Free FSI Language Courses - Are They Good?

Check the link to the FSI courses in the description below! Free is great, but are the materials useful? Like all materials they have their pros and cons and how you use them is important.

Intro music: "Champ" by Gunnar Olsen.
Outro music: "One More" by Silent Partner.

[maryelizabethhuber]

I just started the Spanish FSI course! I can't wait to start talking like a 1960s radio announcer!!

[traian-alexandruconstantin]

How come i didn't hear a single thing about those courses before i saw this video? I can't even thank you enough for this

[GarethJefferson]

Thank you for this insightful intro to FSI.
I started learning Japanese way back in SOAS (The School of Oriental and African Studies, a meta-faculty of the University of London). We began, after learning hiragana and katakana, and dove right into "Beginning Japanese", a Yale University course based on books and audio cassettes. It was very very heavy on repetition and drills, hour after boring hour of them. The professors really didn't care for this approach, preferring grammar books and vocabulary lists, but by God it worked and I was soon producing grammatically correct responses with NO conscious effort. I ended up my efforts by becoming a professional translator. Moral: boring is sometimes a necessary part of language learning.

[Avtandil_]

I used the FSI Swedish course, and I thought it was great. It got boring after a while, and I did exactly as you said - counting how many minutes were left on the track, but, it worked. I think FSI and Assimil are the best courses available, even though their methodologies are completely different. I supplemented it with reading Harry Potter in Swedish along with the audiobook, and eventually it sank in.

[curlybobz]

I went through the FSI advanced German course and found it to be extremely effective. It was tough going and the material was a little antiquated but well worth the effort. One thing I liked was the huge number of examples illustrating complex grammatical concepts.

[footage]

The basic french and Spanish courses are great on their own to be used as a reader. Once you know enough about how to read the languages and pronounce the words, these resources as just readers are absolutely unparalleled. Absolutely amazing for people who want to work on instant reflex in speaking either of these languages.

[Phabieau]

I am studying Russian and recently took a look at the FSI courses and I found their phonology introduction very helpful and thorough. I had a much better understanding of hard and soft consonants. In other resources I've used they were glossed over completely which made my pronunciation imprecise. I did get the impression that I need to supplement pronunciation from better recordings. Thanks for your advice about the sentence drills; I think I will continue to use the course for that purpose as the language is much more difficult than anything I've ever encountered as an English speaker who only ever had Spanish in school, and at this point I can still hardly make sentences, so that will be helpful. I love this channel and have been watching every single video. Very informative, I hope you continue to put out great content and feature new languages!

[felikso]

On the subject of book-based language learning courses, I am currently learning Latin through the Cambridge Latin Course series of books at school. I noticed a major problem you had with the FSI courses for languages was that they were boring. One would also assume a Latin course in which almost all of the learning is done through translation of texts would also be boring. However, the Cambridge Latin Course combats that really effectively. They have an amazing story going through the series, which makes you feel for the characters, and such. This stops it from getting boring as there is always a motivation to finish the story and find out what happens next, if a certain character will survive or not, et cetera (no pun intended). In fact, a friend of mine who is not continuing with Latin asked to be kept updated with the story, it was so engaging. I can't recommend their series enough to people interested in learning Latin. Though I don't really know how large that number would be. :)

[nw]

I've used the Spanish and Italian courses and both improved my pronunciation beyond all expectation because they do one thing I have never seen in another course -- they tell you what mouth shape to use for each of the difficult sounds. They describe the position of the teeth, tongue and lips and how to move them, which makes a huge difference for adults learning a language.
I'd say if you get bored with the courses, just pay attention to the pronunciation parts of the courses.
(gotta say that I don't know if each FSI course has the same method of teaching pronunciation as Sp and It, but what the heck, they are free, so check out the one you want for your particular language).

[annadupont]

I am working through the Greek FSI course, and I'm finding it really useful. I've previously spent some time with DuoLingo, and I also started with Assimil, but I feel like I'm progressing much more quickly with the FSI course than with either DuoLingo or Assimil. The course is really dense, and that's a good thing, especially since it's free! The beginner course has 25 units, and each unit comes with ~30 min of audio, but it takes me 1-2 hours to get through each unit, spread out over a few days. I spend about a week total on each unit, repeating the exercises until it becomes ingrained. Greek pronunciation is relatively straightforward, so the quality of the audio isn't an issue - the course (so far) has 2 different speakers, one who speaks really quickly, so it trains your ear to listen to native Greek. The course does a good job of explaining the grammar, and I have a better understanding of how the grammar works now than with the other methods I've used and is better in some areas than my grammar books. The only downside of the FSI course is that some of the vocabulary (and some of the grammatical constructions) appear to be dated. So you just have to keep that in mind when you're going through the course. But it's FREE!

[TechnoGlowStick]

This is cool! I don't care if it's boring, because my love for languages will keep me motivated! Plus I can take small breaks! 😁

[Kocha]

Man, I just downloaded the textbook for Czech, since I am learning it in a serious way. Thank you very much for this link, it's old, but amazing! Thank you very much again!

[futhorc]

I began using the FSI Turkish course, but after asking some native speakers to take a look at it, they all pointed out that a fair amount of the vocabulary was noticeably dated (also true of an older edition of Teach Yourself Turkish). I think even some of the pronunciation must have changed noticeably in the five decades between when it was produced and when I began using it, as I was told that the Turkish in the recordings sounded like it came from an old movie, and they weren't referring to the audio quality. Perhaps older diplomatic language use was meant to be stiff and formal. I really liked all the drills though, which are rare these days. I ended up switching to other materials, and as you pointed out, it's free, so you're not losing any money if it's not for you.

[eszternagy]

Before this video, I didn't even know that these courses existed. Thank you so much!

[thaddeustomczyk]

Hey Paul I want to thank you for your channel. I Speak English and I am trying to learn polish but it learning polish feels like you are putting your brain in a blender! But with your videos I am able to get help and find ways to improve my polish so thank you :)!
Do widzenia!

[jameskirchner]

I never found those FSI courses boring, because the oral drills are rhythmic, and it's easy to go off into "the zone", just if you were chanting. They are good for use while walking around or otherwise occupying your hands or legs while your mouth works with the course. Some of the recordings are unclear, but at some of the sites where they're available for free download, people have digitally cleaned up the tape hiss, so while they're not as good as a new digital recording, they're better than they were in their original state.

[s.romine]

Great post Paul! I went through and passed the DLI (Defense Language Institute) Russian course in the 80s. The FSI and DLI use the same format. Yes, those old school methods are completely effetive for getting to a CEFL B2 or DLI/FSI 2+/2+ but take A LOT of personal dedication if learning it on your own. You had me laughing about how boring it is and wishing the modules would be over! I remember pounding my head on the desk in agony during those recordings.

A trick I learned from a friend is to NOT try to complete each module of drills or dialogue straight through. As soon as you feel bored or frustrated, STOP, stretch, do push ups, get some air, ANYTHING that works for you to reset your mind, then go back to it fresh. Some of the more boring or difficult stuff may require a reset every 2-5 minutes. Break those lessons up into bite sized snacks for your brain. Your brain will thank you for breaks and absorb the new information.

[PrDaviful]

Obrigado Paul!! Você me ajudou muito, eu estava procurando materiais gratuitos em grego😍😍 Parabéns pelos vídeos.🇧🇷🇧🇷

[johnnyc]

I learned German in 2001 for a trip & had many conversations with Germans & it's spoken by many Europeans. These courses work!

[TheAspiringCentenarian]

It even has a material there for my mother tongue, Tausug. Wow.

I'll try these out! Thank you for sharing!