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Learn Languages For FREE (Cantonese, Chinese, French, German... etc)

fsi-language-courses.com — Learn languages for free. This site is dedicated to making these language courses freely available in an electronic format. It is an independent effort to foster the learning of worldwide languages. Text & audio materials used by the government to teach Cantonese, Chinese (Standard), French, German, Greek, Portuguese, Serbo-Croatian, Spanish, & Tur

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  • lukas88, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6After reviewing some of the Spanish course I have concluded that it is sub par compared to modern courses. It is obviously written in 1950 and languages evolve in a sociohistorical context. Although the teaching style is unique and may be helpful to some people.

    Good if you don't want to throw down 50 bucks for a proper text.
    • masterjenkins, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7or $120 at a college bookstore (those cd's really drive up the price you know)
    • krizhere, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7I've been looking at the Greek course and they're definitely material produced around the 70s. They're using intonation symbols we've dropped (officially) since 1981.

      The sound samples are pretty decent. In speaking terms the language hasn't changed a lot so if someone's interested I would recommend it as a first intro.
    • TheIronBadger, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Also there is not too much in the way of choices. I would like to learn Japanese or Dutch but neither are there.
    • Firemeboy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Cantonese is from the 70's, which means that somewhere in there is the Chinese word for groovy.
    • kcpwnsgman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@TheIronBadger:

      I know what you mean, I wanted to learn Arabic, but my school dropped it, and don't feel like taking their after class Japanese class.

      They might update with more in the future.
    • stryck, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I would also like to learn Dutch! Does anyone know where such a course could be found at a free or small price?
      -Stryck-
    • georgelogy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've also been wanting to learn Dutch for a long time. I know some words and phrases from my grandparents, but I wish I was fluent.
    • LisaGoourd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Are you learning Chinese? How long time do you learn Chinese and mandarin? Do you want to know your current level and achievement? I suggest you spend 5 minutes to know your Chinese level through watching a video on http://hello-mandarin.blogspot.com/search/label/Level%20Test of http://hello-mandarin.blogspot.com ( http://www.hellomandarin.com )
  • juneof44, on 10/12/2007, -1/+12If you're studying Japanese via the Minna No Nihongo books, you can try my site: http://www.jacobhickman.com/dow
    • bennybertow, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Cool. I'm trying to teach myself Japanese, and always look for good resources.
  • oooo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I've found Pimsleur method to be fantastic with Mandarin. At first glance these look a bit lower quality, both in terms of thoroughness, sound quality (could be just the mp3) and approach. But for free (compared to $600+ for Pimsleur), I'll be going through these a bit!
  • Opheicus, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9As a native Catonese speaker my self I think that the Catonese courses are reliable and can be used in the modern day.
  • Tawni, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3This is great! Now I have no excuse to learn another language.
  • pauljaroszewski, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Pass the Gauloise biyiotch!
  • kd1s, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Even if it is from the 1950's the basic syntactical and linguistic rules still apply. Take Spanish for example - there is the Castillian dialect taught in pretty much every school in the U.S.

    But in the real world you have dialects from distinct countries and regions within those countries, but so long as you have the root basics of the language all you have to remember is "como se dice...."

  • NiGHTSChao, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0T_T No Japanese support
    I want to learn japanese, I just hope it isnt TOO hard for me
    • paulrus, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Search for Japancast.net in iTunes or go to http://www.japancast.net - until they reshuffled the categories in iTunes, we were the #1 audio blog. We do Japanese for anime fans, JPop fans, and Japanophiles - not crappy business Japanese that you buy in a bookstore.
    • NiGHTSChao, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2but I dont have a ipod T_T
    • stryck, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You know... you don't need an iPod to listen to a podcast. They don't have DRM (so far!) and you can listen to them directly from your computer if you are so inclined. iTunes is great because it downloads them automatically for you, and has a huge library of podcasts to choose from. If you don't want to use iTunes, you can use other software that does a similar thing, just google it.
      -Stryck-
    • iJump, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1You might take a look into YesJapan.com . Even though it isn't free, they're worth every penny. Plus, the shows are sure to irk out a lot of chuckles.

      http://www.yesjapan.com/
  • encouragement, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Maybe someone can report back in a week or month with the RESULTS of having gone through a class :)
  • brownb2, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Great job - excellent resource.
    I'm a little disappointed there didn't use OGG instead of MP3, which is superior at low bit rates allowing smaller file sizes.
    • feucht, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Yes, and no offers of cash or beer either
    • JohnCrichton, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6I'm also disappointed they didn't use {insert some obscure format here which has no chance of being highly popular} instead of {insert highly popular format here}.
  • olivierk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This if a good source but there are other more modern methods available online for free. About.com has very good language sections and for French, there's also a free 6 hour audiobook and lessons at http://www.learnfrenchinboston.com/
  • ivanjs, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6Dang, no Russian...
    • culbeda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1My thoughts exactly, although my language would have been stronger. I'm going over within a year and I REALLY need to pick up enough to get by while I'm there.
    • bkemper, on 10/12/2007, -5/+0ignore this comment
  • lchanmanl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1mistake in title: Cantonese is a dialect of Chinese...other than that, good stuff!
    • PKO17, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2You are correct, Cantonese =/= Mandarin; which is why it is listed separately. So what's your point?
    • lchanmanl, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1they listed it as Chinese (original). Putting (Cantonese, Chinese...) makes it look like Cantonese is a different language from Chinese. =)
    • bkemper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I believe the point is that it is listed as Cantonese and Chinese, not Cantonese and Mandarin. The site itself says, "The predominant language of China is now known as putonghuà, or Standard Chinese (literally “the common speech”). The more traditional term, still used in Taiwan, is Mandarin (literally “the national language”)."

      That's a kind of odd way of putting it. In the U.S. it is also know as Mandarin. In China it is known as pǔtōnghuà (putongua in case those letters don't come through on the page), which means "common speech" or "standard language".
  • evilTak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Cantonese AND Chinese?! How can I lose?!
  • insideitalian, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Shameless plug... I have a learn Italian podcast at www.insideitalian.com . It's good for beginners and easer to follow than this site.
  • gotamd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3This is somewhat interesting, but the material is VERY OUT OF DATE...for German at least. The language has changed a lot since the 1960's.
  • Sogan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The site has a HUGE lag. cannot access cus of all the diggers -_-
  • lixindi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1ick
    Cantonese and Mandarin.
  • happytex757, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is really helpful for a student like me.
  • virgilsoames, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I've been looking over the Chinese (Mandarin) texts, and would suggest caution using them. Like the other languages, they're old textbooks (1979) from the Defense Language Institute, and thus are eminently practical for oral use. However, there is no instruction in writing Chinese, as some modern teaching methods a more integrated approach (building up from radicals and sounds to characters and pinyin at the same time, before tackling phrases).
  • trollick, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Hmm... It turns out I know serbo-chroatian.
  • Skafloc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1After a rapid read-through, the swedish course looks good, although slightly out of date.
  • LisaGoourd, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Are you learning Chinese? How long time do you learn Chinese and mandarin? Do you want to know your current level and achievement? I suggest you spend 5 minutes to know your Chinese level through watching a video on http://hello-mandarin.blogspot.com/ ( http://www.hellomandarin.com )
  • jbird74, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Nice that there is various e-learning courses, but Croatian is rather difficult to learn, so there is no better way but live. I know one good school, which works on line live teaching, so if you're in need to learn Croatian check http://www.presto.hr/index-en.htm
  • amroyce, on 07/21/2008, -0/+1This site needs some make over and may be a few updates. Nevertheless it does have some good content.
  • mydave, on 08/01/2008, -0/+0oh thank you very much for such good site this is excellent.
    http://search.ashtech.info/Learn%20Languages%20For ...
  • cici0762, on 08/07/2008, -0/+0I found an excellent site for learning Chinese.
    All of the learning materials are free.
    It's very useful for chinese learners.
    the address is :
    http://www.chineselistening.com
  • Snasar, on 09/06/2008, -0/+0The On-line Spanish course www.ave.cervantes.es is excellet. With a tutor or not its excellet.
  • NestorPaula, on 09/09/2008, -0/+0At http://www.linkua.com there are hundreds of teachers that offer FREE CLASSES of many languages.
    The tutoring lessons are madde with live video. Great link.
    Free classes are here: http://www.linkua.com/free,option,auctions_show
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