# Is it just me, or is the free version of Duolingo kind of useless? What's a good free resource for learning basic Spanish? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [January 23, 2026, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-is-the-free-version-of-duolingo-kind-of-useless-whats-a-good-free-resource-for-learning-basic-spanish/1026966 "2026-01-23T19:30:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 8
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2026, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-is-the-free-version-of-duolingo-kind-of-useless-whats-a-good-free-resource-for-learning-basic-spanish/1026966/8 "2026-01-24T01:17:22Z")
Someone here recently mentioned a State Department site for learning a foreign language in a hurry. Ah, here it is: > [@Best way to learn some basic Italian in a month?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/best-way-to-learn-some-basic-italian-in-a-month/1019078/2): > > I’d recommend checking out the US State Department’s language lessons. They are free. If you were hired as a US diplomat this is the course they’d give you. That said, I think they say the course for Italian is 24 weeks. But, you can get a start… ETA: I was in Italy a couple years ago and some friends I was with are fluent Spanish speakers. I was amazed at how far they could get speaking to Italians in Spanish. They could not have a full blown conversation but the languages were close … --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-is-the-free-version-of-duolingo-kind-of-useless-whats-a-good-free-resource-for-learning-basic-spanish/1026966)._