01.22.08
Free language instruction on the Web
I thought it would be useful to collect in a single post the various sites that offer free language instruction. UPDATE: See also this post on learning a language.
The Foreign Service Institute language courses — developed with taxpayer money and in the public domain.
LiveMocha language courses — This one seems quite good.
Forvo — Pronunciation of foreign words for a wide variety of languages.
EduFire (Not yet active, but you can sign up to be notified. In the meantime, EduFire offers blogs and podcasts to help in learning a variety of languages—links found here.)
Rosetta Stone — not normally free, but your library may offer free access through their on-line catalog. Check it out. At my library, a title search (on the on-line catalog) on “Rosetta Stone” had as one hit the language courses, and clicking that took me here. To register, I just enter my library card number.
Master list of free on-line courses — these include free language courses (including iTunes courses)
LearnItLists — Learn a language a few words per day.
A ranking of free foreign language courses on the Web — Useful information.
8 Free Online Resources for Learning a New Language — More free courses.
Valodas — Another free language-learning site.
Eric said,
23 January 2008 at 5:50 am
LG, that link you posted to the FSI is incredible! I just checked out the one for Cantonese … very extensive and useful stuff. I’ve never seen anything _free_ that’s anywhere near that good. Heck, I’d pay for it! Many thanks!
kinderblogger said,
25 June 2008 at 2:31 pm
Thanks for this information.