I got back from work late last night, and when I arrived home was very happy to find that Thursday’s article concerning the Questionable Ethics behind the Voluntourism Industry had sparked a little bit of debate. Scott Pralinsky of the Casa Milagro Foundation in Costa Rica, wrote a response on his blog called “Are We Ethical?”. His response was also supported through a comment by his friend Colin of Banana Azul in Costa Rica.

Scott runs a Voluntourism Company in Costa Rica that helps prospective volunteers find compatible local volunteer projects to participate in. Both Scott, Colin, and other advocates for “Voluntourism Broker Companies” contend that their service is a necessary one, to be able to match non-language speaking travelers with responsible, well-coordinated, local volunteer projects. There is a lot of work that goes into analyzing each and every volunteer project, determining which are the most prevalent needs, and assuring that projects are capable of receiving and maintaining volunteers. They have also found that the majority of costumers that participate in their program “could not find their way out of the San Jose airport [on their own]” and thus voluntourism companies are a great way to tap into the market of “less savvy” travelers and provide them with the resources necessary to take advantage of more responsible forms of travel – volunteering.

I do not argue their points. Having worked for a non-profit in Ecuador (that accepts volunteers) for the last two years I understand that, in general the international development community is EXTREMELY unorganized, inefficient, and at times incompetent. I do not disagree that there should be some system in place to evaluate and rate local volunteer projects, to ensure that foreign volunteers and donors alike, invest their time and money to the most needing organizations. Currently, it is the volunteer companies that take on this very important role. What I do NOT like about this system is that whether it’s through profits or just a bad business model, the only way that volunteer companies seem capable of fulfilling this position is by inflating volunteer costs by 2-10 times (see first article). The result of this price inflation (which I have seen first hand) is fewer people volunteer, and even more detrimental to our projects is they volunteer for a significantly shorter period of time.

Gap year students from England are a great example. They usually spend 9-12 months after high school traveling, and do volunteer work during that time. They are not rich, but they do have tons of time which could be devoted to long-term volunteering (extremely valuable). Unfortunately they also usually organize their volunteer experience with a voluntourism company, and consequentially can only afford to volunteer for 4-6 weeks (in my opinion the bare minimum for being effective in any social volunteer project).

Both Scott and Colin point out that the voluntourism business is far from profitable, and Scott’s company is actually still operating at an annual loss. In my opinion, this doesn’t matter. If a voluntourism company has to charge 2-10 times the actual cost of living and volunteering, and still struggles to make a profit, that doesn’t represent righteousness, it represents a bad business model.

Now, I don’t mean to attack voluntourism companies, and as I said in my first article, I DO NOT actually believe them to be unethical. The fact is they arose out of necessity in the international development field. As Scott and Colin have shown, there are thousands of people out there that would like to volunteer their time in developing nations, but if there is no volunteer company to guide them, where would they start?

Well, I believe a new system needs to develop to replace the inefficiency that voluntourism companies currently place on the development community. Scott said that one of the biggest costs facing his company is the annual analysis of Costa Rica’s needs and volunteer projects. However, is his company the only one analyzing Costa Rica’s development and needs? Absolutely not! I can guarantee that there are at least a dozen other surveys completed in the exact same way every year in Costa Rica, each one spending a significant amount of money to do accomplish the exact same task as the others. Why not coordinate with other non-profits working in Costa Rica, pool resources, and create one comprehensive annual analysis of the country’s situation. In fact why can’t we put something like this together on a more global scale. Like a very well funded and resourced Idealist.org. It’s not as if this work isn’t already being done, it is just being done in an extremely disconnected and uncoordinated way. With an internationally published ranking system, prospective volunteers could get online, look up volunteer projects in their country of interest, view international rankings and recommendations for each project, then coordinate with the local institution itself to organize their time in a much less costly manner. For those volunteers that don’t want to do the extra organization, or who want added support both before and during their time in-country, they could choose to pay more and organize their project through a voluntourism company. In this way, prospective volunteers at least have a choice, and are not misled into believing the only way they can volunteer is by paying inflated voluntourism fees.

Please feel free to add your comments and thoughts to this debate

More on this debate:

• My first article questioning the ethics behind the Voluntourism Industry
• Scott Pralinsky’s response

Voluntourism has exploded recently as a niche within the international travel industry. It has even been featured in mainstream press like MSNBC - Want to help? Go on a trip. It’s great that so many people today are interested in devoting vacation time to helping out their neighbors in developing countries around the world. However, what’s not so great is the questionable business ethics behind the voluntourism industry, in which 50-90% of volunteer fees paid by “do-gooder” travelers go to the multinational companies that are currently running and perhaps even exploiting the industry.

These multinational companies work with local organizations around the world to match volunteers with locally run volunteer projects. There are a number of these MNC’s, but one of the bigger and more well-known companies is i-to-i. I will focus on i-to-i for the rest of this post.

Can’t afford to volunteer?

A little over 6 years ago I looked into volunteering before a study abroad program I had scheduled in Brazil. I did a search on the internet of volunteer projects throughout Brazil, but was discouraged and surprised to find that I just couldn’t afford any of them. All of the projects I found seemed to be managed by “volunteer sending companies” like i-to-i. And they all cost between $500-$800 per week of service, a price I just couldn’t afford at the time. I was very surprised to see such high costs for volunteering, but I simply accepted them as the norm and moved on, unable to volunteer my time because it was too expensive.

That’s because volunteer fees are extremely inflated!

About 4 years later, I graduated college and started working as a volunteer coordinator in Quito, Ecuador. At my volunteer organization we were often supplied with volunteers from “volunteer sending companies” such as i-to-i. I was surprised to learn that the fees charged by companies like i-to-i, the same fees I couldn’t afford in Brazil, are radically higher than the actual cost of living and volunteering. I found out that in general, only between 10-50% of i-to-i fees actually go to the local institutions. The rest simply goes to pay i-to-i’s expenses, and ultimately back into their pockets.

The following are two organizations that work directly with i-to-i. The way their program works, is they simply match these local organizations with interested volunteers. Therefore a potential volunteer could organize their volunteer service with either i-to-i, or the local organization itself, and the actual work and living conditions would be exactly the same. However, what would NOT be the same is the cost:

CENIT – Centro de la Niña Trabajadora (Quito, Ecuador)

i-to-i (8 weeks volunteer service) - includes volunteer work, program fee, homestay with Ecuadorian family, 3 meals/day, in-country support personnel, for $3270.

Organized directly with CENIT (8 weeks volunteer service) – includes volunteer work, program fee, homestay with Ecuadorian family, 3 meals/day, for $850.

i-to-i charges close to 4x what the local organization does, or $2420 more.

ASVO – Asociación de Voluntarios para el Servicio en las Areas Protegidas (Costa Rica)

i-to-i (4 weeks volunteer service) – includes volunteer work, program fee, accommodations, 3 meals/day, in-country support personnel, for $2245.

Organized directly with ASVO (4 weeks volunteer service) – includes volunteer work, program fee, accommodations, 3 meals/day, for $450.

i-to-i charges close to 5x what the local organization does, or $1795 more.

Unethical?

I am not prepared to accuse companies like i-to-i of being unethical. They do provide an added service of organizing the entire trip as well as providing in-country personnel for general support. These two services, I’m sure, account for a significant portion of the added fees charged.

I do, however, think it’s unfortunate that the vast majority of travelers don’t realize that only 10-50% of the fees they pay actually go to the cost of living and volunteering. That if they don’t mind doing a little work on their own, they can organize the exact same volunteer project for a fraction of the cost. They could then use the money they save to volunteer longer or invest into the local economy by traveling more.

Even if you have the money to blow on the i-to-i service, why not save it to donate directly into the local communities you will be working with!? Imagine if every i-to-i volunteer donated $1000-$2000 to their local volunteer project instead of giving it to i-to-i. The local impact of that money would be monumental!

Follow-up:

Voluntourism Industry Unethical? more thoughts…

Further Reading:

1. How to Volunteer Abroad for Less
2. How to Save Thousands by Organizing your Volunteer Trip on your own
3. 6 Steps to Organizing your own Volunteer Trip

The final Travel Myth Buster Series excuse I would like to address for not incorporating international travel into one’s life is:

Every other excuse that I have addressed in the Travel Myth Buster Series, I have believed whole-heartedly to be a bad reason for not traveling. This final excuse, however, is a little more difficult. Traveling solo as a female can be a very nerve-racking experience. Unfortunately, a solo traveling female is often seen as a target. And even if you do everything right, you can never guarantee an incident-free experience.

I have decided that I will not write on this topic personally, as I am a 25 year old male who has never and will never experience solo female travel. Instead I’d like to write about the thousands of women around the world who have already begun what is turning into a small movement of solo female travelers. I think the best thing a prospective solo female traveler can do, is to listen to what the experienced female travelers have to say, their stories, tips, and advice, then make a personal decision as to whether or not solo travel is right for them.

86% of women have already traveled alone or said they would be “up for it” in the future:

A recent AirMiles survey (found via Gapyear.com) showed that 21% of their female customers have already traveled alone. 51% said they’d be “up for it” in the future, and another 14% said that they would be “up for it” if travel was in a developed western country. This leaves only 14% that would NOT consider the idea.

Obviously, if you are a female considering solo travel, you are not alone. There are literally thousands of women out there that have already gotten on-board, and many more that will in the future. So, how can you find out more?

Ask the experts!

If you are interested in solo female travel, my recommendation is to learn as much as you can from those who have already experienced it. By listening to their stories you can better determine if solo travel is something you are interested in, or something you’re not comfortable with for the time being.

Writers and Bloggers: There are a number of writers and bloggers who have recently picked up the topic of solo female travel.

• Wanderlust and Lipstick: Beth Whitman has emerged as the un-spoken leader of the “female solo traveler’s movement”. Her recent book “Wanderlust and Lipstick: The Essential Guide for Women Traveling Solo” has received solid reviews from large publications such as USA Today, as well independent and trusted sites such as Brave New Traveler and Go Backpacking. Beth provides great insight, inspiration, and advice on the topic of female travel, and even runs her own blog devoted to the solo female traveler.
• Stay Safe But Don’t Stay Home: A must read by Zahara Heckscher. Does a fantastic job outlining the potential risks of solo female travel, as well as the an explanation of common local assumptions of western women.
• Journey Woman: Journey Woman is an online publication exclusively for female travelers. The design is a bit “1993”, but there is a lot of good content pertaining to safety as well many other topics of interest to female travelers.
• Travel Minx: The Travel Minx (aka Shona Riddell) is also a seasoned veteran when it comes to solo female travel. She writes on the topic occasionally with posts like Top Safety Tips for Women Travelers, and is always quick to respond to comments and questions.

Online Forums: Online travel forums are also a great way to get in touch with experienced female solo travelers. These forums are normally populated with a number of well-traveled and even expat females who can provide a wealth of knowledge regarding site-specific descriptions of local environments facing female travelers.

*A simple but effective question to ask is, “I’m considering solo travel in country ______ as a female. Can any fellow female travelers give me their recommendations or advice?”

• Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree
• BootsnAll Travel Forum
• Aardvark Travel Forum

Return to the “Travel Myth Buster” series

The next Travel Myth Buster Series excuse I would like to address for not incorporating international travel into one’s life is:

It is true that many countries around the world suffer from higher poverty rates than we are accustomed to at home, and with these higher poverty rates often comes an associated increase in crime. However, what many of us fail to remember is that life at home, is not always as safe as we would like either. There are a number of cities and communities in the US, UK, France, Germany, Australia, etc. that would rank right up there among the most dangerous countries in the world. However, do we let these dangerous domestic areas scare us into staying at home or limiting our mobility?

NO! We take stay informed, take the necessary precautions and continue on enjoying our lives!

In this sense, international travel is no different than domestic travel, and it makes the most sense to look at travel safety abroad just like you would domestic travel safety.

1. Get informed:

The first step is to be informed as to where you are going. Would you want to travel to New York immediately after the September 11th terrorist attacks (2001), or to Los Angeles during the Rodney King Riot (1992)? No, of course not, just as you would probably not want to travel to Iraq right now (July, 2007). Simply by staying informed on global situations, we can better determine whether or not a country is safe for travel. Research your potential travel destinations for political unrest, civil unrest, tourist targeted crime, etc. Know and understand what is going on there, so that you can make an informed decision as to whether that is an area you think you will feel comfortable in or not.

The following websites maintain up-to-date records and travel advisories for every country around the world:

• US State Department - Consular Information Sheets: The US State Department maintains a database of travel advisories, notices, and general information for every country in the world.
• All Safe Travels: Extensive database that collects news, notices, and advisories from a number of different sources and display them from one central source. Information on every country around the world.

2. Take the necessary, standard precautions:

Once you have determined that a country or destination IS safe enough for travel, it’s just a matter of taking the necessary precautions. Cities like New York, London, and Paris, are amazing places to visit, however, there are certainly a number of safety concerns associated with each. Do these concerns stop people from visiting? No! Despite safety issues these three cities consistently rank among the most popular tourist destinations in the entire world. Travelers simply take the necessary precautions and enjoy their time there. The same philosophy should be used with international travel. Countries like Brazil, Russia, and Mexico are known internationally for their high levels of crime. However, by practicing caution and staying mindful of safety, the vast majority of travelers feel as safe as they would in their own hometowns and never encounter any problems.

For tips and advice on how to stay safe on the road, check out these articles

• Safety Tips for Backpackers: Good list of tips for staying safe while backpacking
• 33 Travel Safety Tips: Travel safety tips for travelers. Some are a bit excessive, and others are not appropriate for the budget traveling/backpacking crowd. However, the suggested mindset is relevant and correct.

3. Enjoy your travels:

If you do the research, and take the necessary precautions while on the road, there is no reason to fear travel. Go out, explore the world, and enjoy!

Return to the “Travel Myth Buster” series

The next Travel Myth Buster Series excuse I would like to address for not incorporating international travel into one’s life is:

To this excuse I have two responses:

1. You absolutely CAN travel alone.
Solo travel can be an amazing experience, allowing you to easily meet new people, travel with unlimited flexibility, assimilate into new cultures, and go pretty much anywhere! Traveling alone is a wonderful learning experience, teaching us who we are, and what we’re capable of! Obviously, there are also some downsides to traveling on your own also, however on the whole I highly recommend everyone try solo travel at least once!

I suggest Ubertramp’s article on The Pros and Cons of Solo Travel for more information on the good and bad points of traveling alone.

2. Finding a travel partner is not difficult.
There is an entire community of very open and interesting travelers out there that are always looking for a new adventure. Even if you can’t find any friends from home to travel with, don’t be discouraged, as you can quite easily meet fellow travelers before or during your trip, with whom you can share your travel experience.

Check out my guide on How to find a Travel Partner for more information.

Return to the “Travel Myth Buster” series

A lot of people are a little anxious about hitting the road on their own. Understandably, they are worried about safety, loneliness, extra costs, or would just like someone to share their traveling experience with. It isn’t always possible to travel with friends from home, as everyone has their own obligations, schedules, interests, and budgets. So, what can you do if you really want to travel, but don’t want to embark on the journey alone, and don’t have any friends to travel with?

Find a “travel buddy”! Luckily, the traveling community, in general, is an extremely open crowd, always looking to make new friends! You can very easily take advantage of this openness, to find new people with similar travel plans and interests to travel with. The following are the 3 best ways to find a travel buddy, once you’ve exhausted all of your options at home (friends, networking, etc.)

1. Find Someone Online: Like pretty much everything else these days, the internet holds solutions to this problem. They are in the form of online travel communities. There are a number of forums online where you can post and browse listings for travel partners, and it is relatively easy to find people interested in traveling to popular destinations like Europe, Japan, SE Asia, and the United States.

Pros:

• You can start your search from home, meaning you don’t waste travel time looking for a travel buddy.
• Usually have a high number of people to consider

Cons:

• Harder to actually get to know someone over the internet.
• Can be difficult finding responses for less mainstream travel destinations

Recommendations:

1. Post your own listings as opposed to only browsing listings made by others. Other users often open their travels up to anyone interested. With your own posting YOU can control exactly how many people you travel with, and who you travel with.
2. Give yourself plenty of time to find a travel partner online. Do NOT wait until the week before your trip to start looking. You do not want to be desperate, accepting any wacko that writes back as your new travel partner. It will take time to find someone who is a good fit.

Websites and Online Forums for finding a Travel Partner

• Thorntree - Travel Companions
• Gumtree - Travel Partners
• Rough Guides - Travel Partners
• BootsnAll - Travel Buddies
• Soul Escape
• Travel Chums

*The above links will take you to the actual “travel partner” forum in each online community. However, I would also advise posting your search in the appropriate destination(s) specific forum(s) as well.

2. Meet People on the Road: The next option is the old-fashioned method of just meeting people along the way. If you have the time, I would say this is the best way to find a travel buddy that you really enjoy being with. As far as finding someone, the idea is simple. Spend a lot of time where other travelers tend to hang out. This means backpacker hostels, internet cafes, British Pubs, traveler clubhouses, etc. Research ahead of time to find out if your travel destination has any kind of Travelers Club or Organization, as they usually post listings of fellow journey men and women looking for traveling partners.

Pros:

• Have the opportunity to get to know your potential travel buddies in person
• Forces you to meet new people, and be proactive about your search

Cons:

• Requires using your travel time to search for a travel buddy
• There’s no guarantee you will actually find someone to travel with

Recommendations

• Be flexible in your travel plans. Don’t try to make your new friends conform to one specific travel itinerary. If they already have a travel plan, go along with them (you can always split off at a later date), and if they don’t, work together to come up with something you are both interested in.

3. Couchsurf: The last option is a kind of mix between solo travel, and travel with a partner, and involves utilizing Hospitality Exchanges (click here if for more information about hospitality exchanges). By using hospitality exchanges, you can hop from place to place on your own, but will have a local buddy (and place to stay) in each new city/town you visit. This option is fundamentally different from the previous two, as it doesn’t involve one full-time travel partner, but rather a different partner in each new place that you visit.

Pros:

• Allows time for solo travel as well as travel with a partner
• Accommodation is provided by your buddy in each new town
• Meet lots of new people
• Usually your hospitality exchange is with a local, which means insider tips and advice
• Can be organized weeks or months before your visit

Cons:

• Don’t have one full time travel partner that you can really get to know, and share all aspects of your travel experience with
• Hospitality exchange partners don’t always have the time or interest to spend all day with travelers
• Locals aren’t always interested in doing the types of things first-timers are interested in.
• Still have to make it from A to B on your own

Recommendations:

• This option is best used by a traveler who enjoys and is comfortable with solo travel, but just wants the safety net of a friend in each new area that can provide advise, an insider’s look, and company on occasion (not to mention a free place to stay).

The next Travel Myth Buster Series excuse I would like to address for not incorporating international travel into one’s life is:

Another common excuse based on misconceptions. While much of the world DOES speak languages other than English, this should NOT make you anxious about traveling abroad.

1. English has developed as the global language of travel: As the world continues to globalize, English has been adopted as the international language of travel. Now I’m certainly not saying that everyone in the world now speaks English, as this is definitely NOT the case, but in most places you travel to, especially cities and other locations popular with tourists, you will find at least a few people that speak English. They may not speak perfect English, but you can usually find someone with at least basic knowledge of the language, and with simple phrases and a lot of hand movements you can normally get your point across fine. Stay in the nicer hotels, or in the touristy sections of town and you will likely find a number of people who speak very good English.

2. Developing a language base for travel can be quite painless: While it is true that you can get by in most places just using English, it’s still nice to have a little knowledge of the local language to aid you in your travels. This is where most people get discouraged. They think back to the mind-numbing hours they spent in high school Spanish or French class, and get completely turned off to the idea. What they fail to realize, is that you don’t need to spend hours on book study memorizing tenses or irregular verbs to develop a language base to travel on. All you really need is a few practical words and phrases to put in your travel arsenal. Throw in some listening comprehension from an interesting language learning podcast, and you will be well on your way to a developing a basic, travel-oriented knowledge of the necessary language. If you have more time to put into learning the language, by all means do, you WILL be rewarded. But if not, don’t be discouraged, a few hours in the weeks leading up to your trip will give you enough to get by.

Learn New Languages Online for Free:

A little language knowledge will enrich your experience, and the locals will undoubtedly appreciate the fact that you have taken the time to learn THEIR language.

To help you get started, I’ve put together a guide to The 6 Most Influential Languages in the World, and How to Learn them Online for Free.

Further Reading:

For tips on how to effectively learn a new language, check out Travel Minx’s 10 Tips from a Language Learner and Teacher

Return to the “Travel Myth Buster” series

If you’re interested in global travel, you’re probably also interested in learning a couple new languages. There’s no better where to really get involved in foreign cultures than to talk to the locals in their native tongue! But what language(s) should you learn? There are literally thousands of languages spoken in the world today. After all, language learning is tough. It makes the most sense to learn a one of the more influential modern languages, which you can use to communicate with a high number of people across a vast geographic area.

So, which are the most influential languages in the world? Inspired by Andy Hobotraveler’s recent post on The Six Languages to Learn, I decided to do a little research of my own and contribute to the debate of which are the most useful languages to the global traveler. I stumbled across a 1999 study by George Weber ( http://www.andaman.org/BOOK/reprints/weber/rep-weber.htm) that suggests that the 6 most influential languages in the world are:

• English
• French
• Spanish
• Russian
• Arabic
• Chinese

This study looks at the total number of world speakers, geographical influence, economic power of countries speaking the language, literary and scientific use of each language. These are the same 6 languages suggested by Andy in his post, and consequentially are also the 6 official languages of the United Nations.

Personally I found this information extremely interesting and helpful as a traveler. I unfortunately cannot spend my time learning thousands of different languages, so this study lets us know which languages will give us the biggest “bang for our buck”. All of the factors that Weber considered in his study are not necessarily pertinent to the traveler. However, two big factors he considered, that I think are extremely useful to the traveling community are: Total number of speakers (both primary and secondary), and number of countries that speak each language.

The following map illustrates just how global each of these languages is. Highlighted countries either claim the language as their official dialect, or have a significant percentage of population that speaks that language.

Now I don’t want to discredit local languages here, and certainly would not say that local languages are not worth learning. Languages do a lot more than just communicate, they express feelings, sentiments, and emotions, each in its own unique way. To forget that demonstrates an extreme insensitivity to those populations and humankind for not listening to each native population through its own medium of expression. However, I do think it’s very interesting to visualize, just how far-reaching each of these languages is. It seems that one really could travel the globe, and COMMUNICATE, with just 6 languages!

Learn the other 5 languages online for free:

After putting together the map above and visualizing each language’s global influence, I felt pretty motivated to start learning some new languages. However, 5 new languages is a daunting task, where to start!? I’ve been interested in linguistics for some time now, and have recently done a lot of research on the many online resources available for language learning, so I put together a list of resources for learning each of these global languages (other than English as I assume my readers already have a good grasp on that one). The following links will take you to a list and short review of some of the better free resources available on the web for starting your study of each language.

• French
• Spanish
• Russian
• Arabic
• Mandarin Chinese

Countries Influenced by Spanish
(original map template taken from Wikipedia.org, idea from Andy Hobotraveler)

• Number of Speakers Worldwide (both primary and secondary): 320 million
• Number of Countries influenced by Spanish: 20

(Weber, 1999)

Free Language Courses: Free downloadable Spanish course. Includes original material developed by the US State Department to train its Foreign Service Officers.

Learn Spanish: Learn Spanish offers an extensive set of written lessons, covering all major points of grammar, vocabulary lists, and verb sheets. Each lesson is accompanied by worksheets and quizzes for further practice. There is a premium membership option that costs $9.95/month, but even without it you can still access a large portion of the site.

Outer Spanish: Unfortunately this site has evolved to look like one big advertisement, but if you can ignore the Google Ads that cover its pages, there are some good written Spanish Lessons to be had. The site covers the main points of grammar, in a succinct, to the point manner. This website on its own, likely wouldn’t be enough but coupled with another like Learn Spanish it is quite useful.

Coffee Break Spanish: Good set of podcasts for the beginning Spanish speaker. Some people find the hosts a bit irritating, but in general a good resource for beginners. Hosts are NOT native speakers.

Spanish Sense: Extensive collection of podcasts for the newbie, elementary, intermediate, upper intermediate, and advanced level Spanish speaker. One host is always a native Latin American Spanish speaker.

Notes in Spanish: Until recently Notes in Spanish only offered podcasts for the intermediate and advanced student. However, they have recently starting releasing lessons for beginners as well. The beginner podcasts may prove a little challenging for the absolute beginner, but are quite helpful for someone who has a little Spanish knowledge already. Each podcast is accompanied by free PDF worksheet.

Read more about the Six Most Influential Languages in the World.

Countries Influenced by French
(original map template taken from Wikipedia.org, idea from Andy Hobotraveler)

• Number of Speakers Worldwide (both primary and secondary): 265 million
• Number of Countries influenced by French: 35

(Weber, 1999)

Free Language Courses: Free downloadable French course. Includes original material developed by the US State Department to train its Foreign Service Officers.

BBC French: The BBC offers a great introduction to French, with interactive online lessons for beginners. Lessons cover practical situations and vocabulary that you will need while traveling.

French Assistant: Free written lessons for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced student. Very comprehensive site, lessons include sound files if you register (registering is free and quick).

Daily French Pod: Daily French Pod features hundreds of French podcasts for the beginner, intermediate, and advanced French speaker. Access to the podcasts is free, though you will have to pay a monthly fee of $9-$18 for access to their PDF resources and other learning tools.

French by Podcast: Another big site with free podcasts, though charges a fee of $24.99 for 3 months access to their complimenting written materials and resources

French Pod Class: This site offers over 80 podcasts and complimenting written materials for free. Lessons can be followed by beginners, though may prove a little advanced for the absolute beginner.

Read more about the Six Most Influential Languages in the World.