Fluent City’s 12 Favorite Moments of 2012 in Pictures

by Mandy Menaker

It has been a terrific year at Fluent City. During 2012, Fluent City added Japanese, Russian and Hebrew classes. Our 10 Brooklyn classrooms and rented Manhattan classroom spaces were filled to capacity. We secured a convenient and terrific Manhattan space by Times Square. In addition, we raised over $1000 for Sandy relief and the New York Food Bank through our commitment to donate a percentage of signups in the weeks following Sandy. Our Williamsburg space became home to several orphaned organizations in the aftermath of Sandy including the Bellavue Survivors of Torture. We got closer with our regular coworkers, the funny folks over at Hypervocal. We even became a film set used by College Humor, Practical Jokers and Brooklyn Independent Television! Yep, 2012 has been pretty excellent. Here are 12 of our favorite moments of 2012 in pictures:

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Treasure Trove of Arabic Audio Materials

This site from the Indiana University is packed with Arabic Audio Materials including readings in modern literary Arabic, speaking drills, and more. Use this site to practice hearing Arabic sounds and improve your pronunciation.

http://www.iu.edu/~celtie/arabic_archive.html

 

 

Where to Hear Arabic Language Online and in New York City

by Christopher Ibraham

Students often ask me where to check out Arabic music, poems, shows, gatherings and more. Here are a few of my favorite videos online and New York City places to hear Arabic language. Please comment and let me know if you have places to add to this list!

Here is some cool stuff to check out online regarding getting your ears tuned to the sounds of Arabic:

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Make Your Own Flashcards!

http://www.quizlet.com – Create a free account to make your own online flashcards or search for other sets already made. study, play games, practice pronunciation and more! Great for language study outside of your Fluent City classes.

Making the Olympics Multilingual, Part One: The Basics

by Megan Heise

The next 17 days are about to get real, as some of the world’s greatest athletes converge on London to duke it out for international honors and world fame in the Games of the XXX Olympiad. Meanwhile, the rest of us will flock to the houses of our friends with cable, pick teams in all the events the USA isn’t in, and invent epic Olympics-themed drinking games that we’ll inevitably forget by the time Rio 2016 rolls around. And while the official languages of the 2012 Olympic Games are English, French, and, well, English, we polyglots can still show off our language skills and impress our friends with our ability to mute Bob Costas and provide riveting voice-over commentary in a foreign language.

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Five Arabic Novels Worth Learning Arabic For

by Matthew Lundin

Sometimes in the midst of learning the Arabic language, a student might think to themselves “sun and moon letters? Genitive constructions? Wait, I have to learn a dialect too?” But you shouldn’t get discouraged! Even though you have to learn irregular plurals and a whole other alphabet, I promise, it will all be worth it in the end. It is a beautiful ancient language with shades of meaning and a rich literary and historical heritage that will have you nerding out for years to come. Once you learn the language, you will be able to read things all the way back to pre-Islamic poetry written in the 6th century! But if things written before we knew the World was round isn’t really your jam, here are five modern novels in Arabic that should make learning it worth all the صعوبة

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7 Reasons You Should Speak More Than One Language

by Mandy Menaker

Ok, we know there is an iPhone app for everything these days (apparently your phone can do everything except make phone calls). But seriously, it is time to stop looking up every word in a translator or asking Siri and getting fluent in more than one language. Need some convincing? Check out these 7 reasons why learning a new language is just plain sexy.

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Student Aims to Get Fluent in Two Languages Simultaneously at Fluent City

by Mandy Menaker

Most students come to Fluent City knowing what language they are most interested in learning. For Jacques, the decision was anything but easy. Says Jacques, “If I had unlimited money and time, I would learn every language you offer.” Jacques, who grew up hearing his father speak French, Hebrew, Italian and Arabic, decided to compromise on studying two languages. The East Coast native will begin tackling both Arabic and French in Fluent City’s Level 1 courses this month.

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Fun Language Learning Games

Digital Dialects is an awesome resource for learning any language and completely free. Just select the language of choice and the category of vocab you hope to learn, and try yourself on one of the free games.