For people with books, videos, or other how-to programs for sale online, this video is a positive reminder about not worrying about free videos on YouTube and information on the Internet.
I'm going to compare this to my search for information on learning languages...
First of all, I do buy resources to learn languages. But almost every thing I buy isn't quite good enough.
Pimsleur is great for repetition and pronunciation and getting us talking. But, the entire program is entirely too expensive considering that the literacy component is completely missing. In an online world with worldwide social networks and a global economy, we Pimsleur still wants nearly $1000 course without any written component is beyond me. I don't mean this to be a negative review. I've been learning from Pimsleur too. But, only because I take the time to figure out what the words are and look for more information on grammar and such. By the way, wanting to save money I borrowed the Pimsleur CDs from my local library. People that don't need to worry about being thrifty can find Pimsleur products on Amazon
.LingQ is a great site because you can gain access plenty of podcasts and bring in the literacy component into the picture. As you listen to a podcast by a native speaker of one of several languages, you can read along in the language. But, this also isn't enough. Since we aren't babies that have years with a patient adult that will correct our grammar mistakes before we get into the "real world", adults need to think through the grammar of a language they want to acquire. Though there are individuals that bring grammar into their podcasts at LingQ, it is a challenge to get it all in a sequence that is relevant.
Though I've been using both Pimsleur and LingQ, I've been using many free sites and videos to fill in the holes of both programs. I've been posting the most helpful resources here on my blog. The posts might make sense to me because I can remember how to find them, but in effect by adding links to freebies (халява) to help others learn languages online for free, I realized I was adding to the random mess that is online. Tags can help you find some information, but provide no sequence. To help fix this, I've started an outline about Learning Russian Online that gives a little more structure.
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