Foreign languages
Making Connections from Home > Foreign languages
Do you want to brush up on a language you started at school, or learn an entirely new one? Learning another language opens up so many opportunities for travel, making new friends, and learning about other cultures. This page covers the free online resources you can use to learn a language – where to find someone to practise your speaking skills with.
If you know of any other sites or apps that are missing from this page, please let us know by filling out this form.
Free resources
Duolingo
- A free and addictive app that focuses on learning the most important and often-used words in a given language
BBC Languages
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/
- A relatively old site but full of multimedia resources for learning languages
Open University
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/languages/free-courses
- Wide range of courses available for free through the OpenLearn platform
Learn with others
Lingoda
- Small group classes conducted over video chat
- Structured courses for different levels
- From around £8 per class
Learn with a tutor
Verbling
- A platform for finding tutors to teach you a language
- 7,500 tutors covering 50 languages
- Join a community of fellow language learners around the world
ITalki
- Over 10,000 language tutors to choose from
- Learn any language
Rosetta Stone
https://www.rosettastone.co.uk/
- Possibly the most well-known language learning platform
- Tuition involves four sessions peer month with a Studio Coach, entirely in the language you are learning
Talk to a native speaker
Tandem
- A popular and free app for finding language exchange partners
- Message potential partners and arrange when you want to talk
- Also has a tutor search feature
You might also be interested in Pen Pal services which offer language exchanges.
