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Chinese Stuff from 7th Free Language's Foreign Language-Learning Newsletter

Welcome to the Seventh Edition of The Free Language Letter. Lots has happened since the Sixth Edition.

45 new free resources for 19 languages have been added to the site. See below for language-learning videos, multilingual podcasting, free software downloads, tools, browser extensions, OpenCourseWare, online communities and more.

New! Social Language-Learning Resource Section

Social language learning has become incredibly popular on the web as it has transcended language barriers in previously impossible ways.

For example, right now someone in Russia could be waiting to teach you Russian in exchange for your English skills. Or maybe your native language is Spanish and you want to learn Mandarin Chinese - there's someone out there for that as well! In fact, chances are there are hundreds or even thousands of potential language partners with whom you can achieve your collective language learning goals in a symbiotic fashion...

Visit the Social Foreign Language Learning Resource Section.

Below you will find the most recent additions to the social learning section.

LiveMocha.com Live Mocha Social Language Learning Course and Networking Website
MyHappyPlanet.com My Happy Planet Private Social Language-Learning Community
italki.com Free Skype VoIP and IM Language Partner Community
Dickinson College's Language-Exchanges.org Mixxer Free Skype Language Exchange Community
Lingopass.com Free Global Language Exchange Community
VoxSwap.com VoxSwap Online Instant Message and Voice Social Foreign Language Exchange with Forums and Groups

New Mandarin Chinese Resources

A Torrent File for 500 Free Mandarin Chinese Audio Podcast Lessons from ChinesePod.com
nciku.com nciku Free Online Mandarin Chinese Handwriting Recognition, Conversations, Radical Dictionary
A Pinyin.info Article on Most Difficult and Challenging Aspects of Learning Mandarin Chinese
Learn Mandarin Chinese Videos on YouTube AskBenny Channel
Learn Chinese on YouTube with Mandarin Videos from ActiveChinese
FSI-Language-Courses.com US Foreign Service Institute Mandarin Chinese Free Audio Lessons Downloads
SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese
BitesizedLanguages.com Bitesized Languages Improve Your French, Spanish or Portuguese Skills with Daily Emails

Cool Free Tools and Multilingual Resources

We added some cool tools and multilingual resource links, including Firefox browser extensions for improving your productivity in foreign languages online!

Quick Translation Firefox Extension to Translate Single Words in 17+ Languages
Foreign Language Translation Extensions/Tools/Plugins/Add-Ons for the Firefox Web Browser
Langmaker.com Language Maker Website on Auxiliary and Constructed Languages
Word2Word.com Website
The Alternative Dictionary: Slang, Profanities, Insults and Vulgarisms from all the World

Instructional Foreign Language Videos

ExpertVillage.com Instructional Videos on Learning Foreign Languages
YouTube Video Language Lessons at LanguageTube.org

Multilingual Podcasting Resources

SurvivalPhrases.com Survival Phrases in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, French, Swedish, Arabic, Spanish and Vietnamese

Language News

United Nations Declares 2008 the International Year of Languages

To see the news in many different languages, check out our syndicated multilingual news section.

OpenCourseWare, Open University and Distance Language Learning

Download Free Open University Courses from MIT OpenCourseWare Foreign Languages and Literatures Department
About.com Distance Learning Free Online Language Courses
open.ac.uk OpenLearn LearningSpace Open University with Free Courses in Modern Languages

Download Free Mandarin Chinese Language Software

BYKI.com Download Free Language Software for Learning 42 Languages!

Featured Resource

Mango Languages is fantastic! Truly one of the top language-learning resources available online. Indeed, it may well be the most user-friendly, feature-rich, well-organized and free resource for learning languages online.

Mango Languages offers an amazing amount of totally free lessons and courses for learning a growing number of languages. At the time this article is going to press, these include Brazilian Portuguese, English for Polish speakers, English for Spanish speakers, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, Pig Latin!, Russian and Spanish.

Current Research

I am researching and drafting articles regarding foreign language study in Second Life. This metaverse approach to teaching and learning has amazing potential. Subscribe to Free Language's RSS feed to be sure you get new articles as they're hot off the press.

再见！

Chapman
Free Language
http://freelanguage.org

Free Language's Big List of Foreign-Language Learning Resources

This is a big list of the front page articles on this site. This does not include blog entries.

Learn

Multi-Lingual Resources and Cool Tools

italki.com Free Skype VoIP and IM Language Partner Community
NetTVDB Free Database of Internet/Web TV Stations in Multiple Languages and Countries
PhraseBase.com Multi-Lingual Conversational Phrase Database Resource
expatriates.com Free International Multi-Lingual Language Exchange Partner Classifieds
FoxLingo Free Firefox Browser Extension Software for Translating Web Pages
Global Internet TV Gateway Portal with Web TV in World Languages
Online Flashcard Exchange Community

Teach

English

TEFL.net Free Resources for English Teachers/Educators with TEFL, ESL, TESOL Help
EnglishClub.com Free ESL Learn and Teach English Lessons, Games, Forums, Quizzes, Chat
TeachingEnglish.org.uk BBC British Council Teaching English Resources

Language-Learning Specific

BBC Better at Languages

Commercial Resources

Arabic

Rosetta Stone Learn Arabic Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

English

Rosetta Stone Learn US American English Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)
Rosetta Stone Learn UK British English Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

French

Rosetta Stone Learn French Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

German

Rosetta Stone Learn German Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Hindi

Rosetta Stone Learn Hindi Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Indonesian

Rosetta Stone Learn Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Japanese

Rosetta Stone Learn Japanese Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Learn Korean

Mandarin Chinese

Rosetta Stone Learn Mandarin Chinese Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Persian/Farsi

Rosetta Stone Learn Persian/Farsi Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Russian

Rosetta Stone Learn Russian Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Spanish

Rosetta Stone Learn European (Spain) Spanish Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)
Rosetta Stone Learn Latin American Spanish Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Free Language Letter - August 2007

Sixth Edition

Welcome to the sixth edition of The Free Language Letter.

Persian/Farsi Language Resource Section Added

We are happy to announce a new resource section for the Persian or Farsi language!

There is now a total of 16 language sections available on the site.

New Free Resources

71 new free resources for 18 languages have been added to the site.

Afrikaans

Learn Afrikaans Wikibook in English

Arabic

Syrian Arabic Free Illustrated Textbook with Audio Download
Learning Arabic Language from Didactiques Langues Publications

Dutch

Valley Trail Free Online Dutch Courses and Lessons for Beginner and Advanced Students

English

TheEnglishLanguage.org Directory of Websites about the English Language
EnglishClub.com Free ESL Learn and Teach English Lessons, Games, Forums, Quizzes, Chat
Effortless English Podcast Gives Automatic English for the People
Listen to English-Learn English Podcast
English1010.com Free Audio and Written English Lessons Online
BetteratEnglish.com Better at English ESL/EFL Podcast for Real People
Learn about the English Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
itcansay.com Huge Database of Audio Samples for English Pronunciation Practice, Dictionary, Online Text Reader
Englishmate.com.cn English Mate Podcast for Learning English Online with Real Teachers

Esperanto

Esperanto.info Website about the Constructed Language Esperanto

French

Fancy French: Learn to Speak, Read and Write French Online in Total Immersion with Free Podcast Downloads
Learn about the French Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

German

Download Free FSI German Language Audio Courses
Learn about the German Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Hindi

Learn about the Hindi Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Indonesian

Learn about the Indonesian Language (Bahasa Indonesia) at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Italian

Let's Speak Italian Podcast: Learn in Minutes a Day

Japanese

Kanji-a-Day.com Learn Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana Daily Study Aid Website
KanjiQuizzer.com Free Sura Sura Kanji Quiz Web Software Interface

Korean

KoreanPod Learn Korean Podcast on Podomatic
LetsLearnKorean.com Let's Learn Korean Group Blog Website
Learn about the Korean Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Latin

Latinum - The Latin Language Learning Podcast from London

Mandarin Chinese

CSLPod.com Chinese as a Second Language Podcast
learningmandarinpod Learning Mandarin Chinese Podcast and Video Podcasts
Learn Chinese Through Music: Mandarin Language Study through Pop Music

Persian

Persian Grammar Book for Farsi Study on Google Books
Farsi/Persian Language Lessons, Reading and Dialogues for Study Materials
Free Learn Persian Flashcards in Sets from Flashcard Exchange
Free and Easy Persian/Farsi Lessons from EasyPersian.com
The Iran Podcast
BBCPersian.com BBC Persian News in Farsi
Learn about the Persian/Farsi Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Portuguese

Easy Portuguese Website for Beginner and Intermediate Brazilian Portuguese Learners
Learn Portuguese Wikibook for Beginner and Intermediate Learners/Students
Tá Falado Free Brazilian Portuguese Podcast for Spanish Speakers
Loads of Podcasts in Spanish and Portuguese Languages

Russian

Learn Russian Wikibook for English Speakers Learning the Russian Language
langintro.com An Introduction to Russian for the Casual Learner
Learn about the Russian Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Spanish

SpanishRomance.com: A Variety of Spanish Language Content
Loads of Podcasts in Spanish and Portuguese Languages
SpanishSense.com Learn Spanish on Your Terms Podcast
Learn about the Spanish Language at Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Cool Free Tools and Multi-Lingual Resources

We added some cool tools and multi-lingual resource links, including internet TV stations, Firefox tools, recording archives and mobile phone phrasebooks!

Global Internet TV Gateway Portal with Web TV in World Languages
FoxLingo Free Firefox Browser Extension Software for Translating Web Pages
Language Learning Advisor Website for Help Learning Foreign Languages
Learno.com Free Online Foreign Language Learning Books
Verbs-Online.com Study French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, English with Verb Tools
UMN's Center for Advanced Research on Language Acquisition
Newseum.com Free Front Page News from over 50 Countries in Loads of Languages
WordChamp Language Toolbar for Firefox
Wikipedia Language Portal
Free and Open Mandarin Chinese University Lectures from Archive.org
Free Mobile Phone Phrasebooks for French, Spanish, German, Italian, Greek and Portuguese

New! English Language Teaching Resource Section

We started a resource database for language educators. Currently, we have resources for teaching English. We will be adding more languages soon!

Teach English

TeachingEnglish.org.uk BBC British Council Teaching English Resources
EnglishClub.com Free ESL Learn and Teach English Lessons, Games, Forums, Quizzes, Chat
TEFL.net Free Resources for English Teachers/Educators with TEFL, ESL, TESOL Help
Internet TESL Journal for Teachers of English as a Second Language
English1010.com Free Audio and Written English Lessons Online
Top ESL/EFL/TESOL/TEFL/TESL and TOEFL Salad Websites
itcansay.com Huge Database of Audio Samples for English Pronunciation Practice, Dictionary, Online Text Reader

Resources for Non-English Speakers

A few resources for speakers of languages other than English were added. This will eventually expand into localized/internationalized versions of the site.

For now, we have a handful of resources for non-English speakers to learn Mandarin Chinese. We figured with the Beijing 2008 Olympics just around the corner, these would be useful to folks out there.

Apprendre le chinois chez chine-nouvelle.com
Aprender chino a chino-china.com
Chinesisch-Lernen.org Chinesisch Lernen und China Entdecken
InfoCina.net Web site per imparare la lingua cinese
A-China.info: um Web site com informação e recursos para aprender a língua chinesa
Język-Chinski.com: Nauka języka chińskiego poznaj Chiny

New Commercial Resources

9 new commercial resources have been added for 9 languages:

English

Rosetta Stone Learn UK British English Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

French

Rosetta Stone Learn French Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

German

Rosetta Stone Learn German Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Hindi

Rosetta Stone Learn Hindi Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Indonesian

Rosetta Stone Learn Indonesian/Bahasa Indonesia Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Korean

Rosetta Stone Learn Korean Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Persian

Rosetta Stone Learn Persian/Farsi Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Russian

Rosetta Stone Learn Russian Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Spanish

Rosetta Stone Learn European (Spain) Spanish Language Software Level 1 (Commercial)

Blatant Self-Promotion

If you have not already done so, please visit our site and use the social bookmark link on the top right side to add us to any of numerous social bookmarking services such as del.icio.us, furl, magnolia, digg, reddit, newsvine, simpy, bluedot, stumble upon and more. Please help us grow!

The Free Language blogs are still the #1 blog on TopBlogArea.com in the Resources Section. We have moved up from #7 to #4 on BlogTopSites.com in their Resources Section.

Our Alexa rating is also improving. According to this rating, Free Language currently holds the spot as the 308,598th most-visited website in the world! This is up millions from when we released Version 2 on February 1st of this year.

Thanks for all the support!

BETA Testers Needed!

If you are interested in blogging about your language-learning experiences, you are invited to join Free Language! All you have to do is request a BETA user account and we'll set you up!

As mentioned in the March 2007 Free Language Letter, when Free Language V3 is launched, revenue sharing for users will be implemented.

Show Us the Resources!

If you have a favorite language-learning resource (or manage a website of your own) that is not listed on Free Language, please let us know by suggesting a resource. This is a simple way to help us get the word out!

Current Languages

Below is a quick list of all 16 languages for which resource sections are currently available on the site. Resources for other languages are also available at the blog.

Language Factiod

Tschüss (also tschüs) is an informal German parting phrase, used in much the same way as "good-bye" in English-speaking countries such as the United States or United Kingdom.

It is derived from Walloon adjüs (the equivalent of adieu in French), and was first taken up into the Low German language. For this reason, the word Tschüss has historically been more common in northern Germany, though it has gained country-wide acceptance. It is also commonly used in Switzerland and Austria, at the very least in Zürich and its outskirts. However, in southern Germany it is more common for the informal farewell ciao or adieu to be used, and the farewell Auf Wiedersehen is considered appropriate in more formal settings.

Factiod available thanks to Wikipedia.

Tschüss!

The Free Language Community
http://freelanguage.org

May Edition of Free Language Letter is Out

The May edition of the Free Language Letter is out!

There are new resources for learning the Mandarin Chinese language.

I am reposting it here for quick access:

Fourth Edition

Welcome to the fourth edition of The Free Language Letter.

New Languages

Two new languages have been added to the site! We are happy to announce new sections for the Afrikaans and Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian) languages.

New Resources

21 new resources for 11 languages have been added to the site:

Afrikaans

LearnAfrikaans.us Learn Afrikaans Free Online Language Courses
Beeld South African News in Afrikaans

Arabic

Free Learn Gulf Arabic Language Resources
Learn Arabic Free at Speak7

English

ESL Business News Podcast
Podictionary English Dictionary Podcast

French

RFI News in Slowly-Spoken French Podcast
World Nomads iPod French Language Podcasts

German

Learn to Speak German with this Free Podcast

Hindi

World Nomads iPod Hindi Language Podcasts

Indonesian

Beginning Indonesian Learn Bahasa Indonesia Course
Learn Basic Bahasa Indonesia Phrases at Expat.or.id
SEASite Indonesia Resources for Learning Bahasa
World Nomads iPod Lingo Indonesian Language Podcast

Italian
World Nomads iPod Italian Language Podcasts

Japanese

World Nomads iPod Japanese Language Podcasts

Mandarin Chinese

World Nomads iPod Mandarin Chinese Language Podcasts

Spanish

Notes in Spanish Intermediate Podcast
Notes in Spanish Advanced Podcast
Rolling Rs Learn Spanish Podcast
World Nomads iPod Spanish Language Podcasts

Coming Soon...

Our First Podcast

The first Free Language Podcast show was supposed to be here last month, but it was put on the back burner in order to launch Afrikaans and Indonesian resources on the site. We will do our best to get this out in June.

Commercial Language-Learning Resources

Once again, this was put on the back burner. In June we hope to be rolling out a better store with a larger selection of commercial language-learning products and services. Funds earned from this new section will be put into making the interface and features of the site more rich and better organized.

Full Stats from freelanguage.org

Another back burner story... but in June we will be posting the entire history of statistics for freelanguage.org. For now, you can see a hint on polyglot's blog. You can also see a visual representation of where our visitors come from by visiting the Geovisitors tag page. Here is a screenshot of visitors from today:

The Blog Grows More

There are now six bloggers over at the Free Language Blog:

If you are interested in blogging about your language-learning experiences here, you are invited to request a BETA user account on Free Language. As mentioned in the March 2007 Free Language Letter, when Free Language V3 is launched, revenue sharing for users will be implemented.

Current Languages

A quick list of all 14 languages for which resources are currently available on the site:

Suggest a Resource

If you have a favorite language-learning resource (or manage a website of your own) that is not listed on Free Language, please let us know by suggesting a resource.

Social Bookmark Us!

If you have not already done so, please visit our site and use the social bookmark link on the left side to add us to any of numerous social bookmarking services such as del.icio.us, furl, magnolia, digg, reddit, newsvine, simpy, bluedot, stumble upon and more. Please help us grow!

Auf wiedersehen.

The Free Language Community
http://freelanguage.org

April 2007 Edition of the Free Language Letter

I thought I'd re-distribute the April edition of the Free Language Letter here:

Third Edition

Welcome to the third edition of The Free Language Letter.

New Resources

Since the last newsletter, 18 new resources for 7 languages have been added to the site:

Arabic

University of Chicago Arabic Circle Lectures Podcast
Madinah Arabic Beginner Language and Reading Courses

English

languagecaster.com Learn English through Soccer/Football Podcast
Breaking News English EFL/ESL Learning Podcast
Exam English Free Practice Tests

French

Learn French by Podcast
Easy French Poetry Podcast
BBC Languages French
Learn French Wikibook
The French École French for Beginners Podcast

German

Learn German Wikibook
MyDailyPhrase.com German Podcast

Italian

MyDailyPhrase.com Italian Podcast

Mandarin Chinese

Mobile Chinese Flashcards Cell Phone Software
Adsotrans Dynamic Chinese Annotation Website and Software Project

Spanish

Chile Podcast and Video Podcast
InstaSpanish.com's Insta Spanish Podcast

General Tools

BBC Better at Languages

Coming Soon...

Our First Podcast

The first Free Language Podcast show will be coming by the end of this month!

Commercial Language-Learning Resources

Within the next month we will be rolling out a better store with a larger selection of commercial language-learning products and services.

Full Stats from freelanguage.org

We will be posting the entire history of statistics for freelanguage.org within the next month. For now, you can see a hint on polyglot's blog.

12 New Languages

The list of potential languages to add to the site will be narrowed down to 12 and posted before the next newsletter!

The Blog Grows

There are now three bloggers over at the Free Language Blog:

polyglot

opal myth

transcombouge

If you are interested in blogging about your language-learning experiences here, you are invited to request a BETA user account on Free Language. As mentioned in last month's Free Language Letter, when Free Language V3 is launched, revenue sharing for users will be implemented.

Current Languages

A quick list of all 12 languages for which resources are currently available on the site:

Arabic

Cantonese

English

French

German

Hindi

Italian

Japanese

Mandarin Chinese

Portuguese

Russian

Spanish

Suggest a Resource

If you have a favorite language-learning resource (or manage a website of your own) that is not listed on Free Language, please let us know by suggesting a resource.

Até a proxima.

The Free Language Community
http://freelanguage.org

Language-Learning Podcasts and Video Podcasts

Submitted by polyglot on Sat, 2007-02-03 23:13.
Tags: education | learn | podcasts | study | video podcasts

Here is a list of the podcasts on Free Language. I have bolded the ones for Mandarin Chinese.

Learn Arabic Podcasts
Learn Cantonese Podcasts
Learn English Podcasts
Learn French Podcasts
Learn German Podcasts
Learn Hindi Podcasts
Learn Italian Podcasts
Learn Japanese Podcasts
Learn Mandarin Chinese Podcasts
Learn Portuguese Podcasts
Learn Russian Podcasts
Learn Spanish Podcasts

Here is a list of the video podcasts, though not all languages have them yet:

Learn Arabic Video Podcasts
Learn Cantonese Video Podcasts
Learn English Video Podcasts
Learn French Video Podcasts
Learn German Video Podcasts
Learn Hindi Video Podcasts
Learn Italian Video Podcasts
Learn Japanese Video Podcasts
Learn Mandarin Chinese Video Podcasts
Learn Portuguese Video Podcasts
Learn Russian Video Podcasts
Learn Spanish Videos Podcasts

Learn Chinese Online with Serge Melnyks

"This Mandarin Chinese course is created for anyone who is interested in learning spoken Mandarin, the audio lessons are in Mp3 format and can be downloaded from this Website for free.

PDF transcripts and worksheets are available for a small fee.

These podcast lessons are suitable for beginners, they are progressive, so you can start from “zero” level and after completing the course, you will be able to speak fluent Mandarin Chinese on the familiar topics.

A very important feature of this course is that you can spend as much time on each lesson as you need, there is no time limit or other requirements, just download your lessons and study them at your own pace.

Every new lesson is built on the vocabulary and grammar of the previous lesson. You can spend about a week on each lesson.

There is a lot of review of the old vocabulary in the new lessons and all lessons are interconnected. The step-by-step approach in learning Mandarin Chinese is very important. By constantly repeating the key words and phrases you will remember them better.

So from now on you can take the Mandarin Chinese Lessons with you and study anytime, at any place, at your convenience. E.g. You can study in your car on the way to work or school. No need to sit in the classroom! Study whenever you want!"

Visit the site.

Free Mandarin Chinese Language-Learning Lessons and Resources

These days Mandarin Chinese is growing more and more popular as a second language for people all over the world. This is true mainly because of the evident booming Chinese economy and the current and future market that is growing at a breathtaking pace.

Here are some of the free resources I have come across:

Learn Mandarin Chinese Podcasts at Free Language

Chinese has four (or five - depending on how you look at it) tones. Here is a page that explains some basic information about the tones in Mandarin Chinese. Also, a link to a Mandarin tone exercise game.

Here is an Audio Tutorial of Survival Chinese

This site has free Chinese lessons.

A fabulous and free online Chinese dictionary.

An assortment of basic Mandarin lessons.

General info about the Chinese language and lots of links to other aspects of Chinese culture, art and more.

Wikipedia info on Mandarin Chinese.

Wikibook on Mandarin Chinese with lessons and information.

I had a synchronous encounter (thanks to a good friend) with someone here in Beijing who is working on a most astounding and incredibly useful project called adsotrans.

From adsotrans read me:

"To use this website simply copy Chinese text into the submission box and click "Adsotate". The text will be automatically annotated -- mouseover any word for a popup with pinyin and english. More control over annotation options and full webpage translation is possible through the advanced interface. If you're simply looking for freshly annotated Chinese texts to read, why not check out our sister site page, which is also open to the public. Students looking for study material should visit News in Chinese."

Indeed, this is a worthy, user-edited and -driven project that is quite impressive.

Their News in Chinese website is a great place for more advanced learners to experience their intuitive user translation interface for reading the latest RSS news feeds in Simplified Chinese from Xinhua. If you are very knowledgable about the Mandarin language, you can contribute greatly to the project with your expertise. Volunteer info is here.

And finally, here are a couple more links for learning Mandarin starting from the basics:

Sinosplice Chinese Language Study Resources

Sinosplice Chinese Study Book Reviews (Great help for choosing a text to use.)

Basic Chinese Phonetics with Pinyin Voice Recordings

Chinese Pronunciation Guide (Requires RealAudio)

There is obviously a lot more info out there, so I encourage you to search around. These links will give a good intro and link to a lot of other sites, but there is so much more out there.

In the words of Mao Zedong himself: "Study hard and make progress everyday." :)