Online you have a vast amount of free apps that guide you on new language learning as well as sharpening your skills already learnt, but slightly forgotten. The beauty of an app is that you have it with you most of the time especially when you download it onto your laptop of smartphone. Even when you visit a new country with very little knowledge about the language you are going to be communicating in, you find it tremendously helpful when you need to explain yourself. Several apps concentrate only on specific major languages like Chinese, Russian, Dutch, Irish, German and Italian, plus many more but when you download an app it states which languages it covers too.
Duolingo
Duolingo works with Windows Phones, Android and iOS and it teaches you Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Irish, Portuguese, Italian, English, German, French and Spanish. It is quite easy to learn new languages as it works easily without needing an account or joining while it is free too. It offers various languages for you to choose from and also use audio, pictures as well as text to learn a language. It works on the principle to associate words with pictures and visuals as well as sound in the language you want to learn. As you continue moving to more difficult sections and words you will find it in sections that gets increasingly difficult as well as testing options to rate your progress.
Busuu
Busuu is available on Android and iOS in the following languages; Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Russian, Italian, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and German. It offers various options depending on your knowledge of the language in question where you can choose levels like, Travel, Beginners, Elementary, Intermediate as well as upper Intermediate. Here you can learn full sentences as well as single words.
Memrise
Memrise works with Amazon, Android and iOS and offer over 150 languages including Esperanto, Icelandic, Finnish, Cantonese, Mandarin Chinese, Turkish, Swedish, Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Kanji, Japanese, Italian, German, French, English, Chinese and Arabic. Here you also have the option of various difficulty levels and it uses a simple technique to teach new languages. They place words in the other language in a sentence that are similar sounding to your native language as well as imaging.
Rosetta Stone Travel App
This app is great as the name indicates for travelling and works on Android and iOS. Offering languages like Italian, German, French and Spanish it is helpful when visiting a country where you want to communicate simple sentences or single words. It is based on words often used while traveling relating to getting around, booking hotels, restaurants, shopping etc.
24/7 Tutor
The 24/7 tutor works only with iOS and have over 150 languages it supports and another great app when you are travelling the globe. It is based on topics like weather, work, directions, body, greetings, health food, education, colors, entertainment, clothing, etc. making choices easier when looking for particular words or phrases you want to learn.