WELCOME

 To cut a long story short, we wish to help you learn a foreign language in the best possible way.  To do this we are placing at your disposal the benefits of our experience.  Having been a failing language student myself in the beginning and with the guidance a high school teacher later excelling, I can understand the difficulties one might face in their efforts to learn a foreign language.  For many it takes years just to learn how to learn, and sometimes they give up believing that they can never be successful in another language.  In fact, a professor of English literature at a university admitted the problems he had  and had he been successful, he might have become a professor of Spanish, French, German or other foreign literature.      I got into teaching by helping my friends who were also failing in their language classes.  I didn't teach them, I just passed on what I had learned from my experience with Miss Arbour.  You can read all about this if you wish to take the trouble.

There are several fine products on the market to help you learn.  My experience as a student has been that there was never only one product that I used.  I wanted to use whatever I could find that would be helpful.  As a result, I used texts from many different sources.  The basics or bottom line of learning a foreign language can be found on this link.  What you use to accomplish this is your choice.

Our products are stories.  They are very helpful, but you will also want to use other material in addition to them.  We will recommend those products we believe to be the best and encourage you to make use of any or all of them during your studies.

Refer to the article on the bottom line of learning a foreign language for you will want the products you choose to possess any or all of those requirements.

You can use the products from any of these companies below at any level if you are courageous.

A new-comer that you should find very helpful and fun to use is TEXT TO SPEECH by ODDCAST. You can type in a phrase or sentence in any language and it will translate and speak the phrase or sentence. This is a very clever and unique program.  The speech is a little mechanical but this program shows great possibilities for the language student.  Can be used by the beginner. 

CHINESE POD   A program for learning Chinese is found on the internet coming out of Shanghai.  It has lessons from the most elementary to advanced.  For people who require explanations for everything, Chinese pod offers them in English at the elementary level.    At the Intermediate level these explanations are given in a conversation in Chinese between two people using an English word or phrase when necessary.   This is very helpful.  Topics chosen for the dialogs are of an every day nature that deal with various aspects of daily life.  If you don't mind hearing a lot of English during your study time, these elementary dialogs are a good place to begin.  If you object to that, begin with our QL CDs or TRANSPARENT  NOW.  Some of their conversations are not carefully presented; they sound a little tossed off without consideration for the fact that the student has very little ear training.  They could be more carefully presented always keeping in mind the student who is trying to learn Chinese.  Many conversations by native speakers are not always understood even by other native speakers, and this type of rapid presentation is not good for a foreign student of the language.

TRANSPARENT LANGUAGE has a series called NOW.  This is a CD.  We would recommend Chinese NOW.  In addition they have Before you Know It.  This is an electronic CD flash card format for learning vocabulary.  Personally I don't care for learning vocabulary on flash cards, but you may.   I like my vocabulary to occur in complete sentences.  This way I absorb the structure, also called grammar, of the language without having to study grammar.    A new feature is that you can subscribe to a Word of the Day at no charge.  It will give you the word, its translation, and sentence using the word. You can play the word and the sentence to develop your ear.   What I like about this presentation is the emphasis upon learning a word and a sentence a day.  The secret to learning language is really just that.  Learn one perfect sentence a day and do not stop.  You can read my experience with Hindi.   This company is a major resource for one who wishes to study many different languages and is highly recommended.  With the Word of the Day you can practice several different languages at the same time.

QUINTESSENTIAL LANGUAGE STORIES.  These are CDs which contain several stories in a format that includes everything you need to learn them.  We have originated a system of color coding to help you match the phrases of one language with the other.  A sample CD will be sent upon request.  These CDs are meant for those who wish to increase their vocabulary by means of stories or literary works.

The three programs above will give you all the  material you need to be successful.  Keep in mind, however, the old saying:  "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink."  and "If you are not hungry, you will not look at a banquet table."   In other words, daily practice is necessary.  These programs are ideal for people who wish to learn independently or for home schoolers.  You may wish to use the QL stories for children.

For the serious student of Chinese we strongly recommend you purchase WENLIN software.  This program is a Chinese English dictionary and a software program which will show you beautifully how to write Chinese characters, stroke by stroke. 

With this program you will be able to read any text in electronic form.  It has reduced the looking up of characters in a dictionary and converted it from a tedious, task to a piece of cake.  You can easily create a text in Chinese traditional or Simple by typing in the pin yin and converting it.  If you have any questions or problems, do not hesitate to contact us.  We are at your service.  Will wonders never cease.

A new-comer that you should find very helpful and fun to use is TEXT TO SPEECH by ODDCAST.  You can type in a phrase of sentence in any language and it will translate and speak the phrase or sentence.  This is a very clever and unique program.

CONFUCIUS INSTITUTE ONLINE

FOR STUDENTS OF JAPANESE   This site has some good advice for learning a language.

RUSSIAN ACCELERATOR  Learn Russian the best way. (Highly recommended)