Learning a language online

Curious
Used one which was free about 20 years ago

www.hellotalk.com/

I use Duolingo for my German. Have done so for a few years now, the free version, use it regularly and they give you free access to their super duo, for a limited time. I find it fun, although Ads are annoying at times. Keeps brain active, and I can get by very well when visiting family. Hope this helps.

I too use Duolingo to practise my school girl French. It’s totally free and very motivating. Each day you are given up to five hearts - you lose one heart per mistake- and I just carry on until I’m out of hearts.

I use Duolingo to learn Greek. It’s definitely helpful to have someone to practise with tho.

Duo lingo, definitely free, it encourages you to sign up for packages but just ignore those messages or say no thank you

I have used Duolingo for German French and Italian. It can be annoying but ignore the payable updates and carry on.
You can do maths and other non language options too.

silverlining48

I have used Duolingo for German French and Italian. It can be annoying but ignore the payable updates and carry on.
You can do maths and other non language options too.

I use Duolingo for Dutch, German, Italian and French. Portuguese was OK, but it’s the Brazilian version.
Maths is OK, but basic and I like the Music, except it’s very loud. Haven’t tried Chess yet. It doesn’t really appeal.
Memrise is also good and offers European Portuguese.

As well as Duolingo I have used the following:

Comme un francais with Geraldine
Perfect French with Dylane
Francais avec Pierre
Italian made easy with Manu - now it seems you have to subscribe although there are still Youtubes free.

All have lots of YouTube (free) and all have extras that you pay for but the free stuff is very helpful and also covers collequialisms/everyday French and Italian that's not in books.

CInzia Instantly Italy has a monthly Youtube livestream as well as recommending Italian books from time to time of varying difficulty.

Online Italianclub.com sends Easy Italian News several times a week by email - lasts about 8 minutes with text.

I also watch Rai.it 24 hour news channel and can understand some of it.

I use Memrise for Spanish and find it very useful.
I did use Duo lingo to begin with but I find Memrise better for my pronunciation

I'm doing Russian with duolingo. Vocab coming along a treat, but its not that helpful for grammar as far as I am concerned........my grandson, who is doing Russian for GCSE signed me up. Now done 460 days. Finding it hard! But as its free, you could try any language, and give it up if you can't get on with it.

I don't know what you mean by a chat-line, so my answer may not be of use to you.

I find deutsch.info very good indeed.

I use Duolingo to learn Spanish. It’s really enjoyable and also free.

Thanks for reminding me that I must get on with Spanish on Duolingo, free if you can put up with the ads.
I gather that Spanish is the best language on Duolingo, as it's the second language in the US. But for French and German, Babbel is said to be better, not free but pretty reasonable.

Duolingo...I do Italian. It's free but stupid scenarios...lol but I enjoy it and have learned quite a lit

Mojack26

Duolingo...I do Italian. It's free but stupid scenarios...lol but I enjoy it and have learned quite a lit

I enjoyed the haunted hôtel section.
I can confidently talk about strange noises, screams, frightening men or scary women and announce that I want another room, or say I’m going to another hôtel subito!

Duolingo definitely

Thanks so much I will have a look of them all.
I just want to brush up Spanish after I did an exchange visit many years back when I was a teenager

Hi, yes, I’m using Duolingo for Spanish (European), French and Latin. Am using the free version. I do buy the occasional ‘gem’ but need to ignore their advertising!

Some of the other suggestions sound very helpful, thank you.

I was learning Polish with Duolingo but stopped when they changed the system. It's about Progress, not Perfection? No thank you. I need to get this stage right before I can move on.

I do think that the idea of a free chat line is not really a good one though. If it is what I think it is. You are asking someone to give up their time so that you can learn from them. Unless you are reciprocating and teaching them English in return it's not really fair.

I have been learning Spanish through DuoLingo for almost 5 years. The trouble is they are going faster than I would like. They are not repeating the words often enough for me to retain them. I am 78 and want to continue but I think I would do a lot better if they slowed up a bit. I still get over 75% right each day and occasionally 100% I have been known to use the dictionary 😏

I tried Duolingo for Welsh but found it a bit patronising. Might give it another go though for a different language.

I teach a lady who has been using DuoLingo for a few years. She came along with a full ring binder saying she couldn't use half the stuff she'd learnt because the grammar hadn't been properly explained to her. At least she can ask me about all the complexities she doesn't understand, and we then explore the grammatical rules.

Hi, is hellotalk free