If you have already seen my language resources page here on the site, you already have some great resources at your disposal. However, here are 10 language learning resources that are incredibly unique, new, or just lesser-known, that I bet you have never heard of!
Lyrics Training – Learn a language through music
You might know about this website! It’s pretty old, but it is a great language resource and the most popular on this list. It offers music videos in 13 different languages where you can play a lyric fill-in type of game.
Basically the goal is to either write-in or choose (pictured above) the correct word in certain sentences. There are different levels where you have to fill in more lyrics – even up to expert where you have to fill in ALL of the lyrics yourself!!
One of my favorite things about this site is that they have two symbols by each song title. A color and a flag.
The flag symbolizes where the singer is from (important perhaps when learning Spanish, for example, where you might want to practice a specific pronunciation). The color (red, orange, or green) symbolizes how hard the song is in general. You can still choose how hard you want it to be, but if you pick expert on an already “hard” (red) song, it will be much more tricky than expert on an “easy” (green) song.
You can help train your ear, learn new vocab, and play a fun game all at the same time with this site!
Radio Garden – Listen to the Radio All over the globe
This site is amazing. It is one of my favorite “alternative” language resources. I have found so many amazing artists and songs in my target languages because of this site.
You can find radio stations all around the world in every genre, anytime.
The only thing I wish was different (perhaps it is just my browser – Mozilla?), was that it does not list the song being played. Sometimes I can use an app or site like Shazam to find the song or I will head to the website of the radio station I am listening too, but sometimes I have to really struggle to find it on Google. Sometimes I don’t even find it in the end! 🙁
Despite this though, I am still obsessed with this site. It is so easy to get hundreds of awesome songs in one day by just playing this in the background.
Just be ready to search for a song, somehow, ASAP! Haha
Language Reactor – An All Inclusive Browser Extension
I have never personally tried this one out (yet!), but it is a new, all around language resource which sounds amazing. I am particularly excited to give it a go once they finish setting it up for Firefox (my preferred browser).
It is primarily an extension for your web-browser, but they have have great website features as well!
On their Netflix tab on the website, you can look up films in specific languages that are available in your countries Netflix. You can also filter by genre and you can see the rating of each film (and run time!) as well. With the browser extension, you have tons more features as seen in the image above!
On the YouTube tab, you can look at a specific language and see all of the YouTube channels in the Language Reactor system in said language. You can see, in general, how many are subtitled as well! As with Netflix and shown in the image above, using the browser extension seems to give many, many more fun features!
Its still under construction, but this site has a LOT of great promise!
BaBaDum – A Simple, yet Fun Game
BaBaDum is a great and very effective site to play one of their 5 games in any of their 21 languages!
The games include matching a written word to one image (like in the image above), matching an image to one written word (the inverse of above), matching a word via audio only to one image, and spelling a word that matches an image shown (no audio).
There is also the randomizer game which randomly gives you a different game type each round.
On top of this, there is also a special game just for learning Japanese hiragana!
The vocabulary used is typical beginner vocab, I would say. It’s not always too easy, but I don’t believe that an intermediate or advanced learner would get too much out of this game other than just a fun time playing!
Regardless, I still love this site and I play it every once in a while, even with my advanced languages 🙂
Linguno – listening, vocab, conjugation, and a daily Crossword
This site used to be Listening Practice (which still has a few more languages – check that out if you don’t see your TL on the new site). The new site will likely add more languages as time goes on, though!
Linguno has listening, vocab, and conjugation activities, as well as several daily crossword puzzles per language!
The reason I first heard of this site and used it for was the listening exercise section. This, pictured above, is spectacular for listening practice. You hear a sentence (which you can loop and/or slow) and you write it in the box. Your answer is edited, if needed, and the solution and translation are shown below.
You can then say how easy or difficult it was and eventually get a very personalized exercise. (Especially if you have an account on the website to save your info!)
Their vocabulary and conjugation exercises are similar and are great tools to use as well. Linguno has a clean, straightforward design for all of their exercises that I really like! It makes it very easy to use and very easy to learn with.
The daily crossword puzzles are great as well. They have 10 different ones for in different CEFR levels each day. This makes for a very fun way to work your brain and language skills at the same time!
Bilinguis – Read bilingual books in side-by-side style
They don’t offer many books (the image is everything they offer), but if you are at all interested in the books they do offer, this can really help your reading skill in a language.
Not only can you read these entire books side-by-side, you can also hear them in any of the languages with the headphone symbol next to them!
I also think that while this selection is small, its a great resource for language learning at almost any level. Alice in Wonderland is a bit easier than the others and is a story most everyone is well acquainted with. This makes it a great lower to mid level learner.
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea is a much more complicated and longer text and so this is better for an upper to proficient learner.
The others books fall in-between, I would personally say, and so these five books can cater to just about any level!
(P.S – Another option, if you dont like any of these books, is to just find your own via a site like Ytalki! This site rates books in foreign languages by language level (CEFR). Although, sometimes people rate things a bit… off, I would say. For example, two people rated Harry Potter Book 1 as level A1 in German. I would very strongly disagree and vote for B1. However, despite this, this website is still great for finding book ideas overall!)
Lyrik Line – Listen to Poetry in your Target Language
Do you like poetry or just reading in general? Boy do I have a gem of a language resource for you!
On Lyrik Line, you can choose from a very large number of languages to hear a poet read their poetry in said language while you can read along!
Not only will this help your reading and listening comprehension, but it will immensely boost your vocab and your general language skill overall.
Poetry will get you thinking in a very different way, in your TL, than if you were to read an academic or general text (which is what is found on most language learning resources). Poetry will typically use language in an abstract and colorful way and this is undeniably amazing for a language learner to experience and practice.
Top 40 Charts – Listen to the top Music in several countries
This is similar to the radio site listed up above, in that you can listen to music around the world, however this is specifically the top hits.
T4C is a regularly updated website that lets you see the current, top music charts in several countries and regions all across the globe!
Unfortunately, if you are looking for a non-English language, the top music around the world is often music in English. However, every once in a while I will find a gem in the language I am searching for!
In general, I find that Latin American countries tend to have quite a bit of Spanish music in their top charts, whereas Asian and European countries tend to have mostly (if not only) English.
I think it is still worth a shot to check out though, even if you are looking for a language other than Spanish! Sometimes you’ll get lucky! If you are learning English, you’ll be very lucky!!
Kiosko – A Website with news covers around the world
The website itself can be read in English, Spanish, or French, and they have news covers from all around the world in several languages!
Clicking on a cover image will open it and clicking again will take you to the news website in a new tab. You can then read about any of the stories that interest you on that cover, browse the news site you are now on, or go back to find another one on Kiosko!
This is great for learners of any level (even beginners to just get a feel for the language and native news culture!), but it is especially good for those who are looking to improve at an intermediate level or for business/school reasons. Finding news articles around the world has never been so easy and visual!
Lexicity – A Language resource for Ancient languages
To quote them on their About page, “If you’ve ever felt alive studying something dead, you already know what it’s about” (Lexicity).
Although this is quite a specific interest, the creators at Lexicity have managed to find a very impressive number of resources. They have grammar, dictionaries, charts, texts, and more in each language!
If you are at all interested in ancient languages, I would highly recommend giving them a peek!
That’s all for now!
How many of these language resources did you already know of?
Have any other unique resources to share? Send me a message or leave a comment below – we would all be happy to read about them! 🙂
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