Now and Ten: LingQ Review

Originally, I had no idea what the topic of my tenth (!!) review would be. I was kinda winging it, if I’m being honest. But out of the blue, while trying to find a subject, LingQ appeared, after I was about to give up hope from my fifth Google search. A quick peek at their website cemented the idea that this would be the subject of my next adventure, and now here we are! So, let’s get started:

Price

LingQ is a freemium website. You can sign up for free without any issues, and get access to their courses with no problem. Their paid services just add a few bells and whistles that aren’t totally necessary to learn, but just add some pizzazz (I love that word so much; I have to use it more often) to the whole experience. So, if you like pizzazz, there are two subscription options that you can sign up for; Premium ($10/month) and Plus ($39/month). 

The main differences that you get from Premium and Plus are that you can have multiple testing formats (not just the standard on LingQ, but also multiple choice and dictation tests- and they’re ad-free), and you can import an unlimited amount of lessons and vocabulary. You can also get a 50% discount on points (I’ll explain those later, don’t worry) and unlimited LingQ’s (I’ll also explain those), and on their mobile app, all premium features are unlocked. The Plus version gives you either 3000 or 7500 points a month, too. So if you dig points and tests, a subscription might be the way to go. If not, then I’d stick with the free service.

Here’s the full chart that details all the price differences, just for reference:

Languages

There are currently 16 language courses available entirely on LingQ16- English, French, Russian, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Swedish, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Esperanto, Latin, and Ukranian. But, if your target language of choice isn’t in that little blurb I just wrote, never fear! Because LingQ has 11 courses in beta that are available to anyone with an account, free or otherwise- Czech, Turkish, Norwegian, Finnish, Hebrew, Arabic, Romanian, Danish, Slovak, Belarusian, and Malay. I’m not entirely sure of the difference between beta and complete courses on LingQ- my guess is there are probably a few bugs in beta courses that haven’t been worked out, or maybe a few lessons are missing. I dunno. All I do know is that, whether it’s beta or not, you can learn the language without paying a cent, and that’s what really matters here.

Courses

LingQ has a pretty neat mix of courses and lessons that are both user-created and made in-house (i.e., made by LingQ). And all of them are along a nice continuum of six levels: Beginner 1, Beginner 2, Intermediate 1, Intermediate 2, Advanced 1, and Advanced 2. And, you guys, there are so. many. lessons to choose from! I mean, just off the bat, there are 452 courses for the Spanish program. I don’t even know how many lessons there are- the system caps it off at 1,000. So you have plenty to keep you occupied.

If all that sounds a bit daunting, though, don’t worry! LingQ has an awesome search feature that helps you find what you’re looking for. You can filter things out by the level of difficulty, who created it (LingQ and individial users alike), the type of lesson it is (translation, reading, videos, etc.), and what you want the lesson to have (notes, attachments, etc.). So you can really easily narrow down what you do and don’t want, which is pretty much a necessity for such a huge amount of lessons and whatnot.

As I’m sure you might’ve guessed, your learning is your own on LingQ. It’s all totally customizable; you learn what you want, when you want, in the order that you want. You don’t have to finish up any lessons or courses you don’t want to, and you don’t have to take anything in any particular order. It’s all up to you, which is both exciting and a bit nervewracking, mostly because of just how much stuff there is to filter through. But the more, the merrier, right?

Features

LingQ has a few neat features that are open to every member, regardless of whether or not they have a subscription.

1. Forum: LingQ’s forum is basically a collection of technical support, language-learning topics, and useful websites and resources to check out. You can filter out by language, by tips, and even by whether or not you want a tutor. It’s a really resourceful feature that can connect you with other learners, and also help you improve your learning at the same time.
2. Exchange: This feature is a lot like Busuu’s language exchange. Basically, you can either post something in your target language and request feedback from other learners and speakers, or you can help other learners by offering them feedback on their posts. You can even request if you want written feedback, audio corrections, or a video from the other person, so you can be sure that any explanations you get are in ways that make sense to you.   
   1. Remember the points from earlier? Here’s where they come in- you need Exchange Points in order to use this system at all. You can either buy them via the subscriptions or earn them by correcting other users’ work. Take your pick.
3. Challenges: LingQ has a few different challenges open that anyone can join. Basically, each challenge is based upon a basic end-goal- learn x amount of words, do x amount of lessons every day for a month, meet certain targets at the end of a week or a month, things like that. If a challenge looks interesting to you, and if it’s currently active, then you can join the other LingQ members that are already participating. It’s basically just a fun competition between people who are learning the same language you are and want to make it a little more interesting.
4. My Vocabulary: This is basically what it sounds like; with this feature, you can view all the vocab you’ve learned on LingQ. You can see the word itself, the translation and meaning, as well as an example phrase to help you understand. You can also add notes, and change the difficulty level of the word itself- you feel you know it really well, you can set it to appear less often in reviews, and if you think you need some practice, you can make sure it comes up often.
5. Mobile App: If desktop learning isn’t your jam, LingQ has a mobile app for Andriod and iPhones, so that’s a plus. The picture below is what the icon looks like, so you know exactly what to look for in the app store.

How it Works

If you remember BliuBliu back from the fifth (sixth?) review, then you’ll basically have an idea of what LingQ’s lessons are like. Basically, you are given some text in your target language, and if you don’t know a word or phrase while you’re reading, you click on it. Then you’re given the definition and get to listen to the pronunciation (which isn’t the best, I’ll warn you now), and once you know the word/phrase, you mark it as known; and all these new words that you’ve marked are called LingQs (I promised I’d explain them later). The picture down below is what your basic language format looks like:

The light yellow color shows the individual LingQs I’ve made, and the orange is for phrases overall. Some lessons also come with a video to accompany them (it looks like most official LingQ courses do, but user-created courses tend to vary), which is pretty neat. Since this was my first lesson, I got the introductory video on how everything works, but they seem to get more content-oriented as you go.

After you finish the lesson, there are quizzes on the words you just learned- AKA cloze tests that I mentioned way back up in the price section. It’s basically a way to reinforce everything you just understood, and you’re able to take quizzes as often as you want. They can consist of multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, flashcards- anything can be up for grabs here. Once you answer all the questions correctly, you’re done with the lesson for the day and you can go about doing whatever you want.

The whole premise of LingQ is based on the LingQs (learned words and phrases) that you make and remember. And since this is a big part of the website, it’s really important to note that you can only make 20 LingQs a day with a free membership. See the picture of the lesson up there? That’s what 20 LingQs look like, which is… not a lot. If you’re new to the language, you’ll hit that limit really quick, I guarantee it. So that’s a pretty big downside from my perspective, but if you’re really looking for quick lessons, then you’re in luck! If not, then a subscription is probably going to be the right way for you- otherwise, you really won’t be on LingQ for long learning periods.

Final Thoughts

The biggest thing that stands out to me about LingQ is the sheer amount of lessons and courses. I mean, you’re almost guaranteed to find something that fits your learning style- with over a thousand lessons, how could you not? That is, without a doubt, a huge positive aspect of this site in my opinion. While all those options can be a little daunting, it’s far better to have a lot to learn, as far as languages go, then not have enough- the whole point of learning the language, after all, is to eventually know most, if not all of it.

I also really like their lesson structure- but then again, I also really liked BliuBliu’s. If that whole immersive learning isn’t your style, then the official courses probably aren’t going to be for you. But, luckily, there are plenty of user-created lessons that are designed in different ways, so you don’t have to stick with something that isn’t helping you learn. You can bounce around until you find the right fit! What I’m not that big on is the 20 LingQ limit on free memberships. From my perspective, I just feel like 20 isn’t a lot of a learning a day, and while I get the business standpoint that limiting LingQ’s might make more people want to upgrade, I just wish they made the limit a little bit larger. It took me about 15 minutes to get through all 20, and there are plenty of people that want to do more than 15 minutes of learning a day. That’s my only huge complaint about LingQ as a whole.

Overall, I really do like LingQ. I think it’s a neat platform with a lot of unique content, that offers a little something for (hopefully) everyone. And while my biggest issue is the LingQ limit, the premium membership isn’t too expensive, so at least the upgrade to get more learning isn’t too steep. If this website seems like a good fit for you, I’d definitely check it out, even if you just kind of explore the layout for a bit and everything LingQ has to offer in terms of learning. There’s definitely a lot to choose from!

On Cloud Nine: Busuu Review

Before today, Busuu was just an app that I saw on my phone when I was looking for games to download; I never gave it much thought. I didn’t even know there was a website for it! So for this review, I’m basically going in with a clean slate. I don’t know what to expect with this website, but I hope it’s good!

Price

Technically, Busuu is a freemium service. You don’t have to pay in order to use their lessons, but if you don’t, you kinda miss out on a lot of features. You don’t even get full access to their courses without a subscription. So even though you aren’t required to pay, you’re missing out on a lot if you don’t. Down below is a chart of all the features that come with the premium service compared to the free one:

So, if you’re like me and realizing that a subscription is probably a solid option, there are four(ish) different payment plans that you can choose from, two of which are the same price, oddly enough: $8.33/month for three months, $8.33/month for six months, $5.83/month for twelve months, and $5.41/month for twenty-four months. I don’t really know why the price for three- and six-month subscriptions are the same, but they are. But ultimately, the prices aren’t that expensive and the two-year subscription is one that I haven’t seen as an option before. So you’ve got options.

Languages

Busuu has a total of 12 language courses available for learning- English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, and Arabic. I’m not sure if they plan on adding more courses in the future, or if they’re sticking with the twelve for a while, but they do have a special course that’s the namesake of their website: the nearly-extinct Busuu language. According to Busuu.com (yup, can already see how this will get confusing), the Busuu language is only spoken by eight people in the entire world, so they offer a special course on the website that encourages other people to learn it so it won’t go extinct.

So, if you’re not interested in learning any of the twelve languages listed above, you can always learn a highly endangered language. Think about how cool it would be to say that you speak a language that only eight other people can? Not to mention the fact that one more speaker means one less chance that Busuu will go extinct. All positives here.

Courses

Busuu, like the other websites, has one main course that you learn on, which is broken up into four different levels: Beginner A1, Elementary A2, Intermediate B1, and Upper Intermediate B2. Each level has a varying amount of lessons, but aren’t more than 25 in any of them, plus there are a couple review sessions sprinkled throughout to make sure you’re retaining everything. And every lesson is made up of four different parts: Vocabulary, Quizzes, Dialogue, and Conversation. These four parts can appear in any random order, but all four are usually there, along with the occasional grammar lesson on top of them, so you get a lot of material to choose from when learning.

It’s important to note that free members don’t get access to every part of every lesson- some of them, like the grammar portions, are reserved only for subscription holders, so if you’re a fan of grammar (or at least want to learn it) this might be a downer for you. But regardless of your subscription status, you can pick any lesson at any level to learn at any time; it’s a totally customizable learning system, so you can pick and choose what content you want to learn and when.

Features

There are a few features on Busuu that, for the most part, are available to both free and premium users. If there are any special circumstances for these features, I’ll be sure to let you know in the descriptions

1. Exercise Corrections: With this feature, you can send little snippets of what you’ve learned in your target language (via a picture or video) to native speakers, where they can offer you tips and corrections to help you learn. Other people will send you things, too, so it’s a neat way to give back to the community, and also have them give back to you. Everyone wins!
2. Travel courses: This feature is great if you’re looking to travel and want to learn the language of the country you’re going to, but aren’t really interested in fluency. The Travel courses on Busuu are right where all the other levels are, so they’re easy to find, and only focus on the essential phrases for, well, travelers.
   1. As a side note, free members only get access to the first lesson of this feature; if you want all of them, you have to get a subscription.
3. Language Exchange: This is slightly similar to the exercise corrections, but instead of just sending out your corrections to one person in particular, you can post it up for all Busuu users to see and correct as a whole- and they can do the same! So you can see posts of other people learning your target language, as well as people trying to learn your native language, and you can give them advice at your leisure. Or they can give you advice- whatever works.
4. Vocabulary Trainer:  This is pretty much what it sounds like- a list of all the words and phrases and whatnot that you’ve learned on Busuu. You can see your weakest and strongest words and have a practice session or two. There’s also the option to take a quiz to see how well you’ve improved your weak words, which is pretty neat.
5. Tips: For every lesson on Busuu, there’s a neat little Tips button on the side that basically gives you little hints and tricks and whatnot that can help you in that lesson. I think it’s just a cool feature that can really help during lessons. The picture down below is an example of what types of tips you’ll get- it’s also what the beginning of every lesson looks like, so it’s a two-for-one deal here. 
6. Certificates: If you’re a premium member, you earn certificates for every level of any course that you complete, from Beginner to Upper Intermediate. They come straight from McGraw-Hill, and it’s a fancy little diddy to put on your resume. It’s also a great goal to work towards in your learning!
7. Mobile App: Yup, Busuu has an app! Available for android, apple, and all phones that support apps in general! So go forth and download if you wish.

How it Works

Busuu’s lessons incorporate a whole bunch of stuff, which is awesome because it gives a little something for everyone. But their basic structure is learn words/phrases, use them in real context, take a quiz, and then have your work corrected by native speakers- the last two, however, are usually only available to premium members. So if you like quizzes (does anyone? I’m curious), you probably won’t get to take a lot of them without paying.

The actual learning itself features first being introduced to all the things you’ll be learning in each lesson, which are then reinforced through different techniques like true and false (“is it true that x means y?” kinda thing), listening and matching, fill in the blank, and cross-matching. So lots of fun stuff to help you really get those words down pat. After that, there’s a Dialogue section, where you use all the vocabulary you learned in a simulated conversation to help you get to use them in a real situation. Then there’s the quiz that you may/may not be able to take, and the ability to respond to a prompt in your target language (which is related to the lesson) and send it off to native speakers in order to see how well you’re really learning.

Busuu’s whole thing is that you can learn a language with just ten minutes of practice and learning a day- it’s meant to be quick and simple for people who are busy and can’t spend a whole lot of time in front of a computer screen (or cell phone). They equate 22 hours of learning to 1 semester in college, which, when you’re only learning in ten-minute increments, is a lot, but if you’re someone who’s got school or work or a family or whatever, 22 hours isn’t a huge amount of time you’ll have to dedicate to studying, even if you do it over an extended period of time. And lessons are meant to be less than fifteen minutes a pop, so you can do your thing and get back to your life right after. However, whether or not it fits your lifestyle is totally up to you. If you’d rather a more in-depth study program, you might find Busuu a little lacking, but if quick and efficient is your style, then I would definitely give it a try.

Final Thoughts 

Honestly, I think that Busuu is a pretty neat site. I really enjoy the lesson style; moving quick through things just kinda fits my lifestyle right now. And I really enjoy the community interaction- you’re really encouraged to interact with other learners and actual speakers of your target language, which means you get a feel for the language in real situations and not just in simulated lessons. A big portion of the whole learning process on Busuu is about human connection, which is something I don’t think you see on other language sites- it’s a pretty neat change.

I also think that, compared to a lot of other freemium sites, you really do get a lot without signing up for a subscription. Yeah, it’s not as much as Duolingo or Memrise, but you can get a feel for Busuu’s lessons as a whole and see what they have to offer. I mean, if you don’t want to pay at all, you can still learn every bit of vocabulary they have on their website without any issues- you just can’t always take quizzes on them, or speak with natives, or learn some bits and pieces of grammar. Which is kind of a bummer, but if you aren’t super interested in language learning and just want to pursue it as a type of hobby, then you really don’t need that stuff on top of the individual lessons. And if you’re a more serious learner, the prices really aren’t extreme, so that’s a bonus right there. Overall, if you’re on the fence about Busuu, give their free lessons a try, see what they bring to the table before you make a commitment- it’s an easy way to find out if it fits your learning style or not.

Figure Eight: Linguti Review

When your logo for your website is a cute fox, you have made a certain reviewer named Lauren very happy. I love animals; I also love smiling animal logos. I have very high expectations for Linguti, the website of the week, going in, all because of this wonderful fox. Let’s see if their website makes me as thrilled as their mascot 🙂

Price

Linguti is a website that is entirely free. No freemium services, no payment plans, no subscriptions required, no pay for premium uses. It is completely and utterly free- the first one that I’ve reviewed for this blog! Yay milestones! So if you even thought about paying, you don’t have to worry one bit. And it’s all the more incentive to take a minute and check this site out; you literally won’t lose a cent if you do.

Languages

There are a total of eight languages available on Linguti- Chinese, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Spanish. There is also an Italian course that is apparently due for release soon- and if there’s one course in the works, there might be many more, too. You might just have to play the waiting game.

However, while there are eight languages available to take courses in, there are also several (and I mean several) more available in a program Linguti has, called their language exchange. I’ll be going more into detail about it down in the Features section, but just keep in mind that while language courses are a slight bit limited, there are other ways that you can learn on Linguti, with plenty more options. So even if your target language isn’t one of the eight listed above, that doesn’t mean you can’t use this site at all- it may still prove helpful to you yet!

Courses

Linguti has one language track that you can learn from- no custom content or anything like that. From there, it gets a slight bit wordy and complicated, but stay with me. Each course is made of multiple units, ranging from Beginner to Advanced. Each unit has two chapters each and each chapter is comprised of four lessons, plus a review session, and finally, the lessons themselves are made up of varying amounts of individual courses.

To sum it all up: Track>Unit>Chapters>Lessons>Courses.

This first picture down below is a picture example of the first unit of the Spanish track, because I like pictures. You can see all the individual chapters and lessons in the unit, along with a little description of what you’ll learn on the side.

This next image is a picture of the courses that make up the first lesson of the first unit:

The track on Linguti is completely linear– you have to go through the lessons in order, no exceptions. You can test out of lessons if you already have a background in the language you want to learn (so, one exception, my bad), so don’t worry about having to start from the very beginning before you can learn new material. But wherever you do test at is where you’ll have to start. If you are starting from the very first course, that means you’ll have to complete every single course in order in order to finish Lesson 1 and unlock Lesson 2. Gotta follow the path to a T.

How it Works

Linguti’s main premise is the gameification (which is an actual word, as I discovered today) of language learning. Basically, it’s meant to make learning into a more fun, game-like experience rather than just studying the same stuff over and over again. The lessons are pretty normal in terms of structure, but it’s after you’ve finished learning that gets interesting.

But before we get into that, I just want to talk about the actual lessons themselves- after all, that’s how you’ll actually be learning the language, so it’s pretty important to know what the learning is like. Right off the bat, you’re shown the words and phrases that you’re going to be learning in that lesson, coupled with pictures, as an introduction- you can skip this part if you want to. Then you’re exposed to them a few times in order to commit them to memory. You have to match up the English translation to your target language, you have to type out the phrase both from English to your target language and from your target language to English, and you also have to test your listening skills by matching up definitions. Like I said before, pretty standard stuff as far as lessons go. But there’s a reason why so many sites use the same tricks, after all.

Okay, now onto the gameification! Basically, at the end of the lesson, your correct answers and mistakes are tallied up. You’re given XP and coins based upon how well you did in the lesson– the better you did, the more you’ll earn. The coins are for a “shop” on the site (totally free, remember? No real money required) where you can buy power-ups to enhance your language learning and your lessons- things like a double-or-nothing power-up, where you can double your rewards for a week as long as you log in to Linguti every day of the week. The XP, or experience points, goes to your level as a learner; the more you learn, and answer correctly, the higher your level goes- like a video game! The higher your level, the more power-ups you’re able to unlock in the shop. Overall, the gameification is meant to make you, as a learner, invested in the learning the language- if you do, there are rewards involved. It’s a really neat system that I’ve never seen in a language-learning site (the closest I can think of is Duolingo) and I think Linguti implements it really well.

 

Features

Linguti has a few different features that they use to help learners, well, learn:

1.  Language Exchange: Okay, time to (finally) talk about the feature that I mentioned earlier. Here, you can connect with other members of Linguti that are either native speakers of your target language, or are trying to learn along with you! And you’re not limited to the eight courses available on Linguti now- you can search for a conversation partner in almost any language you can think of. It’s like a pen-pal exchange online; you either both learn together, or you both teach one another through speaking to each other. So even though your target language may not be a Linguti course, learning to speak it with someone else may be a feature that helps you learn on Linguti anyway.
2.   After School: This is just a neat little feature that has a bunch of cute comics about different languages and cultures. It’s not necessarily meant to help you learn; instead, it’s meant to be like a relaxation spot after you’ve completed some lessons. It’s a little way to help you wind down after some learning.
3.  Shop: Like I said earlier, the shop is where you can buy power-ups with the coins you earn from each lesson, all of which can be used to help improve your language-learning experience. The picture down below is a list of all the power-ups that are available in the Linguti shop: 
4.  Learning Progress: This feature, you guessed it, allows you to track your progress on your course. It shows you all the words you’ve learned, along with when you last reviewed them and which ones are your strongest (and it’s color-coded!). It also shows you the parts of grammar you understand best, as well as your strengths in different parts of the language (reading, writing, grammar, etc.). It’s a neat tool that gives you a really good idea of what you learn best and what you need to improve.
5. Messages: With this feature, you’re able to send messages to all your friends on Linguti. There’s no forum on this website, unlike a lot of other sites, so it’s through messages that you’re able to connect with other learners. As long as you’re linked together on Linguti, you can talk whenever you want about whatever you want.

Final Thoughts

As a whole, I’m pretty impressed with Linguti! From my perspective, it’s pretty impressive that you get access to everything that you do without paying a single penny (unless you count the coins for the shop). While there aren’t a lot of language courses available, the courses that are there are long, with a lot of material that will definitely keep you occupied in learning. Not to mention the fact that it seems as if Linguti is still growing, with a few planned courses in the works. So even if your target language isn’t available right now, maybe it will be in the future. Who knows?

I dig the language exchange feature a lot; I just think it’s a really neat way to meet up with people who are learning along with you! And I also think gameification is a really neat way to run a language-learning website: it’s definitely not like anything I’ve ever seen before! I’ll give you a small warning that Linguti’s lessons can be a little bit buggy, and might lag when loading or when ending the lesson and giving you your XP and coins, but honestly, for it being a free site, a little laggy-ness isn’t the worst thing in the world in my opinion. I think that, overall, it’s a really unique idea that’s implemented really well, and it’s completely free. Even if you aren’t in love with the platform, what do you have to lose by checking it out? If nothing else, you can read a few comics even if you hate the lessons, all without paying a cent. And who doesn’t love free comics?