Website: LanguageGuide.org

A review of German resources on the "Language Guide" website.
The homepage is at: http://languageguide.org/; the German page is at: http://languageguide.org/deutsch/.

This site is basically a pictorial dictionary for vocabulary. You are shown a collection of clip-art like pictures on a page. When you hover over the picture with your cursor, the German word appears in a floating box and you have audio of a native speaker saying the word.


Pictures on a page are collected together by category (like the page "das Obst" shows pictures of fruit), and the site has about 50 of such pages for German. When you click on the link "Deutsch (German)" on the homepage, you are directed to a page that has a link for each of the German picture pages. Links for related picture pages are organized into groups. If you go to "Preferences," you can check a box to include "potentially offensive entries."

Language Guide is a registered non-profit, and the websites describes itself as a "collaborative project to develop interactive, sound-integrated language learning resources." The site is looking for volunteers to help translate words and also to contribute audio to the site. Click on: Collaborate/Volunteer for more information. You can also donate to the site or sign up for the site's newsletter. The site states that it is working on providing more resources in the future, like grammar guides and readings (these are already up on the French page).

Sometimes the links on the bottom of the page change names (like "Collaborate/Volunteer" shows as "Volunteer," and sometimes there are both an "About" and a "Welcome!" link that direct to the same page), but this is just a minor issue.

Overall, the site seems to be a good way for beginners to learn every-day vocabulary, and have a chance to heard the word spoken. I like the focus on audio, since getting pronounciation right - and getting an ear for the language - is really important for beginners. I am interested in seeing how the site will expand in the future.

Do you have any comments on this site? Post them below!

Images from LanguageGuide.org site.