People usually spend tons of time scrolling through YouTube videos. There’s content about so many different topics, from gamers to lifestyle videos. But, did you know that there are also YouTube channels for learning languages? That’s right! You can improve your language journey by watching videos online.
The best thing about these videos is that you hear the pronunciation of the words that the YouTuber is teaching you. This will help you improve your listening and speaking skills.
It’s also a great advantage to those that get tired of learning from a textbook. If you’re more of a visual or auditory learner, YouTube can help you with that. Plus, the duration of the videos varies; you can watch a short one in case you don’t have much time to practice.
Now, that you know that YouTube can be a productive tool to improve your language skills, check out our list of the best YouTube Channels to learn a language, and pick your favorite.
YouTube Channels for Language Learning
Holly is an American YouTuber who learned Spanish at a young age while living in Mexico as a kid. She speaks both English and Spanish fluently. She has videos that last a few seconds, and some that last over twenty minutes.
Her videos are perfect for ESL learners because she speaks in Spanish in order to teach English. Holly will teach you different English topics, like phrasal verbs, pronunciation, idioms, and more. She even has a video recommending poems in English.
Holly also has videos analyzing the English of famous celebrities, especially ones that have other languages as their mother tongue. These will help you a lot if you’re an English learner. It will be like learning from celebrities. You’ll hear how they speak and will learn from their mistakes and from what they do correctly.
She also has some other types of videos, where she shows you a little bit more about her life. These will also help you improve your language skills, because you’ll learn by watching videos about life experiences. Some of these videos are in Spanish and some are in English.
But if you’re a native English speaker looking to improve your Spanish, she also has a YouTube channel called Superholly English. She has many different types of videos there; among them, you’ll find some Spanish lessons.
Check out one of our favorite videos by Super Holly:
This is another channel for English learners. But we know that English, like other languages, has many variations, and British English is one of the most popular ones. The teacher is Lucy Bella Simkins, and she’ll show you how to speak like a person from England. It’s a good channel for English speakers that want to learn different English accents. And let’s be honest, a lot of people love a British accent.
Something you need to know is that she teaches only in English. So you need to have some English knowledge in order to understand her. But if you don’t know a lot of English, you can turn on the YouTube subtitles. And if you do know English, it’s even better because you’ll keep improving while hearing her speak English all the time.
She has informational videos about British English vocabulary, pronunciation, idioms, small talk tips, and even comparing different English accents. She has a lot of useful lessons like her alternative phrases videos. In those, she teaches different ways of saying common things. So you’ll learn how to express yourself with phrases that native people use.
She also has a playlist named “conversation lessons”, which is great to improve your speaking.
Her channel is very well-rounded; she teaches grammar, listening, speaking, business English, and even study techniques.
We recommend checking out this video by English with Lucy:
This channel will teach you many different languages, such as English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Mandarin, Catalan, Thai, Kurdish, and more. They have some videos explaining different topics about a certain language. But more than just sitting down to talk to you, they will act, mimic or show you things related to what they’re teaching you. So you can also understand everything by watching it.
Their greatest videos are the ones in which they teach by interviewing native speakers that are walking down the streets. With those, you will learn more about different cultures. You’ll understand how people from different countries live, from what they eat and wear to what stereotypes they have to deal with.
This is a great channel if you want to be or already are a polyglot. It’s also great if you want to learn about different cultures. And it doesn’t matter if you’re a beginner, intermediate, or advanced learner, there’s always something you can learn. All of their videos are subtitled in the target language and in English. So if you’re a beginner, you can help yourself with subtitles. This will also help you learn how to write the words or phrases presented in the video.
They also have many other YouTube channels focused on learning a specific language. They have: Easy English, Easy German, Easy Spanish, Easy Catalan, Easy French, Easy Italian, Easy Greek, Easy Russian, Easy Polish, Easy Dutch, Easy Turkish, Easy Czech, and Easy Mandarin channels. The format of this channel is the same as the Easy Languages channel. They teach you useful vocabulary, and they interview native speakers of the language that the channel is centered on.
Get an idea of their video format by watching this video from Easy Languages:
Olly Richards created the StoryLearning method, where you learn languages through stories. He speaks English in his videos, though he is a polyglot, and he talks about different languages.
You’ll find a wide variety of videos on this channel. Olly Richards will not necessarily give you grammar lessons about a particular language, but you learn a lot from his language channel. He has videos describing how he learned some languages, reaction videos, and videos explaining to you how specific people learned new languages. You can definitely grab some tips for your language journey from these kinds of videos. He also has special guests every now and then, so you can learn from the best.
Some of his most interesting videos are about language history. If you’re really invested in learning a new language it is good to learn about about where it comes from and its evolution.
Overall, you’ll learn a lot of language facts from his videos, which will help you improve your language skills. Either because you’ll learn pronunciation, learning techniques, or the easiest and most difficult things of learning a specific language.
And if you’re interested in learning Spanish, he also has a channel for that! It’s called StoryLearning Spanish. There, you’ll find grammar, pronunciation, vocabulary, and stories in Spanish. It has subtitles in Spanish and English, so you’ll understand everything.
We recommend watching this video to get an idea of Olly Richards teaching style:
Interested in French? Then, this is your channel. Elisa is a French teacher that teaches you through different fun and interesting videos, from French slang to pronunciation videos. She also has videos recommending books and songs in French, which is great because those are great language learning tools.
Other great videos are her vlogs, in which she simply shows a day in her life. They’re very helpful because you will learn everyday vocabulary. You’ll also learn a little bit about how French people live and the places they visit.
She speaks entirely in French, so you’ll need to already have some knowledge of the language in order to understand her. Of course, you can also turn on the YouTube subtitles.
Her videos are short, they usually last under 20 minutes. She even has some “learn French in 3 minutes” videos. So, you can keep improving your French during your small breaks at work or school.
We recommend watching this French Mornings with Elisa video:
Can You Learn a New Language just by Watching YouTube?
Though YouTube is a fantastic language learning instrument, it won’t do all the work. Online videos are just a tool to improve your language skills.
They’ll help you with vocabulary and listening skills, but to achieve full fluency, it’s better to take some language classes where you actually speak.
We know that some lessons can be boring and will only focus on grammar. That’s why we created TruFluency language classes. You won’t get bored with us. We have personalized classes, so you’ll achieve your goals, and will learn things you’re interested in. We also have native tutors, so you’ll actually learn from a person that knows idioms, slang, and useful vocabulary. Plus, they can teach you about the culture of your target language since they’ve grown within it.
We will also focus on making you speak in every class. So you’ll be able to handle a real-life conversation in your new language.
In the end, there’s not just one thing that will make you a master of the language. To achieve that, you’ll need a combination of many language tools. You can’t learn everything just by watching YouTube, but that doesn’t mean it won’t help you.
You should also put in some effort after classes to keep practicing. And that’s what YouTube will help you with: keep improving while having fun. Both classes and YouTuber videos will complement each other.
We really care about you being able to communicate in a new language. So, watch some of the channels from our list above and test out a month of classes with a TruFluency tutor and get 20% off of your first month of classes with code TF20.
