7. Find a book or magazine in your library
University and college libraries, more so than local libraries, are likely to have a wide range of foreign language materials in their collections. Visit the periodicals section and ask the librarian there to point you to the magazines and newspapers in the language you are seeking. Language and literature books are located in the P-PZ stacks. Depending on the language, you may find foreign language books in other disciplines as well, such as history, education, sociology, art, and others. If the library has a children or elementary education section, check for children's books in the foreign language.
While ample foreign language stories and periodicals are available online, nothing compares with the experience of holding the item in your hands. Print editions have many features that online versions typically don't or can't have. If you find foreign language books or magazines you especially like, you can order your own copies.
8. Use a foreign language search engine to explore your interests
Choose one of your favorite hobbies or subject area of interest, a type of music you like, a particular lifestyle choice, or an international event. Then find sites on that topic in the language you're learning. Use Google language tools to search the web in specific languages or countries or use one of over 100 Google portals located in other countries. Or change the AltaVista search settings to the language or country of your choice.
Finding a site on a topic with which you are already familiar is a great way to promote your language skills. You will surely recognize some vocabulary and will learn many new topic-related words. You might even find your new favorite website on your particular hobby. The site might even offer a chance to communicate with others who share your interest in it -- in the foreign language. Such sites allow you to learn to negotiate a topic with which you're familiar, to gain new perspectives on that topic, and to connect with other people around the world who share your interest.
9. Join a foreign language discussion board
A foreign language discussion board is a place to connect with native speakers as well as others around globe who share your interest in a particular language. It is different from a discussion board for native speakers by native speakers because it embraces your role as a language learner. You can read about or participate in discussions about language and culture, and you can try out your language skills or ask language questions. A discussion board is also a fantastic place to find a foreign language pen pal.
Our Vistawide Foreign Language Forum provides such a resource for our visitors. A few other excellent comprehensive language boards exist. PhraseBase and Unilang have specific forums on dozens of languages as well as some interesting general language threads. Polyglot Forum includes 9 different languages. ShiaChat is a Muslim community site with multilingual forums, including Arabic, Farsi, Urdu, and a smattering of other languages. At the How to learn any language forum, you can engage in lively discussions about learning languages and get your language questions answered.
In addition to the general language forums, there are several language-specific discussion boards: Russian, German, French, Spanish, Italian, ESL, another ESL board, Persian, Japanese, Chinese, and Thai. Many of these boards include discussion threads on the customs and culture where the target language is spoken as well.
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(Sh.Mahdavi)
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