Free FSI Language Courses

The United States Foreign Service Institute is an institution within the United States government that is responsible for training the Department of State in preparation for going abroad. They develop a multitude of courses in almost any language available.

The website, FSI Language Courses, lists all of the courses that have fallen into the public domain. The website is unaffiliated with the government:

This site is dedicated to making these language courses freely available in an electronic format. This site is not affiliated in any way with any government entity; it is an independent, non-profit effort to foster the learning of worldwide languages. Courses here are made available through the private efforts of individuals who are donating their time and resources to provide quality materials for language learning.

 I remember in high school Latin our teacher got the FSI tapes for Italian from the library when a group of students in the class were going on a field trip to Italy. It is possible that the library editions of these materials could be newer, but most likely not considering all of there materials are in the public domain.

I would suggest you keep in mind some of this information is old, cultural terms may be out of date. For example the word "fraulein" ("little Mrs.") is used in the German materials. While it did use to be acceptable to call an unmarried young woman this in Germany, doing it today without the intention to cheesily flirt, will only get you dirty looks (if you're lucky). Results may vary by language, consult your local native speaker for more information.

Nevertheless for the very low price of free, how can you go wrong?

Once again the site's URL: http://fsi-language-courses.org