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Tatoeba is an open-source project for collecting sentences and their translations into other languages. See the Wikipedia page on Tatoeba for more background. Anyone is free to use the collection of sentences and translations for any purpose, private or public, open-source or commercial.

In addition to serving the public as a reference for translations of sentences from one language to another, the site is also of interest to those who study, academically or otherwise, the process of translation in a collaborative community.

Language Learning at Tatoeba

While Tatoeba offers many helpful resources to language learners, language instruction is not its core mission. In contrast to multilanguage sites such as Lang-8 or single-language sites such as lernu.net for Esperanto, Tatoeba does not formally offer any of the following:

  • structured presentation of grammar or vocabulary
  • mentoring (in which an instructor is formally assigned to a student)
  • a means of submitting written material that is intended as an exercise rather than as a reference to other language learners
  • a message system dedicated to requesting translation of particular sentences
  • a means of indicating the skill level of a contributor in any particular language

Some of these items can be addressed informally on Tatoeba. For instance, one can find self-identified native speakers by using an externally published list, and then send a private message requesting translation of particular sentences. But these tasks can be done more easily elsewhere.

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