The Best Video Sites For Language Learning In 2023

Note: Also be sure to visit my Essential Language Learning Tools page where I’ve listed these and other quality language learning resources.

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I’m a visual learner.

Even if I have an excellent audio resource to learn a language from, I still find it easier when I can see who’s talking.

Body language, visual cues and the environment make a huge difference to how quickly I and many other people pick up new vocabulary and expressions.

For that reason I love using sites that put an emphasis on quality video material.

I’ve started to compile a list of the best online resources for language learning using video.

A few of the sites listed below are for languages I don’t speak admittedly (like Portuguese) but I’ve included them because they’re extremely popular with learners who I talk to.

I’d really like you to help me expand this list by suggesting your favorite YouTube channels and sites as well.

I’ll periodically update this page with your suggestions.

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LingoPie

LingoPie is new but hands down the best video site I’ve seen for learning languages in terms of quality.

They offer a massive library of the highest quality, popular TV shows where you can select your genre and watch interactive video.

The only downside is that there are currently only 6 (European) languages available.

See our LingoPie review.

Available in Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, German and Russian.

FluentU

FluentU is an excellent frontend for YouTube that helps you learn and understand videos at all levels.

You can move the mouse over subtitles at any time which will pause the video, provide pronunciation of the word and a detailed definition.

It has loads of other neat features as well (I covered this in my FluentU review).

Available in Spanish, French, German, Chinese, Italian, Japanese and English.

Innovative Language

A great podcast course available in many different languages, the Innovative Language series includes lots of video lessons.

Some of them are excellent but also hit and miss depending on the language as to the quality of the videos.

Select the language you’re learning to see what they have:

Here’s a sample from the Portuguese version to give you an idea:

Yabla

Very similar to FluentU (but without YouTube), Yabla’s been around for ages and is a fantastic video tool (read my Yabla review).

Available in French, Spanish, Italian, German, English and Chinese.

Semantica Portuguese

Semantica Portuguese (Brazilian) provides lessons and detailed ‘breakdowns’ of their situational mini-series set in Brazil.

See this Semantica Portuguese review.

TalkInArabic.com

Our own site for spoken Arabic dialects provides video dialogues and conversations with English + Arabic subtitles and transcripts (review here and here).

Talk To Me In Korean

TTMIK is the best site in existence for Korean learners.

It’s a treasure trove of quality Korean videos (lessons and dialogues with subs) like this one:

Fleex.tv (English)

Fleex is another excellent site for English learners with a similar interface to FluentU and Yabla.

It uses video from services like Netflix and YouTube that are in English with dual subs (so it can also be useful for learners of other languages too).

Easy Languages

Or go directly to their YouTube channel here (sometimes their site takes forever to load).

I love this site and have used it many times for different languages. The Easy Languages crew take to the streets and question people in various languages, providing the videos with dual subs.

Very handy for listening practice since it’s so repetitive.

LingusTV (Spanish)

LingusTV provides a series of videos in Spanish at different levels, all accompanied by transcripts, translations and lesson notes.

Ranganna.com (Irish)

The online version of the excellent Gaeilge gan Stró series (see my video review here).

It has some outstanding natural dialogues in all levels of Irish with transcripts and exercises as well.

MandarinHQ

Angel Huang has done a phenomenal job with her videos on MandarinHQ.

They’re some of the best quality I’ve seen for any language site in fact. Hard to believe it’s free.

Great YouTube Channels For Languages

Extr@ Series – A comedy sitcom with simplified dialogues in various languages. Entertaining and very useful for listening practice (French, German, Spanish, English).

An Grá Faoi Ghlas – Very similar to Extr@ but more of a Big Brother style show in simplified Irish.

Spanish Sessions

Learn French and Have Fun

Learn French With Alexa

Learn Arabic With Maha (Palestinian)

Learn Arabic With Ali (Egyptian)

Learn Italian With Lucrezia

Deutsch für Euch (German)

Anything you’d add to this list?