Friday, August 29, 2008

BBC's Ma France



















Over the basic few months of Stingy Scholar sabatical, I've had a chance to post less free educational resources and use them more. This is one that I've used and will keep using.

I've always been a big fan of the BBC's free language learning sites - but they've gone above and beyond with Ma France, the interactive video program for post-beginner French students.

While there are many programs targeted at language beginners, few focus on that middle ground from memorizing conjugation tables and basic vocab to understanding conversation. And I'd wager that the majority of language students are stuck right there.

Ma France works like this:

(1) You watch videos with french, english, both or neither subtitles.
(2) You review the lesson grammar and vocab
(3) You practice with some review games cleverly put together (such as Bocchi or Solitaire)

The BBC has done a fantastic job designing MaFrance with tons of video exercises, sharply editted to keep you interested. Fun topics include speed dating or adventure sports.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Maps of History's Greatest Journies
















It's been a while since I've posted - more on that soon - but I've been coming across many great links that I want to share.

For instance, check out these great interactive maps of history's great travels from Good Magazine. Not too much text on each journey, but it's fun to see the overlap between Magellan and Moby Dick. Credit to Boing Boing for finding this.

I have lots of unanswered emails and link suggestions. Sorry.

All of the correspondence makes me very happy and responses are on the way.