LiveMocha (livemocha.com), an e-learning Web 2.0 startup, is one of the web-based services that lets you download a daily lesson in a variety of languages and try out your conversational skills with tutors or language partners.  So, if you wish to refurbish your high-school German or French or even wish to master a bit of a Mandarin Chinese LiveMocha offers a great alternative to more traditional tools like textbooks and CDs.

LiveMocha doesn't levy any charge for tutoring, instead, members tutor one another, drawing on their native language skills.

The tutors and the learners communicate with each other in many ways, viz by typing messages, by talking or, through video using a Webcam. For example: members can enhance their skills in Spanish by writing or speak about say a vacation and receive a feedback on their grammar and choice of idioms from native Spanish speakers on the network. Livemocha is available today with support for six popular languages – English, Spanish, French, Hindi, German, and Mandarin Chinese. Key elements of Livemocha's learning approach include: Dynamic lesson content – Lesson plans include over 160 hours of beginner and intermediate level content teaching everyday conversational language along with a full range of practical reading, listening, writing and speaking exercises.

Livemocha also leverages the native language expertise of its members by allowing them to enhance the content with grammar tips, alternative phrases and colloquialisms. Global community – Members all over the world can utilise their native language proficiency to teach and learn from other members of the community. Users have the option of practicing structured conversation exercises with a native speaker or submitting a writing or an audio sample of an exercise for a native speaker to edit or correct. These community-based interactive tools in Livemocha help build a strong engaged language community. Motivational system – For most people with little free time, learning a language can take a back seat to their busy lives. Through competitions, a language buddy system and community encouragement, Livemocha provides the tools to keep learners motivated and making steady progress.

The Self-study Lessons, avers the website can boost your grammar and vocabulary with fun and immersive self-study lessons. These lessons help develop reading, listening, speaking, and writing skills. Livemocha contains a friendly community of like-minded language learners. You'll make friends with and connect with native speakers.

Interacting with people from around the world can quickly develop your conversational skills and give you insight into the regional language nuances, customs, and culture. The content is kept fresh by LiveMocha members who collaborate with each other. The members also provide very useful tips in the lessons.

Though the site is still in beta, or testing phase, it has already been lauded as an innovative way to learn the languages. Paul Aoki, director of the language learning centre at the University of Washington, Seattle, opines the site's social networking component makes it useful. "It seems to be a pretty powerful opportunity for people around the world to connect with language partners," he says. He says that the chat capability provided by the website is a great language learning tool and doing simultaneously voice and text chat is very useful. He further adds "If you don't understand something your language partner is saying, or  when people at the other end speak slowly, they can type it out and you can read it."

Curtis J Bonk, a professor of education at Indiana University in Bloomington says LiveMocha is part of an explosion of educational resources for language learning on the Web.  "You no longer have to learn language as an individual in a silo somewhere, using a canned programme on a CD-ROM," he says, "Instead, you have thousands of tutors to pick from — if the first one doesn't work out, you can choose another."

LiveMocha hosted its Web site in late September 2007, and since then about 200,000 users from more than 200 countries have joined. According to its CEO Mr Nadkarni LiveMocha is a community of like-minded learners who can leverage their native language proficiency to help one another. The website has been named "LiveMocha" to evoke the relaxed atmosphere of a coffee shop on the web, he adds.