Freestyle Language

I am a polyglot and a lover of learning foreign languages.

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Deep Language Product Discounts on Rosetta Stone, Michel Thomas, Pimsleur, more

Free Language has just released a sweet new tool for language product discount seekers!

Free Language now brings together the absolute best deals from across the web on language education products including language software, DVDs, Rosetta Stone, Michel Thomas and Pimsleur products and more.

Visit the new shop and find amazing deals: http://shop.freelanguage.org

50 reads

By chapman - Posted on May 29th, 2009

Another Large List of Multilingual Language Learning Links and Resources: Podcasts, Courses, Lessons...

It's been a while since I've updated with the latest from Free Language. So here goes, in no particular order...

644 reads

By chapman - Posted on October 22nd, 2008

Polyglot (Multilingual) Wikipedia Administrator Wins Wikimedia Board of Trustees Election 2008

The results of the 2008 Wikimedia Board of Trustees election ended the 21st of June, 2008. The winner is a polyglot (multilingual) Wikipedia administrator (for Wikipedia Chinese) named Ting Chen (username "Wing" on Wikipedia).

Wing is involved in other Wikimedia projects as well, and has a freestyle "me" page on Wikimedia's website. I put the Chinese version here for fun. He also wrote it in German, French and English.

Wikimedia is in charge of quite a few projects that have revolutionized access to information by making the input collective and empowering and protecting it with the GNU Free Documentation License. This is the same license for any content originally published on Free Language or Freestyle Language or other unrev.org projects. You are encouraged to reuse the information however you like, make it better, etc.

Wikimedia projects such as Wikipedia, Wikibooks and Wiktionary have produced amazing language learning materials, both directly and indirectly. You can view any page on Wikipedia and see other languages for which that page is also available. It's not a translation, it's just the same page on another language's Wikipedia, Wikibooks or Wiktionary. It's an awesome way to read up on a topic in multiple languages and familiarize yourself with vocabulary related to any subject you choose. Handy and freestyle, as well.

From Ting Chen's Bio Page

你好，

我叫陈霆，在大多数维基的版本中我的用户名是Wing。我住在德国美因茨，我在德语、英语和中文的维基百科上都有活动。我说德、英和汉语，以及一点法语。我是中文维基的管理员之一和中文维基在这里的大使。

如果你想与我对话，或说一声你好，请你不要客气。

:-) Wing

See Wing's bio.

From Wikipedia

The 2008 Wikimedia Board Election Committee would like to announce the results of the 2008 Board Elections. The winner is Ting Chen. These results will be certified by the Board of Trustees at their next meeting, where he will be appointed effective 16 July 2008. This position will be effective until July 2009.

In total, 3019 valid ballots were cast; the specific results are as outlined below. A complete dump of the ballots cast is available here.

Tagged: chinese • english • french • german • mandarin • mandarin chinese • 2008 • elections • fdl • foreign languages • freestyle • gnu • gnu fdl • gnu free documentation license • information • language • language learning • learning • multilingual • polyglots • polyglots on wikipedia • public • public domain • wikibooks • wikimedia • wikimedia board of trustees • wikimedia elections 2008 • wikipedia • wiktionary

1232 reads

By chapman - Posted on July 1st, 2008

English-Polish Science Vocabulary Translations

Surfed into a killer PDF of the most pertinent science vocabulary in Polish and English. Very useful!

Tagged: english • polish • english vocabulary • polish vocabulary • science • vocabulary

907 reads

By chapman - Posted on June 30th, 2008

Aspect in Slavic Languages w/Specific Examples using Polish Perfect vs Imperfect Verbs

One of the things I can across quickly while learning 55 common Polish verbs is the concept of aspect in Slavic languages. I found an excellent explanation on Wikipedia with, luckily for Polish learners, explanations of what perfect vs imperfect aspect is all about using examples using Polish verbs.

From Website

Imperfective verbs mean:

actions in progress, just ongoing states and activities, with significant course (in opinion of the speaker);
activities posing the background for other (perfective) activities, ex. czytałem książkę, gdy zadzwonił telefon 'I was reading the book when the telephone rang';
simultaneous activities, ex. będę czytać książkę, podczas gdy brat będzie pisać list 'I will be reading the book while brother will be writing the letter';
durative activities, lasting through some time, e.g. krzyczał 'he was shouting', będzie drgać 'it will be vibrating';
motions without a strict aim, ex. chodzę 'I am walking here and there';
multiple (iterative) activities, ex. dopisywać 'to insert many times to the text', będziemy wychodziły 'we will go out (many times)';
non-resultative activities, only heading towards some purpose: będę pisał list 'I will be writing the letter';
continuous states, ex. będę stać 'I will be standing'.

Perfective verbs mean past or future, but not present activities – an activity which is happening now cannot be ended, so it cannot be perfective. Perfective verbs mean:

states and activities which were ended (even if a second ago) or which will be ended, with insignificant course, short or treated as a whole by the speaker, ex. krzyknął 'he shouted', drgnie 'it will stir';
single-time activities, ex. dopisać 'to insert to the text', wyszedł 'he has gone out';
actions whose goals have already been achieved, even if with difficulty, ex. przeczytałem 'I have read', doczytała się 'she finished reading and found what she had sought';
reasons for the state, ex. pokochała 'she came to love', zrozumiesz 'you (sg.) will understand', poznamy 'we will get to know';
the beginning of the activity or the state, ex. wstanę 'I will stand up' (and I will stand), zaczerwienił się 'he reddened';
the end of the activity or the state, ex. dośpiewaj 'sing until the end';
activities executed in many places, on many objects or by many subjects at the same time, ex. powynosił 'he carried out (many things)', popękają 'they will break out in many places', poucinać 'to cut off many items';
actions or states which last some time, ex. postoję 'I will stand for a little time', pobył 'he was (there) for some time'.
Learn more on Wikipedia.