The internet is your language learning friend

I was looking for a way to brush up on my Spanish skills the other day, and did a little Googling of the various options out there for language tools you can use on your iPod. Apparently, the NY Times beat me to it with a little article called Learning from a Native Speaker, Without Leaving Home. I'd seen the SpanishPod site and just didn't get around to using it. LiveMocha was news to me though, and I plan on signing up soon. There's so much information to be had on the internet (well, duh) but it's really awesome to see websites start to leverage the possibilities of new media and high bandwidth connections for education purposes. There's a real advantage for someone learning a language with a native speaker, whether virtual or real. Learning French from a Texan (it happens) is not really a great way to start out, because then someday you'll have to correct what you've learned already.

Also a lot of places are letting you try before you buy, which is great when you're looking around for which program would be right for you. One such retailer, TheLanguageStop.com has free first lessons of each title (including the great Pimsleur series) and now has downloads, so you can digital purchase and receive your language course instead of paying for shipping and ripping CDs to the iPod the hard way.

Of course, the secret ingredient for learning a language successfully is discipline. No matter how many programs you purchase or sign up for, you have to do the homework consistently if any magic is going to happen!