If you’ve decided that 2025 is the year you finally brush up on your French or learn an entirely new language for fun or for business, that’s a fantastic personal improvement goal. However, many language learning techniques cost a lot of money, and that can put people off sticking to their goal. The good news is there are several ways you can learn a new language for free!.
While many language apps are paid for, there are a few that have a free option, too. This is a good idea to get you started to find out if you enjoy learning the language before you consider investing in the hobby more. DuoLingo is by far the most popular app which also treats learning a language like a game. You have a certain number of "lives" on the free version, which means you can make a number of mistakes each day before you have to wait for your lives to refill, or take quizzes to earn gems to buy lives. Memrise is another example of a free language learning app many people enjoy using.
Did you know the Open University offers free courses online? From arts and humanities to sciences to business management, their OpenLearn portal has a huge range of free online courses to try. Not only do they have language courses too, there is even a course called How To Learn a Language, giving you lots of tips and skills to help your new linguistic adventures stick in your memory better. There are other online resources to try, such as Coursera – and you can even still access an old version of the BBC educational website which has loads of free resources to help you start learning a language for free.
