2022 was the year of new languages and special purpose courses in Transparent Language Online.

We added our most requested language! Expanded the ESL collection to serve critical needs. Added eight more indigenous languages. And started building a series of courses to help business professionals live and work in our most popular languages.

American Sign Language (ASL)

Thanks to the experts at Signing Savvy, we added our very first American Sign Language course.

By the end of this 30-hour course, learners will build a good foundation in ASL and Deaf culture throughout 77 lessons covering fingerspelling, 800+ sign videos, and a series of Deaf culture facts.

While it was only released 4 months ago, ASL still cracked the top 10 most learned languages in 2022!

Stay tuned for a major expansion of this course in 2023. 👀

English for Ukrainian, Dari, and Pashto Speakers

To help libraries and other community organizations support incoming refugees from Ukraine and Afghanistan, we added three new beginner ESL courses for speakers of Ukrainian, Dari and Pashto.

These courses were designed to meet the most immediate needs of refugees adapting to life in an English-speaking country, as our Content Development Manager Michael Basmaji explains:

“Studies show that vocabulary size is the single most significant factor in building language proficiency. Sometimes all you need to accomplish a task is one or two key words, like ‘bathroom’ or ‘doctor’. These courses provide English learners more than 1,000 key words that will help them get by and build a foundation upon which they can practice grammar, improve their speaking and listening skills, and beyond.”

ESL learners accounted for nearly 20% of all sessions in 2022, with all three new courses breaking the top 10 most learned English pairs. Other popular ESL pairs included English for Spanish, Russian, and Chinese speakers.

New Indigenous and Endangered Language Courses

Thanks to our partnership with 7000 Languages, we added courses in *eight* new indigenous and endangered languages to Transparent Language Online for Libraries, including: Cherokee, Deg Xinag, Dinak’i (Upper Kuskokwim), Hän, Laz, Tanacross, Upper Tanana (Nee’aanèegn’), and Yup’ik.

These courses are created by the indigenous communities, with the expert help of 7000. Each course is aimed to preserve and promote these languages within the community any beyond– including to you! We hope you’ll check out these courses and see the passion that goes into making each and every one. See the full collection here.

Improved Beginner Chinese Courses

Speaking of Chinese… Mandarin Chinese is an especially challenging language for adults to learn from scratch, but it’s also one of the most popular languages to learn (#8 most learned in 2022 to be precise).

That’s why we’re very excited to have a former Chinese instructor on our team who created her dream courses for beginners: the Chinese Radicals and Tones Courses.

In ~2.5 hours, our Chinese Tones Course prepares learners to identify and pronounce tones both alone and in multisyllable words—essential skills for both listening and speaking.

In 6 hours, our Chinese Radicals Course helps learners master the 40 most common and essential radicals, both on their own and within characters—critical for reading and writing Chinese characters.

Beginner + Intermediate Courses for Professionals

Our courses have travel essentials covered in more than 100 languages. But we know many learners have ambitions beyond a vacation.

Learners hoping to live and work in another country can now get started on the right foot with the Beginner and Intermediate Courses for Professionals!

The beginner courses help learners progress from true beginner to CEFR A2 or ACTFL Novice-High, while intermediate courses reach CEFR B1-B2 (ACTFL Intermediate Mid – Advanced Mid). All courses are extensive, with 70-100+ hours of learning materials.

Available now in beginner French, intermediate French, beginner Spanish, beginner Russian, and beginner Chinese—all languages among the top 15 most learned in 2022.

Stay tuned for more intermediate level courses for professionals in 2023! 👀

What have you been learning?

Whether you’re learning one of these new courses, or any of the many courses available in 130+ languages, we want to hear how it’s going.

Log in now and show off how much you’ve learned by sharing your Year in Review, available now on your learning dashboard!

Happy holidays & new year to all of you. We look forward to an even better 2023!

(Made it all the way to the bottom and don’t have a Transparent Language Online account yet? Sign up for the 14-day free trial or find it free at a library  near you!)