I was looking for a free Spanish language course online, and I stumbled across this gem of a site:
FSI Language Courses
This site contains recordings and .PDF copies of various Foreign Service Institute language courses which are in the public domain. These courses were used by the U.S. government to train diplomats. Sure, they're all about 40 years old and look and sound like they were put together by soulless bureaucrats (because they were) — but these are still regarded by many to be some of the finest language courses ever assembled and are often sold for hundreds of dollars even today. Courses like Barron's Mastering Spanish, Mastering French, or Mastering German are (I believe) verbatim copies of these courses.
Unfortunately, not all of the courses on this site are complete, but there are quite a few which are, including:
- French Basic, Volumes 1 & 2
- Spanish Basic, Volume 1
- Spanish Programmatic, Volumes 1 & 2
- Standard Chinese: A Modular Approach
- Cantonese Basic, Volumes 1 & 2
- Cambodian Basic, Volume 1
- German Basic, Volumes 1 & 2
- Hebrew Basic
- Hungarian Basic
- Greek Basic, Volumes 1 & 3
(Volume 2 is only missing audio for two lessons) - Portuguese Programmatic, Volumes 1 & 2
- Swedish Basic
- Thai Basic, Volume 1
- Turkish Basic, Volumes 1 & 2
- Vietnamese Basic, Volumes 1 & 2
Also available through this site is Korean Basic, Volume 2. Volume 1 is available for free download here:
Free Korean Language Course
Swahili basic is not yet complete, but there are 95 units of the course available. There are also 11 units completed for the Amharic Basic course.
So, if you are looking to broaden your linguistic horizons, you may want to take a look at this site!
