The Web Way to Learn a Language

I find LiveMocha particularly interesting for their use of crowdsourcing --- which has evolved quite a bit since I joined. Basically, they have generic course templates in English, and then give people "MochaPoints" (which as far as I can tell are completely useless) for translating the course into their own language, or making recordings of phrases, or even just evaluation others' translations. And of course, MochaPoints are prominently displayed on every profile, making you aware of the pecking order and incentivising you to increase your own points.

This isn't a perfect approach (it's heavily biased towards people who like learning by memorising phrases, rather than people who like learning by picking apart sentences through detailed study of grammar --- I don't think crowdsourcing explanations of grammatical points will ever bring satisfactory results, anyway), but it works well for people who like it.

>even ending her declarative sentences in that rising questioning lilt characteristic of many young Californians.

I really enjoyed this bit?

The problem I have with most language software is they don't take advantage of spaced repetition. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spaced_repetition

I looked at Rosetta Stone a year or two ago, and the best they had was occasionally bringing you back to a previous lesson.

I tried to learn Estonian from a software package called Byki, it taught that "Head ööd" means good night, but later I heard it had connotations more along the lines of "I'm going to bed now".

It suddenly became clear to me why the waitress across the road would smirk every time I said good night to her, oops.