Learning French with zero budget?

You want to learn French (or another language) and you prefer not to pay a cent? So, perhaps the only way is to study on your own. It can be a win-win game for your time and money; sounds quite tempting, no?

But let me tell you honestly, it will be a tough game, where you need to be self-disciplined to succeed. The bad news is that it is not sufficient! I learnt it the hard way when I moved to Germany. I had been quite successful when it came to self-studying so I was sure I could handle it this time too, and guess what? I failed, and I failed miserably!

• I started Deutsche Welle German course and I gave up

• I continued with Rosetta Stone and I couldn't continue

• I attended a gathering for German-speaking, I did not give up, but wasted 90 minutes/week for 10 weeks!

• I found Learn with Oliver, and enjoyed practising every single day. I learnt lots of useful words but as I did not have any grammatical basics I could not use these words in my routine life!

That was not only a concise list of my failures in learning German, but also a list of some useful ways one could try and get a good outcome. My problem was not about the self-discipline or material, it was more about the management! I did not choose the right material/method at the right time.

When I wanted to migrate to France, I did not want to do the same mistake! I registered myself in a free French course offered by the university, which gave me the essentials of grammar and vocabulary. Then, I was able to continue on my own. In fact, I did not do that because I was afraid to fail again and to lose my motivation. But I probably could do it. Speaking from my experience, if you know the basics and you have access to good materials you can survive this game.

Here, I would like to share a list of free materials and sources that I found useful. This list is also inspired by this post.

DUOLINGO: It is good for the elementary level as you practice new words and expressions. But, it may be annoying to repeat all those stupid sentences it asks you to practice like this:

Also, it does not replace a good course on grammar. Recently, Duolingo offers lots of short storied in its web version which are also interesting.

LEARN WITH OLIVER: This website offers flashcards for words, sentences but also texts. It is really interesting but if you want to have the pronunciation, you should pay a bit. If not, simply use something like google translate.

You can see a quick review of this website here:

Learn French With Alexa: This YouTube channel teaches a very simple and clear French. Depending on your taste, you may like it or no, but personally, I think it is good enough for a beginner who is not willing to pay for a French course!

Radio France Internationale (RFI): RFI offers TCF test but also lots of exercises from elementary (A1-A2) to advanced levels, as well as lots of audio/video reports on the current topics.

TV5Monde: TV5Monde is a French television network, broadcasting several channels of French-language programming. Like RFI they have lots of amazing audio-visual resources for learning French and it is all free!

innerFrench: innerFrench is a YouTube channel by a handsome and clearly-speaking teacher. The topics are interesting and worth being heard. The only problem is that for enjoying all these you need to be at the intermediate level!

Ina Société: Ina Société offers amazing old interviews and programs in French. They are clearly for intermediate-advanced level. But take a look there anyway. At least, it may motivate you!

Grammaire en dialogues: This is one of the best books for learning grammar by yourself. You can also find the pdf for free (not legal) or from academia.edu. The audio is available here: