With 8.5 million members from over 200 countries, LiveMocha is the largest online language learning community. Unlike the “big yellow box”, those seeking to learn a language have all the usual tools at their disposal, plus they have a community to interact and practice their new language skills with: all those millions of other people who are also learning with LiveMocha.
The Community
The best way to learn a new language is from a native speaker, and www.livemocha.com understands this: after the lessons, members ultimately learn from each other. Each and every lesson includes speaking and writing exercises that are reviewed by native speakers, and at any time, a student can get writing or speaking practice from native speakers within the community. There are other tools, like translators, social type messaging and friend lists, and flashcards that are created and reviewed by the community. Students can even create videos and write notes or letters to submit for review.
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The Languages
Languages offered at www.livemocha.com are American English, Bulgarian, Spanish (Castellano) Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, Hindi, Hungarian, German, Greek, Icelandic, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Portuguese (Portugal), Portuguese (Brazil), Romanian, Russian, Icelandic, Mandarin, Korean, Arabic, Polish, Slovak, Ukrainian, Turkish and Urdu. It is also possible to vote on new languages, and LiveMocha constantly works toward adding more.
Ease of Use
Being nearly 45 years old, I am aware that my ability to learn new languages is not what it was when I was 25, so I fully expected to get a brain cramp. LiveMocha login and the sign-up process was blindingly swift and painless, which was a good sign. My first language choice was Irish Gaelic, and, while it is on the list, there are no lessons yet offered in it, so I selected German. The course started with a video (luckily, it is easy to rewind) followed by a short quiz. I proceeded through several lessons; it was simple, fun, and no brain cramp. I was pleasantly astonished by how easy it is to learn a language with LiveMocha.
Costs
Language learning with LiveMocha starts at around $20 a month, with yearly packages averaging about $150 a year. Conversational fluency is attained in about one year, which is a far cry from the nosebleed prices of Rosetta Stone. Special grammar, vocabulary, and reading exercises can be purchased with tokens, usually 5-6 tokens apiece, and, after the 20 starter tokens are spent, more can be purchased for 1 US dollar per 10. Interacting with the other 8.5 million learners in the community is completely free — the best part about learning with LiveMocha.
