Free Language Courses For Your MP3

MSE_Martin · 22 May 2007 at 3:30PM

What's on offer?

There's a great US website called Open Culture which lists mostly free language courses that are available as podcasts (in other words digital files you can download onto an MP3 player to listen to).

These are contained in the Foreign Language section which lists links to a range of language learning websites and podcasts for lots of languages including Spanish, German, French, Chinese, English, Italian, Hindi, Russian and many more.

How to get your download

Many of the podcasts have direct links to iTunes (which you can download for free here) otherwise follow the links to the website and click on 'download MP3'.
The courses tend to come in individual lessons, and list the most recent lesson first, which means if you're starting fresh you'll need to scroll down to find the first lesson.

Many of the language courses also have RSS feeds - which is a web way of getting you an automatic update of new material. For more information on how to set up an RSS feed have a look at MoneySaver SRA's very useful RSS guide.

Also of interest..

The main site also has lists of free audio books, arts & culture, science and technology podcasts as well as current affairs (though these have an American bias).

Martin

Zebedeee · 22 May 2007 at 3:44PM

That's great! I've been looking for something like this, and there it is. Thanks Martin.

sra · 22 May 2007 at 3:45PM

If you're going to use Itunes to download these podcasts, then note that it also has a whole section built in its directory devoted to them

And you don't have to have an Ipod to use Itunes, I started using it on my PC a year before I got my Ipod because of it's excellent music-managing library. (It won't sync with non-Apple mp3 players, but you can drag files straight from the Itunes window directly onto the root of many non-apple mp3 players).

If you don't want to use a big program like Itunes, you can just install mypodder directly onto the root of your mp3 player, tell it the RSS "Feed" for the podcast you're interested in, and it will download them for you automatically when you plug it in

Mozart321 · 22 May 2007 at 8:23PM

ITunes is bloated and is really aimed at selling you tracks. You can download a program called "Juice" Which is a much smaller program, is free, and doesn't try and sel you anything! Search for it on Google.

Sharky! · 23 May 2007 at 9:15AM

There's also something called SongBird. Looks like iTunes, sounds like iTunes, but it's not iTunes! And it's a lot faster too!

http://www.songbirdnest.com/

Or if you want a really fast player, try foobar2000 (http://www.foobar2000.org). Never goes above 2% CPU usage when I've used it in the past.

I just use Windows Media Player. The music library in the latest version is excellent, and it has the SRS WOW music enhancement that I like. Each to their own though!

Anyway, time for me to start downloading some lessons!

DazzaMc · 23 May 2007 at 9:44AM

To be fair, the itunes store is in another section of itunes to your music library.
If you don't want to buy anything, don't click on the music store! And they never try and "make" you buy anything. I really like itunes. You can preview tracks before buying, and you even get a free song every week!

BBClanguages · 23 May 2007 at 9:52AM

Hi everyone,

You can now download the first five of Ma France video podcasts on your mp3 player. There will be 12 of them. One added each week.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/mafrance/podcast/

You can also try the video course online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/french/mafrance/

Here's the list of all episodes:
Ma France episode 1: 23rd Apr 07 - How not to get lost in France
Ma France episode 2: 30th Apr 07 - Names and how to spell them
Ma France episode 3: 8th May 07 - Talking about work
Ma France episode 4: 14th May 07 - Shopping and paying
Ma France episode 5: 21st May 07 - Phone calls and messages
Ma France episode 6: 28th May 07 - Understanding instructions
Ma France episode 7: 4th June 07 - Ordering food
Ma France episode 8: 11th June 07 - Booking a gîte
Ma France episode 9: 18th June 07 - House-hunting
Ma France episode 10: 25th June 07 - Sorting out problems
Ma France episode 11: 02nd July 07 - Holiday talk
Ma France episode 11: 09th July 07 - Getting to know you

I hope you will find them useful.

Cheers
Johann Le Calvez

rmg1 · 23 May 2007 at 11:13AM

This is probably me being stupid, but what else is new?!?
I've been onto the website (http://www.oculture.com/weblog/2006/10/itunes_learn_fo.html) but I can't seem to find a link to download any MP3 versions of the languages. Both me and my OH want to learn a new language, just not sure which one.

Anyone figured this out?

Capyboppy · 23 May 2007 at 11:30AM

You can also just download to your PC then transfer to your mobile phone if it supports videos. You don't need any fancy separate programs to do this, just use your data cable or bluetooth to drag and drop.

BBClanguages · 23 May 2007 at 11:32AM

Hi there,

You need to either install iTunes or juice for instance. If you subscribe to the RSS feed the mp3 or mp4 files will be downloaded everytime you open itunes for instance.

The advantage of itunes is that you can see the desciption of the podcast and see which ones are downloadable. It's free to download.

Hope this helps.

cheers
Johann

Capyboppy · 23 May 2007 at 11:40AM

If you use Opera (the browser) there is a "feeds" facility that is built in. This is anothe option. Anything new added, and a little box pops up giving you the option to view in brief, and download if wanted.

Free Language Courses For Your MP3

Comments

Categories

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free