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Grow Clean Air: How TIST is Making Transparency in the Carbon Market an Issue

Technology

This just in from Grow Clean Air:

Listen to this snippet on Grow Clean Air.

Nine Newsletters in, Free Language is Going Strong

Submitted by cman on Sun, 06/08/2008 - 02:05

With the ninth newsletter (below) out, Free Language is moving into language-learning directory status! -->

Welcome to the Ninth Edition of The Free Language Letter.

30 new free resources for 14 languages (4 new!) have been added to the site. There are now 343 resources available for 34 languages.

Client Project for Carbon Footprint Reduction and Sustainable Agriculture in Africa and India Debuts

Submitted by cman on Sun, 06/01/2008 - 08:51

Drupal Custom Design

I have been involved with the launch of a Drupal-powered website for a project called Grow Clean Air. This website is the latest incarnation of an effort that has been going on for nearly a decade to simultaneously reduce the global carbon footprint and empower farmers in Africa and India with sustainable agriculture and health practices. The main things you can do at Grow Clean Air are: Simultaneously Offset Your Carbon Footprint and Empower Communities in Africa and Asia to Change Their World and Yours Demand more transparency from the exploding carbon market! Discover the Facts about the Exploding Carbon Market Offset your carbon (CO2) footprint by purchasing credits from India and Africa (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda) Find a List of Recommended Carbon Calculators Here's a snippet from their site:

Don't simply offset your emissions when, at no extra cost, you can also visibly... * be active in supporting sustainable community agriculture for developing countries in Africa and Asia * contribute to the continued development of one of the most unique forestation projects in the world * show your family and friends the live, up-to-the-minute results of where your intelligent money is working for them and for you * empower focused and dedicated Small Groups in developing countries to create a brighter future on a local and global scale * increase food quality standards for tens of thousands of participants in four countries (India, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) * feel good every time you read our latest newsletter or visit our site and discover what you have helped build * do your part to make sure your children's children's children can breathe clean air We deliver real results to you and the communities we work with, plain and simple.

The TIST Project, which actually empowers people th grow the trees and share the Best Practices in Small Groups, was started by Clean Air Action and is aided by The Institute for Environmental Innovation. Grow Clean Air makes these credits available online for the consumer market in an effort to increase the overall positive impact of the TIST Program, allowing people around the world to quickly and easily offset their carbon footprint. Very cool! If this interests you, find out why Grow Clean Air is a step ahead of the rest!

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Number Eight of Newsletter for Free Language Learning Materials is Out

Submitted by cman on Wed, 04/02/2008 - 05:38

Free Language

Welcome to the Eighth Edition of The Free Language Letter. 25 new free resources for 12 languages have been added to the site. There are not as many updates as usual because I have been working behind the scenes on the new overview pages for each language.

Quick View of What's Inside

New! Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese Overview Pages
Now Available: 34 Languages :)
New resources for Catalan, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish
New Social Language Learning Resources
New News Feeds in Catalan, French, German, Italian, Polish and Spanish
Featured Resource: Lingro Public Domain Dictionary and Online Translation Tool (and so much more)
Language Factoid

New! Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese Overview Pages

As I did for the Spanish language before the last newsletter, I have now completed four more language overview sections. Now you will find new homes on Free Language for Afrikaans, Arabic, Cantonese and Mandarin Chinese. These overview pages are basically a single spot where all the resources for a given language are brought together for users to quickly view and navigate. I like to think they are quite packed with excellent resources for learning the respective languages. :) Some are more filled than others, and the overview pages do include an overview of the language, a list of resources for learning the language, podcasts, news resources, a tag cloud, InternetTV stations, recommended software, an aggregator link and feed and other such useful info.

Now Available: 34 Languages :)

With some of the major changes I have been working on, I have also slipped in a large number of new languages. Since the last newsletter, this includes Bengali, Catalan, Czech, Dutch, Filipino, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Hungarian, Latin, Polish, Swahili, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese. Before you get too excited, know that I cheated a bit on most of these and they list mainly resources for learning languages socially, and do not yet list specific resources for those languages. Catalan, Polish and Swedish are the exceptions with one specific resource for each plus the social resources. Specific resources for the rest will come as soon as I can manage! OK, onto the latest resources added for specific languages and other such goodness.

Featured Resource

Lingro is a truly useful site with a decidedly free and open approach to multi-lingual dictionaries and online web translation. It provides users with quick and powerful online translation dictionaries and study tools, vocabulary lists and games. The site is "committed to building the Web's largest collection of open dictionaries." I was struck by the straight-forward, no nonsense approach to open content. The site content is empowered and protected by the Creative Commons BY-SA 3.0 License. In short, this means the multilingual dictionaries can be copied, adapted and distributed with proper attribution. Equally, content editors must allow their additions to continue to be worked with under the same license. Thus, in an open and free way, lingro appeals to the users for help in creating "relevant translations and definitions" for the these language translation dictionaries. Since I published the original article, several new changes have been in the works at the Lingro headquarters. Here's a list on their blog of some of the major improvements. There is also a great sections for webmasters that explains how to integrate Lingro into your website. Also added is a new feature for showing each user's personalized reading/vocabulary profile. They are really cranking it out over there and I send lots of good vibes to this crew that is working to improve Public Domain tools for language learning. :) Continue reading about Lingro.

Language Factoid

Mandarin Chinese is a category of related Chinese dialects spoken across most of northern and south-western China. When taken as a separate language, as is often done in academic literature, the Mandarin dialects have more speakers than any other language. Factoid thanks to Wikipedia.

çœ‹ä½ ä¸‹ä¸€æ¬¡!

Chapman Free Language http://freelanguage.org

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Free Language Letter Version Seven for Foreign Language Learners

Submitted by cman on Sat, 02/23/2008 - 01:03

Web 2.0

Welcome to the Seventh Edition of The Free Language Letter. Lots has happened since the Sixth Edition. 45 new free resources for 19 languages have been added to the site. See below for language-learning videos, multilingual podcasting, free software downloads, tools, browser extensions, OpenCourseWare, online communities and more.

New! Social Language-Learning Resource Section

Social language learning has become incredibly popular on the web as it has transcended language barriers in previously impossible ways. For example, right now someone in Russia could be waiting to teach you Russian in exchange for your English skills. Or maybe your native language is Spanish and you want to learn Mandarin Chinese - there's someone out there for that as well! In fact, chances are there are hundreds or even thousands of potential language partners with whom you can achieve your collective language learning goals in a symbiotic fashion... Visit the Social Foreign Language Learning Resource Section. Below you will find the most recent additions to the social learning section. LiveMocha.com Live Mocha Social Language Learning Course and Networking Website MyHappyPlanet.com My Happy Planet Private Social Language-Learning Community italki.com Free Skype VoIP and IM Language Partner Community Dickinson College's Language-Exchanges.org Mixxer Free Skype Language Exchange Community Lingopass.com Free Global Language Exchange Community VoxSwap.com VoxSwap Online Instant Message and Voice Social Foreign Language Exchange with Forums and Groups

Spanish Leads the Way

As a new phase of information architecture unfolds at Free Language, Spanish is the first language to have an overview homepage. This is where you'll find a taste of the different Spanish language learning resources on the site in a nutshell. Visit the Spanish homepage on Free Language. The other 15 languages currently available on the site will follow shortly.

New Free Resources

Afrikaans

DigitalDialects.com Afrikaans Language-Learning Games and Activities

Arabic

Arabic Language Course for Arabic Learners Familiar with Arabic Script DigitalDialects.com Arabic Language-Learning Games and Activities FSI-Language-Courses.com US Foreign Service Institute Arabic Free Audio Lessons Downloads SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese

Cantonese

FSI-Language-Courses.com US Foreign Service Institute Cantonese Free Audio Lessons Downloads

English

English Language Learning and Teaching Article on Wikipedia LanguageGuide.org English Language Guide with Images and Audio Recordings for Learners lingro.com lingro Free and Open Multilingual Dictionary, Online Translation, Vocabulary Lists and Games

French

DigitalDialects.com French Language-Learning Games and Activities BitesizedLanguages.com Bitesized Languages Improve Your French, Spanish or Portuguese Skills with Daily Emails SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese lingro.com lingro Free and Open Multilingual Dictionary, Online Translation, Vocabulary Lists and Games

German

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian lingro.com lingro Free and Open Multilingual Dictionary, Online Translation, Vocabulary Lists and Games

Hindi

ISpeakHindi.com I Speak Hindi Website, Podcasts, Dictionary and Resources

Indonesian

LearningIndonesian.com Podcast is a Fun and Easy Way to Learn Indonesian Online

Irish

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian

Italian

lingro.com lingro Free and Open Multilingual Dictionary, Online Translation, Vocabulary Lists and Games

Japanese

JaplishPodcast.com Japlish Podcast of Funny Phrases in English and Japanese Languages SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese

Korean

SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese

Mandarin Chinese

A Torrent File for 500 Free Mandarin Chinese Audio Podcast Lessons from ChinesePod.com nciku.com nciku Free Online Mandarin Chinese Handwriting Recognition, Conversations, Radical Dictionary A Pinyin.info Article on Most Difficult and Challenging Aspects of Learning Mandarin Chinese Learn Mandarin Chinese Videos on YouTube AskBenny Channel Learn Chinese on YouTube with Mandarin Videos from ActiveChinese FSI-Language-Courses.com US Foreign Service Institute Mandarin Chinese Free Audio Lessons Downloads SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese BitesizedLanguages.com Bitesized Languages Improve Your French, Spanish or Portuguese Skills with Daily Emails

Polish

OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian lingro.com lingro Free and Open Multilingual Dictionary, Online Translation, Vocabulary Lists and Games

Portuguese

BitesizedLanguages.com Bitesized Languages Improve Your French, Spanish or Portuguese Skills with Daily Emails

Russian

DigitalDialects.com Russian Language-Learning Games and Activities OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian

Spanish

BitesizedLanguages.com Bitesized Languages Improve Your French, Spanish or Portuguese Skills with Daily Emails Spanish-Podcast.com Voices en EspaÃ±ol Conversational Spanish Podcast Spanish-Podcast.com Voices en EspaÃ±ol Bilingual Blog SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese

Swedish

SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese

Vietnamese

SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese

Teach English

Our Teach English Section is growing with two new resources added recently. English Language Learning and Teaching Article on Wikipedia LanguageGuide.org English Language Guide with Images and Audio Recordings for Learners

Cool Free Tools and Multilingual Resources

We added some cool tools and multilingual resource links, including Firefox browser extensions for improving your productivity in foreign languages online! Quick Translation Firefox Extension to Translate Single Words in 17+ Languages Foreign Language Translation Extensions/Tools/Plugins/Add-Ons for the Firefox Web Browser Langmaker.com Language Maker Website on Auxiliary and Constructed Languages Word2Word.com Website The Alternative Dictionary: Slang, Profanities, Insults and Vulgarisms from all the World

Instructional Foreign Language Videos

ExpertVillage.com Instructional Videos on Learning Foreign Languages YouTube Video Language Lessons at LanguageTube.org

Multilingual Podcasting Resources

SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese OneMinuteLanguages.com One Minute Language Lessons for Polish, Irish, German and Russian

Language News

United Nations Declares 2008 the International Year of Languages To see the news in many different languages, check out our syndicated multilingual news section.

OpenCourseWare, Open University and Distance Language Learning

Download Free Open University Courses from MIT OpenCourseWare Foreign Languages and Literatures Department About.com Distance Learning Free Online Language Courses open.ac.uk OpenLearn LearningSpace Open University with Free Courses in Modern Languages

Free Language Education Software

BYKI.com Download Free Language Software for Learning 42 Languages!

Featured Resource

Mango Languages is fantastic! Truly one of the top language-learning resources available online. Indeed, it may well be the most user-friendly, feature-rich, well-organized and free resource for learning languages online. Mango Languages offers an amazing amount of totally free lessons and courses for learning a growing number of languages. At the time this article is going to press, these include Brazilian Portuguese, English for Polish speakers, English for Spanish speakers, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Pig Latin!, Russian and Spanish. Continue reading...

Current Research

I am researching and drafting articles regarding foreign language study in Second Life. This metaverse approach to teaching and learning has amazing potential. Subscribe to Free Language's RSS feed to be sure you get new articles as they're hot off the press.

Language Factoid

Russian (Ñ€ÑƒÑÑÐºÐ¸Ð¹) is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia and the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages. Factoid thanks to Wikipedia.

ÐŸÐ¾ÐºÐ°!

Chapman Free Language http://freelanguage.org

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August Free Language Letter

Hindi

Sixth Edition

Welcome to the sixth edition of The Free Language Letter.

Persian/Farsi Language Resource Section Added

We are happy to announce a new resource section for the Persian or Farsi language! There is now a total of 16 language sections available on the site.

New Free Resources

71 new free resources for 18 languages have been added to the site.

Afrikaans

Learn Afrikaans Wikibook in English

Arabic

Syrian Arabic Free Illustrated Textbook with Audio Download Learning Arabic Language from Didactiques Langues Publications