Education

Duolingo

Not only is Duolingo useful when learning a new language, it's great fun. Duolingo takes a game-like approach to learning and offers apps for iOS, Windows Phone and Android. Duolingo is a "pure" free service.

Open Culture

OpenCulture can help you learn one a popular language like English, French, Spanish, Italian, Russian, or Mandarin. But there are a total of 48 language options listed on this portal to free language course downloads. Farsi/Persian, Estonian, Icelandic, Gaelic and many other languages are available here, often as free mp3 downloads you can load up and listen to later.

Livemocha

Livemocha gives you access to free lessons for 35 languages, but also offers a vibrant community of native language speakers from 190 countries you can connect with to practice your speech.

Babbel

You can learn 14 new languages with Babbel, including English, French, German, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish and more. While some online language learning platforms focus strictly on speech, Babbel teaches you speak, read and write in the language of your choice. The beginner courses available for free, and you can upgrade to a paid course if you choose.

Busuu

One of the more popular platforms, Busuu boasts over 50 million native language users. Its approach is unique, as you will become part of a social community that allows you to learn languages from others.