Free Online Foreign Language Tutorials?
 

Hi,

Can anyone recommend a website that offers free foreign language tutorials? I'd like to pick up some french before we travel to France this summer.

Thanks!

Try here:
www.bbc.co.uk/languages/

Try Learn French by Podcast (www.learnfrenchbypodcast.com). I really like this service which is not structured as a formal language course but gives short (repeated)dialogues based on life scenarios, and makes grammar points along the way. There are printable texts of each lesson but payment is required for those and they are expensive in relation to the content.

Greg - the OP is looking for free lessons, not a subscription service like Poscasts.

Thanks Robespierre, but the podcasts are totally free - it is only necessary to subscribe if you want the written text.

Right you are - and the razor is free, too; all you have to buy is the blades.

A dubious analogy I think. A razor without blades is fairly limited in usefulness but listening and repetition are considered quite valuable in learning a language.

GregY2 got the best of that tart little exchange.

Not if one wants to learn how words are spelled and what they mean as well as how they are pronounced. Listening and repetition are useful only if you know what's being said.

The audio files are as useless as a razor without a blade.

This is not really helping dc4united but I can't resist.
Robespierre, if we discount decorative value, a razor without blades is truly useless. A aural language lesson, with clear context, and repetition, has considerable value. It's how introductory language courses are usually taught, and how most of us learn our native tongue. I didn't gain the impression that dc4united was looking for fluency by summer.

Get real.

The &quot;free&quot; podcasts (how I loathe that word) is clearly a come-on to induce people to pay to <i>join</i> so they get the manuals, without which they are lost.

Trying to compare this con to a language class where a live person can judge a student's comprehension and provide feedback is ludicrous.

And anyone who thinks that a beginner can &quot;pick up some French&quot; starting with Podcast One (with or without the manual) is living in Steve Jobs' Reality Distortion Field.

Oh Robespierre, now you're just being a very silly boy

I listen to Learn French by Podcast regularly and find it very helpful without usng any written text.

It probably wouldn't be as helpful if you didn't know any French to start with, though.

Another one more suited to beginners is FrenchPodClass- there is free written material as well as audio.

Right. If you can't counter the message, attack the messenger.

Case closed.

So you're against that particular podcast or all podcasts in general because Apple helped popularize them?

I subscribed to a bunch of French and Italian podcasts. Just listening, it's easy to tune them out. When they were saying &quot;io&quot; and pronounced it like &quot;yo&quot; in Spanish, I had to Google it up to see.

You can look up some free site on the web to see irregular verb conjugations or specific word translations.

Both aural and written help. It helps to be able to look at the written text but also to hear how those words are pronounced.

There are two approaches though, learning a few phrases and memorizing them, or understanding the grammar so that you can construct sentences by yourself eventually.

For a trip, most people are going to go for the first approach. For people who want a deeper understanding, you have to do the latter.

Well it's not free but there are things like Rosetta Stone (which is also available online).

&quot;...because Apple helped popularize them...&quot;

No - because we called them &quot;downloads&quot; for the last 25 years, and now Jobs comes along with the implication that he invented the concept.

Oh - and because I regard the iPOS as overpriced junk.

Depending on where you live you may be able to access Rosetta Stone from a local library online. I live in Ohio and can access it. It is a great program.

Travelatte

I have looked at the sites listed - all look great - the bbc one is fascinating - am going back there myself ) I have used the pod casts to refresh my skills - thought it had merit. Spoken tends to be what you need unless you are trying to read a book- written as in signs you can look up in a trusty little book!

As you may have guessed Robespierre is an Apple phobic especially ipods and takes every opportunity to slam and digress away from the posting question - good luck with your langauge and repeat repeat repeat!

HEY!

I didn't start this iPOS digression. I was answering a specific question that was posed on 02/18/2007, 10:39 am.

Up until that time, my comments were strictly limited to the podcast scam.

And no, I'm not &quot;Applephobic.&quot; I simply abhor the kind of posturing that Apple tends to do.

Let's just say that learnfrenchbypodcast is only free if you don't need the manuals - it's far too advanced for dc4united. And leave it at that.

You can watch French in Action free on the net. You just have to sign up:

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

I like the Pimsleur language programs if you want to learn fast. They are expensive but I am able to check the DVD's out from my library. I have also purchased them on e-bay and then resold them after &quot;using&quot; them.

You gotta check out the bbc site from willtravel- I have been wandering around on it and for a traveler it is great - lets you print out the phrases - does l many languages and includes mp3 download ( that is where I went) which they call language quick fixes - this way you can appeal to your aural or visual needs and take it with you on paper, computer and cd or some kind of mp3 player -thanks willtravel for your insight!

Podcasts existed before Apple integrated them into iTunes.

However, iTunes automates the downloading of podcasts you want to listen to on a regular basis.

There is certainly a lot of other free software which does this.

But iTunes does a good job and a lot of people use iTunes for podcasts, even if they don't have iPods.

Would there be as much activity in the production of podcasts, most of which are absolutely free to subscribe to and ad-free, if Apple hadn't helped popularize them?

Tens of millions of iPods and way more in iTunes downloads made podcasts a mass medium.

I think you're badly misunderestimating [<i>sic</i>] the vast number of audio downloading sites that existed when iPOS was still Steve Jobs' wet dream.

What he is <i>trying</i> to do is to lock up a proprietary DRM architecture that only HE has the key to.

Re-naming audio downloads to &quot;podcasts&quot; is part of the strategy. Read <u>1984</u> and you'll understand better.

Come on, guys! Back to the OP's question.

The Bathroom Monitor hath spoken.

Robespierre, relax! No more posts on this from me.

I'm already relaxed. It's you who seems to be uptight about the direction of this thread. So if you don't post again, that will work for me.

I'd like to try an Italian tutorial podcast. Any recommendations?

Go to iTunes Music Store and search for &quot;Italy&quot; or &quot;Italian.&quot;

You will get hits in all categories but you have to select Podcasts. Then from those, some will specifically be for language.

One I found is learnitalianpod.com.

Bookmarking to try some of these sites later. I use my Pimsleur tapes for review constantly and highly recommend them. Expensive, but well worth it (especially is you already know a little French grammar). But variety is good!

bookmarking -thanks

scrb -Thanks. I should have been more specific in my previous post. I'm looking for a free Italian language podcast.

That is completely free. I subscribe to that and have dozens of different lessons from that and I've not paid a single dime for it.

iTunes is a free download.

But you can also go to learnitalianpod.com and manually download each lesson there as they appear or you can subscribe to an RSS feed there with iTunes or some other software and it will automatically download them for you each time there is a new one.

Completely free.

&quot;I think you're badly misunderestimating [sic] the vast number of audio downloading sites that existed when iPOS was still Steve Jobs' wet dream.

What he is trying to do is to lock up a proprietary DRM architecture that only HE has the key to.

Re-naming audio downloads to &quot;podcasts&quot; is part of the strategy. Read 1984 and you'll understand better.&quot;

Did Jobs come up with the name &quot;Podcasts&quot;?

I'm pretty sure &quot;podcasts&quot; existed before Jobs first publicly demonstrated the &quot;podcast&quot; features in iTunes and iPod.

It was actually at a D Conference hosted by the WSJ a few years back. (Incidentally, Jobs and Gates will be sharing a stage at this year's D Conference in May).

But Apple has really tried to play up the &quot;pod&quot; in &quot;podcasts&quot; trying to associate it with iPod and iTunes. To a certain extent, that has succeeded as many people who don't have iPods use iTunes to manage their podcast subscriptions because a lot of podcast producers work to get their podcasts on the iTunes directory, one of the most visible, if not the most visible podcast directories.

Oh and podcasts in iTunes are completely free and there is absolutely no DRM on them. So you can subscribe to podcasts in iTunes and if you have another player, manually drag the files which were automatically downloaded by iTunes, onto another player.

Just wondering if it's my computer or do other people find that their internet transmissions of programs like French in Action tend to freeze?
I sometimes find the same thing with some French radio programs, but I can usually get those back on track more easily than FIA.

letour

I really like rocketfrench.com. It's cheap and full-featured.