Here I will focus on specific tools or resources to learn languages. Of course, interacting as much as possible with the language, whether through reading, speaking, watching movies, etc. is important.

French + Spanish

  • Duolingo: useful for getting from the complete beginner stage to a somewhat intermediate level. Best for reading, helps with listening and writing, but not effective for speaking.
  • Anki: vocabulary practice through spaced repetition. for best results, make your own deck with example sentences or additional context. The top 5000 most common words decks below were useful enough for me though.
  • Italki: a website where you can take 1-on-1 lessons with language teachers. I mostly do casual speaking lessons, but you can practice specific skills, like test prep, writing practice, and pronunciation practice.
  • Lingoda: a website where you can take lessons with language teachers about specific topics, like grammar and life skills. Also includes notes for each class which you can go through after downloading them manually. I used Lingoda’s class notes as a relatively comprehensive grammar resource as well as reading practice.
  • Word Reference: great for looking up word and phrase definitions.
  • Reverso Conjugator: great for looking up verb conjugations.

French

  • Lawless French: plenty of useful articles here, for beginners, intermediate, and advanced students.
  • Inner French Podcast: a podcast, completely in French, geared towards intermediate-level French learners, discussing a variety of interesting topics.

Spanish

Other Languages

  • I haven’t learned any other languages (yet.) I just want to say that Anki and Italki will likely be very useful to you, and you should explore resources specific to your specific langauge. Although Duolingo is popular, course quality is heavily dependent on the language, so you should only use it if the course has good reviews online.
  • Possibly useful resources, which I cannot vouch for myself:
    • Clozemaster
    • Assimil
    • Pimsleur