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Drawing Chinese Characters
Hello there guys! ^^ As you know, Duolingo Chinese course doesn't teach us how to write Chinese characters. It only teaches us how to recognize them and type or read them. In this article, I wish to clarify some rules of Chinese character writing. :)
1) This site helps a lot to learn basic rules: http://blog.tutorming.com/mandarin-chinese-learning-tips/7-basic-rules-to-chinese-stroke-order
2) Download the app HelloChinese and practise Chinese handwriting with it. It's a great tool to teach you all the proper movements to write Chinese characters correctly.
3) This site is great to understand stroke order and also practise some of the characters yourselves to get better hang of it: http://www.archchinese.com/chinese_stroke_order_rules.html
4) Try to write smoothly and softly, it improves the Chinese written characters. :)
5) Write in squared notebooks, and try to write each character in four squares:
6) For beginners I recommend buying Chinese writing sheets to get used to writing:
7) If you listen to some soft and relaxing Chinese music and write at the same time, it will greatly improve your writing! :D (worked for me x) ) Here's a good Chinese music channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNV2aMW1952x3IR7eIuCbFA
I wish you luck in your studies! ^^
-Tamuna10
Welsh
The two best, best resources for self-learning, apart from Duolingo itself, for visual learners, are the series of videos on pronunciation on youtube:- https://www.youtube.com/user/welshplus
and the Big Welsh Challenge course :- http://www.bbc.co.uk/wales/learnwelsh/bigwelshchallenge/ (click on 'enter course', then 'skip introduction'), the section 'practice with tutor' is particularly useful, especially the male South Wales presenter, who is a well know, very funny Welsh actor. (Ignore the 'archive notice' and click on 'enter course', it works fine.).
The book that we have linked to in the Welsh course on Duolingo is here https://cls.byu.edu/welsh/BYU_Cwrs_Mynediad.html
Hard copies are available through all the usual book sellers.
For auditory learners 'Say something in Welsh' is very good and has a wide network of supporters in particular its popular Facebook group. https://www.saysomethingin.com/welsh/course1
Finally don't forget to join our Facebook group where further discussion takes place and the writers respond to queries. https://www.facebook.com/groups/welshduolingo/
Also here is a link to an fairly good article about mutations:- https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Welsh/Mutations#Soft_mutation
Here is a website which gives a daily crossword and also a range of 'her geirfa' vocabulary challenges:- http://www.happyhere.co.uk/
In addition for people not anywhere near a Welsh class, there are a number of people and places that offer online Skype lessons. Here is the link to the Skype courses of one of the Welsh centres in Wales:-http://www.coleggwent.ac.uk/welshcentre#.V1Zh_5PR-V5
-rmcode
Romanian
Romanian
BUNĂ EVERYBODY!
BUNĂ EVERYBODY!
First thing's first. I want to say a huuuuge mersi to Team Romanian for their dedication to helping people learn one of the world's most unique and beautiful languages! And also for choosing the world's sexiest TTS ;)
Here is a list of FREE Romanian resources for you to try! Comment more if you think they should be added!
Information on The Romanian Language
Information on The Romanian Language
Romanian Language Courses
Romanian Language Courses
Grammar
Grammar
Phrasebooks
Phrasebooks
Memrise
Memrise
Dictionary
Dictionary
Immersion
Immersion
In other languages
In other languages
NOTE ON FSI COURSE
This is quite a large file and many take a while to load/download. Personally, I find it easier to download to read offline.
-TseDanylo
Icelandic
Hey everyone. This is a post to share resources to learn Icelandic. I started around a week ago and I'm very excited about the language, especially its connection with the viking age and medieval literature and sagas.
For learning the language I'm doing a course made by the University of Iceland and called icelandic online:
Link: http://icelandiconline.is/ I think it's a very good course since it's based in small games/exercises and has a lot of videos and recordings. They have courses up to B2-C1 for free but you can pay a fee and have a tutor which will help you.
Declesion of nouns, adjectives, verbs etc. (in Icelandic, but it's easy to understand): http://bin.arnastofnun.is/forsida/
Learning serie of videos: http://tungumalatorg.is/viltu_laera_islensku/en/
Course "Íslenska fyrir alla": http://tungumalatorg.is/ifa/
People's suggestions
Memrise http://www.memrise.com/courses/english/icelandic/ (@DespoinaTi)
Byki http://www.byki.com/fls/free-icelandic-software-download.html (@pseudocreobotra)
Cool Icelandic Lessons (Youtube channel): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3Y0LUUjCHoKTOGYjyYcbDQ (@brittalexiswm)
Forvo (Word pronounciation database): http://forvo.com/languages/is/ (@brittalexiswm)
I have a couple of dictionaries for both english and german speakers: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/IcelOnline/IcelOnline.TEId-idx?type=header=IcelOnline.IEOrd
For literature and sagas I've found a couple of webs that will be useful for learners:
http://sagnagrunnur.com/#s%C3%B6gn/66
And to finish we can also share music bands that sing in Icelandic: Sólstafir, Árstíðir Lífsins, Sigur Ros, Skálmöld, Samaris, Í svörtum fötum
Old Norse, old Icelandic, Norrœnt mál
Begginers course: https://notendur.hi.is//~haukurth/norse/
Another course: http://www.utexas.edu/cola/centers/lrc/eieol/norol-0-X.html
Grammar book: http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/NION-1.pdf
Reader: http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/NION%20II-2011.pdf
Glossary: http://www.vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Glossary%202011.pdf
Dctionary: http://norse.ulver.com/dct/zoega/
Extra resources: http://on.langeslag.org/
Different documents (sagas, grammar etc.): http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/
Feel free to share everything you have and I'll add it here so everyone can use these ressources.
-Mundgeirr
Korean
안녕하세요 fellow Korean learners ! Since we haven't got Duolingo Korean stories yet . Here are some Korean stories resources for improving and practicing listening and reading in Korean.
1• Video tales lesson #1 by Koreanclass101 There are total 4 video tales I guess and additionally one pinnochio video tale
2• "Let's study together" - A short Korean story by Kstyles YouTube channel.
There are many stories on this channel but they did not have a proper playlist with all the stories . And they also have a app called 'Kstyles' wherein there is a proper section for Korean stories but the app is in beta mode and it shows that the early access programme is currently full ,so you can check for more stories on this channel.
3• Korean stories - https://global-asp.github.io//storybooks-korea/ . I shared this website before also , a few months ago on the main forum as it also has stories for many other languages. You can play the audio and stories are divided into 5 levels , you can choose the level and there is a language change option ,you can change the language to English for reading it in English .
4• A useful playlist of "practicing Korean" YouTube channel - This playlist has several stories .
5• Beelinguapp - ( It's available on Android play store, I am not sure about App store )You can choose the language you want to improve as it also offers stories in many other languages. You can check out this app for korean stories.
Happy Learning !
The user was deactivated, so I couldn't get their name
Ukrainian
Here is the list of some of the free online resources you may want to include in your studies. Please add more in the comments if you happen to come across some goodies:))
Happy learning!
UPDATE from AaronTupaz
I've been scavenging the web for Ukrainian learning resources for awhile now, and these are some of what I’ve gathered that I've found useful.
An online Ukrainian course with numerous lessons and has lots of pictures and illustrations
A free online copy of a 300 page very in-depth book called “Teach yourself Ukrainian”
Podcasts:
Verbs
This is a nice chart of all the verbs of motions
Just found another YT channel offering video lessons.
For those of you who feel more confident and need conversational practice - I created a Zello channel for Ukrainian learners. I myself just discovered this Zello app (push-to-talk technology). Found some interesting channels where people chat using their phones as walkie-talkies. Zello works worldwide and it sounds ok with 2G, 3G,4G or wifi connection types.
If you are a Zello user - join Я вчу українську! I learn Ukrainian! channel. I will let English learners from our Ukrainian community know, maybe some of them are on Zello. It could be an exchange channel - you practice some Ukrainian with them, then they practice their English with you.
UPD: the channel is deleted. Try searching for Я вивчаю українську! I study Ukrainian!
There's a book in the Hippocrene Beginners series for Ukrainian that has really good reviews on Amazon. I can't vouch for that book specifically, but I have one for Danish and I really like it! Also, I recently found out that I can access Transparent Languages for free by signing up through my library and they have a decent Ukrainian section/course on their site. The audio isn't the best, but it isn't horrible either. It's worth checking into!
I'd add VK.com to the list, sign up and you can find all kinds of music, videos, and interesting communities/pages in Ukrainian (and Russian, too) on there.
Together with the friends from Instytut Skovorody we started filming the interviews on the streets of Kyiv with Ukrainian & English subtitles. Enjoy!
This channel is amazing. A Ukrainian girl that teach that language. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFfss7j6e_M&list=PLH1RblPMSpgGopeMbOB5xa0hJJ4I22los
-SergioRuido and responses to his posts
Esperanto
Try http://j.mp/BliUbLiU It is a wonderfull Website where you Read in your language and gain comprehension and vocabulary quickly. Reading in your language is the best thing to do.
-Klanestro
Hindi
दो दिन पहले, मैंने हिंदी पेड़ पूरा कियी. धन्यवाद और अच्छा काम, हिंदी की कोर्स की टीम!
I've completed the Hindi course in 22 days and finished it at 11th level. Before, I had no contact with Hindi or Devanagari script, so I've started out as a total beginner - but I've enjoyed it very much! I'd never expected to actually finish it, but it lured me in ;) I just hoped to learn Devanagari, but ended going through the entire course, because Hindi is indeed a beautiful language - and "exotic" languages are a weakness of mine ;)) Thank you, Hindi team!!! :)
The Hindi course is quite short, so it doesn't cover much material, vocabulary-wise. The teaching of past tenses is a bit rushed, there probably should be more lessons (with more quirky sentences) to practice them. All the tenses also need Tips & Notes sections, as do "Modals" and "Imperative".
The "Family" skills could use an explanation of Hindi family naming system.
(https://www.omniglot.com/language/kinship/hindi.htm) (https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hindi/Family_relations) (https://www.brighthubeducation.com/studying-a-language/18030-hindi-vocabulary-for-relatives/)
WHAT IS MISSING IN THE COURSE:
daily phrases: hello, good morning/afternoon/day/evening/night, good luck, see you later, happy birthday, congratulations, nice to meet you etc.
(https://www.omniglot.com/language/phrases/hindi.php) (https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Hindi/Everyday_Phrases)
numbers beyond 10: 20, 30..., 11, 21, etc.
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindustani_numerals) (https://www.omniglot.com/language/numbers/hindi.htm)
more colors, like: brown, gray, orange, pink, violet,
more adjectives like: narrow, wide, nice, mean, strong, weak, interesting, boring, free, light, dark, early, late, soft, hard, loud, quiet, heavy, wet, dry, empty, full, dirty, clean,
(http://www.anilmahato.com/hindi-adjectives-list/)
basic animals: goat, sheep, pig, chicken... (and some others: donkey, camel, lion, tiger, deer, fox, wolf, rabbit, monkey, snake, frog, turtle, crocodile, lizard, insect, fly, beetle, butterfly, ...)
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildlife_of_India)
some very basic directions, such as: left, right, below, north, south, west, east,
nature & weather: mountain, hill, sea, ocean, island, field, forest, jungle, snow, ice, smoke, fog, sunny, cloudy, windy, rainy,
common food such as: bread, pasta, curry, cheese, pizza, coffee, juice, butter, soup, kinds of meat (pork, beef, chicken), meals (lunch, dinner, supper), more fruit & vegetables vocabulary,
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_dishes)
city & places: restaurant, police, library, hospital, university, cinema, theater, zoo, hotel, airport, station, bus stop,
vehicles: bike, scooter, motor, taxi, ship, boat, plane, train, bus, riksha,
more basic vocabulary, like: map, phone, pen, plate, movie, tv, radio, rooms of a house, garden, etc.
commonly used verbs, such as those: understand, bathe, drive, travel, call, find, loose, pay, wait,
more advanced - culture, politics, economy, education and religion-related vocabulary: holidays, festival, to celebrate, law, crime, prison, thief, classroom, textbook, dictionary, religions' names,
PROPOSED SECTIONS TO ADD:
Greetings (!), Countries & Nationalities (!), Travel & Transport, Household & Items, City & Places, Occupations, Sports & Hobbies, Education, Economy, Science, Art & Music, Politics, Religion, Culture, Celebration,
Resources:
(http://www.mindurhindi.com/) (http://hindilanguage.info./)
Learning Devanagari:
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Hindi_and_Urdu) (https://www.omniglot.com/writing/hindi.htm) (http://hindilanguage.info/devanagari/) (http://www.mindurhindi.com/hindi-alphabet-table-content/)
Vocabulary: (http://mylanguages.org/hindi_vocabulary.php)
(https://app2brain.com/learn-languages/hindi/) (http://www.anilmahato.com/category/learn-hindi/learn-hindi-vocabulary/) (https://blogs.transparent.com/hindi/tag/hindi-vocabulary/) (http://www.anilmahato.com/category/learn-hindi/learn-hindi-vocabulary/) (http://www.mindurhindi.com/basic-words-and-phrases-in-hindi/) (http://www.mindurhindi.com/learn-hindi-lessons/) (http://hindilanguage.info/hindi-vocabulary/) (https://www.hindipod101.com/hindi-vocabulary-lists/)Grammar:
(http://www.hindiverbs.com/tenses.html) (http://www.mindurhindi.com/hindi-grammar-rule/) (http://hindilanguage.info/hindi-grammar/) (https://blogs.transparent.com/hindi/tag/hindi-grammar/)
The course won't teach you:
how to greet somebody ("Greetings")
how to ask for directions ("Directions", basic vocab and "City & Places")
how to order most of the food in a restaurant
essential travel phrases
countries other than "India" and "America" (referring to the US),
occupations other than "teacher" and "writer",
Summary:
For now, the Hindi course is an appetizer - it gives you a taste of the language (how the grammar works: nouns' gender, plurality, adjectives declination, some basic tenses, postpositions etc.), makes you want to learn more of it (at least for me), but it doesn't feed your hunger aka teach you enough vocabulary to get by, even in the most basic social situations.
This course still needs some serious development - and I'm very much looking forward to the Hindi Tree V2 :) Dear Duo - please make it possible ;) Hindi is such a beautiful language, it would be a shame to leave it at the level it is... unfinished, leaving people hanging. Also, I hope the long-upcoming Arabic course will be more complete and developed when (if?) it will be released.
मैं तुम्हारी अच्छी किस्मत की कामना करती हूँ! :)
PS. I may add a bit of words and sections later to suggest... but I think I've gone through most of the sections usually appearing in other courses by now. Also, please excuse my mistakes in Hindi! (Google Translate came to help me...)
Thank you everyone for your positive feedback! :) I've updated the words and sections a bit. I've also added a few links - for example culture-related, Indian cuisine and wildlife.
There's also this blog (http://www.shalusharma.com), written by an Indian lady, with info about culture, travel tips and more. ;)
-MyaRexa
Ohhh, I was going to ask you for your favourite resources after finishing the course, but now I don't need to!! :-) And well, I think that to learn how to write devanagari are essential external resources, being my favourite one this tutor: http://enjoylearningsanskrit.com/sanskrit-alphabet-tutor, and to practice with sound tests and to learn some conjuncts this other one: https://www.hindibhasha.com/hindiscripttutor.htm. And at the moment as I've had notes, I only needed the Wiktionary as an external resource, but certainly I'll use your links when I get to the skills without notes! :-S
Congratulations for your successful completion of the course, and I hope that you can meet your future Hindi language goals!!! ;-)))
-CarlosLM.
Anyone wants to know more about Canadian French and culture?
I was reading a good post about the differences between Quebec French and Metropolitan (France) French on famous Italian polyglot Luca Lampariello's blog, The Polyglot Dream, and remembered some people on Duo expressed interest in the subject.
The article had some very good links for anyone interested in Quebec's culture (French, English and native american). Here they are :
Films du Québec, a website with a lot of information about movies made in Quebec (about two dozen a year, not bad for a province with only 8 million in population), including many trailers. Notice that Quebeckers make a lot of comedies, it's not by chance : the province has a very active stand-up comedy scene, its own official humor undergraduate school and is home to one of, if not the most famous comedy festival, Juste pour rire (Just for Laughs), Quebeckers have a good sense of humor;
A Wikipedia article about Quebec's cinema industry;
Another Wikipedia article, this one about musicians from Quebec;
That's it (I may add more as people suggest it or if I find it myself).
Everything below this line has been added after the initial post
A wikipedia article about the culture of the province of Quebec;
Again a wikipedia article, this one about the cuisine typical of Quebec;
A most interesting way to discover Quebec's cuisine : this site offers plenty of recipes with maple syrup, so you can have a taste of the culture before you visit ;-).
New update
New update
OffQc - Excellent blog with tons of resources;
Ici Radio Canada - French CBC, the Canadian public TV channel;
BaladoQuébec - A repertory of podcasts (baladodifusion in French) from Québec;
Tou.tv - A Hulu style legal streaming provider, with both free and paid content, belonging to Radio Canada;
Dictionnaire Québécois - A glossary of Quebec specific vocabulary and expressions;
Tokio University of Foreign Studies' Quebec French course, with transciptions;
A post on another polyglot's blog interviewing a Quebecker polyglot who had just published a course book to learn specifically Quebec French, including free downloadable audio samples. The book is now also available as an e-book;
A spring and summer immersion program in Quebec, free for Canadian students, paid for other people. Unfortunately the subscription period is over for this year, but look it up for next year;
Wikebec - a wiktionary style crowd sourced Québec dictionary;
Tag télé - A youtube like streaming site from Quebec;
The website of a Quebec language teaching resource producer, with lots of games and exercises, although tending towards a more standard (formal, correct) French;
If you are looking for a French Canadian phrasebook;
Tout Canadien, a site full of Canadian French resources. The site itself isn't the easiest to navigate, but the content is of good quality. Look in the "library" section for the most relevant stuff;
A French Wikipedia page about Québécois lexicon. (English version, not sure which one is more complete/useful);
Du français au français, a blog about the differences between Québécois French and France French;
Oreille tendue, the blog of the director of University of Montreal's Département des littératures de langue française;
Histoire du français au Québec, if you're interested in history and linguistics related history (Site in French only). Also has links to pages with the more general history of the French language, of the English language, of Acadians and of French in Louisiana.
Je parle Québécois, mostly oriented to French speakers outside of Canada, this site presents a video per week, an excerpt usually from a movie or TV show from Quebec with transcripts or quiz questions. Also features a lexicon.
Quebec Culture Blog. A slightly different approach from the other resources above, this blog is written by an anglophone from Western Canada who went through French immersion schools for most, if not all, of his education. It is intended for English Canadians to better understand the political and cultural issues with French speaking Quebec (and francophones dispersed all around Canada). In other words, it tries to bridge the two solitudes that are the French and English speaking people all over Canada;
/r/francaisCanadien, a subreddit about French Canadian that I've created;
RCI : Radio-Canada International, the international network of the Canadian public broadcast channel. The Canadian equivalent of the BBC (UK) and TV5 Monde (France);
Lexilogos (in French) has links to many linguistic resources, including for Quebec and Acadian French. It has many resources for dialects and smaller languages as well well worth exploring.
A list of Quebec expressions and idioms on République libre, with a some other information. Seems to be a bit biased toward sovereignty ideology though.
A glossary of Acadian French on the website of the Université de Moncton's Centre d'études Acadiennes. You can find many interesting things on that website, including many scanned books about and/or by Acadians.
Cyber Acadie - A portal for many things related to the history of the historic French colony Acadia and the numerous and scattered descendants of its last inhabitants : the Acadians.
QC French - A website with free French lessons, with a section dedicated to the French spoken in Quebec.
Unis TV - A Canadian French public TV channel, aimed at Quebecers and French speakers living outside Quebec, similar to TV5 (the internationally available French channel). A lot of content is available online as well.
A repertory of Quebec phonetics, which is a project of linguistics at Laval University in Quebec City.
Phono, another repertory of Quebec phonetics, a project of UQAC (l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi).
-BastouXII
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