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The travel + language dream is real! If I had a penny for every time I've heard a fellow traveler say, "I wish I could make money while traveling" I might just be a few thousand cents richer. In fact, this comes up so often that I decided to make up a word for it, I call it "freebreaking". It's a dream for many to be able to make a living online and travel endlessly, a dream I have pursued myself over the last dozen years running this very website. My particular flavor is to combine this with my love for languages, much like the guest in this episode, Michele Frolla. read more

There is one main impediment to language learning This here episode is the very first solocast I have ever done. And boy, do I have more than a few fears about it! But like I'm about to get into, kicking those fears is the only thing that will get me to my goal of inspiring as many people as possible to learn as many languages as possible. Just like the only thing that's going to get you to learn that language is kicking those fears of speaking it. read more

Innovative Language is a legend in mobile online language education Way back in 2006, when Free Language launched, there were not nearly as many language learning projects and bloggers out there. At the time, one of the only full-featured ways to learn Japanese was a podcast-based learning site called JapanesePod101, which later became part of Innovative Language. read more

Amikumu is a free app that helps you find people nearby to speak any language with I first came across Amikumu at the 2017 Polyglot Gathering in Bratislava and immediately thought: "Now this is a stellar idea - and finally something created specifically for polyglots and language lovers like me!" I instantly downloaded it and created a profile to begin connecting with people around me who are also interested in languages and practicing and sharing in person. read more

This guy flipped language learning backwards Idahosa Ness is the founder of Mimic Method, a language learning program with a twist. Actually, a flip. Mimic Method flips the language learning game right around by effectively training your ear from the very beginning. read more

"Language teaches itself" read more

Who is Michael Campbell? Michael Campbell is an accomplished linguist, phonologist, Chinese dialectologist, polyglot and CEO of Glossika. He is extremely passionate about languages and language learning and has spent the better part of his life figuring out better and better ways to learn languages effectively. It’s difficult to put a finger on just how many languages Michael speaks, but he is quite familiar with and able to hold his own in dozens! Michael’s story with languages read more

Connor Grooms, CEO of BaseLang Connor Grooms, CEO of BaseLang, first learned Spanish fast by filming a documentary about his experience! In this episode we’ll get into not only language speed learning tips and trips, we’ll also dive into how BaseLang came to be and what has evolved since inception. Free guide to learning Spanish fast read more

Kirsten Campbell-Howes is Head of Education at busuu I have been writing about busuu since it launched in 2008 and was very excited and honored to be able to record this episode with Kirsten Campbell-Howes who hails from Scotland and is Head of Education at busuu in London. Superpowered language learning system with 60+ million users read more

Discover the world’s largest pronunciation guide (it’s free!) Forvo is a massively-useful resource for language learners at all levels who want to improve pronunciation and truly sound like a native speaker. The website has literally millions of recordings of words by native speakers in over 300 languages! Background on Forvo read more

Hear polyglot Steve Kaufmann's story of learning 11 languages Steve has my utmost respect - he speaks 11 languages and is still learning more in his 70s! He is convinced that you can continue to learn better and better as you get older, and the more languages you learn, the easier it gets. Discover his story and learn how he uses his own language learning service, LingQ, to successfully learn new languages. LingQ: Learn languages by listening to and reading content that interests you! read more

HelloTalk app makes effective language exchange mobile I caught up with Zackery Ngai while he was traveling in Shanghai on behalf of the free HelloTalk language exchange app. He’s the project's founder and continues developing an extraordinary yet simple app for effective multilingual exchange. HelloTalk takes it further than just a dialogue, allowing users to use enhanced tools to manage time, translate on-the-fly, exchange links and content, send recorded messages and more. read more

Omniglot: The free encyclopedia of writing systems and languages! Simon Ager created Omniglot, the go-to online encyclopedia of writing systems and languages. And it’s 100% free! You can use it to learn about languages, to learn alphabets and other writing systems, and to learn phrases in many languages. The site offers advice on how to learn languages as well as details of nearly 200 writing systems. You'll also find tips on learning languages as well as language-related articles. This prodigious resource also offers useful foreign phrases in more than 200 languages, with many audio recordings. read more

Readlang: Learn languages by reading whatever you want! Steve Ridout created Readlang to help you learn languages using numerous learning modalities including tools for enhanced online reading, a video player, a customizable dictionary, a vocab manager and a flashcard toolkit. Enhanced online reading tools include a Web Reader that allows you to instantly translate and save text from any web page for use in learning as well as on online eReader with inline translation which reduces distractions and keeps you focused on the materials you choose to import. read more