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Freestyle Language Learning?

Sat, 07/28/2007 - 11:33 — polymath

I have launched a new site called Freestyle Language. There is not too much content there as yet, but here is the idea:

I am a linguist and a lover of languages. My native language is English. I speak fluent French, Portuguese and Spanish. I am fairly proficient with Italian and can eek by in German and Mandarin Chinese.

On this blog, I share my experiences learning languages both on the web and off. On the web, I generally use Free Language to find solid resources. Off the web, I spend any free time working on improving some language or another.

Currently, I am interested in starting studies in Arabic and Russian, as well as continuing to improve my Mandarin Chinese, German and Italian skills. I will blog about all of these languages here - and more.

I will also start a podcast (yes, another one) for people interested in learning the English language. I will offer transcriptions of what I say - nothing fancy.

All original content on this website is protected, empowered and freely-distributable thanks to the GNU Free Documentation License (GNU FDL). You may recognize this license from Wikipedia.

Freestyle Language also has a blog at Free Language.

I am always transparent about the fact that I have multiple blogs on my own sites! I am, after all, Opal Myth, Freestyle Language and, yes, even polyglot. There are several motivations for doing this kind of potentially confusing role-playing:

1) I am an aspiring polymath, and can't seem to quell my interest in a wide variety of subjects, mainly languages, music production and travel.

2) With Free Language, I am working to build the feel of a presence of a community, if you know what I mean. Thus, I blog under several names to give the feeling that there are numerous people blogging on the site. I am obviously not trying to hide this fact. There actually are a few other people blogging on Free Language: deXta, adoyles and soon shpigunov.

3) Each pseudonym that I use for blogging at Free Language has a different purpose. As polyglot I am the site site super administrator. As Opal Myth I write about interesting things I come across on the web. As Freestyle Language I write about my experiences learning new languages and maintaining proficiency with the languages I already speak.

I also use several sites to inform people about the latest happenings with my various online projects:

Small World Servers
woodriff.org
Mandarin Chinese Info
Conscious Manifestations

And, of course, this site right here. And there are others, which you can easily track down with a little research.

So there it is... wide open.

Don't forget to check out Freestyle Language, which runs Drupal and will also have a podcast for English learners.

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