Free Ways to Work on Your Language Skills Before You Study Abroad

Getting ready to study abroad?

Before you board that plane, it’s a good idea to spend some time brushing up on your foreign language skills. But classes at your school or local language academy can be expensive and difficult to schedule. If time and money are in short supply, don’t worry. These online resources will help you study a foreign language for free.

Duolingo

Duolingo uses a mixture of written vocabulary lessons and spoken tests to help you either refresh a language or learn one from scratch. The online version  offers eight European languages, including Spanish, French, Portuguese and Dutch. The app version, available on iOS, only offers five languages, but helpfully syncs with your online account to keep track of your progress.

BBC Languages

Offered online by the British Broadcasting Corporation, BBC Languages has in-depth lessons for seven languages, including Portuguese, Italian, Greek and Mandarin Chinese. The lessons include placement testing, vocabulary guides, puzzles and video lessons. In the Quick Fix section, the site offers vocabulary lists and phrasebooks for an additional 33 languages, including Arabic, Czech and Japanese.

Memrise

Memrise is a crowd-sourced network of lessons, from basic to advanced, that are created by users. The most popular are the language lessons, though there are also lessons on subjects like history, science, and geography. The online version offers a huge variety of languages, from Spanish to Zulu, though not every language has advanced lessons available. The Memrise app is available for both iPhone and Android.