese was useless...being a newer offering squeezed onto a platform originally designed around alphabetic languages.

Chinese has pinyin so it’s not an alphabet issue. It’s been awhile but if I remember right they would show you characters but not tell you what they meant in English. It would give a character and the Chinese pinyin but not the English. So you would know that 我 says wo3 but what does wo3 mean?

[Quiteria]

Wow, that sounds supremely unhelpful.

Same for Rosetta showing pictures without knowing for sure what they refer to.