Job Discussion Forums

[johnslat]

Just kidding - but this IS interesting. The first part is about translating. But about 10 minutes on, he gets into free language learning "DuoLingo."

"After re-purposing CAPTCHA so each human-typed response helps digitize books, Luis von Ahn wondered how else to use small contributions by many on the Internet for greater good. At TEDxCMU, he shares how his ambitious new project, Duolingo, will help millions learn a new language while translating the Web quickly and accurately -- all for free."

http://www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration.html?utm_source=newsletter_weekly_2011-12-07&utm_campaign=newsletter_weekly&utm_medium=email

Here's the DuoLingo site:

http://www.duolingo.com/


Regards,
John

[Sashadroogie]

Dear Johnslat

Not happy with the punctuation here at all... : (


Sasha

Plus, my vodka supplies are running low. Misery

[LongShiKong]

TEFLers need not worry:

As one commenter stated:

[AGoodStory]

Interesting project. But when he talks about "learning a foreign language" for free, he really means learning vocabulary, or at the most, learning to read the language. As interesting as the project is, the learner/translators will not be learning to speak their chosen language. (But they could acquire an impressive vocabulary!) And for von Ahn's stated purpose--speakers of languages other than English being able to access the 80% of the web that is presented in English--reading is the only skill necessary.