My wife recently enrolled in an Italian class, in part to underscore her intent to vacation in Tuscany. (mmmmm, Italian cuisine….) She picks up languages quickly, having dabbled in several (Irish, Russian). She’s not wildly interested in Spanish, partly because of the efforts of so many in our area to force the language upon us.
Me, I don’t mind Spanish, though I’ve only danced around the edges of it. I’ve never taken a class, though I watch a ton of Super Sabado Gigante and El Gordo y la flaca…for the language training, of course. *ahem* I’ve looked at any number of offerings on Audible.com and elsewhere, but the more interesting courses are also the more expensive. I like Rosetta Stone in particular, but its price tag is close to tuition on one (or more) college courses. Some online sites offer some instruction for free, but their quality varies.
Enter LiveMocha, which was unveiled this week. For a detailed introduction to the site and its mission, see its blog, here.
LiveMocha reminds me most of Rosetta Stone, though this is not as immersive as Rosetta’s 3.0 offering (CD and online) that hears and grades your spoken language. Another limitation is that it tends to give you four static images at a time, so the process of elimination during the exercises is easier (Rosetta Stone mixes up the images and their locations for every question).
These two limitations aside, LiveMocha is a breeze to use. It offers the equivalent of 160 hours of instruction (in college terms, 101, 102, 201, and 202 courses) for languages they deem important in the 21st century, including Spanish, English, Hindi, and Mandarin – each of which has at least 1 billion speakers. Those are the four dominant languages in my workplace. French and German are also offered, for those who do a lot of business in the EU. As part of your profile you can specify which languages you (1) speak and are (2) learning, and those lists cover dozens of languages; this lets you search for and connect with people who can or want to converse in more than just the six languages offered. Even so, I hope they eventually increase the offered courses to languages such as Korean and Japanese, Latin and Italian.
The lessons do build on one another, using and extending vocabulary. I take notes in an open Notepad window as I go. I suppose you could cheat, but if the idea is to lear, why would you?
Each course consists of one or more units, which in turn is composed of one or more lessons. Each lesson has four sections: learning, where you’re given 40 words, phrases, and/or sentences.
The Live part of LiveMocha is its social networking, and this is where I see great potential in its “21st century, Web 2.0″ approach. You don’t just enroll in a language; you can’t help but see who ELSE is enrolled. You can see how well they’re doing in your course. If you’re competitive, the Leader Board keeps you motivated not just to finish the lessons, but to do as well as possible. (“What? He’s three points ahead of me? Gaaa! Wait until Unit 8, darn ya!”) When you’re feeling more cooperative, there are options for inviting and accepting Friends who are learning, teaching, or speaking any “common” language, for a natural stable of pen pals. This is particularly useful for languages like Mandarin and Hindi; for Spanish conversation, I can yell at my neighbor’s kids. (¿cómo se dice “hey you kids, get off our lawn”?)
The social networking could be a mixed bag. My first day I was inundated with mail from a “hey, sexy!” spambot, though to the site’s credit, that ended quickly and I haven’t been bugged since. I’ve accepted several friend requests from fellow travelers in Spanish 101, and from an instructor. I’m still at “¿Dondé está casa de Pepe?” stage and haven’t started chatting yet, but the site’s philosophy that language is meant to be USED is common sense, and conversing with folks at varying levels means you can butcher the lingo with fellow n00bs, get schooled by the l33t, and in turn shepherd the young minds filled with mush into the correct path of your native tongue.
The site recommends one lesson per week. Heh; Internet Time mocks such a glacial pace. I signed on 48 hours ago, and I’m 2/3 of the way through the first course. I don’t have all the content memorized, but it’s been sticking as I go along, and I’m feeling accomplished, as this song will attest:
All in all, I give LiveMocha three stars, and say Check it out.
I could be wrong, but Andrew Meyer – the idiot leftist who got himself tased by leftist cops at a leftist college forum where a leftist Senator was speaking – sounds a LOT like idiot comic Dane Cook (link to an impressionist who doesn’t swear nearly as much as the original).
If so, his performance here beats Good Luck Chuck all to heck.
The fool from Florida has the same staccato, nervous-tic repetition and too-hip snottiness that earns Dane top dollar. Sad thing is, I got more laughs from Meyer.
Went to Fry’s over the weekend. They didn’t have the iPod Touch, but they did have the new Classic, Nano and Shuffle on display.
We bought nothing, but we were both deeply impressed with the new Nano. Honey liked the green one, which was available to play with on one of the docking speakers.
It’s about 1/3 shorter than the 2nd generation device, 1/4 wider, and close in depth. It’s light as a feather, and the brushed metal looks great. the Lock switch is now – finally! – on the bottom, along with the docking connector and headphone jack. Aside from the front edges being almost sharp enough to draw blood – a little honing work and it could replace a ninja star – I liked the feel of it in my hand.
Software: the split screen looks nice, giving a preview of the song or video you’re scrolling past…but navigating with it is a bit sluggish compared to previous generations. The display unit didn’t have any songs with cover art, so I couldn’t test that, but it didn’t look like something I’d use in any case.
The big enhancement to the new Nano is the enlarged screen and support for video (movies, tv shows, music videos). the display unit had some music videos, so we checked them out.
It quickly drew a crowd of viewers; the video on that little puppy is gorgeous. I almost bought one on the spot, despite my vow not to. It was that good. My PDA has a larger screen, but the Nano display was easier on the eyes.
I must say, the Nano may well continue to be my iPod of choice, whatever the new Touch looks like.
A few years ago, the New York Times (NYT) posted all its content for free, including its columnists Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman. Then, they switched to a part-free-part-pay “Times Select” that hid Dowd and Krugman, among others, behind a coin-operated firewall, and their musings ceased being discussed week by week by those who could no longer link freely to them.
Which means the musings of MoDo and Krugman will once again be linked to, quoted, Fisked, discussed, mocked, and argued over.
Frankly, I haven’t missed the NYT gasbags. Those who WANTED to read them, could always pony up the pesos. The rest of us could breathe easier from the reduction in toxic smog wafting from the House that Pinch Ruined.
I have more media players than I need. But not more than I want.
I blame Steve Jobs. The seductive turtlenecked bastard.
On September 5 he refreshed the entire iPod line. My first two ipod Nano devices are gone (stolen and flushed) but my high-end 2nd Generation Nano has been a bloody workhorse for over a year. There’s nothing wrong with it…except it’s no longer the Alpha Pod. Now there are video-capable Nano Fatties and the Buddha Pod (“scuze me while iTouch the sky…”), which beckon in their slutty Siren ways at The Steve’s behest.
Need? Not yet. I’ve bought too many MP3 players over the years, most of which still work…but not well enough. Intel’s 32Mb flash player. the Audible Otis. A couple of Creative players with no screen. A few “MP3 CD” devices with navigation as smooth as Iggy Pop’s face. a “Nano Killer” from Sansa that does have some nice features but just annoying enough to gather more dust than attention; I refresh it once a week, whether I need to or not.
No, for the past couple of years, my go-to devices have been my Palm PDA (for video and ebooks) and the Nano (for audio). The third Nano was the charm.
The new Nano would be a decent one-for-one replacement of my current iPod, but for video? For music videos, perhaps, but for Stargate reruns and Top Chef? Um, no. So what of the iPod Touch? Definitely replace my current iPod, and a partial replacement for the PDA, though there would be tradeoffs; I’m addicted to some PalmOS apps, for which there are at present no Apple equivalents. But given time, it could inherit the PDA mantle.
Given time. So, why not wait?
I’ve resigned myself to holding onto my current devices until they die. There is no Grand Unification device yet. I am not tempted to “accidentally” flush my Nano…yet. When Steve talks, I earphone up, like Odysseus lashed himself to the mast, for my own safety.
I awoke early the morning of September 11, 2001, determined to have a better day than the one before.
I opened my bedroom door to find my brother there, telling me a plane had hit the WTC.
I watched through gritted teeth as the second plane came into view, and knew even before it collided with the second building that I was watching an act of war.
I have not forgotten.
“Chimpy McHitlerburton” is not our enemy. Those who are trying to kill us, they are the enemy.
I have not forgotten.
The blood of innocents and heroic rescue workers was shed on 9/11. The blood of heroes has been shed in the years since, in theaters known and unknown, yet they continue to serve.