Hello-hello.com just opened up their doors

You might remember that a week or two back I was curious about a new language-learning site along the lines of Livemocha or Busuu called Hello-hello.com. Well, Hello-hello.com has just opened their doors. I just got this via email:

We are very happy to announce that our FREE language learning website www.hello-hello.com is available in Beta!!!!

The bold emphasis on "Beta" is in the original, and rightly so; I kicked the tires today and they are definitely still in beta.

Also, they're completely free for now, but they'll be doing the same freemium model that's on Livemocha or Busuu; a good chunk of the content is free, but to get the very best stuff you'll need to shell out a bit.

So go ahead and kick the tires for yourselves, tell them where the bugs are, and let us know what you think in the comments below!

Links: Hello-hello.com, Livemocha, Busuu

The 100th post on Street-Smart Language Learning

A little over nine months ago, I kicked off Street-Smart Language Learning as a place to discuss the various things I've been finding while I've been working on the eponymous book. Somewhere along the way, I found myself blogging about the language-learning industry (from the behemoths to the upstarts), as well as about all the typical language-learning topics you'd expect from a blog of this title.

And this here marks Street-Smart Language Learning's 100th post.

A few factoids about this blog, and the addition of a co-author to the book, after the jump.

Read more... With 100 posts over nine months, this blog's running at about 11 posts a month. However, if you discount the three months from April to July when I was AWOL thanks to the move to Japan, it's closer to 17 posts a month.

The favorite post month after month has been this review of Livemocha—apparently because, as far as I can tell, all the other reviews of Livemocha lack detail or had a bit too much influence from Livemocha's PR machine.

"Street language" has been a common keyword search that's led people to the site, although I'm not even really sure what that's supposed to mean. (Perhaps I should do a post on that alone sometime.)

Finally, I'd like to announce the inclusion of my wife—Akiko Pace—as a co-author on the book. With enough languages under her own belt to be able to take me to task on just about any language-learning point (when she sees fit to do so), her contributions to the book have gradually become so great that calling her anything but a co-author would be misleading. We're still not sure what the ETA is on the book, but we hope to have it finalized soon, while I continue to hopefully not bore you too much in the meantime with this blog.

Anyone know anything about Hello-hello.com?

Thanks to an anonymous tipster in the comments to this post, I just got wind of a new website that appears to be in the mold of Livemocha and Busuu.

Here's how the site sells itself:

LEARN a new language anytime, anywhere with online, interactive lessons that will develop all the skills you need.

TEACH other members your language and learn from native speakers.

COMMUNICATE with native speakers and make friends all over the world.

That sounds a lot like Livemocha to me.

Strangely, the simple site is designed primarily as an image (that image above is a screen grab), as if to avoid Google bot detection and stay off the radar for the time being. On the other hand, they do have a perfectly searchable Facebook page.

One thing I'm curious about is the Men's Health article they got some coverage in. Keep in mind that this is an unreleased product:

[R]einforce your lessons by signing onto social-networking sites that let you interact with native speakers. "They use functional language that you'd hear in conversation," says Marty Abbott, director of education for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. Her favorite is hello-hello.com.

So how exactly does an unreleased site become someone's favorite tool? I smell something fishy! (Or perhaps a rational explanation that's just escaping detection, but I digress...). [Update: Yup, there was a rational explanation that was escaping detection. See the comment below.]

So... what do you know about Hello-hello.com? Drop a line in the comments below or send an email to tips at this domain name. (And I welcome comments from you, Hello-hello.com, because I know you're keeping an eye on those Google Alerts!)

Links:
Hello-hello.com, Livemocha, Busuu
Win the Mind Games [Men's Health]