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2009-05-09

Learn Languages. Online. For Free.

As a follow-up to my prior call to tell Mike Bloomberg where to stick his budget cuts, I thought it worthwhile to highlight a new service—one of thousands of services—that NYPL offers its cardholders: free language lessons. The best part? It's all delivered online using an audio- and slide-based method designed by Mango Languages, so you can learn at your own pace from the comfort of anywhere you can find an Internet connection.

NYPL's subscription covers nine of world languages, from French to Greek to Spanish to Chinese, and offers recent immigrants from Spain, Brazil, or Poland ESL lessons in their native tongues. Each language is covered by 100 lessons and each lesson has about 120 slides. That's a fairly comprehensive introduction that should give anyone the foundation to travel or build some fluency.

By the way, you need not be a NYC resident to get an NYPL card. If you live anywhere in the state or work out of an office in the city, you can apply for one, too. Could someone please tell me why Bloomberg has targeted them for cuts?

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