busuu.com is a free online community for learning languages. Users have access to audio-visual learning material currently available in Spanish, French, German and English. Additionally, language skills can be directly improved together with native speakers from around the world.

Users connect via an integrated video-chat with other users of the community while at home. Each user is not only “student” of a foreign language but also a “teacher” of his own mother tongue.

There are two ways to improve your language skills :

1. Learn with the busuu.com learning content: there are hundreds of learning units covering diverse topic areas (e.g. “In the restaurant”, “My first date” etc.). Within each unit you will find the most important phrases and vocabulary that you need to know. The content is image and sound-based; you can listen to key vocabulary pronounced by professional voice artists speaking in their own language. Additionally you have several exercises in order to test your knowledge.

2. Learn directly from a native speaker: you can connect to native speakers in the busuu.com community by using the video-chat application in order to practice your language skills. Besides, you can send your written exercises from the learning units for correction to other native speakers of the community.

The name of the site comes from the Busuu language of Cameroon, which according to an ethnological study from the 80ies is only spoken by 8 people. For this reason the founders decided to include learning material on another little-known whistled language called Silbo Gomero from the Canary Islands in Spain.

“We found the story of Silbo Gomero simply fascinating” says Bernhard Niesner, Co-Founder of busuu.com, “and we wanted to contribute to the preservation of this nearly extinct language.”

Funny Video About Silbo Gomero

The start-up was founded in Madrid at the beginning of 2008 and is currently in beta phase. The community currently has more than 50,000 users from more than 200 countries of the world. busuu.com is officially accepted as project for the UNESCO’s International Year of Languages!