There are lots of websites and commercial blogs out there advocating expensive software or books which contain the 'magic secret' to language learning.
But before you part with your hard earned Pound, Euro, Dollar or Rouble, please be aware that there is a wealth of free material out there for language learners. You may still need to buy a textbook or attend a course (though for some of the more popular languages even these are available online for free), but for most languages there is material online or methods you can use to enhance your language learning for free.
The below list constitutes some of the ideas I have/ use to learn languages for free. I hope you find the list useful - please let me know if you have any further ideas!
(I do not personally endorse or receive sponsorship for including any of the ideas in the list).
Target language = The language that you are learning
1-10 Being Social
1 Meet-up groups for expats
Look at websites advertising meet-ups for expats who
would speak your target language. Below website is an example of one
advertising free meet ups for language speakers.
http://www.meetup.com/find/
2 Penfriends
Sounds like an old fashioned idea, but there are still
organisations out there, as well as online sites, who will put you in touch
with a speaker of your target language. Many people develop lifelong friendships
from being penfriends.
3 Local interest groups/ coffee mornings for learners
Look through local newspapers or at local library
noticeboards, and you will often find adverts for coffee mornings or local meet
up groups for intermediate advanced or advanced learners of your target
language.
4 Volunteer as a speaker for sporting event
It was not just the Olympics that was looking for
language volunteers in 2012. It might surprise you how many international
sporting events are held in the UK and elsewhere every year from wheelchair
rugby to marathons. By volunteering your linguistic services, you will not only
meet lots of native speakers of your target language, you might even meet the
odd celeb or two!
5 Visit local restaurant relevant to your language
Perhaps this is technically not a free activity if you
have to pay for the meal, but it can be considered a free language and culture
lesson, if you get to chat the waiters/ waitresses in your target language.
6 Visit local community centre
Local community centres often hold free language clubs/
courses/ meet-ups that may be relevant to your target language.
7 Volunteer to translate/ interpret
It’s not just sporting events that need volunteer
linguists. Often immigrant groups need volunteers to translate documents, or
help people in understanding English forms and documents.
8 Craigslist/ Gumtree
Craigslist and Gumtree have sections where people can
post adverts looking for language exchanges. The usual precautions apply, but
if you live in a big city, chances are you will find someone speaking your
target language wanting to meet up to practise their English.
9 Couchsurfing
This is a site where people can advertise that they are
willing to host travellers for free or that they are looking for a free place
to stay. Again, usual precautions apply, but you might meet some native
speakers of your target language and meet some new friends along the way.
https://www.couchsurfing.org/
10 Get talking to people!
Languages are all about communication, so you will be an advantage
if you are naturally sociable. If not, take a risk and get talking to people.
Let your friends and family know that you are learning a language. People,
believe it or not, will invariably want to help, and might put you in touch
with native speakers they know.
11-20 Social Media
11 Twitter
Twitter is a social media app that is free to join. Use
hashtags and lists to find other target language learners and teachers.
12 Facebook
Facebook is also free to join and can be used by language
learners to find groups of like-minded learners.
13 Forums
There are online forums for almost every subject and
language. They can be a good place for beginners to ask questions to more
advanced learners.
14 Blogs
In blogs written by other learners of your target language,
you may be able to find links to online resources, and also learn from their
past experiences of learning your target language.
15 Write a blog about your learning experience
Write a blog about your experiences and you may find that
other speakers/ learners will reach out to you, and may help with any specific
problems you write about in your blog.
16 Social media popular in your target language
country
We tend to think that the whole world uses Facebook and
Twitter. However, you may find that for your target language country, other
social media apps are more popular such as Hyves in the Netherlands and
Vkontakte in Russia.
17 Youtube
Youtube can be a treasure trove of free material – from
amateurs giving language tutorials to professionally produced TV shows posted
online.
18 Myspace
Another free online social app. An alternate to Facebook.
19 LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a social media app for connecting
professionals. You can search for and join groups of professionals speaking
specific languages.
20 Podcasts
Teachers and language experts have posted online seminars
and even entire courses on podcasts which you can download and listed to
whenever you want.
21-30 Free Resources
21 Exam Syllabus
Exam syllabi can be an amazing free source of information
on a language such as vocabulary, phrases and grammar. They are useful for
analysing how to reach a certain level. Below is an example for the TEG Irish
exams: Link http://www.teg.ie/english/syllabus.htm
22 NGOs
Many countries have organisations which seek to promote
their country’s language and culture. Often they have offices abroad with
libraries, cultural centres and language schools. Unfortunately, many charge
market rates for these language courses, but you might be able to find ones
that offer free courses, or at least free library use/ information materials. Below
is a list of such organisations:
Andorra: Ramon Llull Foundation
Brazil: Brazilian Cultural Center
China: Confucius Institute
Czech Republic: Czech
Centres
Denmark: Danish Cultural Institute
Estonia: Estonian Institute
France: Alliance française Institut français
Germany: Goethe-Institut
Hungary: Hungarian Cultural Institute
Japan: Japan
Foundation
Poland: Adam Mickiewicz Institute
Portugal: Instituto Camões
Romania: Romanian Cultural Institute
Russia: Russkiy Mir Foundation
Spain: Instituto Cervantes
Switzerland: Pro
Helvetia
Sweden: Swedish
Institute
Turkey: Yunus Emre Institute
United Kingdom: British
Council
23 Language Regulators/ Official Bodies
In addition to language promotional bodies, some languages have official bodies which promote correct usage. The below list is taken from Wikipedia; some of the organisations linked might have free material for learners on their websites.
Language
|
Territory
|
Regulator(s)
|
Academy of the Asturian Language
(Academia de la Llingua Asturiana)
|
||
Euskaltzaindia, often translated as Royal Academy
of the Basque language
|
||
The Jakub Kolas and Janka Kupala Institute of Language and
Literature[2]
at the National Academy of Sciences
of Belarus
|
||
Royal Institute of Amazight Culture (IRCAM)
|
||
Institute of Catalan Studies (Institut
d'Estudis Catalans)
|
||
Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua
(for the Valencian
standard)
|
||
State Language and Letters Committee (国家语言文字工作委员会)
|
||
National Languages Committee (國語推行委員會)
|
||
Promote Mandarin Council (讲华语运动理事会)
|
||
Chinese Language
Standardisation Council of Malaysia (马来西亚华语规范理事会)
|
||
Cornish Language Partnership (Keskowethyans
an Taves Kernewek)
|
||
Institute of Croatian
Language and Linguistics (Institut za hrvatski jezik i jezikoslovlje)
|
||
Institute of the Czech Language (Ústav
pro jazyk český Akademie věd České republiky)
|
||
Dansk Sprognævn (Danish Language Council)
|
||
Nederlandse Taalunie (Dutch Language Union)
|
||
Emakeele
Seltsi keeletoimkond (Language Board at the Mother Tongue Society)
sets rules and standards, authoritative advice is given by the Institute of the Estonian Language
(Eesti Keele Instituut)
|
||
Faroese Language Board (Føroyska
málnevndin)
|
||
Académie française (French Academy)
|
||
Office québécois de la langue
française (Quebec Office of the French Language)
|
||
Royal Galician Academy (Real Academia
Galega, official)
|
||
Council for German Orthography (Rat
für deutsche Rechtschreibung)
|
||
Center for the Greek language
(Κέντρον Ελληνικής Γλώσσας)
|
||
Ministère de
l'éducation nationale et de la formation professionnelle (Haitian
department of education)[citation needed]
|
||
Hmar Literature Society
(Manipur, India)[citation needed]
|
||
Research
Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (Magyar
Tudományos Akadémia Nyelvtudományi Intézete)
|
||
Accademia della Crusca (Academy of the
bran)
|
||
No official centralized regulation, but de facto
regulations by Agency for Cultural Affairs (文化庁)
at the Ministry
of Education of Japan (文部科学省)
|
||
Various academies and Government
of Karnataka
|
||
Commission of the Kashubian Language (Radzëzna
Kaszëbsczégò Jãzëka[dead link])
|
||
National Committee for
State Language under the President of the Kyrgyz Republic (Кыргыз
Республикасынын Президентине караштуу Мамлекеттик тил боюнча улуттук
комиссия)
|
||
Autoridad Nasionala del Ladino
(National Authority of Ladino) [2]
|
||
Pontifical Academy for Latin (Pontificia
Academia Latinitatis) (Latin in the Roman Catholic Church)[3]
|
||
International Code of
Botanical Nomenclature (of the International Association
for Plant Taxonomy: botanical Latin)
|
||
International Code of
Zoological Nomenclature (of the International
Commission on Zoological Nomenclature: zoological Latin)
|
||
Latvian State Language Center
(Valsts Valodas Centrs)
|
||
Commission of the Lithuanian
Language (Valstybinė lietuvių kalbos komisija)
|
||
Lusoga Language Authority (LULA)
|
||
Macedonian
Language Institute "Krste Misirkov" (Институт за македонски
јазик „Крсте Мисирков“, Institut za makedonski jazik „Krste Misirkov“)
|
||
Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (The Institute
of Language and Literature)
|
||
National Council for the
Maltese Language (www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt)
|
||
Anstituto de la Lhéngua Mirandesa
(Institute of the Mirandese Language)
|
||
Academy of the Mixtec Language (Ve'e
Tu'un Sávi)
|
||
Council of the official state language (Төрийн хэлний
зөвлөл). Decisions have to be confirmed by the Mongolian government. [4]
|
||
Language Academy of Nepal
|
||
Lo Congrès Permanent de la lenga occitana (the
permanent congress of occitan language)[3]
|
||
Polish Language Council (Rada Języka
Polskiego)
|
||
Academia Brasileira de Letras
(Brazilian Literary Academy)
|
||
High Academy of the Quechua
Language (Qheswa simi hamut'ana kuraq suntur)
|
||
Institutul de Lingvisticǎ al Academiei
Române (Institute for Linguistics of the Romanian
Academy)
|
||
Russian Academy (1783–1841)
|
||
Russian Language Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (since
1944)
|
||
The Scots Language Centre
supports the Scots language.[5]
Scottish Language Dictionaries
record and analyse the language as it is spoken and written throughout
Scotland today.[6]
|
||
Bòrd na Gàidhlig maintains the national plan for
Gaelic, to promote its use and make Gaelic culture accessible
|
||
Stk’wemiple7s re Secwepemctsin, are the group of people
supported by the Secwepemc Cultural Education
Society who develop new words.
|
||
|
|
||
Ľudovít Štúr Institute of Linguistics (Jazykovedný ústav Ľudovíta Štúra) at
Slovak Academy of Sciences (Slovenská
akadémia vied)
|
||
Asociación de Academias de
la Lengua Española (constituted by the Real Academia Española plus 21 other
separate national academies in the Spanish-speaking world)
|
||
Swedish Language Department of the Research Institute
for the Languages of Finland (Svenska språkbyrån)
|
||
Thanjavur Tamil University and Official language
Commission of Government of Tamil Nadu
|
||
Telugu Academy and Official Language Commission of Government of Andhra Pradesh
|
||
National
Institute of Linguistics at the National University of East Timor
|
||
Royal Institute of Thailand (ราชบัณฑิตยสถาน)
|
||
Sanghiran san Binisaya ha Samar ug Leyte
(Academy of the Visayan Language of Samar and Leyte) defunct
|
||
— Welsh Language Commissioner (Meri Huws)
— The Welsh Government (previously the Welsh Language Board (Bwrdd yr Iaith Gymraeg)(Principally, however, the role of the Welsh Language Commissioner is that of language planning and policy regulator and enforcer. The role also includes corpus planning.) |
||
Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy)
|
||
Centre de linguistique
appliquée de Dakar (Center of Applied Linguistics of Dakar at the Cheikh Anta Diop University)
|
||
24 Write to agency / government department in country for
subject you’re studying asking for info in target language
Ministries responsible for Education or immigrant
settlement in your target language country might be able to send you free
material to help you learn your language.
25 Organisations that promote your target language
Other than the NGOs and government bodies listed above,
there may be other organisations out there promoting your target language.
Scottish Gaelic, for example, has CLI to promote the language to learners.
26 Open University
The Open University offers some free material from
time-to-time that you can download. At the time of writing the OU offers
English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Gaelic, Chinese and Welsh.
27 Libraries/ language courses
Language courses can be expensive to purchase. Did you
know though that many local libraries allow you to borrow language courses for a
minimal charge?
28 Free Tourist info on your local area
Get information on your local area in your target
language from your local tourist information for free so that you have a point
of reference from when you’re inevitably asked abroad about your home area.
29 Massachusetts Institute of Technology free courses
This institute offers online course material for free:
30 Free Sample Days at local universities/ colleges
Check out whether your local university / college/ is
holding free sample days – especially useful if you are just starting out
learning as a beginner.
31-40 Books
31 Google Books
Google Books has a wealth of free books and materials across
a variety of languages.
32 Ibooks
Download Ibooks to your iphone or ipad, and download any
available free books.
33 Pottermore offers free sample chapters – other sites may
do too
The official website for Harry Potter e-books and
audiobooks has free sample chapters in various languages including French,
German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Polish and Swedish.
34 FSI
The FSI has some complete course material (though dated)
which you can download in pdf with accompanying MP3s.
35 Library
Your local library might have a foreign literature
section from which you can borrow books for free.
36 Cultural Institutes
The cultural institutes mentioned above might have free
lending libraries from which you can borrow books for no charge.
37 Book exchanges
Got an old maths textbook that you no longer need? Look
online for university/ school book swap sites where you can trade in any old
books you have for textbooks in your target language.
38 Project Gutenburg
This online site offers over 42000 free e-books in a
variety of languages.
39 Kindle
You don’t have to buy a physical Kindle to benefit from
its services. Just download the app to your computer or phone and find free
books to download.
40 Playstore
If you have an Android, the Playstore has many books (in
foreign languages) that you can download for free.
41-50 Media
41 BBC
The BBC offers free online language course, exam revision
in school and Celtic languages, news in numerous languages as part of its World
Service, and programmes in Welsh and Gaelic.
42 National news agencies
National News agencies such as Deutsche Welle often have
multilingual sites and content. DW even has free online language courses.
43 TV apps
State broadcasters abroad are starting to put their
content on-line in a similar fashion to the BBC’s IPlayer App. A good example
of this is Sweden’s STV. I have used this to watch Swedish news (with Swedish
subtitles!).
44 Live TV
TV apps allow you to watch foreign TV for free on your
computer or phone. For the moment, many apps seem to just show catch up TV from
non-mainstream channels. I have found wwitv.com to be the most useful as shows
live TV from countries such as the Netherlands.
45 Foreign newspapers online
Foreign newspapers often have very good internet sites,
sometimes with multimedia content. Examples include:
Dutch: De Telegraaf
French: Le Monde
Sweden: http://www.svd.se/
46 Foreign shows on TV
The BBC has shown numerous Nordic series on BBC4 such as
Borgen and Wallander – great if you are learning Danish or Swedish. Look at TV
listings to find TV films and shows in your target languages.
47 Newspapers for expats
London and other British cities now host large immigrant
communities. These communities have started giving out free newspapers, some of
which have grown into professionally produced weekly or monthly papers. Find
out if any such free papers exist in your target language. They are also a good
source of information on groups and language meet-ups.
48 Find out if foreign TV channels on SKY/ satellite TV
SKY has numerous foreign TV channels that you can
potentially watch for free if you already have a subscription. Additionally
‘Euronews’ broadcasts in numerous languages including Polish and Russian – you
just need to change the language settings on your SKY set-up.
49 Radio – shortwave/ medium wave
When I lived in Siberia, I took with me a Grundig
shortwave radio so that I could get the BBC
World Service. (It was the pre-internet days!) I loved it! For any retro
enthusiasts, there is still a ‘world’ of shortwave radio stations out there
broadcasting in a vast array of languages.
50 Foreign TV websites
The websites of foreign state TV channels often have live streaming or catch-up sections similar to BBC's Iplayer. Great for watching TV in your target language for free!
Danish – http://www.dr.dk/tv
Russian - http://russia.tv/
Spanish - http://www.rtve.es/alacarta/
Swedish - http://www.svtplay.se/
