Free Language Learning Programs from the Foreign Service Institute (FSI)

When I was a kid I became obsessed with the idea of learning to play the saxophone. I begged my parents, not only for lessons, but also for an actual saxophone itself. Although my Mom and Dad would have loved to have a trained musician in the family, an instrument and lessons were simply beyond our means.

The reason I bring this up is not to throw out excuses as to why I am not able to play a musical instrument, but rather to show that many new hobbies or interests do require a hefty financial investment in equipment and/or instruction. This, especially in dubious economic times, can mean that our potential new hobbies or life goals will be put aside due to lack of funds.

Luckily for those interested in learning a foreign language, it is not necessary to pay for a class, buy expensive material, or fly to Zanzibar to learn Swahili. To be honest, the only real investment is that of time.

Throughout this series I will be covering various types of free material allowing a learner to simply tune in and begin learning on their own. As long as you are a motivated learner, you already have what it takes to get to fluency. The key word here is motivated. If you seriously have the drive, you’ll find a way to do anything you desire. 

But I digress.

The point is, there are amazing language learning materials available for free — and today, we are going to cover those put out by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI).

What Are the FSI Language Courses?

For those not in the know, the Foreign Service Institute is a training division of the US government, created to provide the skills necessary for diplomats to conduct official business abroad. And one of the most important skills they have undertaken is that of language training.

What they developed are learning materials in a variety of languages that, although designed to be used in conjunction with a physical class, are also perfectly suited for self-instruction.

What’s even better is that these courses are now in the public domain, meaning you can download them and use them for free without violating any copyright laws.

The FSI developed these programs on a theory of language education known as the audio-lingual method. This itself is based on a behaviorist learning theory, which focuses on presentation of material, practice, and reinforcement.

Much of this type of instruction has gone out of favor and in my opinion, unfortunately so. The more I work in language education, the more I believe in this much more effective method of language acquisition.

You see, the field has become so focused on either a communicative approach to learning — where people are encouraged to speak from the very beginning, even though they don’t yet have the basics to construct a natural sentence — or on glitzy technology which is supposed to magically implant the language into our heads in only five minutes a day.

What’s missing with both of these approaches is the simple idea that there comes a point in which you actually have to sit down and train yourself in the language. This requires listening, repetition, and production.

The FSI programs are designed to build your ability to create natural language that comes out automatically as you express your thoughts. And being able to say what you want to say in a natural, correct, and automatic manner is called speaking a language fluently.

Now although I think these courses are excellent, I do recognize that there are some cons. Some of these we can overcome by getting creative, and others… well, we simply have to live with them.

But let’s first start with why these courses are so great!

Why the FSI Languages Courses Still Work: The Pros

Many people criticize these programs as outdated or no longer relevant, but nothing could be further from the truth. The FSI language courses were designed to teach practical, real-world communication skills, and they still hold up remarkably well — especially for independent learners.

Here’s why:

Mastering the Whole Language

The majority of these courses are thorough and what I mean by thorough is… THOROUGH. They will guide you through the language and into the most complicated nooks and crannies of everyday speech. The FSI knew that in order to learn a language well, the learner must confront it as it is — in all its messy glory.

Pattern-Based Practice in FSI Courses

If any of you have read my book, you’ll know how important I believe drilling (called guided production in my book) to actually be. FSI courses are masters in drilling-based practice.

These types of exercises prompt you with a cue and expect you to apply patterns, use new vocabulary, change the word order, etc. And you are expected to do so quickly and without hesitation. You know…kind of like speaking a language in real life.

I liken drilling to training in a sport. You are building your reflexes to be able to perform when needed, but in this case, you are building your verbal reflexes

Good stuff, that.

Downloadable Listening Material

The majority of the programs will have accompanying audio recordings, which you can download and use from your laptop or your phone. You will get hours of practice material – and all for the price of…well, for the price of nothing.

Focus on Sentence Structure, Not Just Vocab

Now this one is what I consider a pro, but many will consider it a con: Less focus on vocabulary and more focus on language patterns.

Mastering a bunch of words does not mean you’ll be able to put them together again in order to speak. But mastering grammatical patterns means you’ve assimilated the structure of the language making it much easier to simply insert the words you need in order to express yourself.

FSI will place those patterns front and center encouraging you to master them.

Limitations of the FSI Courses: The Cons

As effective as the FSI language courses can be, they’ve got a few quirks that you should be aware of. For those of you used to the bells and whistles of modern-day apps (which, frankly, often offer more hype than substance), these programs may seem a bit clunky.

Here’s what to prepare yourself for:

Obsolete Dialogues from a Diplomatic Era

Ok, there is no beating around the bush here. The material is dated and is also very topical. 

First of all, remember who the audience was: Employees of the State Department. So that means topics may include attending an embassy ball or talking to a client in the consular division about getting a travel visa. Those situations are not very relevant to most of us, but there are many other sections that are, such as scenarios revolving around taking a taxi, going to a restaurant, or buying food.

And then, yes, there is the dated part.  The material can be rather old-fashioned and stuffy. Much of it was written in the 1950s and 60s and our lives are simply different now. Not only due to technology, but also due to the lack of formality in today’s society that may have existed 60 years ago.

Audio Recordings Can Be Low-Quality

As mentioned, these materials were recorded in the 60s and then distributed on cassette tapes. For many of you, the cassette tape may appear as old as the gramophone does to me, and you probably never have had the joy of trying to untangle one by using a pencil. 

The recordings are no longer distributed on cassettes, but the problem is that the quality was never that good to begin with so when they were digitized, the quality remained subpar.

But, the material is certainly still comprehensible and it will just take a bit of getting used to the buzziness of the sound. 

Scanned PDFs and Typewriter Fonts

As with the audio, the written material seems to have been typed on a typewriter and then simply copied. For that reason, the written material we get online in PDF format can sometimes be difficult to decipher, especially for those languages that use a lot of diacritics (accent marks or symbols).

Some Audio May Be Missing

Sometimes you may also encounter sections of the course for which there is no audio portion. This may be because it was never recorded to begin with, or over the years, those recordings have gone missing and were therefore never digitized.

Despite these cons listed here, my advice to you is to…

Adapt the FSI Language Courses for Modern Life

You may not agree with me on this, but I personally believe that the good far outweighs the bad in these materials and it is therefore worth your time to try them out. If you don’t like them, you are not out a dime.

You may not find the material stimulating, but DO NOT LET THAT STOP YOU. Remember, these materials are there to help you in acquiring the way people would speak the language in a given situation and, in the case of FSI material, at a certain period of time long gone.

But you can still certainly use the guidance these programs offer and then alter them to make them more relevant to you. Do this by simply swapping out vocabulary in a given scenario so it aligns more with your life.

Let’s look at a practical example…

Dated content:

“I would like to buy a white hat and a pair of gloves since we will be dining with the Johnsons at the Metropolitan Hotel this Friday evening.”

Ok. I find that kind of romantic and it reminds me of watching old black-and-white classic films, which I love. But, it’s not very useful for me today. And I can imagine many younger users not understanding what is even going on in that context. Who are the Johnsons and why would I ever wear a white hat and gloves? I can’t afford to eat at some fancy hotel. This has nothing to do with me!

But, if you learn to say that sentence above flawlessly, you’ve mastered the difficult bit – the grammatical patterns. From there you can simply replace words so that these sentences do become more relatable to your own fabulous life.

New Content:

“I would like to buy a new black shirt and a pair of shoes since we will be going out to dinner with friends on Friday”

These are easy swaps and allow you to still apply the language patterns to a situation more relevant to the 21st century.

To be honest, you can (and you should) personalize any type of material you are using since it will be more motivational and more relevant to you. FSI has the advantage of providing thousands of examples just waiting for you to make them your very own.

So where can you find these beautiful materials?  Check out the following sites to get started:

https://fsi-languages.yojik.eu/languages/fsi.html

https://www.livelingua.com/project

So go take a look. Download a few of these programs to see how they work. What have you got to lose?  They’re free!!