50+ Resources for Language Learning: Videos, Podcasts, Apps, Tutorials

Whether you’re learning a language out of interest, because it’s a college requirement, or have a specific personal or career need, knowing more than one language gives you additional perspective on every aspect of life, adds skills that can be useful in a career or just simple for travel, and increases opportunities to socialize. Maybe you’re preparing for a Study Abroad session, or planning a Gap Year of travel to other countries. Learning effective ways on how to learn another language has its benefits towards those goals.

Language Videos and Video Channels

• If you’re considering picking up another language, linguist/ professor John McWhorter provides 4 reasons to learn a new language, including benefits such as improved multitasking and decreased risk of dementia.
• 5 Steps To Learn A New Language FOR FREE | (How to learn languages at home) has a misleading title but provides valuable tips for language learning, especially useful if you have a small or no budget: be committed; have a reason; establish confidence; set a goal; be consistent, use the language. Language learning is an ongoing process; make it a part of your life.
• In A French polyglot practicing 24 languages, Hugues Baudrillart speaks briefly in two dozen languages, and explains how his learning English and Latin simultaneously, and finding the connections to French and German (which he already knew) really inspired him to learn even more about languages.
• Necessity is said to be the “mother of invention.” It’s also a great motivator, as Cambodian boy masters 12 languages selling souvenirs to tourists shows.
• Can I learn two languages at the same time? | 3 tips offers up some suggestions for ambitious types learning several languages simultaneously.
• Högskolan Dalarna addresses adult learners of language and some of the differences compared to learning as children.
• How Does Language Change Your Brain? discusses how learning any language, new or your native tongue, increases the “size” of your brain. Learning two or more learnings increases focus, increase cognitive function, potentially reduces the chances of Alzheimer’s, amongst other benefits.
• How to Learn More Languages at The Same Time: My 5 All-Time Best Tips (That Get Results) provides tips for ambitious people wanting to learn several languages simultaneously
• While everyone else is saying you need to be committed to learn a language, Steve Kaufman/ Lingosteve, who speaks about 12 languages, explores casual approaches in Language Learning: Motivation for the Lazy Language Learners. Also see his video Learn Two Languages at Once.
• Learn Chinese in 30 Minutes – ALL the Basics You Need won’t make you fluent in a half hour, but it gets you speaking immediately. Sign up for free, for PDF lessons and “word of the day” emails.
• Maintaining multiple languages at the same time | Which to learn, schedules, pronunciation etc provides Lindie Botes thoughts on approaches (and motivation) when learning several languages simultaneously.
• Sketchnoting a Foreign Language looks at using visual note-taking technique (sketchnoting) to more effectively learn another language.
• In The Power of Setting Priorities in Language Learning, Lydia Machova highlights her four pillars of effective language learning (fun, frequency, system, quantity), and references some relatively well-known polyglots who started with a single language at an adult age.
• In The secret to learning another language quickly: Speak from day 1, Irish polyglot Benny Lewis tells you his secret, spoken in multiple languages, which saved him from giving up on his goal of being multilingual. His Web site, Fluent In 3 Months, also offers the article The Best Way to Learn a Language: What the Science Says, amongst others. He also partnered with Teach Yourself to offer his series of Language Hacking courses.
• Things Bilingual People Do tells you both fun or weird things people who speak multiple languages do.
• In What Is the Best Time of Day to Learn a New Language?, the OuinoLanguages YouTube channel explores if there are some optimum times for language learning.
• What Job Can I do With Foreign Language Skills? covers the benefits of learning another language for three types of jobs categories, with declining proficiency needed: language-related job; extra languages could be an asset; useful for overall lifestyle.
• Just under half the world’s population (despite being widespread geographically) speaks a language that descends from the theoretical Proto-Indo-European (PIE) language. In The Indo-European Connection, Paul, the host of the Langfocus YouTube channel, gives an informative language history lesson, which can be applied to learning one of PIE’s descendant languages.
• Matthew’s 7 Reasons To Learn Languages gives us polyglot Matthew Youlden’s rationale for adding more languages to your knowledge set.
• NativLang is a YouTube channel covering the history of human language, language family trees, the origin of language-specific sounds, comparisons of language, etc., using animated videos.
• Learn Russian with RussianPod101.com is one of the most popular, by subscriptions, of the numerous Russian language learning channels on YouTube.
• Be Fluent in Russian is another top Russian language learning channel on YouTube, mixing in many popular songs and stories to add to the learning experience.
• Yoyo Chinese is one amongst the most popular YouTube channels, by subscriptions, for learning Chinese. It mixes lessons with events, speech comparisons and more.
• Learn Chinese with ChineseClass101.com is another highly popular YouTube channel for learning Chinese. It offers up audio and video lessons with typical as well as fun topics that cover a range of social situations.
• With over a million subscribers, Learn Japanese with JapanesePod101.com is by far the most popular YouTube channel for Japanese language learning, with nearly 1,000 videos available.
• That Japanese Man Yuta may only have a bit over half the subscribers of ‘JapanesePod101,’ but Yuta’s channel combines lessons with videos about lifestyle and culture in Tokyo, including interviews.
• Butterfly Spanish may have less than 100 videos on various aspects of learning Spanish, but it is one of the top YouTube channels in its category, by subscriptions.
• Learn Spanish with SpanishPod101.com is the 2nd most popular YouTube channel in its category, but offers over 500 videos that cover intro to advanced levels, as well as “quick” lessons.

Language Podcasts

• Joy of Languages is a Web site offering a newsletter and blog with tips on nearly a dozen languages, plus nearly 60 episodes of “Five Minute Italian,” their podcast series on learning Italian, and several free 5-day language courses, delivered as daily lessons by email.
• The Fluent Show is a collaboration between two language-related entrepreneurs, Kerstin and Lindsay, and self-described as a “Podcast about loving, living and learning languages.”
• The Ultimate Guide to Language Learning Podcasts gives you not only a long list of single- and multi-language learning podcasts, but tips on how best to use such podcasts.
• PlayerFM, which has both a Web site and mobile apps (Apple App Store, Google Play), provides a list of the best Language Learning Podcasts on their platform.
• Top 10 podcasts to help you learn a language is The Guardian’s list of the best language learning podcasts, compiled by language blogger Lindsay Dow, and covering a range of Asian and European languages.
• As language learning is often of great value in business, Business News Daily’s list of Best Podcasts for Learning a Language may be useful for entrepreneurs/ business owners.
• Best Podcasts to Help You Learn a Foreign Language offers a list of 10 podcast series covering a wide range of languages, including one series which itself collectively discusses over 50 languages.
• In Language Learning Podcasts: Can You Learn a Language by Listening to Podcasts?, Benny Lewis (referenced elsewhere on this page) ponders the effectiveness of podcasts, and compiles a handy list of links to over 30 of Innovative Language’s podcasts.

Language Web Sites, Web and Mobile Apps, Software

• The Mimic Method offers both free and paid resources for people wanting to learn a language and “speak like a native.” This includes a blog, a free guide on Elemental Sounds, and premium courses.
• 10 best language learning apps lists Lingualift’s choices for Web and mobile platforms.
• 50 Languages is a site that offers up free and paid language tools and resources, including free mobile apps (Android, iPhone iOS), games, tests, videos, lists of radio stations and languages schools.
• Memrise isn’t just for language learning, but its Web and mobile apps used a “spaced repetition” approach to learning that increases the likelihood that you’ll remember the lessons you take. Dozens of languages and lesson plans are available for free.
• Duolingo is specifically for language learning and also uses a gamified approach in its Web and mobile apps.
• Beelinguapp takes a relatively unique approach for language learning in its mobile apps, allowing you to choose a reference language and a learning language, then letting you select a classic story, showing you a split screen of the text in both languages.
• Google employs a linguist who spends extended durations in different parts of the world learning non-colloquial versions of languages. Her research is what goes into Google Translate‘s Web and mobile apps.
• Quizlet has a Web and mobile app platform for learning pretty much any topic, but is particularly well-suited to language and vocabulary learning.

General Resources

• If the four reasons of John McWhorter’s video (elsewhere on this page) isn’t enough, here are 10 Reasons to Learn a New Language.
• There’s a belief in some linguistic circles that most polyglots (people who know at least a half-dozen languages) and hyper-polyglots are male. The list article 50 Extraordinary Women Who Will Inspire You to Learn a Language, written by a woman, shows that there are clearly many women linguists/ polyglots/ language fans, some of whom are even hyperpolyglots, and all of whom share their learning online, either through a YouTube channel, blog or other social media platform.
• OpenCulture’s site is arguably one of the most valuable archives of information about learning resources. In Learn 48 Languages Online for Free: Spanish, Chinese, English and More, the article provides a long list of links to learning resources for dozens of languages.
• International students attending an American college may benefit from the learning links provided in 50 Incredibly Useful Links For Learning & Teaching The English Language, which lists language Web sites, Web apps and other resources.
• While the article How to Learn a New Language Fast: 5 Tips That Actually Work is geared towards selling FluentU’s services, it does offer some helpful tips on effective language learning.
• In 12 Languages Later, My Best Tips for Learning a Foreign Language, polyglot Silvia blogs about effective language learning tips she’s picked up over time.
• 10 Tips To Learn Any Language From An Expert details polyglot Matthew’s suggestions for learning a second, third, etc., language in a fun way.
• Middlebury Interactive Languages pulls together two tips each from two dozen polyglots on effective language learning.