Whoa yeah – give HECS the finger

Whoa and yeah are how you pronounce the last 2 letters of the Arabic language. I know because BBC offers a free language learning program that you can download or stream to get your started. Ultimately, you can learn a new language online for free, even something as technical as HTML. Forever I have been trying to retain some knowledge of Japanese, French and Spanish from my travels to each but without practice and a good memory I have no foreign language skills to spruik. I learnt the entire Russian alphabet, pronunciation and phonetics, before traveling to Russia and Ukraine. It helped read some signs, communicate with locals and generally feel more a local part.  

I know I could have continued my Russian practice upon returning to Melbourne but by that stage I had picked up pieces of Italian, Turkish, Arabic, Hindu and Thai. My memory served me well to make a jumbled mess of the aforementioned global tongues. 

So, upon further research, I noticed that there are a million free courses online for any faculty of learning, including classes from MIT, Berkeley, Harvard, Stanford, etc. A whole range of subjects from master studies such as Biology, Psychology, Geography, Chemistry, Philosophy and more. Lifehacker recently shared a post on Spring 2012 courses from American universities, it’s incredible to think that if you want to learn about planets and stars you just have to go forth and click. There are also more practical courses available like Money 101 – it’s not about making money, it’s about managing dosh to suit your goals and budget. 

I’m a little inspired, using my brain seems to be the key.

Go forth and click.

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