Wednesday, September 13

Lost in translation? Try a podcast!

About six months ago I wrote an article for a becta publication about the future technologies for learning (Full publication available for free from Becta)

In it I quoted an african lady, moved to europe, who created podcasts for her euro-family to teach them her home language. These podcasts were a surprise hit worldwide!

Today I tried to track her down - but she has gone missing. Instead, several other similar sites have sprung up around the world. It seems language learning is alive and well!

To celebrate, here are a couple of sample lessons from the world of free podcast language learning:

Shona (Zimbabwe): "introducing a friend to mum"

  • Mhoro mwanangu. Wakadini? / Hello, my child. How are you?
  • Unobva kupi? / Where do you come from?
  • KuUniversity unodzidza chii? / What do you study at the University?

Shona-2005-07-22nd.mp3 (1.2 mb)
from www.shonapodcast.co.uk - an english husband and zimbabwean wife team


Mandarin (China): "preparing for the olympics"


Learn how to vit in when you visit Bejing for the olympics (as if!). In this lesson you find out about “Olympics” and “players” from Jenny and Ken.

chinesepod344_A114_20060910.mp3 (8.3mb) from www.chinesepod.com - a far slicker online tuition site


English for non-native speakers: "2 words a day"

Suffice = be sufficient, be adequate, be enough or meet the needs of.

Sature = to soak something with liquid, to fill something with so many people or things that no more can be added. Supply a market beyond the point at which the demand for a product is satisfied.

JV162.mp3 (2.7 mb) from www.justvocabulary.com - a daily double word dose from sunny South Africa

enjoy!

4 comments:

geoff said...

Which institutions are putting up the funds to provide ipods and podcasts to their students?

Georgia College & State University: http://ipod.gcsu.edu/

South Kent College in Dover: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5319258.stm

Duke University in North Carolina: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3913091.stm

Two Glascow hospitals : http://www.personneltoday.com/Articles/2006/03/30/34697/Hospitals+use+iPods+to+assist+induction+training.htm

Berkley University are even offering audio lectures on iTunes: http://itunes.berkeley.edu/

Anonymous said...

In Beijing, you also can use mobile phone to connect online translator or learn Chinese mandarin online now. You can find live Chinese class to learn and translator on Hello! Mandarin

Anonymous said...

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