Language Learning Gold Mine!
by rebouleto
It's a real bummer that Rosetta Stone pulled out of public libraries. But guess what I just learned? The language courses offered by the Foreign Service Institute are available online, and for free! These are the courses used by diplomats and other governmental personnel, so they are rigorous and of a high caliber (although pretty traditional in terms of presentation). 41 world languages are represented, with text and audio and "ridiculously extensive" resources.
That's the good news. The bad news is that the FSI website became overloaded with excited language learners trying to download tons of stuff. Understandably, they are now experiencing technical difficulties. (I suppose we should see the popularity of these materials as good news, as well.) Said technical difficulties will hopefully be resolved soon, so stay tuned to FSI's site for more information.
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