I realize these are probably well-known to all current members, and have been frequently mentioned on HTLAL, but I thought this might be useful for any beginners who don't know where to find them. Also so that perhaps they won't be taken in by those selling repacked versions of these freely available courses. The only legit (as in actually provides some useful additions/updating) repacked version that I am aware of is Platiquemos for Spanish. FSI (Foreign Service Institute) courses: FSI Language Courses DLI (Defense Language Institute) courses: DLI Courses DLI site with additional resources: DLIFLC.edu DLI GLOSS site with additional resources: GLOSS Note that all courses above are not the same level, i.e. some are complete basic courses, some have advanced courses, and others are only introductory courses like HeadStart and programmatic. Some languages are only available in the latter small courses, while others have a full range. Regarding the question of whether there are unknown courses (FSI/DLI) beyond those available at the above sites, I have never seen any evidence of same. One would think such courses if they existed would eventually pop up on ebay or other sites. While the courses above can probably be torrented, one can also use something like DownThemAll for Firefox, or other mass downloaders.
A great site for free listening practice is LangMedia, developed jointly by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Smith College, Holyoke College, Hampshire College and Amherst College. http://langmedia.fivecolleges.edu/culturetalk.html The Culture Talk page has unscripted monologues (and a few conversations) recorded by international students at the schools. The audio can be downloaded as MP4 or real files, and there are transcripts with English translations that can be downloaded as PDF files or Word documents. There is a huge number of clips for Turkish, various Arabic dialects, and Farsi/Dari. In addition, there are clips for languages from Central Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Eastern Europe, and a few African languages. There is also some Russian if you are willing to wade through the Central Asian and Farsi clips to find them. The Culture Talk clips are all high level listening practice, but the site also has a More Multimedia page with elementary level listening in a few of the languages.
