Free public-domain US government language courses with textbooks and audio.
CoursesBooks Free BeginnerIntermediateAdvanced A1–C1
grammarlisteningspeakingreading
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Foreign Service Institute, Peace Corps and DLI materials — full textbooks plus hundreds of hours of audio — are public domain and hosted here for free across dozens of languages. The depth is extraordinary and the FSI Basic courses take diplomats to professional working proficiency, which no consumer app attempts. The recordings are from the 1960s–80s, the drills are relentless, and some vocabulary is dated (Cold War era), so they suit disciplined self-studiers, not casual learners.
Century-old bilingual course books that take you from zero to solid B2.
BooksCourses Paid BeginnerIntermediate A1–B2
readinglisteninggrammarvocabulary
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Each course is ~100 short bilingual dialogues with native audio: you passively absorb for months, then start an 'active wave' translating back into the target language. Books run around €30 (e-courses ~€50) across 70+ languages, and the method is a long-standing favourite among polyglots for reaching real reading fluency. Caveats: many courses are only published from French, the humour is dated, and it demands daily discipline with no gamification to carry you.
Routledge's beginner course books with free downloadable native-speaker audio.
BooksCourses Paid BeginnerIntermediate A1–B1
readinggrammarvocabularylistening
Details
Over 70 languages, each a step-by-step beginner course written by an experienced teacher, and crucially all the audio is free to download from the companion site even if you find the book secondhand. Slightly more academic and grammar-forward than Teach Yourself, which some learners prefer. Like any book series the individual titles differ in quality; the less common languages are often the only decent course in existence.
60-lesson course with audio for all 1,298 phrases, plus a free online grammar reference.
CoursesBooks Paid BeginnerIntermediate A1–B1
grammarspeakinglisteningvocabulary
Details
Frederik and Fiona De Vos built the most carefully structured self-study course for Tagalog: 60 lessons of practical spoken language, audio for every one of its 1,298 phrases including slowed versions, exercises with an answer key, and a full grammar reference, sold as an online edition, ebook or print set. The accompanying Essential Tagalog Grammar is readable free on the site and is worth bookmarking even if you never buy the course. The course itself is paid, and the presentation is plain and text-heavy compared with app-style products.
Self-study course books with audio for 30+ languages, beginner to advanced.
BooksCourses Paid BeginnerIntermediate A1–B2
readinggrammarvocabularylistening
Details
The 'Complete' books are proper structured courses with dialogues, graded exercises and downloadable audio, and the range covers languages no app touches. Quality varies noticeably by title and author, so check reviews for your specific language before buying rather than trusting the series name. Their graded readers and 'Script Hacking' alphabet guides are also worth knowing about for non-Latin scripts.