apprendre vs apprendre à
my french textbook says that apprendre means to teach and apprendre à means to learn. This is really confusing. How do you disambiguate between I would like to learn french vs I would like to teach french?

Question

Answer

In French there are no cases when two objects without preposition (=direct objects) occur behind a verb of giving, teaching, sending... (as in English): Eng. I gave John a letter = Fr. J'ai donne une lettre A John. The other object (the human being - target of the process) you refer to has to be introduced by "a". The same holds with "apprendre": "apprendre qqch a qqn" unambiguously means "to teach" while "apprendre qqch" is "to learn". > "J'ai appris la nouvelle" = learn / "J'ai appris la nouvelle a John/Je lui ai appris la nouvelle" = teach (or rather: inform, tell)
Now, "a" can also introduce an infinitive, but it then has to be distinguished from "a + someone". See: "J'ai appris A John A nager/Je lui ai appris A nager" = teach how to swim / "J'ai appris a nager" = learn.
Is it clearer?

Answer

**apprendre à qn à faire qch 
teach someone to do something:

Elle lui a appris à conduire. 
She taught him to drive.

** apprendre à faire qch 
to learn to do something:

J'apprends à faire la cuisine. 
I am learning to cook.

** apprendre quelque chose
To learn something 

J'aime apprendre les langues.