Articles

Foreign languages

Plans for learning a language from scratch by yourself — month by month, with free resources and ways to check your level without a teacher.

What every language has in common#

Any language is learned by the same pattern: sounds and reading, high-frequency vocabulary, basic grammar used in your own sentences, then a lot of listening and speaking. Only the first stage differs — for Chinese and Japanese it is the writing system and tones, for Arabic the alphabet and the direction of writing, for European languages mostly pronunciation.

How to read the articles#

Each article gives a plan for the first months, free resources, self-check exercises and advice on keeping notes for that particular language. Start with the one you are learning; the shared techniques — spaced repetition and active recall — are in the "How to learn" section.

  • Foreign languages Learn Turkish on your own

    Turkish is written in the Latin alphabet and read exactly as written, and it has no grammatical gender and no articles. All the difficulty lies in how a word is built: meaning is strung onto the root with suffixes that change their vowels by the law of harmony. Once you master this mechanism, the rest is mostly vocabulary.

  • Foreign languages Learn Spanish on your own

    Spanish is read almost exactly as it is written, so the first weeks go fast for an English speaker. The real work starts with verbs — a single verb has dozens of forms, and they are what separates people stuck at tourist level from people who speak in full sentences. Below is the order of topics and how to check yourself.

  • Foreign languages Learn Korean on your own

    The Korean alphabet takes a few evenings to learn — that is the pleasant part. Then comes a grammar built differently from English: the verb goes last, particles show each word's role, and the verb form depends on who you are talking to. The plan below follows exactly that order.

  • Foreign languages Learn Japanese on your own

    Japanese uses three writing systems at once, and its grammar is built very differently from English. On the other hand, pronunciation is not hard for an English speaker and the grammar is remarkably regular. The key is not to get stuck on romanisation and to read Japanese script from the first month.

  • Foreign languages Learn Italian on your own

    Italian sounds almost exactly as it is written, and an English speaker recognises a lot of its vocabulary, so the first sentences come quickly. After that three things slow self-learners down — articles, choosing the auxiliary verb in the past tense, and the congiuntivo. If you know in advance where they wait, you can get through them without panic.

  • Foreign languages Learn German on your own

    German is closer to English than it looks — Haus, Wasser, trinken and kommen need no translation — and it is read predictably. The trouble lies elsewhere: noun gender can hardly be guessed, the cases that English lost long ago are still alive, and the verb sits where you do not expect it. Those three things shape the plan.

  • Foreign languages Learn French on your own

    In French one thing is written and another is heard — half the final letters are silent and words run together in speech. English speakers recognise a huge share of French words on paper and then fail to catch them by ear. So the most important thing for a self-learner is to tie spelling to sound from day one. The plan below is built around that problem.

  • Foreign languages Learn Chinese on your own

    Chinese scares people with its characters, but the first real difficulty is the tones. The grammar is in many ways simpler than English — no verb endings, no plurals, no articles. The plan below arranges the work so that sound, writing and vocabulary grow together instead of getting in each other's way.

  • Foreign languages Learn Arabic on your own

    Arabic is a long language for an English speaker, and it is fairer to say so up front. But it is very systematic: words are built from roots by patterns, and after the first months you start guessing unfamiliar words more and more often. First you need to decide which Arabic you are learning and get the script under control.