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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

https://www.duolingo.com/

  • 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

https://www.lingoda.com/en/

  • Small group classes conducted over video chat
  • Structured courses for different levels
  • From around £8 per class

Learn with a tutor

Verbling

https://www.verbling.com

  • 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

https://www.italki.com/

  • 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

https://www.tandem.net/

  • 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.

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