Hello everyone!

Over the past week, we have been busy brewing some exciting stuff for all of you. We want to get to know you more and interact with you, and with the way social media has revolutionized building of online communities, this will definitely bring us closer and create a more meaningful relationship.

It is our pleasure to inform you that we are launching our official Facebook fan page today! We are hoping to get in touch with all those who love to learn Asian languages, university students, beginners, and pretty much anyone who would love to connect with us on Facebook.

Anything you need to know about L-Lingo—what we are as a company, what we love to do, what we can do to kick start your language learning, and so much more, these will all be available in the fan page. We also have loads of awesome free resources that you can check out so please do head over to our fan page.

Whether you like to learn Thai language, you can do so with our free Thai lessons and phrasebook,  or if you would love to learn to speak Korean or write Korean, we got you covered with our sample Korean lessons—all available to you at no cost.

We also offer Chinese Mandarin,  Hindi,  Japanese,  Malay,  Tagalog and Vietnamese for you to learn with our 40 free lessons online application.

We would love to hear loads of comments from you. Whether you would like to share your thoughts on how the program has helped you or if you have any bright ideas to put forward, we would love to hear them!

All your comments will positively shape how L-Lingo will look like in the years to come and we want you to be a big part of the future of L-Lingo. We have received heaps of feedback from previous users of our language learning application and a great deal of these incredible feedbacks have been integrated into the program.

2010 is going to be big for L-Lingo. If you are just starting how to learn, we got you covered. We will be at your side every step of the way. Feel free to share this exciting news to all of your family and friends and let’s all have fun learning together. We can’t wait to interact with all of you. See you on Facebook!

Every so often learning a foreign language is a daunting task. It all comes down to how much time and effort you put into learning a particular language and how many words you actually know. There are always ups and downs when it comes to learning a language that is different than the one you speak every day. So if you feel exhilarated in getting it right the first time or probably a few times after practicing, it is perfectly normal.

We at L-Lingo went through the same pain as you are doing but thought we would share our language learning tips with you. A lot of these language tips, we also have embodied into our language learning software of the L-Ceps Personaltrainer and of course into L-Lingo.

With our method you can learn Chinese Mandarin, learn Hindi, learn Japanese, learn Korean, learn Malay, learn Thai, learn Tagalog and learn Vietnamese quickly and easily.

Each person has unique styles in learning. In this case, learning about an Asian language calls for a software that is tailored to cater to your needs. This software should not only teach you the basics and the advance skills in using the language, but more importantly, it should support your individual learning style. Here are some ways wherein you can learn a language in a breeze:

Supplement Your Learning with Sights and Sounds.

This is the single best method of learning a particular language. Flashcards and mp3 files which are available for download in the language learning software that you use are great tools to supplement your learning.

Just think about how you used to guess the name of the object when your preschool teacher whipped out a card. A great language learning software would offer you similar flashcards. You can print out these flashcards so you can utilize them for quizzes after you are done with your lessons. Randomly flip out a card.

What’s the Chinese term for “bread”? “miàn bāo…” Correct! Try to memorize a number of words per day and recall them wherever you are, while falling in line at the grocery, at the bank, the doctor’s office, or while waiting for your professor to arrive.

Another important element of learning a language is being able to hear the correct pronunciation. Download mp3 files and listen to how the words are being spoken. The best way to learn to pronounce it correctly is by hearing it from the native speakers themselves. If you have mp3 files like this, then you are well on your way to speaking it effortlessly.

Learn in Clusters.

It is easier and more effective to learn different words that are placed in categories. For example, you can learn all about Food today, and then the following day, your lessons would be about Numbers.

It is important to get equipped with words in specific subject areas rather than having a broad range of topics to study. As humans, we learn effectively by using categories or groups, rather than just memorizing random words.

Adapt Your Own Learning Style.

Over time you will be able to find your own comfortable regimen of learning a language. Your language learning software has to give you this kind of freedom to learn at your own pace because only then will you be effective in mastering the art of speaking a language that is not your mother tongue.

You might find yourself having a knack for writing but have a degree of difficulty in speaking. You might also notice that your friends who are learning the same language are way better than you are. If you feel more comfortable with visual aids, jot down words and associate them with flashcards. Try to overcome your weaknesses and identify areas that you are good at.

If you are afraid of speaking, try to speak the words out loud at home in front of your family. This will be a good starting point of overcoming that fear. As you go along, you will be able to streamline your course of studying. Whether or not you have a particular number set for your goal, always remember to keep an eye on it!

We hope you like our language learning tips and we will post some more from time to time.

We have now integrated mp3 files that you can download onto your mp3 player. You will find the download button under the ‘Documents to Print Out/MP3′ section on the main screen. Using this function, you can always download the mp3 file for the lesson you have selected.

Currently, we have translations of the language lessons in English (UK), and we will soon add translations in German and other languages, so keep checking back.

In some browsers, the full-screen mode closes after you save the mp3 file. You can re-enter the full screen mode by clicking on the small icon on the top right corner of the main screen.

We are hard at work developing mp3 files with the audio content of each lesson. Now you will be able to study wherever you are, not just in front of the computer. On the go, you can listen and repeat the online lessons, great training for pronunciation.

We should have the downloadable mp3 files online in the next few days. In the meantime, you can listen to a sample of Thai/English (UK) here:

lesson_1_tha_en

If you have any comments, please drop us a line.

A few days ago, we soft launched L-Lingo Premium, a subscription that includes thousands of pictures, native audio clips, and printable flashcards and textbooks for 105 lessons. With all these benefits, you will definitely build a solid foundation of words and phrases in your language of study.

L-Lingo Premium can help you to learn Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Thai, Tagalog (Filipino) and/or Vietnamese.

An online subscription, L-Lingo Premium offers an additional 65 lessons (on top of the 40 free lessons) for only USD 9.99 (EUR 7.99) per Month.

For more information on L-Lingo Premium and to subscribe, please visit our website.

L-Lingo Premium Arabic, L-Lingo Premium Chinese Mandarin, L-Lingo Premium Hindi, L-Lingo Premium Japanese, L-Lingo Premium Korean, L-Lingo Premium Malay, L-Lingo Premium Thai, L-Lingo Premium Tagalog, L-Lingo Premium Vietnamese.

You may have noticed that we have redesigned our website. We wanted to have a lighter colored theme that would better match the look of our software.

Since we have so many visitors from Germany, we now have a German Version of our website. If you have any comments on the new design or if you find anything that does not function properly (broken link, etc), please let us know.

In the coming weeks, we will adding information to our website. Look out for a post explaining the method of L-Lingo in greater detail along with some user tips for using the application.

If you think that the speech in the audio clips is too fast, you can now listen to them at a slower speed. In order to do so, click on the button in the main menu on the top right side:

In this menu, you will be able to listen to the audio for all quizzes and training modes at approximately 70% of the original speed. While we believe that the language learner should get used to the standard rate of speech as quickly as possible, it may be helpful to temporarily slow down the speed when practicing pronunciation or completing an unfamiliar lesson for the first time. Please let us know what you think about this latest feature!

I have just put a new version of L-Lingo online. This version has many new features that I’d like to introduce to you including printable documents, a new configuration for the picture quiz, a full screen mode, an additional lesson selector, and a reference to our desktop version.

Printable Documents

You can now display the text and flashcards of each lesson and print them out. For this function, we have added a new menu called ‘Documents to print-out’ just below the quiz selection buttons. If you move your mouse over this label you can then select to display the textbook or flashcards. Later, we will also add some explanations concerning grammar, which are currently under preparation. These documents are great to continue your learning away from your computer. Once again, I would like to thank Eric who is the developer of FlexPaper for this great method of displaying documents.

Configuration of Picture Quiz

We have also added additional configuration options in the Picture Quiz. You can now display the text with audio (like before), or you have the option of showing just the text or just the audio. In this manner, you can specifically train your listening or reading skills. Just click on the following button in the Picture Quiz.

Full screen mode

On the top right corner of the main screen, we’ve added the button pictured above. This button allows you to switch between Full Screen and Normal Screen mode anytime.

Additional Lesson Selector

Below the two arrows for lesson selection, we have now added a small list of all available lessons, allowing you to jump directly to a specific lesson. This menu might be quicker than pressing the arrow buttons repeatedly, and it also provides a better overview of the content of the lessons.

Reference to our Desktop Version L-Ceps Personaltrainer

Since we hope to keep L-Lingo free, we need to support the development costs via our commercial product L-Ceps Personaltrainer. Therefore, we have added some more references to our Desktop Software (available for Windows, Mac and Linux), which offers much more content than L-Lingo. If you are happy with L-Lingo and would like to continue learning with our approach, please have a look at L-Ceps.  There is a free trial available on our website.

Well, there you have it, all the new features in this new release. We hope you’ll enjoy this new version, and we will look forward to your continued valuable feedback, which allows us to keep building an application that you like as much as we do.

I am very busy redesigning the main menu to allow the display of documents. For each lesson, you will soon be able to see and print the following documents:

• PDF Textbook
• PDF Flashcards
• PDF Grammar Notes

Many of you requested the grammar notes in particular, so I wanted to let you know that and we are in full swing preparing these grammar notes.

In order to display the PDF files, I came across a great piece of software called FlexPaper that I am just now integrating into L-Lingo. I am very thankful to Eric, who is the developer who is letting me use this great feature in L-Lingo.

If you haven’t yet experienced FlexPaper, please have a look at Eric’s Blog Devaldi which has a demonstration. The speed and fluidity of FlexPaper is just amazing!

Also, have a look below at a preview screen shot showing this exciting new function in L-Lingo. As we do not yet have the PDF notes complete, this screen shot comes from our development version; the FlexPaper feature has not yet gone live on L-Lingo.

L-Lingo is now only 6 weeks old and we have already received a lot of feedback from you. Some of you have contacted us directly and others have posted in forums. Thank you very much!

User Interface

The majority of people are very happy with our user interface and the appearance of the application. Users seem to be able to navigate and use the app very quickly. The only complaint we got was about the annoying wow sounds (fixed a long time ago).One user also asked for more help on the main menu, so we may add a help button soon.

Content

Most of the people were quite happy with the pictures and the audio. They also liked the structure of the script (repetition and combination of words/sentences).  Overall, the content was considered quite useful. Our images were mostly shot in South East Asia, and obviously, people in Japan or Korea look slightly different. In the future, we might localize the images more, but as most people are quite happy with the images, this is not currently a priority.

Performance

We had a short server downtime at the beginning of November, but since then, it seems the app is running fast and smooth. We haven’t had any complaints here.

In the past few weeks, the application has seemed to be quite stable. We had a few bugs that we resolved, and lately, I have not gotten anymore feedback about things not working properly. (By the way, a big thank you to all of you who reported bugs).

It seems that people in general are pretty happy with L-Lingo. However there was one thing that many people requested:

Grammar Notes

Many people have asked us to provide explanations for the grammar of the languages. Especially because our application is suitable for beginners, we need to add notes on the logic and system of each language.

I want to reassure you all that we are already working on this. We plan to align the grammar notes to the lessons, so that the learner can first read about the important grammar elements taught in the lesson, and then be able to apply this knowledge. As this takes a great deal of work, we will need some weeks before we can make the grammar notes live…I will keep you posted.

As it is the holiday season now, I will be spending some time with my family, so there won’t be any major updates coming soon. But, I will keep you informed in this blog.

Please continue to send along any thoughts you have on L-Lingo, and, if you like our application, please spread the word on Facebook, Twitter, or on your blog. Thank You!