Subscribe to this blog in a readerA few years ago, I was a big fan of LiveMocha. At the time, it was one of the best free websites to learn foreign languages. Now that it's been bought by Rosetta Stone, it's horrible. I still think Rosetta Stone is a decent piece of software, but I don't understand why RS had to ruin a good thing. Tonight, I registered on LiveMocha again, hoping to learn some basic vocabulary. How disappointed I was! Now the website is completely different. I want the old LiveMocha back. While no program, web site, book, CD or DVD aimed at the language-learning crowd will ever be perfect, LiveMocha was a great alternative to paid products (which sometimes disappoint). The lessons were complete and weren't so much based on translation as on one of the greatest abilities we all have--inferring the meaning of new words. By slowly introducing new words and some grammar, LiveMocha was essentially spoon-feeding the user. I also really miss the recording feature. Users would record a text in the foreign language, then native speakers would correct their pronunciation. To be honest, I think Rosetta Stone is similar to LiveMocha in many ways. The main problem is that it's a very expensive piece of software. LiveMocha was such an inviting website that I really wanted to study multiple languages on it--just to get more points and meet new people. The social features of LiveMocha have all but disappeared, and the website won't stay free for much longer. It's been a long time since I've used RS for American English but I'll do some digging and see if I can find the CD somewhere. I probably won't be able to test RS in other languages unless I find out that they have it at my school.
