Livemocha - The Java of Languages

I found a cool website called Livemocha that is half social networking and half language acquisition. Basically, it's a MySpace or Facebook for those trying to learn a foreign langauge.

Since my plan is to travel to Europe (Italy being highly favored) in 2010, I figured I'd try to learn some Italian. I'm sure I won't become an expert, but if I can get a couple of common phrases down I'm sure it'd help a great deal.

At the same time, I figured I might as well spruce up my Japanese as well. I mean, I took nihongo in high school and made it through Japanese 302 in college, but it's been a while since college and I haven't had to use any of it. At this point, I'd have to say that I've forgotten most of it.

So, the other day I signed up for beginning Italian and Japanese. The program is pretty interesting. And, the best part is that it's free. It's very interactive (other community members reply to your lessons) and there are parts of each lesson where you're asked to write or speak. I find this really helpful.

So far, so good. My suspicions about my deteriorating Japanese ability were confirmed. The worst part of all is that I can't read any of it. All the kanji look foreign. Also, since I've never taken any Latin-based languages, I'm learing Italian from scratch. It's a challenge but I'll keep at it and see if I can learn a thing or two.