Parlo.com Free thoughts on language learning

Learn Beginning Spanish Free / Aprenda Inglés Gratis

2008-04-15T16:51:00.001-04:00

Starting today and through May 15th we will make the following online language courses available for free.

Travel Spanish

Interactive English 1

As always, these courses have our usual terrific mix of:

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

To log in:

Travel Spanish

Email: travspan@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we'll change it back)

Interactive English 1

Email: eng1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

In addition to buying our wonderful courses please check out our affiliate partner for more great ways to study language.

(It helps us offer courses for free)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

These videos have great features including:

Interactive
Online
Slow Play
Caption Hide
Instant click dictionary
Phrase repeat
Listening game

This language learning method is very reasonably price so please give them a try!

2008-03-05T09:42:00.002-05:00

Free English Course / Free French Course

Hail & Well Met oh Parlo-mentarians!

For the month of March we offer to you our English 2 course and our French 1 course.

Interactive French 2

Interactive English 2

As always, these courses have our usual terrific mix of:

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

To log in:

Interactive French 2

Email: fr2@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we'll change it back)

Interactive English 2

Email: eng2@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

We hope you enjoy it and encourage you to buy the next level. It's one of the best deals on the web!

Learn English Vocabulary - Feed the World!

2008-03-02T20:02:00.004-05:00

Those of you who wish to improve your English vocabulary, whether you are learning English as a second language or whether it's your native tongue, will probably enjoy this site I recently discovered. It's called FreeRice.com It's basically a never-ending multi-choice vocabulary game but boy is it addictive. The site is non-profit and donates rice to the UN World Food Program by selling advertising on the site. As you play the game it keeps a running tally of the number of grains of rice that you help buy through playing the game. My goal is to get past level 48 (out of 55 levels) Please visit the site improve your vocabulary and improve the world.

By the way, Parlo.com still offers some of the best language courses for studying English, French, Spanish and Italian. Try our free sample lessons and buy a course today. None of us are not getting any younger. Carpe Diem cuz Tempus Fugit.

2008-02-21T16:42:00.004-05:00

The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao
Author: Junot DÍaz

It's not often that you find a books that make you sorry when it ends and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is one of those books. Growing up in New York City I've worked and played with lots of people from the Dominican Republic but I must say that I've been ignorant of all but the most cursory facts about the history of the country. The big thing, of course is the brutal reign of President Rafael Leónidas Trujillo.

The life of Über-nerd Oscar Wao is revealed through scenes from his life and the lives of his, sister, mother and grandmother. While not quite a Rashomon mix of conflicting views it does end up creating a richer picture of Oscar's life than would otherwise be possible if taken only from Oscar's viewpoint. Oscar grows up in New Jersey and lives and breathes Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, Dungeons and Dragons, poor hygene and cringe inducing awkwardness with the opposite sex. We follow the family as it contends with a fukú or curse, that causes misery across the generations. This may not sound like much fun but it is funny, poignant and you love these characters and wish them well even though you learn that 'it ain't gonna happen' for them.

The language that is used throughout the book includes plenty of Spanish expressions both clean and not so clean that convey a wonderful sense of the music of the culture . I only wish that the phrases or words that I wasn't familiar with were available in a glossary so that I could get the benefit of all the gems strewn throughout the book. Obviously this is not a language instruction book. It is a terrific piece of literature that gives one very smart, erudite and funny person's view on both Dominican immigrant and island culture. By this book and lose a few nights of sleep finishing it.

English Grammar Help + Happy New Year!

2008-01-07T20:17:00.000-05:00

First of all, Happy New Year everyone. We haven't posted in a while but haven't forgotten that there are still some Parlo-mentarians. For those of you who are studying English as a second language we thought we'd post this excellent gadget we found to help with English Grammar studies:

We hope you enjoy and that it helps advance your English language skills.

Learn Beginning Spanish Free / Aprenda Inglés Gratis

2007-10-08T10:15:00.001-04:00

Starting today and through May 15th we will make the following online language courses available for free.

Travel Spanish

Interactive English 1

As always, these courses have our usual terrific mix of:

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

To log in:

Travel Spanish

Email: travspan@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we'll change it back)

Interactive English 1

Email: eng1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

In addition to buying our wonderful courses please check out our affiliate partner for more great ways to study language.

(It helps us offer courses for free)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

These videos have great features including:

Interactive
Online
Slow Play
Caption Hide
Instant click dictionary
Phrase repeat
Listening game

This language learning method is very reasonably price so please give them a try!

Parlo offers Travel Spanish and English 3 (Free!)

2007-07-05T14:18:00.001-04:00

September's free courses at Parlo.com are Travel Spanish and English 3.

As always, these courses have our usual terrific mix of:

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

To log in:

Travel Spanish

Email: travspan@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we'll change it back)

Interactive English 3

Email: eng3@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

If you liked last month's courses please buy the next level. Help keep us in business. You'll be glad you did!

And now another word to help pay the rent...

Please visit our various sponsoring advertisers. (It helps us offer courses for free)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

These videos have great features including:

Interactive
Online
Slow Play
Caption Hide
Instant click dictionary
Phrase repeat
Listening game

Give them a try!

Free French & Free Business English Courses

2007-06-07T12:00:00.001-04:00

This month we will make our French 2 course available for free and two of our Business English courses. The Business English 1 and Business English 2 courses will be available for free this month as well.

As always, these courses have our usual terrific mix of:

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

To log in:

Interactive French 2

Email: fr2@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we'll change it back)

Business English 1

Email: engbiz1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Business English 2

Email: engbiz1@parlo.com *Both English courses are the same login

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

And now a word to help pay the rent...

Please visit our various sponsoring advertisers. (It helps us offer courses for free)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

These videos have great features including:

Interactive
Online
Slow Play
Caption Hide
Instant click dictionary
Phrase repeat
Listening game

Give them a try!

Free Language Courses for May

2007-05-02T18:05:00.001-04:00

This month we will make our French 1 course available for free and since Parlo listens to the people when they speak to us - no, we're not just hearing voices in our heads - most of us aren't - we are extending the use of two of our English courses. The English 1 and English 2 courses will be available for free this month as well.

As always, these courses have our usual terrific mix of:

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

To log in:

Interactive French 1

Email: fr1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we'll change it back)

Interactive English 1

Email: eng1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Interactive English 2

Email: eng2@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

And now a word to help pay the rent...

Please visit our various sponsoring advertisers. (It helps us offer courses for free)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (watch, listen, learn & more)

Free Language Courses for May?

2007-04-30T10:05:00.001-04:00

We've come to the end of another month so, as usual, the burning question is, "In May, what courses will be available for free on Parlo.com?" Enquiring minds want to know and so do we! Please send us your requests either by leaving a comment here or emails to support (at) parlo (dot com).

An now a few things to point out to you for your amusement:

On the website, armedforcesjournal.com the post a Nonword of the Month. The armed forces are famous for their jargon and in that regards they continue to not disappoint. Here's thisn month's.

"We will not be able to get into any issues that are predecisional."

- — MARINE CORPS OFFICIAL SETTING GROUND RULES FOR BACKGROUND MEDIA BRIEFING

Say What???! Predecisional?? Oh-kay...

For those of you living in New York City or nearby, we'll have an opportunity to sample a terrific range of Latin American theater thanks to the coming Teatro Stage Fest that starts today and goes through May 13th. Check out their site teatrostagefest.org (read it in English or Spanish)to see the cool productions playing in The Big Apple (New York City)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (translations + much more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (with translations + much more)

Technorati tags: Free English course, English grammar, English lessons, Business English, English Vocabulary, Listen to English, Free French courseSpanish lessons, Spanish courses, Spanish Grammar, Spanish Vocabulary, Free French course, French Grammar, French Vocabulary

Write Foreign Characters Easily

2007-04-19T18:01:00.001-04:00

This is a nice tool to put in your bookmarks if you ever have a need to write foreign characters and don't want to remember keyboard shortcuts. The site is http://www.typeit.org and all it does it give you a place to type what you need using foreign characters for 10 languages, includine French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. Bookmarks take up so little space there's no reason not to save this site.

*Remember*

Parlo.com still has more than a week left in which to use any and all of our English courses, along with the French For Food and Wine Lovers course. The cost? Nada, rien, niente, bubkas, zilch! That's a whole lot-o-nothing. So give it a try and see what the rest of the kids on the block are talking about.

Cook Like You Are In Paris, then go & Compare.

2007-04-09T14:20:00.001-04:00

We heard about a really good cookbook recently. It's The Ethnic Paris Cookbook. It has a good range of ethnic dishes with easy to understand instructions and helpful illustrations of both the ingredients and the finished dishes. Best of all for daydreaming, you get the names and addresses of the restaurants in Paris so you can dream about going there to tasted these dishes in their "natural habit". Bon Appétit!

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (translations + much more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (with translations + much more)

Technorati tags: Free English course, English lessons, Business English, English vocabulary, English grammar, Listen to English, Free French course, French Winelessons, French Food Wine vocabulary, French grammar, listen to French

Off Language topic Post - Audio Ecology

2007-04-05T17:50:00.001-04:00

Well folks, I don't post "off topic" very often but if you stretch you definition of language studies to include the interpretation of sounds then; Gee whiz! We're back on topic!

Listening to The Brian Lehrer Show on Public Radio, WNYC the other day I heard a wonderful show on the topic of New York's Audio Ecology. (Listen Streaming) (Download MP3) The show was completely fascinating and fun, featuring (gotta lotta "F" words in a row there didn't I?) the creators of an audio map of New York city. Plenty of sound clips were played and callers were asked to correctly guess what they were listening to. Some were very difficult and some less so. I encourage you to listen to the show so you can play along too. Then you should go the the site http://nysoundmap.org to explore the sounds of the city. Next post will be strictly on topic. Thanks for getting this far.

Don't forget to visit our advertisers when you visit Parlo.com

Free All English Courses! + 1 French Course

2007-04-03T11:33:00.001-04:00

For all of April Parlo.com is giving away all of our English courses free of charge, gratis. (Es decir, cursos de inglés, gratis por todo el mes de Abril!) We are also making the French For Food & Wine Lovers Course free this month. We know that a month long taste will whet your appetite for a longer stay with our courses!(paid say our accountants - we hate whining but have to agree)

As always, these courses have our usual terrific mix of:

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

French For Food & Wine Lovers

Email: frenchfoodwine@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Interactive English 1

Email: eng1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Interactive English 2

Email: eng2@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Interactive English 3

Email: eng3@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Interactive English 4

Email: eng4@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Business English Basic

Email: bizbasic@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Business English 2

Email: engbiz2@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Business English 1

Email: engbiz1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

We know you'll enjoy these courses! Please visit our various sponsoring advertisers. (It helps us offer courses for free)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (translations + much more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (with translations + much more)

Asi Asi Just Like That. Spanish/English Bilingual TV. Test your skills!

2007-03-08T14:44:00.000-05:00

*For this month's free courses see the previous post*

Asi Asi...Just Like That is like no other TV Show that you have ever seen! Bilingual? Then go on the road with Rocio and Lisa as they bring exciting stories, interesting people, and culture clashes to your TV! Your language skills will be put to the test! It's innovative...it's new....it's unique! Cultural appreciation and language exploration have never been so much fun.
See www.asiasi.tv for more!

This show is produced in Arkansas as a forum in which to foster understanding, respect and admiration between Hispanic and Anglo (my term not theirs) cultures. I just found this episode I think it's really engaging video and another great way to improve language skills.

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (translations + much more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (with translations + much more)

Technorati tags: Free English course, English lessons, English vocabulary, English grammar, Listen to English, Free Spanish course, Spanish lessons, Spanish vocabulary, Spanish grammar, listen to Spanish

Free Language Courses - March

2007-03-02T17:29:00.000-05:00

Parlo.com gives 2 free language courses to the world. This month we offer the Interactive English 1 course along with the Travel Spanish course. These courses have our usual terrific mix of

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

Interactive English 1

Email: eng1@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Travel Spanish

Email: travspan@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

We know you'll enjoy these courses! Please visit our various sponsoring advertisers. (It helps us offer courses for free)

For terrific video language learning please visit our partner

Yabla lomastv Spanish Language Videos (translations + much more)

Yabla ESL English Language Videos (with translations + much more)

SLICE OF FRENCH CULTURE

2007-02-23T14:44:00.000-05:00

(excerpted from Parlo.com's French For Food & Wine Lovers course)

"S'il vous plaît?"

There was a time in France when it was considered good manners to call the person who served drinks a "garçon de café". Hence the expression "garçon, s'il vous plaît..." But times have changed and manners have changed as well.

Today, the expression "garçon," which literally means "boy," is considered pejorative when applied to waiters. Using the word is now considered a sign of disrespect. These days, it is best to call the waiter with a simple hand motion or by "monsieur". Above all, do not snap your fingers. The same goes for the check - it is unnecessary to call out "l'addition s'il vous plaît". With a discreet hand gesture, mime a signature and the serveur (not the garçon) will understand right away.

View all of Parlo's French Courses

Technorati tags: French Food, French Wine, French Culture, French Customs, French Manners, Learn French, Speak French, French lessons, French Course

Free Language Courses - February

2007-02-06T18:06:00.000-05:00

OK, I know it's late.

But since it's free

We hope you'll see

And yes, agree

That late is better than never.

Once again, like ailing clockwork, Parlo.com gives 2 free language courses to the world. This month we offer the Business English Basics course along with the Interactive Spanish 2 course. Our usual terrific mix of

Audio files using native speakers in real life situations
Grammar instruction that makes sense
Vocabulary that you will find immediately useful
Cultural facts that help you understand the lives of people in other countries

Here's how to log on to these courses on www.parlo.com

Business English Basics

Email: bizbasic@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

Interactive Spanish 2

Email: span2@parlo.com

Password: parlo (please don't change this - we will change it back)

We know you'll enjoy these courses! Please visit our various sponsoring advertisers. (It helps us offer courses for free)

Feb.'s Free Language Courses? Send suggestions!

2007-01-30T18:11:00.000-05:00

It's time to let us know what courses (2 thanks) we should make available free of charge for the month of February. All the neat dialogue, vocabulary, grammar and cultural enrichment you can cram into a month of studying the way cool courses on Parlo.com

Technorati tags: Free language course, Spanish, French Culture, Italian, English, Business English, Grammar, Vocabulary, audio files

. You can send us your thoughts by leaving a comment here or emailing support (the "at" sign) parlo.com If we don't get much input we'll just choose...

French Manners - It's a minefield out there

2007-01-12T12:45:00.000-05:00

Kermit the Frog said, "It's not easy being green" but it appears that being polite in France these days is tough for natives and foreigners alike. As reported in yesterday's New York Times the French are waging a war (would it be called a civil war or civility war?) to restore manners to French society. The Paris transit authority, the Hospital Federation of France, the Ministry of Education all have their initiatives to get people to behave better.

Here's a snippet from the article:

In the perfect French world, rules govern even the most mundane subjects: how to answer the telephone, how to greet a guest at the door, how to address a stranger, what to take to a dinner party, how to behave on the Métro.
“It’s like a sport, you have to train hard,” said Marie de Tilly, a rail-thin expert on manners, who teaches a two-hour course in Paris to women who pay $90 to attend. “But once you train and know the rules, it all comes naturally.”
All can be lost in that first moment of acquaintance, Ms. de Tilly told a group of French and American women during a session last month in a hotel room adorned in brocade and silk.
“In the first 20 seconds, others will judge your look, in the second 20 seconds your behavior and the third 20 seconds your first words,” she said. “There is a code. If you don’t follow it properly, it will be very, very hard to make a comeback.”

For those of you who cannot get enough of manner-mania I found a book on Amazon to give you another dose on the subject.

Money, Morals, and Manners: The Culture of the French and the American Upper-Middle Class

French students! Don't forget to try our Free French 3 course during January. See the prior post of January 5th.

Technorati tags: French Culture, Manners, Language learning, Free language course, grammar, vocabulary.

Free French and English Courses for January

2007-01-05T17:28:00.000-05:00

It's a new year and a great time to act on your resolve to improve that second language. We have made our French 3 course and our English 4 course available for all of January. Naturally, we offer grammar, vocabulary, expressions galore but we also have articles on cultural topics, music and videos. (Videos in our free content areas) To try out these courses log in using:

Email: french3@parlo.com
Password: parlo (all lower case - don't change this please)

Email: eng4@parlo.com
Password: parlo (all lower case - dont' change this please)

You can go to Parlo today to start using this or the english course.

Here's the audio and transcription of the first dialogue in our French 3 course. (when the dialogue is done the previous podcast will begin. You can: a)Quick! Shut him off. or b)Hmm... what's that one about? - yer choice. Enjoy!

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Oliver:	Qu'est-ce que tu prends, Malik? What are you having, Malik?
Malik:	Un petit café, comme d'habitude. A coffee, as usual.
Olivier:	Un express et un crème, s'il vous plaît. An espresso and a latte, please.
Malik:	C'est bizarre, cette histoire de vol. This whole theft thing is strange.
Olivier:	A ton avis, c'est quelqu'un que nous connaissons? Do you think it's someone that we know?
Malik:	En tout cas, c'est quelqu'un qui nous connaît! In any case, it's someone who knows us!
Olivier:	Tu crois que c'est le type qui a raconté des blagues toute la soirée? You think it's the guy who was telling jokes all evening?
Malik:	Ah, ton copain que je ne peux pas supporter! Ah, your friend that I can't stand!
Olivier:	Mon copain, mon copain, c'est vite dit...On joue au foot ensemble, c'est tout. My friend, my friend, that's going too far... We play soccer together, that's all.
Malik:	Non, ce n'est pas lui que je suspecte. No, he's not the one that I suspect.
Olivier:	Alors qui? Who then?
Malik:	C'est peut-être l'architecte, qu' Elodie adore. It might be the architect, that Elodie adores.
Olivier:	Thierry Lagrange, qui a des millions à la banque, vole des montres et des ordinateurs portables! Un peu de sérieux, Malik. Thierry Lagrange, who has millions in the bank, steals watches and portable computers! Be serious, Malik.
Malik:	Il est peut-être cleptomane. He might be a cleptomaniac.
Olivier:	Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire, déjê? What does that mean again?
Malik:	Quelqu'un qui a la manie du vol. Someone who has a stealing habit.
Olivier:	A propos, oò est mon paquet de cigarettes? By the way, where is my pack of cigarettes?
Malik:	Ah, c'est ton paquet...Euh, excuse-moi, il est dans ma poche. Oh, it's your pack... uh, I'm sorry, it's in my pocket.
Olivier:	Je suis désolé, Malik, mais le cleptomane, c'est toi. Je vais tout dire ê Vanessa. Sorry Malik, but you are the cleptomaniac. I'm going to tell Vanessa everything.
Malik:	Très amusant, Olivier. Dis, qu'est-ce qu'il y a dans ses fameuses cassettes? Very funny, Olivier. Tell me, what is on her famous tapes?
Olivier:	Essayons d'imaginer...Une déclaration d'amour? Une chanson? Une mystérieuse confession... Let's try to imagine...a declaration of love? a song? a mysterious confession?
Malik:	Shut, tais-toi, elle arrive... Hush, be quiet. She's coming

End of Year Language Tidbits

2006-12-30T15:24:00.000-05:00

As we barrel towards the end of another year let's look at a couple of fun items in the news.

1. For you Francophiles, Francophobes and even the few Franc-ensteins among you there was a fun article on the BBC's site on Mastering French manners the hard way. The poor author of this article had a painful set of experiences that taught her lessons in cultural differences. Apparently there's even a name for the psychic trauma caused by this French culture shock, "Paris Syndrome". For those who enjoy the taste of "Schadenfreude" (defined here) this article is a tasty treat. For the rest, a cautionary tale.

2. An African Grey parrot is reported to be able to use a vocabulary of 950 words and form new sentences that have a grammar. In reading these reports it's always my impulse to be a bit sceptical but what appear to be facts, versus interpretations,suggest this a truly extraordinary bird. The bird is supposed to have learned the word "fly" and conjugaged it as "flied" to indicate the past tense. The existing literature on language use by animals makes it clear that humans did not just pop into existence with the exclusive ability to use language. If you enjoy reading about this topic as much as I do here's an older article from Wired.com on parrots and language acquisition.

If you are not already using one of our courses at Parlo.com you can still take advantage of the holiday sale that lets you save $14.00 off of any course. (See the prior posting on this page!) Browse our courses and lock in that savings today!

Have a Happy & Healthy New Year!

Last Minute Christmas Gift

2006-12-21T11:21:00.000-05:00

Save $14 on all language courses at Parlo.com

Have you procratinated and now you're scrambling for a last minute X-Mas gift? Not to worry! You enroll your friend or loved one in a course in two shakes of a reindeer's tail AND get a huge discount to reward you for waiting. (Talk about reinforcing bad behavior...)

When you click Enroll the next page lets you enter a discount code that saves you $14 off any course at Parlo.com So what's the secret discount code?

TEACH1 (all upper case please - our server is very sensitive)

Enter TEACH1 and the next page tells you the cost of your course minus $14.00. What's not to like?

Go right to the Parlo Course listings page

Type special foreign language characters easily:

http://typeit.org/

This site addresses the problem of typing foreign characters into a document without awkward keyboard combinations or special software. It's a really simple site that lets you easily edit text with special characters and then you just copy and paste them into whatever document you are using. It has this tool for French Italian Spanish German IPA (English) Polish Portuguese Czech. This is a site worth bookmarking

Log in problems? We think we've fix'em!

2006-12-17T12:47:00.000-05:00

Hi All,

Just wanted to drop a quick note to all that the log in problems we've had recently should be all cleared up. My first and wrong impression was the the parlo web server just needed to be re-booted. That worked at first but didn't address the real problem. The log file in the database had become too large. We have address this problem and as far as we can tell all is working smoothly again. If anyone notices that something is still amiss please leave a comment here or write to support (at) parlo.com to let us know the problem. Thanks and have a happy, healthy holiday season!

Contemporary Spanish Language

2006-12-11T17:12:00.000-05:00

Our good buddies at Yabla (come on - Parlo HAS to like a company named Yabla) have a newsletter for those studying Spanish that we think is well worth the read. This one discusses the lyrics of a music video they have on their site. I've said it before and here's another try: this is a terrific way to study Spanish.

Spanish is the official language of Puerto Rico, yet a large portion of the population knows English, so bilingual puns play to a wide audience. Case in point, the lyrics to this cynical song by the band Polbo:

Yo era el as de las nenas, cuando tenía dinero.
Ahora sigo siendo el as/ass, en otro idioma, tú sabrás.
I was the ace of the girls, when I had money.
Now I'm still the ace/ass, in another language, you know.
captions 13-6, Polbo > Yo era tan cool

Like its English equivalent "ace," the Spanish as is both a good poker card and "a whiz" at something. The pun on as / ass works in this song because the two words are pronounced essentially the same way, with a soft "s" (unlike the word "as" in English, which is pronounced "az").

One more note regarding the bilingual audience for Yo era tan cool. The word "cool" is obviously borrowed from English. But one could argue that cool is going the way of "OK" / "okay" or "ciao" / "chau" / "chao" as a word that crosses linguistic barriers. We googled "es cool" (in Spanish) and more than 100,000 web pages came up. Cool, ¿no?

Try Yabla along with Parlo's Spanish courses - the best of both worlds! These make truly easy X-Mas gifts so what are you waiting for?