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Foreign Language Resources
Other Countries, Languages and Cultures |
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| © Laurie Block Spigel 2005 – 2014 |
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Go to Page Index
Learning another language, or finding out about another country or culture, is fascinating.
There are many methods of learning another language. Some concentrate more on conversational skills, others on translating written passages, others rely on memorizing verb conjugations, and the Rebus method uses picture-word sentences. The immersion method is considered the best and the fastest. It’s how we all learned our native tongues. If you can’t afford to move to France for a year, you can always go to summer camp there, or perhaps in French Canada.
For young children, I suggest getting simple children’s books in the language desired. Try books or characters that the child is already familiar with, like Sesame Street or Dr. Seuss. I also recommend getting a picture language dictionary.
Please send us your recommendations for other language materials, etc.
Page Index
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Continents
Specific Countries, Languages, and Cultures:
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General Language Links:
See also (on this website):
- Interested in knowing how and what people in other countries eat? Check out The Global Gastronomer from Yale University.
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General Language Links
Sites covering more than one language
- Open Culture — learn 48 languagaaes online for free.
- StartTalk offers information on teaching and learning Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Turkish, and Urdu.
- Foreign Languages, from An Old-Fashioned Education, lists many books that are free online.
- DuoLingo offers free online courses in Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Portuguese.
- Before You Know It Free lessons in 64 languages.
- The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) offers a website of news in 33 different languages.
- The BBC Languages site. One parent's comment: "BBC has a variety of wonderful, free language-learning resources. The [crossword] puzzles are at the intermediate, presumably adult, level, but they have many resources accessible to kids."
- Discover Languages. A new website. Check frequently to see what has been added.
- Ethnologue. An encyclopedic reference work cataloging all of the world’s 6,909 known living languages
- FonetiKs.org. A free online pronunciation guides to seven varieties of the English language and nine other languages
- An article on Foreign Languages for Homeschoolers
- Foreign Language Lesson Plans from EDSITEment
- Free Language Lessons - listing of resources from About.com
- I Love Languages, a comprehensive catalog of language-related Internet resources.
- Jennifer's Language Page tells you how to say "please" and Thank You" and more useful phrases in many languages.
- Languages around the World - for kids, learn some words in another language.
- Languages Other than English (LOTE). Curriculum etc. from NYS Education Department.
- Learn a Foreign Language Online for Free
- Omniglot, an encyclopedia of writing systems and languages
- Parents have recommended the Power-Glide Foreign Language courses (Spanish, French, Greman, Latin, and ESL). Power-Glide combines using rebus symbols in reading and writing with listening to tapes. Some people find this is an easier and faster way to learn.
- Quiz Tree - free online quizzes on several languages.
- Say Hello to the World If you wanted to say hello to everybody in the world, you would have to learn at least 2,796 languages and say hello to 5,720,000,000 people! This website makes a start.
- Word2Word. Links to free lessons in many, many languages.
- World News Network - the latest news in Afrikaans, Czech, Danish, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tagalog, Turkish.
Language Camps and Homestays Abroad
- EF Homestay is a non-profit division of EF Educational Program and the part that has short-term hosting opportunities. This is the most appealing to the homeschooling community as it gives our kids the experience of a cultural exchange with a student from another country but with the benefit of it being short term and in our homes. Students come for approximately 3 weeks in the summer eager to improve their English skills and learn about the American culture.
Home educated children are excited to learn about the different countries in a one-on-one setting from the students while at the same time loving being able to share our heritage with them. The international students are excited to come and be a part of the American Experience. Their days are scheduled with language and culture classes in the morning and planned activities in the afternoon. They explore our areas of interest and we get to see our community though a fresh perspective.
Evenings and weekends are family time and are spent playing games, watching movies, sports and being part of the family.
Host families provide them with a loving home, meals, transportation and a bed of their own. They provide us with a glimpse into their life, their culture, their language and their part of the world. Whether your children are small or in the tween/teen stages this is an experience all ages can benefit from.
- Concordia Language Camps offer an immersion experience in the USA, with high school and college credits for some courses. A student can spend an active, pleasant, summer month learning a year’s worth of high school language. They cover Arabic, Chinese, Danish, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish.
- A list of Language Camps for Youngsters.
- Another list of Language Camps from Camp Channel.
New York City Opportunities
In NYC many institutions offer cultural events and lectures, and have language libraries.
- Chinese: Explore Chinatown, all kinds of information plus events, discounts, etc.
- Dutch: The Holland Society collects information respecting the settlement and history of New Netherland.
- French: The Alliance Française has French films for children and adults, including the lovable Babar series in French. See also their Kids & Teens French Classes & Workshops
- German: The Goethe Institute has events for lovers of German literature. Germany in NYC is the place for all things German in New York.
- Irish: The Irish Arts Center, 553 West 51st St, (212) 757-3318, offers events, concerts, and classes in traditional Irish music, dance, culture, and language, some of them free.
- Italian The Italian American Committee on Education hosts a Children's Library at 100 W 14th St, open Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, 1:00 – 6:00 p.m. They also host classes and events.
- Spanish: Spanish is so prevalent that many events, museums, stores, etc., operate in both English and Spanish, and do visit the Museo del Barrio. There's a Spanish Book Discussion Group at McNally Robinson Bookstore, 50 Prince St., between Lafayette and Mulberry, (212) 274-1160. Practice your Spanish with Javier Molea, resident Spanish language literature expert. Javier used to own a bookstore in Montevideo, Uruguay, and people gathered on Saturdays to discuss books. Now he's bringing that tradition to New York. No preparatory reading is required; Borges, Cortazar, Fuentes, and all of the greatest Spanish writers are frequently discussed. Every Saturday at 12 p.m.
- The New York Public Library has children’s books and tapes in other languages that you can have reserved and sent to your local branch.
Recommended picture dictionaries
- Passport Books publishes a good children’s language series, and their picture dictionaries include verbs and a complete sentence for every word. Try their French Picture Dictionary, by Angela Wilkes who also wrote the Usborne French Picture Dictionary (probably also good).
- Let’s Learn French Picture Dictionary, by Marlene Goodman, is also put out by Passport Books. Here each page is a full picture of an active place: a city street, a zoo, a supermarket, an airport. Around each picture are the nouns that you see: the names of different types of stores, or different animals in the zoo, etc. This type of presentation is fun for kids to read. Full-page pictures are far more exciting than a word list with small illustrations.
Internet picture dictionaries
- The internet picture dictionary in five languages: English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
- Little Explorers is an Internet picture dictionary for children in Dutch, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Yiddish-Hebrew-English-German-Russian-French Picture Dictionary, by Ester-Basya Vaisman
Language Games
Continents
| Africa |
Africa is the world's second largest continent (after Asia).
| Asia |
| Australia |
| Europe |
| North America |
| South America |
Specific Countries, Languages, and Cultures
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African Union |
Africa is the world's second largest continent (after Asia).
African Languages
Literally hundreds of languages are spoken in Africa.
African Culture
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Ancient Africa |
American Sign Language (ASL)
ASL is a formal method of communication used by people with hearing impairments. It is a system of articulated hand gestures and their placement relative to the upper body as well as facial expression, movements, postures and other nonmanual signs that enhance and emphasize the meaning of signs.
Many colleges and universities accept ASL for their foreign language requirement.
Arabic
Braille
Braille is a system of raised dots representing the letters of the alphabet, punctuation and numbers, which enables blind people to read by touching and to write using an embosser. It was invented by Louis Braille.
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Cambodia |
The Country
Khmer Language
Cambodian/Khmer Culture
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China |
The Country
- China (from the CIA World Factbook)
Chinese Language
Chinese Culture
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Egypt |
The Country
Egyptian Language
Egyptian Culture
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Ancient Egypt |
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France |
The Country
- France (from the CIA World Factbook)
- FWP, a gateway to France and the French.
French Language
For a serious French curriculum, I highly recommend the Graded French Reader, Premiere Etape, by Camille Bauer. It’s expensive and may be out of print, so look for a discounted, used copy. This book has excerpts from great literature, slightly simplified for fairly easy translation. Thrill to chapters from The Count of Monte Cristo and Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables, a Jules Verne tale, and Beauty and the Beast.
For comic relief try The Oxford French Cartoon-strip Vocabulary Builder, edited by Marie-Hélène Corréard with illustrations by Claire Bretécher. Has a short verb conjugation list at the back. It’s fun to read cartoons in any language!
- C'est Parti
- 10 chapters following Dave, Justine, Clara and Lamine, on their adventures in France. Each chapter covering a specific language skill within the level one curriculum.
- Audio dialogues, pictures, illustrations, grammar lessons, tasks and more.
- Hundreds of interactive exercises.
- A way to create your own lessons, and exercices, share it online or in class with your students, and grade homework online.
All of this is is free, and the content on the website can be used, re-used and shared.
- French from NYPL's HomeworkNYC.org.
- BBC Languages: French. Great resource, including some crossword puzzles.
- Free French Lessons online
- Freerice is an altruistic website that helps build vocabulary.
- French Language links in NYC
- French for Kids Teaching resources, lesson plans, links.
- Open Learning Initiative, freely available online courses and course materials that enact instruction for an entire course in an online format from Carnegie Mellon University. Scroll down for French.
French Culture
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Germany |
The Country
- Germany (from the CIA World Factbook)
German Language
German Culture
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Greece |
The Country
- Greece (from the CIA World Factbook)
Greek Language
Greek Culture
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Classical Greek |
This is the language of Homer, Socrates, Plato, and Euripides.
Ancient Greece
Greek Mythhology for Kids
Hindustani
- Hindustani from Wikipedia (history, geographic distribution, etc.
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India |
The Country
- India (from the CIA World Factbook)
Languages Spoken in India
Indian Culture
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Ireland |
The Country
- Ireland (from the CIA World Factbook)
Irish Gaelic Language
Irish Culture
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Israel |
The Country
- Israel (from the CIA World Factbook)
Hebrew Language
Yiddish Language
Jewish Culture
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Italy |
The Country
- Italy (from the CIA World Factbook)
Italian Language
Italian Culture
- Italy in US 2013 - year of Italian culture in the US.
- italiansrus.com a guide to Italy and Italian Culture, including the traditions, heritage and way of life that make Italians who they are.
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Latin |
I recommend the Cambridge Latin Course , if you are looking for a fairly traditional curriculum. Click on their resource center for their catalog. Along with their excellent textbook series, they have Independent Learning Manuals (section five in their catalog) that are perfect for homeschoolers, and activity sheets in their Worksheet Masters (section one) that are worth the extra money because they add humor and lightness to the task at hand. In fact, the entire series is somewhat lighthearted, with characters reappearing in scene after scene, book after book. After a while, you feel like you know the family, the city, the mythology, the history, the art. It’s all included in the course.
- Latin from NYPL's HomeworkNYC.org.
- Many links to learning Latin free online at Word2Word .
The Roman Empire
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Japan |
The Country
- Japan (from the CIA World Factbook)
Japanese Language
Japanese Culture
Native American Languages
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The Netherlands |
The Country
Dutch Language
Dutch Culture
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Pakistan |
The Country
Languages Spoken in Pakistan
Pakistani Culture
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Portugal |
The Country
Portuguese
Portuguese Culture
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Russia |
The Country
- Russia (from the CIA World Factbook)
Russian Language
- Russian from NYPL's HomeworkNYC.org.
- Russian Language course.
- Russian Lessons.net Free online lessons.
- Here's a great magazine in Russian. One parent's comment: "It's a wonderful magazine for Russian-speaking kids growing in the US. It helps our kids (all of whom are homeschooled concerning Russian) to learn how to read in Russian and provides a lot of material that paresnt and educators can use while teaching the children. We subscribe to the magazine (it's a printed edition) and read as a family."
Russian Culture
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Spain |
The Country
- Spain (from the CIA World Factbook)
Spanish Language
Spanish Culture
Hispanic Culture
- Hispanic Society of America offers a free Spanish-language educational program.
- Institute of Puerto Rican Arts and Culture including history, arts, music, and lesson plans.
- El Museo del Barrio, 1230 Fifth Avenue at 104th Street, NYC.
- El Taller Latino, the Latin American workshop. Visual arts, music, Spanish lessons, and more.
- Latin America, a collaborative project from Brooklyn Children's Museum, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Brooklyn Public Library.
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Sweden |
The Country
- Sweden (from the CIA World Factbook)
Swedish Language
Swedish Culture
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United Kingdom |
The Country
The United Kingdom includes four countries: England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The term "Great Britain" is used to describe the geographical area, which also includes the Republic of Ireland.
English Language
- American English (from Wikipedia). There are many differences between the English spoken in England and the English spoken in America!
- Language Arts Resources (on this website)
- LearnEnglish Kids, from the British Council, is intended for people learning English as a second language, but has some fun games and activities. Note: spelling on this site is English, not American English.
Irish Gaelic
Scottish Gaelic
Welsh
British Culture
Urdu
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Vietnam |
The Country
- Vietnam (from the CIA World Factbook)
Vietnamese Language
Vietnamese Culture
Please send us your recommendations for other language materials.