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LANGUAGE RESOURCES
| Multilingual (lots of languages) | Arabic | Chinese | Dutch |
| English, page 1 | English, page 2 | Esperanto | French |
| German | Hebrew | Japanese | Latin |
| Russian | Sign Language | Spanish | Swedish |
Many of the points raised on the list ask for help with Specific Languages. Below you will find some of the links which members have suggested might come in handy. If you want to suggest some more, post the addresses on "The List" please and we'll ensure they end up here.
MULTILINGUAL - lots of languages.
The Human Languages Page - links to hundreds of language resources.
A member's links page also comes highly recommended. Go see Eva Easton's pages.
This
link apparently takes you to a starting page for various mailing lists
in different
languages and subjects. We are told you
can also start your own list through this forum. It
includes many of the languages mentioned on our
list. We don't know how many family
oriented lists there are, but there is a rating
system which runs from "kid safe" upwards.
Here is another good general resource mentioned by somebody and the section of the same site specifically dedicated to languages
A Web of On-Line Dictionaries - List of on-line dictionaries and wordlists for many languages.
A Web of On-Line Grammars - Another interesting site from R. Beard. Links to a couple dozen grammars for different languages (too many to list). Many are introductions to the language, alphabet, and/or writing system; others are more linguistically-oriented.
The Alternative Language Dictionaries - slang, idioms, swear words, and more, in a variety of languages, updatable.
André Fairchild, a translator/interpreter (English/French/Spanish/Portuguese/Dutch) specialized in medical science and member of the list, has built a resource page for translators and others interested in language. You can find it at http://www.geocities.com/multilingual6.
If you are interested in seeing some real written
Arabic (and maybe even taking a
free basic Arabic course on-line), visit the
Babel:
Arabic site
The Arabic Alphabet
- from Syria Online. Arabic alphabet, description, forms, and transliteration.
Arabic Software Digest - Index of Arabic-related software (includes language, font, and Arabic system software).
Arabic Software Map - Index of Arabic software and where to find it on the Internet.
ARABIC-INFO Mailing List - Free e-mail list for people involved with Arabic, Islamic, or Middle Eastern studies. Online archives of past messages, and how to subscribe or unsubscribe.
Arabic-Info Mailing List - Information about the Arabic-Info mailing list, an e-mail bulletin board for announcements related to Arabic studies, jobs, conferences, etc.
Let's Learn
Arabic - A mostly audio tutorial on Arabic.
For those who are interested, childbook.com has a page about Chinese schools in USA, including a copy of a 1997 government report on them, and some useful links.
If you are intrigued by PINYIN CHINESE SCRIPT
Owen found the following:
http://www.timesone.com/IPOS/browse.asp?edumall=0&pcurr=USD
http://www.timesmm.com.sg/timeseol/default.htm
http://www.asiapacbooks.com/bookstore/bookslist.asp?categoryid=2%2EBook
One of our list members bought the CD Rom below for 15 Dutch Guilders at Bart Smit Toy Shop shop in The Netherlands and recommends it highly for different languages as well.
"Locokid"
Fun & Educational CD-Rom Adventure
Age 3-8
Integral Dutch Course - Twelve online chapters teaching the basics of the Dutch language, from pronunciation to nouns and verbs. Includes exercises.
Learn Dutch - Extensive collection of beginning Dutch lessons for English speakers. Audio, grammar, vocabulary, and pictures help teach you the basics of Dutch. Plus links to other Dutch resources on the Web. By Chris Sonnemans.
Learn Dutch via the Internet - Beginning Dutch lessons for English speakers. Includes spelling and pronunciation in addition to some grammar lessons. Author unknown.
"Tweetalig" - A Mailinglist about bilingualism/multilingualism in
Dutch.
Petra started this list. To subscribe to the list: send a message
to tweetalig-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.
More information at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tweetalig
http://www.esperanto.net/veb/faq.html
http://garlic.aitec.edu.au/~bwechner/Documents/Esperanto/grammar.html
http://calnet28-100.gtecablemodem.com/esperanto/course/
http://www.esperanto.org/gerda/
We are told there is a lot of info on the language here:
Here you will find children's
rhymes in Esperanto
(translated and original) though no Christmas
songs, though.
Esperantists in the USA, check out ELNA
at 1-800-ESPERANTO
or www.esperanto-usa.org
where you'll find a number of web resources
Interested in a Free Esperanto Course (this is the one Thomas Alexander helps tutor.)
The following site has been recommended for French Resources
If you're interested in joining any other lists
conducted in French (and
you have time to read messages after reading
all the ones generated on our very
active list), apparently there is a huge site
with links to tons of lists that you might want
to check out. Here's
the url.
Alicia started another list called "Famille Bilingue".The purpose of this bilingual list is the exchange of information and ideas between Francophone and Anglophone countries who wish to fill in their gaps in a non-native language (either French or English) spoken at home.
A member reminded us: "There is a French list founded by a member of this list, Beatrix, who raises her son in German and French, and it can be reached via Asterix@onelist.com. We are told it has over 100 members but is not very active - which, of course, depends on the participants. We assume anyone interested would be very welcome.
For those of you who remember the "andek" question...
If you go
to this web site (French) , you'll see that "andek" is indeed an arabic
word meaning "attention"
We suspect you could find out a whole lot more
there too... EDs. :-)
The French newspaper Le Monde apparently recently
featured an article about the languages of the world, concluding that,
with some 5,000 languages for some 200 states
(i.e. an average of 25 languages per state) plurilinguism
is indeed the
rule and monolinguism the exception. Very much
like on this list ;-). For
the URL, follow the Yellow
Brick Road
Here are a couple of sites that Alicia tells us
sell French cd-rom's:
Site 01
Site 02
Marina recommends a small article in French dated 24/01/94 (a bit old!) but with some very interesting information for francophones. It was apparently from "Femme Actuelle"
GERMAN
There's a German-language Email list like Biling called IDAKinder which could be of help to parents raising children with German as the minority language (also to practise your German). Check out www.imausland.org, the Homepage of IDA - Interessengemeinschaft Deutschsprachiger im Ausland if you'd like to know more. This site is also for dialect speakers (Swiss German, Austrian dialects, etc.) and they have a list of recommended children's books, games, etc. to help children develop German language skills.
A member of both Biling and IDA tells us they are in the process of
trying out a free program that matchesItalian and German speakers to improve
their respective language skills via email exchange. You can find
information at
http://digilander.iol.it/ideapadova/
Now another German Family Group which comes LMR (list member recommended):
Interessengemeinschaft
mehrsprachiger Familien e.V. (Interest Group for Multilingual
Families in Germany) and...
ImF-Familienkontakt-Forum:
ImF helps ALL multilingual families in Germany with their minority
languages. They publish a quarterly newsletter Polyglot(t) in both
English and German, and a member directory.
IDA and ImF are working together in helping returning families keep up the respective minority language of their host countries.
For building German baby-related vocabulary, Hanne of Biling and IDA
recommends the online-version of the German parenting magazine "Eltern",
www.eltern.de,
or even subscribing to the magazine itself (she insists that
even a single issue would be worth having).
Another German language magazine which is very useful for vocabulary-building as it deals with all areas of child rearing, and also includes a section with games for children, is "Spielen and Lernen" published by Velber Verlag www.velber.de.
Bedtime Stories in German:
Try this address for a bedtime story in German
www.ravensburger.de/buchverlag/gutenacht.asp.
And also a site that Susanne hadn't checked out
in detail, but they seem to have a number
of German bedtime
stories
Hundreds of German folksongs at www.ingeb.org/Volksonh.html
This is the official link to the German government-sponsored schools
overseas www.auslandsschulwesen.de
GERMAN SCHOOLS IN SWEDEN
There is a German school in Stockholm
which has probably got a kindergarten as well (or at least they can give
you information).
There is also an International
School, in Nacka just outside Stockholm
By the way, if anybody would like to subscribe
to the Bilingual Hebrew group,
just send a blank
message here
You can also find out about many moderated e-mail
discussion groups on Jewish and Hebrew
topics by sending a blank
message here
For anyone interested in what Japanese Alternative
"kanji" Characters look and sound like...
THIS
SITE shows a table.
JALT - The Japanese Association for Lanuage Teaching
Check out their web-site with lots of links to bilingualism in Japan
http://www.kagawa-jc.ac.jp/~steve_mc/jaltbsig/index.html
Here's the URL
for Finnish Broadcasting Latin Service.
And another site where you can apparently listen
to spoken Latin
More
Latin Resources courtesy of Eva Easton
Russian Resources? Here is an address
Since there now seem to be more Russian speakers on this list now, here is an updated list of information the "closet Russians" ;-) have been exchanging in private messages:
"Detki i predki" (Children & Ancestors)
Domashniy Ochag
(Fire Place), look at kids
section
There is a Russian bookstore in Palo Alto (California, USA). Russian books on tapes can be ordered by phone at 415-327-5590.
WMNB - Russian Radio & TV in New York ph. 1-800-7222080. They say it is possible to get any recording of WMNB radio literature program. Unfortunately, they do not have a catalogue.
Russian State Archives for Sound Recordings 107005
Russia,
Moscow, 2nd Baumanskaja 3 Director: Vladimir
A. Koljada, fax
007095 267 1389
The collection contains all kinds of sound recordings
amounting to 4.5 million items in total".
Russian language search engines:
Nataliya must have been very busy surfing at the beginning of this new Century since she sent the list all of the Info we reproduce below:
Reference books in Russian:
http://www.kamkin.com is a book supplier. You can also subscribe to Russian magazines through the company. They will also look for books for you if they don't have them in stock. The service ias good and prompt and they have largest choice.
http://www.bookswithoutborders.com carries books, videos and audiotapes in Russian (it's worth mentioning here that it does have Russian stuff, because a lot of Russians may think that if it's an American company, they won't have anything Russian. The service is good. The best selection in quality.
http://www.dk.com While they don't have any Russian products on-line, one can send an e-mail inquiry to DK. I found out they have a decent choice of children's reference books in Russian. Unfortunately, they are on the expensive side, plus they ship from the UK which adds to their cost more for those outside Europe. But they are of excellent quality and can be duplicated with an English equivalent for a bilingual touch. There's also a DK Moscow office, that owns the rights to a lot of DK Russian publications. Here's the Russian DK office info:
Slovo Publishing House, 109147, Moscow, Vorontsovskaja Str 41.
Tel 007 095 911 6871
Fax 007 095 911 6133
Email slovo-pub@mtu-net.ru
Russian Books:
Another Bookshop with Russian Books
http://www.russianshopping.com/
Children's Literature On-Line
Children's Songs & Fairy Tales
http://www.dedushka.myokay.net/
http://www.chg.ru/Fairy/index.html
http://business.fortunecity.com/geffen/407/home.htm
http://www.mtu-net.ru/murzilka/index.htm
http://www.parkline.ru/Library/koi/KOZLOW/ezhik.txt
http://www.chat.ru/~serg_2000/
Nataliya also stumbled upon 12 Russian cartoons dubbed into (unfortunately
only) English. She reckons our kids will enjoy them and says they
have a somewhat multicultural flair. Some of them are apparently
based on Russian fairy tales, some on stories by Anderson (Danish), Hoffman
(German), Czech/Slovak fairy tale, Perrault (French). One cartoon
("The Nutcracker", E. A. Hoffman) doesn't have any words, only music from
the ballet (P. Tchaikovsky). You can look
them up here
Subscriptions for Russian Periodicals:
"www.baby.ru" is a web magazine for parents on all kinds of issues, from pregnancy to early children development and education, with a lot of real stories from many parents Angelika told us.
"Zhenshchina
Pljus" (Women Plus) Magazine (Russian)
Parenting Club:
http://www.glasnet.ru/dk/parents/start.htm
Larissa informed us of the following:
Here is a VERY good page with all kinds of Russian and former Soviet Union Republics links. There are resourses not only in Russian but in English also. There are some addresses for good bookstores, personal pages, news pages, tourist info. All kinds of stuff.
Mailing list:
Natalya started a Russian mailinglist for
Russian women living abroad. You can find it at
http://www.egroups.com/group/MadameRusse
.
A Basic Dictionary of American Sign Language (ASL) - Small ASL dictionary (written directions for doing signs, not pictures).
A Basic Dictionary of ASL Terms - Small dictionary of ASL (sign language) with letters, numbers, and words. Requires Quicktime plugin to view animated hand signs.
Sign
Language Resources at Yahoo
Back to top
News:
http://www.cnnenespanol.com
Search Engines:
http://www.quepasa.com
Internet radio:
http://dialspace.dial.pipex.com/town/place/abn39/ra19.htm
Check out this link it has a lot of other links to literary magazines in Spanish.
More Spanish Resources:
http://spanish.about.com/education/languages/spanish/blguia.htm
Poem of the day delivered to you (in Spanish).
Spanish books for children...and their parents
A much recommended Bilingual Book appears to be:
Pepita Talks Twice/Pepita Habla Dos Veces
by Ofelia Dumas Lachtman, Alex Pardo Delange
(Illustrator)
Reading level: Ages 4-8 Hardcover - 32
pages (October 1995)
Arte Publico Pr; ISBN: 1558850775
It can be bought - we are told - via Amazon.com.
A Swedish Language Course - Beginning (and hopefully growing) free Swedish language lessons by Aaron Rubin. Currently 4 lessons plus pronunciation guide and links to other Swedish resources.
Björn Engdahl's Swedish Course - A seven-lesson (plus final exam) beginning Swedish course. Vocabulary includes pronunciation and audio. Very thorough lessons include both vocabulary and grammar
Introduction to Swedish - Introductory Swedish lessons by Urban Sikeborg. Lessons available online or downloadable. Site also includes a Swedish/English dictionary.
Dictionaries Directory - from SUNET, the Index of Swedish WWW Pages. Links to Swedish dictionary resources.
Lexin Swedish-English Dictionary - At the Swedish School Computer Network
Forskningscentralen för de inhemska språken. Svenska avdelningens hemsida - Resources for Swedish language and linguistics (in Swedish).
Språkbanken - the Language Bank of Swedish - Online, machine-readable texts and information for Swedish linguistics.
Swedish Resource Pages? here's a List Member Recommended URL
Swedish Newspaper "Dagens Nyheter"
Interested in a Swedish School (at a distance)? You need Sofiaskolan in Stockholm. Una tells us the school serves the Swedish community abroad, but there are about 70 students in Sweden who for one reason or another choose to have their children at home
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LAST UPDATED 1 APRIL 2001