web sites that offer free language learning for an amateur.

[Voivod30]

I really want to learn at least one foreign language. I'm currently laid-up due to health reasons so I have lots of free time, although little in the way of money. I'm probably going to start with French and am aiming as my goal to be able to read Alexandre Dumas in about a years time. Is this an attainable goal? I've Googled and found some decent web-sites but most only offer a small amount of their lessons for free. Any help will be much appreciated. I can afford to purchase a program but would be a bit weary unless I can find others whom have used the program with decent results. I'm 32 years old so I fear that I may be too old to take on this task but with perserverance and hard work hopefully I may get some where on this journey. Any one whom has undertaken such a task whom can give me some information or even inspiration I will offer my appreciation in advance.

[Calidore]

This just came up in another thread:

http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69110

Also, since you specified French, and if you live in the U.S. or Canada, you can watch the immersive 52-episode instructional series French in Action here:

http://www.learner.org/resources/series83.html

I don't know if you'll be reading Dumas in a year, but if you work hard, maybe you can learn enough that Dumas can help you learn more. He wrote newspaper serials for the general public's entertainment, so his stuff should be pretty approachable.

[JBI]

It isn't too expensive if you stick to it, there are plenty of free things, and many more illegal things available online. As it is though, the one thing that actually matters when learning a language is how much effort you really put into it. If you want to read Dumas in a year, you will be able to, but intend on working every day without exception for at least a couple of hours. If this is your first foreign language, and perhaps first Romance language, perhaps even more time will be necessary.


The reason why most people start learning a language but do not go anywhere is there is no actual motivation for them to do it. You need to need to know that language, otherwise you will not learn it well.

To start off, you can try this forum http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/index.html which is useful, but is loaded with braggarts who pretend to know more than they do so do not feel like you are worse or less experienced than they are.