http://www.phrasebase.com/blog

Lately I haven't had the time to post here anymore. Now, I have even less time. And that is because I'll be posting at the PhraseBase blog.



If you stumbled upon this blog and want to make any comment about it or to simply complain about what was said here, you can reach me at:

www.phrasebase.com

If I have had a house on the net, it definitively has to be PhraseBase. I think it is the biggest language-related website. The kindest people I've met online are members of Phrasebase.
I am proud to say I am part of the team working at this website.
If you are looking for a language partner or someone to help you leant a language via email or Skype, this is your option. You also can participate in the active fora they have there.
My profile at PB, here. PB at Wikipedia.
There are some very interesting plans for PB. It'll become a real phenomenon when those plans are materialized. They even have a blog that is worth giving it a look.

www.rae.es

As a Spanish native speaker, I find this site very useful. RAE stands for Real Academia Española. That means Royal Spanish Academy. Its main purpose is to regulate my native language.
It is based in Madrid, Spain, but there are other 21 affiliated academies through the Spanish-speaking world.
It was created in 1713 by Juan Manuel Fernández Pacheco. Its purpose was "to fix the voices and vocabularies of the Castillian language with propiety, elegance, and purity". No wonder why its motto is "Limpia, fija y da esplendor" ("Cleans, fixes and makes shine"). You may think it could be dangerous to have such an institution. What about if it is too conservative or elitist? Wouldn't it be better to leave the Spanish language evolve by itself? There is some truth about this.

What I use more of this site is the DRAE (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española). But it also contains the DPD (Diccionario Panhispánico de Dudas). This one guides you through some general doubts about word usage, accent mark norms, punctuation, rules for forming feminine and plurals, etc.

Wikipedia.org

I think there is no day in which I don't need to take a look at Wikipedia. You do a search about a topic and chances are that Wikipedia has an article about it. It could be only a stub, but at least there is something.
What is so amazing about this site? Wikipedia is a free content encyclopedia. Its articles are written, reviewed and updated by hundres of volunteers.
The name Wikipedia is a portmanteau, from wiki and encyclopedia. Till today, Wikipedia has more than six million articles in 250 languages. No doubt it is one of the twelve most visited sites on the net!
The ten biggest editions are:

• English, 1.600.000 articles

• German, 550.000 articles

• French, 450.000 articles

• Polish, 350.000 articles

• Japanese, 330.000 articles

• Dutch, 280.000 articles

• Italian, 265.000 articles

• Portuguese, 240.000 articles

• Swedish, 240.000 articles

• Spanish, 210.000 articles

Some say Wikipedia's main problems are that, as being edited by so many people, it is not reliable, accurate, subject to vandalism, not consistent. But truth is that those problems do not affect the genral content of it. This is, the quality of the information obtained there is good.

Most of what I'll be writing here will be taken from Wikipedia.
Are African languages important?
Fake professor in Wikipedia storm.