Hi everyone. I have been teaching myself Spanish completely by myself for free on the internet. This is a list of resources for fellow language learners, based on my experiences with Spanish, but all of the resources here are available for multiple languages. Please contribute your own favorites!
ImTranslator: Web Browser translation add-on/extension
ImTranslator is my favorite of all the browser extensions I've tried for translating web content on my computer. You can easily switch the translation displayed of the same text selection between Google's translation and Bing's translation and a couple of others, giving you several options or perspectives on the same selection.
HelloTalk - mutual learning exchange with native speakers
www.hellotalk.com/
This app/site is an easy, anonymous, and free way to interract with native speakers of your target language who are learning English. It has various convenient messaging and voice formats. There are a lot of apps and sites like this, but I can vouch that this one has a nice community of intelligent language learners and it is not overwhelemed by some of the more negative trends found around the internet. I also hear good things about ConversationExchange and iTalki.
EXTR@ - Sitcom for language learners (French, German, English, and Spanish)
www.youtube.com/results?search_query=extr%40
Extr@ is a fun lighthearted sitcom designed for language learners about an American learning the language while living in another country with new friends. There are 13 episodes each filmed in French, German, and Spanish, which can be found free on Youtube.
Duolingo!
www.duolingo.com/learn
The best free language learning program. I prefer the website to the app. And even though the forum is gone, the sentence discussion threads on each practice sentence will still be a great resource for Q&A and resource sharing.
Google Translate app - live real-time video text translation
I just wanted to highlight this really cool feature of Google Translate's app, where my phone's camera is continuously displaying on the screen, and if I hold it up to a sign or a book, then I can watch the words in the picture translate before my very eyes!
DICTATING VOICE-TO-TEXT
I guess this is more of a technique than a resource but I can't emphasize this enough. I talk in Spanish to my phone and simply try to get it to understand me and correctly print what I said. I had to go into my settings and get it to download a Spanish keyboard, otherwise it would try to make English gibberish out of my Spanish. I can now easily toggle between keyboard languages. So whether typing messages, drafting documents, or answering language questions, I speak in Spanish and then double-check what my phone thinks I said. And if my phone keeps misunderstanding the same thing, I know I'm probably mispronouncing something or making a grammar error.
READINGS
The Fable Cottage (Italian, French, German, English, and Spanish. )
http://www.thefablecottage.com
Classic fairy tales re-told in clever modern ways. Easy material that is genuinely fun to read at any age! You can read with or without English translations and tips, and subscribe for animated videos.
Beelinguapp
beelinguapp.com/
This app/site provides a substantial amount of content even with their free membership for language learners of all levels in a number of languages. You can have side-by-side text with read-along audio in a great format that is easy to navigate and control at your own pace. They have all kinds of readings, stories, news, culture, science, etc., and new content always being added!
Side-by-side readings with audio at Alba (French, English, and Spanish)
albalearning.com/audiolibros/textosparalelos.html
You can find advanced readings and classic literature at this site, and some easier material - I enjoyed going through Aesop's fables (Fábulas de Esopo)! At that link for "parallel texts" you can see from the flags which languages are available together for each reading. Some also have read-along audio, such as Poe's Tell-Tale Heart.
GRAMMAR GUIDE - Cliff Notes Study Guides (French and Spanish i and ii)
www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides
My favorite grammar guide - clear, comprehensive, and concise, highlighting the key points, lots of good examples ... succinct yet thorough summarization is, after all, what Cliff Notes does, right?