10 Free Ways to Learn a Language
In preparation for our upcoming travels in Central and South America, I’ve taken up studying Spanish. I’ve always loved learning languages — I have some German, French, and Russian under my belt — but I’ve never mastered one.
When I travel (especially long-term), it’s important to me to be able to communicate with people in their native language. So I’m determined to make Spanish the first language I conquer.
Luckily for me, there are tons of free resources out there to aid me on my mission. Here are 10 of my favorites.
1. Meetups
Meetup.com will connect you with local, in-person events that match your interests. Find a meetup in your area where you can converse with native speakers and other students learning the language. If there’s not a meetup for your language of choice, start one. If you’re feeling shy, just remember that everyone else that goes to your meetup is in the same boat.
2. Library
Language learning software and books can be ridiculously expensive. Fortunately for us cheap, green students, there are libraries. Head to your local library and browse their selection of software, textbooks, videos, and, if you’re more advanced, novels. If your library doesn’t have what you want, see if you can request what you seek through an interlibary loan. My best find so far: a Pimsleur audio course.
3. Podcasts
iTunes offers a multitude of free language learning podcasts. They vary in quality, so give them a listen before you download all of the episodes. My personal favorite is Coffee Break Spanish (by Radio Lingua Network), which I listen to every day on the bus. They focus on Spain Spanish, but it’s still been helpful for me because they cover a lot of grammar. They also have materials for Spanish, French, Italian, German, Irish, Luxembourgish, Norwegian, Polish, and Russian.
4.Craigslist or Freecycle
I recommend checking out Craigslist and Freecycle before buying just about anything new, but they’re especially great for finding used textbooks and software for free or cheap. You might want to subscribe to an RSS feed on Craigslist, since free finds tend to get snatched up quickly.
5. Websites
There are tons of websites out there offering free language tools — some of which actually are free, many of which are scammy. Here are some compilations of the best genuinely free online language learning tools.
- Money Saving Expert’s The Top Websites: Learn a new language for free
- TechCrunch’s review of Babbel
- Get Rich Slowly’s Word2Word: Free Online Language Tools
photo credit: clurr
6. Friends
This one might seem obvious, but many language learners are shy about trying out their language skills on their friends. If you have friends who have studied the language or are native speakers, ask if them if they’ll practice with you. Don’t be shy. I regularly badger Elizabeth, who studied Spanish in high school and college, into speaking Spanish with me.
7. Neighborhoods, Restaurants, & Stores
Is there a Russian grocery store in your city? Or a German restaurant? A Spanish bar? Check them out, and you can practice your language and learn about the foods in the region you’ll visit. If you’re not comfortable striking up a conversation with a native speaker, you can practice just by ordering a meal or asking which aisle the cookies are on. Every little bit helps and will give you confidence in your speaking skills.
8. Language Buddy
You can find native speaker pen pal online, or meet up with one in person. Post on Craigslist that you’re looking for a language buddy who’s trying to improve his or her English, or ask your friends if they know anyone. When you meet in person, you can spend half the time talking in English and the other half speaking the language you’re learning. Everyone wins. As always, when you’re meeting someone you don’t know, meet in a public place.
9. Embassies & Consulates
If you’re lucky enough to live in a city that houses embassies where your chosen language is spoken, give them a call and see if they offer language courses. Some do, for a fee, and others have cultural events and occasional classes for free. Check out this list of embassies in the US to get started.
10. Volunteering
Often forgotten as a path to fluency, volunteering is a great way to give back to the community and master a new language at the same time. Use Idealist or Volunteer Match to find a non-profit organization or church that serves the community whose language you’re studying. If you can’t find a listed opportunity at the organization you’re interested in, call the non-profit directly and ask how you can get involved.
To learn Esperanto, distance learning certainly goes a long way. A good free site is http://www.Lernu.net
I’ve certainly found Esperanto of great help on my travels.
This is an awesome post! In anticipation of my trip to El Salvador/Guatemala I just went to the library to get CDs to learn Spanish - which I have been listening to during my long commute to work.
I am definitely going to look into the other ideas you posted.
Great ideas! I like the idea about trying out restaurants, stores etc. That would be great practice. I’m currently trying to pick up a little bit of Italian through one of those word-of-the-day RSS feeds.
I wrote an article about tips for learning languages online a few months back, and one thing a friend of mine suggested was using the internet to listen to international radio stations and to watch international news. I remember my french teachers also suggesting to watch French language TV or french versions of our favourite movies.
(if anyone’s curious, my article is here: http://50plus.com/Travel/BrowseAllArticles/index.cfm?documentID=21474)
I have found this site helpful… edufire.com. Not all the stuff on that site is free but I have been using the flashcards and this has been a huge help.
When I was writing an article on tips for learning a language online, a friend of mine suggested I use the internet to find online radio stations and streaming video in different languages. She turned me on to music from Greece.
I’m also trying to pick up a little bit of Italian with one of those “word-of-the-day” RSS feeds.
If you have even a basic understanding of a second language, a great way to simulate immersion is to watch tv and movies and listen to music in that language.
I speak (some) French and Japanese but I’m increasingly rusty. My husband has been very supportive of renting French and Japanese movies (through our cool neighbourhood indie movie rental place and through Netflix, which has a good selection). We turn on the English subtitles for him, I just listen, and I can always watch again with Japanese or French subtitles / closed captions turned on if I want to check up on unfamiliar words.
My husband is a novice in both languages but finds it helpful, too, and it makes a big difference for me.
I second watching TV and movies. Spanish soaps are great for this. Someone is always betraying someone and you can still figure it out even if you don’t know the language that well.
@Bill Chapman & @Doreen Thanks for suggesting these sites — I’ll check them out.
@transienttraels The morning and/or evening commute is a fabulous time to study. I listen to Coffee Break Spanish and my Pimsleur language course on the bus on my way and from every day, and I really think it’s helped with both my listening comprehension and my general knowledge of Spanish.
@Shaula & @Graham Watching TV and renting movies are great ideas. I love foreign films and, depending on the language you’re studying, you might be able to check out foreign films at the library for free. And I have to admit I thoroughly enjoy Telemundo and Univision. The soap operas are great. And I like watching cartoons occasionally because the vocabulary is simple and I can understand most of what they say, especially with the subtitles turned on.
I hope your Spanish is improving!
We built the learnit widget to help ourselves learn Czech - but it now contains many other languages as well.
If you look at the ’share’ page on our widget, I’ve linked to some other resources that might be of interest to you. I’ve included several ’social networks for languages’ - for example, I find italki.com helpful because it has lots of native Czech speakers. These are all free, but might introduce charging in future.
Good luck with your travels.
Nicola
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Great list, and I’ve used quite a few of these when trying to improve on my learned languages. But nothing beats conversation. You can study your head off in books, online and in your notebooks, but it’s only when hearing and having to respond to your language of choice on the regular that it really kicks in.
Good site I “Stumbledupon” it today and gave it a stumble for you.. looking forward to seeing what else you have..later
I like the podcasts and television part.. less reading but more learning
When you travel to foreign country’s, it is a smart thing to learn a few greeting words of the place you are traveling to.
This is so inspiring! I just got back from living in Paris for a year, and the ability to communicate with locals in French was so satisfying. I’ve been itching to learn a new language, but with class and work, it’s hard to find the time! I think my new plan is to start listening to podcasts while I work out. Traveling is so much more enriching when you know the langugage!
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