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?

Seventh Heaven: Babbel Review

 

Babbel was an app that I always thought about downloading on my phone for years, but I just never did. I couldn’t tell you why looking back, all I know is it just never happened. So doing this review is like confronting young-Lauren, and all of her unknown reservations about trying out Babbel, in the face, which feels a little weird. But I’m committed to these reviews and so confront I shall! All for you guys 😉

Prices

Babbel is not a freemium site. Without any type of subscription, you get access to one lesson only, and that’s it. So either you’ll have to choose very wisely for the right one, or you’ll have to pick a plan. Luckily, there are four subscriptions to choose from: $12.95/month every month, $8.95/month for three months, $7.45/month for six months, and $6.95/month for twelve months. You can definitely start to see some savings in the twelve-month plan, especially since it’s nearly half the price of the monthly one. So even though payment plans are necessary for Babbel, there are some deals offered right off the bat; gotta take the good with the bad, I guess.

Languages

Babbel currently has 14 language courses available to learn; Dutch, Danish, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Swedish, Spanish, and Turkish. As far as I’m aware, there are no courses in beta. If there are, then unlike some other sites, you are not able to access them. There also don’t really seem to be any plans to add other languages besides these 14. I could be wrong (and definitely might be) but from digging around on their website and even on some of their social media, it seems as if the languages they have now are what they’re sticking with. So if your target language is up there, yay! You’re golden. If not, I’m not sure if it will be at any point in the future.

Courses

Babbel only has their courses to pick from overall- no custom, user-created content- but there’s no set order to anything, which is cool. They break down courses into sections, among them learning levels like Beginner and Intermediate, but you don’t have to start in any particular place in order to unlock more advanced lessons. It’s a lot like MangoLanguages, where you can pick what you want to learn when you want to learn it. And even if certain lessons are listed as “Beginner 1” or “Beginner 2”, you don’t have to take the first lesson in order to progress to the second. It’s all up to you. If you want to learn Beginner 5 first, and then jump down and take a look at Grammar 5, go right ahead.

Right up above is a list of all the courses you can choose from (at least under the Spanish language). If you click on a course, like Listening and Speaking, it’ll open up a list of individual lessons. Once you find your perfect lesson, you pick the part of the lesson you want to start with, and then the learning begins. I just really like the fact that Babbel is so customizable; your learning path is truly your own, where you decide what you want to study. So if that’s a must-have on your language-learning websites bucket list, then you can check that off right now.

Features

Babbel has a few little extra features that you can use with a subscription to their site:

1. Mobile App: Like a lot of the other websites I’ve reviewed, Babbel has a mobile app to go along with it. Where it differs, though, is that there are also individual apps for each language that’s available on the main site. The icon down there is the icon for their main app; the ones for the individual languages have little flags in the bottom-right corner.
   

   

2. Vocabulary Viewer: This feature is probably exactly what it sounds like: you can view all the vocabulary you’ve learned on Babbel. With this, you can see what words need to be reviewed, but you don’t get access to this feature until you complete a few lessons on Babbel. Can’t review any vocabulary if you haven’t learned any.
3. Daily Challenges: Also pretty similar to how it sounds, the Daily Challenge feature (which requires you to complete the Words and Sentences course) is a way to challenge you in your target language. It’s meant to put you out of your comfort zone and basically quiz you on different words and phrases to help retain the language.
4. Special Courses: If you look up at the course list up above, you’ll see that there’s a little category for special courses. From what I could tell, every language course on Babbel has them, and they consist of neat little things like how to write love letters, idioms, and work conversations, among other things. Just neat little things to learn that you might not find in other places.
5. Babbel Magazine: Babbel has it’s own magazine, which you might’ve guessed from the title, that you can find here. It consists of articles in that give language-learning tips, phrases in different languages, and cultures of different countries. It’s entirely online, and there’s plenty of information to look at even if Babbel doesn’t seem like a good website for your learning.

How it Works 

Babbel, like many other sites, is all about repetition. Their main goal is to fully immerse you in the language, and the best way to do that is to repeat words that you need to know in order for you to memorize them. So, basically, a lesson consists of learning a few words and phrases in your target language- how many depends on the lesson itself- and just being exposed to them over and over in order to fully commit them to your long-term memory.

That might sound boring (how often can you see the same words over and over without melting your brain?) but a Babbel lesson has a few different methods that are designed to help you memorize those words without it becoming too repetitive. The ones that I saw were matching games (you see the word in your target language match it to the English translation), typing games (you spell out the word in your target language, complete with a letter bank), and a fill-in-the-blank conversation (the words/phrases you’re learning are being used in a made-up conversation, and you have to pick which word works where). There could be many more ways to learn in Babbel; these are just the ones I saw in my lessons.

 

Basically, Babbel wants you to learn the words by incorporating them into your long-term memory. The way that they do it is through a bunch of learning games that are designed to make learning a bit more interesting, and a bit less mind-numbing, which is I something I think we can all appreciate.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Babbel is a pretty neat program; it’s won a few awards for a reason, I guess. I really do like how the lessons are structured, with different games that are designed to suit any kind of learner, and I like how much of a variety they have in courses. I also really like how your learning plan is your own, and you can pick and choose what you want to study; it’s not a linear pathway that you have to follow. The one thing that disappoints me overall is how many languages they actually have available; 14 is a good amount, but it’s got nothing on sites like Duolingo and MangoLanguages.

I’m also not a huge fan of the whole “a subscription is absolutely necessary” thing; I wish there was more available to people who are just looking to give the website a try and don’t want to commit right off the bat. One free lesson doesn’t exactly give you a feel for their website as a whole, you know? But the prices aren’t the worst I’ve seen for a language site (looking at you, Glossika), and there are some savings in their subscription plans, so I guess it’s not all bad. As a whole, Babbel definitely seems like a really neat site, and you get access to a lot of content without having to spend an excessive amount of money, and in my book, that’s a beautiful thing.

Sixth Sense: Glossika Review

Glossika’s mascot is an owl, just like Duolingo; that’s how you know it’s legit. Or something. I dunno. All I know is Elina, one of the top supporters of this blog, recommended that I take a look at Glossika. It took a few weeks, but I finally got around to it. Hopefully it was worth the wait 🙂

Price

Unlike the other sites I’ve reviewed, Glossika isn’t a freemium service. Instead, it requires a subscription for you to have access to their courses. And I’m not gonna lie, it’s a bit more expensive than some of the other websites I’ve looked at. There are three subscription packages that you can choose from: $30/month for one month, $24/month for one year, and $199/month for their special Enterprise service. From what I’ve seen, though, Enterprise doesn’t really look like it’s worth that much money. In my opinion, I’d stick to the first two payment plans- they offer just about everything that the Enterprise plan does, with the only big difference being that Enterprise allows multiple users on one account while the others don’t.

Luckily, Glossika lets every user sign up for a free trial of all their courses before they have to buy a subscription, so you can see if you really enjoy the mechanics of the site before spending a single cent. No commitment necessary.

 

Languages

Glossika is home to 50+ language courses, which is a huge amount to choose from, in all honesty. Most of these are languages you have to pay for, which is par for the course (get it?), but there are nine courses that are completely free- Taiwanese Hokkien, Hakka (Sixian), Hakka (Hailu), Wenzhounses (Wu), Kurdish (Sorani), Catalan, Manx, Welsh, and Gaelic. They do not require any subscription whatsoever- you just have to create an account in order to access them. The reason that these specific courses are free is that they aren’t as commonly spoken as other languages, and therefore aren’t as easy to find courses on as a whole. Some are even endangered. So Glossika wants to not only make these languages as accessible as possible for people who have been searching to try and learn them, but they also want to encourage people to learn in order to help preserve these languages.

So, if this site seems a little pricey (and, I won’t lie, it does seem a bit expensive to me) and you really don’t want to sign up for a subscription, take a look at those nine. They’re not as common of languages, which can be a downside for some learners, but they’re completely free with a Glossika account. It’s a good option if you’re interested in the site, but not thrilled with the price. And it’s a pretty cool conversation starter to say you can speak an endangered language. Advantages all the way around.

Courses

Like with most of these sites, Glossika has one main course per language. They have their program, and you have to follow it, which makes sense since they developed the website. What I liked, though, was the fact that you could select languages to learn by their name, their language family, or their language region, which is a really great way to see what languages are similar to what you’re trying to learn- it can lead to more learning in the future, or just a way to know if it’s the right one for you.

But, while Glossika is like other sites by just having one main course, where it differs is the fact that it is extremely customizable. I even italicized it so you know I mean business. Firstly, you can select the speed at which you learn; if you’re a fast learner that likes to go from topic to topic, awesome. If you like to take a little bit more time to really understand, that’s great, too! You can customize how often words get repeated, if at all, what sentences you want to ignore, if you want more advanced content, all the fun stuff.  But probably the best thing to customize are the actual topics you want to learn in a lesson. 

The picture up above shows all the topics for the Spanish course. For each lesson, you have to pick one of the top three (social, travel, or business) in order to continue, but otherwise, you can select any of the topics to learn. If you want to only learn the one mandatory one, you can. If you want to learn every single one, like I did, then you can do that, too, along with any other combination of topics. And there are some pretty neat ones in there, as well, like crime, traffic, and accidents, among others. But I think this system is really unique, and not one that I’ve seen before. So the customizable content is definitely a huge bonus for Glossika.

Features

Unlike the other websites, Glossika doesn’t really have a huge amount of bonus features that are meant to help you learn. However, they do have different styles of lessons, so I’ll explain that here, instead, along with one other bonus that I really enjoyed:

Lesson Types:

1. Listening:  This is the default lesson, where you listen to a phrase in your native language, and then have it translated into the language you’re learning. No typing or translation involved, just listening and learning.
2. Typing: Here, you either have a phrase in your native language that you type out in your target language or vice versa. You can learn grammar and sentence structure, which are both incredibly important for learning another language.
3. Dictation: This is meant to test your listening skills. You are told a phrase in your target language and have to type it out to show how well you can understand it when it’s spoken.
4. Fill-in: This one is pretty much what it sounds like. You’re given a sentence, written entirely in your target language, with a missing word or phrase. You have to select the right one from a list of options in order to continue.
5. Multiple Choice: Here, you’re given the phonetic transcript of a certain phrase (it could be about anything) and you have to pick what it actually looks like when written. From my personal experience, this one is the most difficult, but it’s also pretty neat, because I’ve never seen a lesson quite like it!

(Kind-of) Bonus Feature:

I don’t really think that this totally counts as an individual feature, but I wasn’t sure where else to put it, and I feel that it deserves a shout-out. So it’s going here. Anyway, before you decide to start learning a language, you can a page dedicated to essentially briefing you about it. It gives you a full rap-sheet of what to expect and how the language is structured. This is an example of the English-to-Spanish page:

It tells you the difficulty of the language, languages that are similar to it, languages that are the least like it, the family of the language, pronunciation, grammar, word order, and vocabulary structure. Honestly, it’s a great introduction to what you’re learning, and a way to really get your toes wet before diving right in. It’s something that really stood out to me when I was checking out this website, and I think it’s incredibly useful to have. It deserved some props (people still say that, right?).

How it Works

Do you remember all the nature metaphors we had in the earlier posts? Cause we’re going back to metaphors to explain Glossika. It’s not outdoors-themed, but hey. A metaphor is a metaphor.

The main idea of Glossika’s teaching system is that learning a language is like building muscle. In order to learn, you have to do “reps” every day to make your brain stronger, just like you have to do reps to make your muscles stronger. For the purpose of language-learning, Glossika counts every new word or phrase as a rep. And the more reps you do, the stronger your muscles get- or, in this case, the better you’ll be at understanding your target language. Basically, this website acts as a gym for your brain, and if you do one session of reps a day (the number of which can vary but is always in the double-digits), you’ll be on the right track to becoming at least conversational in your target language. They even have a handy-dandy chart here to explain their system:

The ultimate goal is to get to 100,000 reps in your target language. Once you do, you’ll basically be fluent, or something very close to it. However, it’s really important to note that on the free trial (which comes with every non-free language) you only get 1,000 reps before you have to pay. That’s it: and it’s a far cry from the 100,000 end-goal. Just something that I think is important to note here. Overall, Glossika=gym, reps=brain-training; keeping it simple.

Final Thoughts

Glossika is a bit different from other sites I’ve looked at mostly because it pretty much requires a subscription, except in a few instances. It doesn’t come with a lot of bonus features added to it, which is especially surprising considering that the subscription is fairly pricey, but it does host an incredible amount of languages to learn. Not to mention the fact that it provides more than one way to actually do the learning, which is something I haven’t seen done quite as well as Glossika does. So they get some brownie points here.

Overall, I’m not sure if the price is honestly worth it for the content. You can definitely find something similar for a lot less, or even free, and it has a lot more added bonuses on the side. BUT I’d honestly consider using it for learning the less common languages- AKA, the totally free courses mentioned earlier in the review. A lot of those languages can be hard to find, and by choosing to learn them, you don’t have to pay a cent. So if Glossika sounds like the perfect site for you, I would suggest checking out one of those languages first for two reasons: 1. it’s a rarely spoken language, and it’s neat to be able to even understand the tiniest bit of it, and 2. you can get a feel for how the website works before you make any commitment, and without waiting for your free trial to expire. At the end of the day, though, it’s up to you to decide what works for you, and if Glossika sounds like the best website you’ve ever heard of and you want to sign up right now, have a ball and enjoy your learning!

As an end note, Elina, the person who recommended I review Glossika, has a blog of her own! She’s trying to learn six languages in one year, and she posts really awesome updates about her (really incredible) journey to polyglot-dom! Check out her blog if you’re interested: http://www.thepolyglotpath.wordpress.com

Mambo Number Five: Bliu Bliu

Bliu Bliu, the topic for this review, has the best name for all language sites in my opinion. I pronounce it like “Blee-u Blee-u” and it’s honestly so much fun to say, even if that’s not how it was intended to be pronounced. And look at their logo- it’s so neat! It’s the simple things in life, you know? Alrighty, now that I’ve got that out of my system, let’s start with this review!

Price

Like the other sites so far, Bliu Bliu is a freemium service. You get complete access to all features without paying anything, which is a wonderful thing. But, there are premium features- such as how much you can learn at one time, and how many books you can read in a day- that require payment to access. There are four different payment plans that you can choose from if you want to upgrade to premium: $9.74/month per month, $8.52/month for three months, $7.30/month for six months, and $6.08/month for twelve months. And you might be wondering what exactly is up with those strange prices, and luckily for you, I’ve got the answer! Bliu Bliu’s pricing on the site is entirely in Euros (the company is based in Europe, after all) so while all of their prices are neatly rounded, translating it over to dollars makes it a bit messier. But, like with most of these websites, paying isn’t really necessary- it’s just a matter of whether or not you want added bells and whistles to your learning experience. I’ll cover more of that in the features tab, though!

The main difference between the premium and free services is how much access you get. I know that’s a weird sentence, but trust me. With the free service, you’re given time limits on how much you can learn a day, whereas with unlimited, you don’t have that restriction. You can learn as long as you want every day, and use the features listed down below as frequently as you want, without going against the timer. You can also upload books to the library with the premium service. So if you’re a fan of uploading and/or no timers, the premium feature has your back! If you really don’t care about either of those things, sticking to the free version works just as well.

Languages

Officially, there are 10 complete language courses– English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Russian, Swedish, and Spanish. But, there are tons of courses in Beta that you are still able to access without any problem- they’re just not complete yet, or all the bugs might not be worked out of them. If you want to learn a language that isn’t listed a part of those ten, there’s a good shot that it’s a Beta course,  unless it’s a fantasy language; Bliu Bliu is lacking a bit in that department. You can’t have it all, I guess.

Courses

There’s only one total course for each language on Bliu Bliu, but there are a number of lessons available for each course, which is really neat. And there’s no particular order to what lesson you have to take. It’s all up to you. Bliu Bliu separates everything into skill level- total beginner, beginner, and advanced– to help you get an idea of where you should start, but otherwise, it’s totally up to you. The only downside is there aren’t a lot of courses to pick from. The picture down below is an image of all the lessons for their Italian course, and from what I could tell, it was the same throughout their other languages, too. 

What’s up there are all the lessons that are available to you. So there really isn’t a lot of variety in terms of what you can learn, but the good news is that each lesson is long. And also kinda randomized. So if you pick the same lesson to learn twice in a row, you won’t be learning the same thing over and over again; it’ll match into the theme of the lesson, but it’ll be something new that you probably haven’t seen before. Silver linings and all that.

Features

Bliu Bliu has a lot of neat features designed to help immerse yourself in the language, which are available to everyone, premium member or not:

1. Books: The Books feature is probably exactly what it sounds like; you get to read books, translated into your target language. You can pick from the Bliu Bliu library (which you get complete access to in both free and premium) and pick words you want/need to learn more of. You can also translate the book back into whatever your native language is, but the translation is from Google Translate, so just be aware that it’s not always the most accurate.
2. Challenges: The main goal of the Challenges feature is to complete ten minutes of learning a day, every day, and you should be able to learn a good chunk of the language in thirty days. You get monitored by a native speaker, and you learn with others who are interested in taking the same challenge you are, which is a fun way to get involved in the learning community while also, well, learning!
3. Words: This feature gives you access to words that you need to review, in five-word increments that you can randomize. If you don’t want to review a word, just click right next to it and you’ll be set! With the free version, you can make a custom words list for all the individual words you want, but with the premium version, you can make as many lists as you want! Down below is a picture of what the Words feature looks like. 
4. Language wall: The Language Wall feature is a way for you to meet other people who are learning your target language with you. From my experience, it’s written entirely in your target language, so it gives you some reading and writing practice! It’s also a place where people post links to neat videos, websites, and other things that they use to help them learn.

How it Works

So the mission at Bliu Bliu is to get you to learn a language without ever studying- that’s their goal. Which is neat and something that I, as a college study who already has plenty of studying to do, can definitely appreciate. But this also leads to a platform that’s kinda different from any other language-learning site. So, here’s how it works: you start off by picking your course, and from there, you just read what’s in front of you. You go along, marking words you know, and then the algorithm that runs Bliu Bliu adapts to the words you do/don’t know in order to help you understand their lessons; it picks videos and written pieces from around the web that are at your level of knowledge in the language, so you can gradually learn new words as you go while reinforcing the ones you don’t. Basically, it’s a really adaptive software that’s meant to conform to how you learn.

This is an example of one of the courses- specifically, the “Total Beginner” lesson for Spanish. All the words highlighted in red are ones I don’t know, and the green number up at the top, along with the non-highlighted words, are ones I do know (please don’t judge; I haven’t taken Spanish since high school). What I don’t know helps shape what I have to read on the next slide- that’s what will keep showing up until I mark that I know it. It’s a little bit confusing, I get it. But just know that it’s meant to be adaptive to the individual that’s learning. So that’s good.

Some lessons come with videos, like the one up above, and others don’t. But all give you audio for each passage that you’re reading. The pronunciation, if it’s not a recorded video, is a bit like you’d expect- it sounds like a robot reading the words back to you, which can get a little confusing if you don’t know the language, but it’s not the worst audio I’ve heard for a language site. Also, each lesson comes with translators, so if you’re completely lost on a sentence or passage, you can have it translated to help.  One last point: if you’re a free member, there’s a cooldown period between every five-minute session. Five minutes on, five minutes off. So you can learn all day if you want to, but just know that you can’t learn in back-to-back lessons without paying.

Final Thoughts 

Honestly, Bliu Bliu was a neat little website I looked at a few years ago, and I enjoyed using it but wasn’t really obsessed with it. Now, going over it for this review, they’ve added so many features to this site that weren’t a part of it before, and I feel like it’s better than it had been in the past. So the good news is that this site is growing and changing to meet the needs of the community, which could be really important to some people. Also, it’s a learning experience that’s meant to be totally different from other websites- it’s not based on grammar, or speech, or vocabulary. You just read words in a way that’s meant to help immerse you completely in the language. If that doesn’t sound like it will help you learn at all, if you’re more of an auditory learner or someone who likes to practice vocabulary, then BliuBliu might not be for you.

But if you’re interested in giving it a shot, just remember that it’s honestly not necessary for you to pay in order to experience what this website has to offer. It’s just a matter of whether or not you want to deal with cooldown times between lessons, and whether or not you like to upload your own files. If those things aren’t your style, and if you like the whole learning style of Bliu Bliu, check it out. Maybe it’ll be your new favorite!

Fantastic Four-th: Lingvist

I’m gonna try my best to fit a pun into every title. That’s my new goal.

Anyway, I’d never heard of Lingvist until a few weeks ago. It was on a study guide for languages on Tumblr- or maybe Facebook? Wherever it was, I stumbled upon it accidentally (as I do with most things, honestly), took a peek at it, and decided that it was perfect for this blog.  I’ve been waiting since then (a whole, perilous couple of weeks) to review it, and I’m super excited to finally use this website. So, let’s get started!

Price

Lingvist, like all the other sites I’ve reviewed so far, is a freemium site. What’s cool is that you get a free, 48 hour trial for their paid service, so you can see if you like it before you spend any money. As for actual prices, there are three payment plans available: $22.95/month, $15.98/month for three months, and $7.50/month for a year.  But, like with Duolingo, there’s not really a lot you’re missing out on by not buying the premium version. You can still learn most of the words up on the site- 3,000 out of 4,000, as a matter of fact, which is still a lot. And you can review them as often as you like, which is great. The big thing is you can only learn 50 words a day on Lingvist Free, and can only perform one challenge daily, which I’ll explain later in the post.  But, overall, same basic stuff.

Here’s a nifty little chart from their website to give you side-by-side comparisons:

Languages

Lingvist has four courses available for learning to everyone- German, Spanish, French and Russian.  They also have Estonian, but it’s listed as a specialty course. And specialty courses, according to my handy-dandy chart up there, are only available to Lingvist Unlimited members, so unfortunately it’s not open to the public. But if you’re interested in learning Estonian, there you go.

Courses

There isn’t a lot of variation for courses in Lingvist. You get one course, per language, and, like with the other few sites (minus Memrise) there’s no variation to what course you can take. You get what you get. You also don’t get to pick which words you learn and when- they’re already selected for you, and you have to learn them in order to get to the next word or phrase in the lesson, so it is a bit restrictive in that sense. But everything is built upon- if you learn the word “woman”, you have to know it before you move onto the next card, which is “the beautiful woman.” It all connects together.

Here’s a picture of my lesson for the Spanish course I worked on for this review. I had to correctly answer “mujeres” in order to move on to the next part of the lesson(the word turns green when you get it correctly). But what’s neat are the little tips and tricks you get when you’re learning a new word, which you’ll see underneath the vocabulary card. So that’s always a bonus.

What upsets me the most, though, is the fact that there was no nature theme! Duo has trees, Mango has paths, Memrise has plants- there was a nice pattern going on here! 😡

How it Works

Remember in the last review how I said Memrise was a flash-card site? I’m taking that back. Lingvist is the epitome of flashcard. Even the lesson itself is like you’re looking at a card with a word written on it. Okay, moving on; Lingvist is a site that’s really focused on memorization. Like I stated before, it makes you memorize the current word before you’re even allowed to progress. The goal, however, is to get you to learn one hundred new words in your target language every day. The Lingvist creators say that’s the best way to learn a language, so technically you finish each lesson when you’ve learned those 100 words- which kinda creates a problem when you consider that their free program only allows you to learn 50 words every day.

Despite that little hiccup, though, after you get the word right the first time, it reappears every once-and-a-while throughout the lesson in order to make sure you still know it. And the more often you get it wrong, the more often it appears. As you keep answering correctly, it gradually disappears altogether, only showing up when it needs review. Like I stated earlier, there are little tips and tricks for each word when you first encounter it- points about grammar, parts of speech, the gender of the word, etc.- to help you understand it, which is a really neat feature. If you’re a memorizer, this is a good site to take a peak at. But, be warned, the robot that pronounces each word isn’t the best- actually, it kinda sucks. The letters get jumbled up, and it sounds like a mess, at least in the Spanish course. So if you’re really gung-ho about hearing the word pronounced, this might not be ideal.

Features

Lingvist has a lot of neat features to it that are open to all, subscription or no.

1. Grammar Tips: I know I brought up the grammar tips for new words a few times now, but this is a totally different feature from that. There’s an entire section dedicated to teaching grammar, a picture of which is included below. There’s information about nouns, the alphabet, adjectives, and so much more. It’s a really incredible resource to have right at your fingertips. 
2. Challenges: The feature is like a section full of little tests, to see how well you’re learning. They range in difficulty, with the easiest challenges first, and come in four different categories: Speaking, Grammar, Listening, and Reading. It’s meant to be like a guide for you, to see if you’re really grasping what you’ve been studying on Lingvist, and it’s great to help monitor your progress in your target language. Although, remember, free users only get to complete one challenge everyday.
3. Forum: Like with Duolingo, Lingvist has a forum filled with fellow language-learners that you can access entirely for free. While you can’t filter out by the language you want to learn, you can go to other forums that are written in other languages. It’s full of different tips and tricks to help make learning and practicing easier, all written by people who have tried them out, and know if they work.
4. Mobile app: If you’ve been around for my past posts, you kinda know the deal with this one. I’m planning on reviewing the mobile app later (I’ll get there, I promise) but I think it’s important to make sure anyone interested knows that there is a mobile app that exists for this website.
5. FAQ: This isn’t really a language-learning feature, but I just really liked the fact that the FAQ was so easily accessible on Lingvist. It’s literally a click away, and really just made it seem like you could ask the developers any question you had about the program and receive an answer. So I feel like that deserved a little shout-out.

Final Thoughts

Lingvist is a pretty neat site, overall. And, honestly, you do get a lot from using it. I wasn’t too keen on the way the lessons were structured- there didn’t seem to be much organization in the words they gave you, no overarching topics that would connect them together. It seemed almost random, which isn’t ideal for me. But, where Lingvist really shines, I think, is the incredible amount of resources it has to help you learn about the structure of the language and the words themselves: I haven’t seen any other site give you quite as much information about grammar and gender and parts of speech and nouns and everything else, as Lingvist does. It’s a great resource for learning how exactly the language works, and the challenges are a feature that I really enjoy!

I honestly don’t think I would pay for the service at all, unless you think the challenges feature is really neat and/or you’re really set on this 100 words a day situation. But you get access to pretty much everything Lingvist has to offer without paying a cent, so that’s definitely something to consider. Even if Lingivst doesn’t seem like the right website for you, I’d definitely take a look at it just for the resources they have available. Whether or not you choose to learn from their lessons is entirely up to you.

Three’s Company: Memrise Review

Okay, full disclosure- Memrise is my very favorite language-learning site. I’ve been looking forward to doing this review for a few weeks, and I’m so excited to do it now! It’s probably the most well-known site after Duolingo, and I think that title is definitely deserved. But, let’s see what you think!

Price

Like Duo, Memrise is a freemium service. Without paying a cent, you get access to all the courses Memrise has and all their individual content. It’s not really necessary to pay unless you want access to some bonus features that aren’t imperative to learning, but I’ll explain what they are later in the post. Price-wise, there are a few different payment options: $9/month, $6.33/month for three months, $4.92/month annually, and $129 once for lifetime access. If you’re thinking about subscribing to their premium service, it all depends on how long you’re planning on using Memrise- if it’s by the month, I’d consider the first two options. If it’s more long-term, take a look at the other two: that’s where the savings start to add up.

And, if you’re still thinking that Memrise is a bit pricey, which I totally understand, there are sales on all but the lifetime access pretty regularly. At the time of writing this, a sale just ended for Valentine’s Day, where the annual plan was half-off- and it lasted for nine days. Before that was a sale at the end of January that lasted for seven days, if I remember right. Just something to keep in mind.

Languages

There are so. Many. Languages available on Memrise. Honestly, if you can think of it, it’s probably there. It’s got everything from the top languages- Spanish, German, French, etc.- to Classics- Ancient Greek- to Sign Language (of many different varieties) and Morse code. So it’s pretty expansive, which is awesome, especially if you want to learn a language that’s not very common.

Not to mention the fact that, while it’s mostly a language site, Memrise has courses available for history, geography, science, literature, and a whole slew of other subjects. So if this doesn’t seem like your site for language-learning, it might be neat to check it out for the other subjects they have available. They’ve got plenty to pick from.

Courses

Memrise is a bit different from the other sites I’ve reviewed in terms of courses available to users. While they do have their own, official courses that are free to take, they also have user-created courses that make up the bulk of the site. You can pick any course you want, for any language that you choose- and multiple courses, at that. If you want to learn Spanish Introductions while studying French verbs and Italian present-perfect tense, go right ahead. There’s a lot of flexibility in learning, and it’s all very customizable.

The official Memrise Spanish course; number one out of seven total.

No matter which course you choose- user-created or not- they’re all set up in the same basic way. Firstly, you’re given a time estimate over how long the course should approximately take you. After that, if you click on the course, you’re taken to all the lessons that make it up. Each lesson has varying amounts of vocabulary words and phrases to learn- some can have five, some can have thirty: it all depends on the lesson itself. The goal is to be able to memorize all of them, and once you have, you’ve completed the lesson- complete all the lessons, and you’ve finished the course.

How it Works

Memrise, as the name kinda suggests, is a site that focuses heavily on memorization. It’s a  flash-card style learning system, meant to help you learn all the vocabulary words and phrases by constantly reinforcing them, just like how you study for tests in school- review the information over and over. So, in keeping with the nature theme of the past few reviews (I’m noticing a pattern here…) Memrise uses the metaphor of plants as a way to explain their system of language-learning. 

When you first learn the word or phrase, you’re planting a seed in your brain. When you are repeatedly shown the word, and are forced to type it, listen to it, match it to its definition, etc, then you are watering that seed and allowing it to grow. After a few waterings (I’m making up words now), that seed becomes a plant in your memory, a word you probably won’t forget anytime too soon. But it doesn’t stop there, because in order for you to have that word remain in your long-term memory, you have to review it- harvest the plant, as shown in the picture- in order to help make it stick. And while there is audio to teach you how to pronounce what you’re learning, that isn’t the main focus- the constant review of new vocabulary is. So if you’re more of an auditory learner, this probably isn’t the best site for you to use. But if you’re someone who enjoys the repetition, go have a look.

Features

Memrise has an abundance of features available, all meant to help you learn. Some of them are completely free to use, and others are only available through the premium subscription.

All-access Features: 

1. Mobile app: Like with Duolingo, I plan to review Memrise’s app at a later date.  However, I think it’s important to acknowledge that it exists, in case anyone is interested in the site and wants to check it out. The picture down below is what the app icon looks like, just for reference. 
2. Review:  You can review every word you’ve ever learned on Memrise, whenever you want as often as you want, no payment required. Or in their terms, you’re “watering a word garden.” Gotta stick with the nature theme.
3. Speed review: This is one that I use fairly often because it’s pretty fun. It’s like a regular review, but it’s meant to really test how well you know the words you’ve been learning. You race against a clock, which gets faster and faster as you progress, to match the English version of the word or phrase with its translation in your target language. Plus, you’re only given three lives, so as the timer ticks on faster, you have to be sure that you’re accurate, otherwise the game’ll be over pretty quickly.
4. (Some) Grammar: Memrise has a feature called Grammarbot, which is a name I really enjoy. It’s basically some courses on, you guessed it, grammar, and the amount of courses varies from language to language.  With the free version, you have access to a few lessons, but not all of them. But some grammar is better than nothing, right?

Premium Features:

1. Difficult Words: If you’re consistently having trouble with a word, Memrise marks it as Difficult– not a big deal, just a way to know you need to work on it more. While you can review all your difficult words without paying a cent, and even remove it from the Difficult category, a subscription allows you to review only your difficult words and nothing else, which is something non-premium members aren’t able to do.
2. Listening Skills: This feature allows you to review words only through listening to them. In a usual review session, there’s a combination of many different ways to learn/review words- among them are typing it out and matching it to its definition. It turns review sessions strictly into listening to the word/phrase in your target language, which helps you get used to hearing the language, as well.
3. Learn with Locals:  Admittedly, this is pretty similar to the Listening Skills feature. However, instead of having a more robotic voice speak the words/phrases you’re trying to learn, you get to listen to native speakers of your target language go through the words and phrases you’ve been learning.
4. Chatbot: With Chatbot, you can have a simulated conversation in your target language. It’s like texting your friend, except in this case your friend is a machine that creates a conversation in order to help you use the words you’ve been learning in a more natural sense. It’s like Cleverbot (am I dating myself?) but for language-learning. But it’s great practice, regardless of how old my references are.
5. (All) Grammar: With a subscription to Memrise Premium, you get access to the every Grammarbot course, which is pretty neat, especially if you’re a fan of grammar and/or robots.

Final Thoughts

Like I said at the beginning of this post, Memrise is my favorite language-learning site to use. My guess is because it works well with my learning style- the repetition really helps things stick in my brain. If you’re like me, and the flash-card system works for you, Memrise is definitely something to check out. If you prefer a more auditory style of learning, then this probably isn’t one I’d recommend. Now, as to whether or not you should go pro, that’s up to you; you get access to every course, in its entirety, without it. It’s just a matter of whether or not you want all the bells-and-whistles to go along with it. It’s all up to you, and what works best for your budget and learning style.

Review Number Two: MangoLanguages

MangoLanguages is a website I had never heard of before until I stumbled upon it one day. It caught my attention- if websites can be pretty, then this one sure is- and I decided that this would be one I would review for this blog. And now the time has come! So, let’s get started:

Price

MangoLanguages is free conditionally. If you have a “local” library with a paid subscription, you’re golden. Now, see, maybe you’re asking yourself, “why did she put local in quotes like that?” Well, the reason is that local is pretty subjective here. When I was prompted to see if there were any libraries near me with MangoLanguages, half them weren’t even in my general area- some were hours away!  So if you live near plenty of libraries, there’s a good chance that you’ll find one with access; then all you have to do is enter your library card number and you can start learning.

Otherwise, it’s kinda pricey at $19.99/month, which gives you full access to the entire site and all its language-learning tools. If you don’t have a library subscription, or you find that it’s a little expensive (no judgement here), then you really don’t get access to a lot.

Languages

So, if you do have access to this program, you’re getting about 70 languages, and a good amount of them are for English speakers. And, as I’m sure the amount alone suggests,  there’s a lot to choose from in terms of learning. There are lesser-spoken languages, such as Finnish and Scottish Gaelic, as well as outdated languages like Latin and Shakespearean English– and that’s one I’ve never seen offered before. The more commonly studied languages also have a few different dialects: Spanish is broken up into Latin America and Spain, just to give you an idea of what I mean. So you really do have a large selection to choose from.

Courses

Duolingo had trees, MangoLanguages has pathways- we’re on a nature theme here, and I’m loving it. Each language has a pathway, consisting of four units,  and each unit is broken up into chapters. There are about five to ten courses per chapter,  along with a review session at the end. It’s a little more flexible than other sites in letting you choose what you want to learn and when. There’s no unlocking, no goals to get to the next level- if you want to study chapter 8 before you even look at chapter 1, go ahead. And if you want to only look at one lesson in chapter 8 before you zip on over to chapter 4, you can do that, too. You have complete control over what parts of the units you want to study, which is a feature I really like.

Here’s an example of what my Spanish (Latin American, if you want to get technical) pathway looks like. I only worked on chapter one, but I poked around in a few of the others just to see what they were like and to get a feel for the website as a whole.

How it works

MangoLanguages focuses on the hearing/speaking aspect of learning a language, which, you know, is pretty important. What I really liked is how all the goals and expectations were listed at beginning of every lesson, so you knew exactly what to expect going in, and so you knew if that was really what you wanted to learn.  After you read those, there’s a narrator that walks you through the entirety of the lesson. She- from my experience in the Spanish course, it’s a female voice- teaches you new phrases and words, as well as how to pronounce them. And if you say anything wrong, she gives you pronunciation tips as you go to help you improve. Again, from my experience, there’s no typing or translating whatsoever. It’s all about how to speak and pronounce. So if you’re someone who’s much more of an auditory learner and prefers to have that voice explain things as you go, MangoLanguages is probably a good route, provided you have access to it. If that’s not your style, then this probably isn’t the right website for you.

Features

There are a few neat features that come with MangoLanguages:

1. Translator: Mango has a built-in translator, located under the ‘Tools’ tab, that operates pretty much like you’d expect a translator to work. You pick the language you want to translate from, type in a word or sentence, and pick the language you want to translate to. It’s like GoogleTranslate, but it’s nice to have it in the same place as the lessons, rather than have to go a seperate tab altogether.
2. Specialty Courses: On top of the four units of courses, there are also a few specialty lessons that you can take in order to get more of the everyday usage of the language. In the Spanish pathway, for example, there’s a course for texting in Spanish, medical words, and a course for librarians- a few out-of-the-norm lessons that sound pretty fun to learn.
3. Culture Notes: In each lesson, on top of learning the language, there are also little breaks where fun facts about the culture of whatever language you’re learning. So I heard a few fun facts about Latin America, and about Spanish in general. It’s just a fun way to really immerse yourself in the language, and the culture that surrounds it.

Final Thoughts

MangoLanguages is a pretty neat site- they have a lot of languages to choose from, and a lot to offer. And honestly, it’s great that it’s based on speaking and listening to pronunciation- it really helps you learn what the language sounds like, which is kind of the whole point of learning it, right? So if you’re an auditory learner, this is a great site for you! If you’ve got library access, I would definitely check it out. I’m honestly not sure if I would pay the subscription fee otherwise, though. In my honest opinion, while it’s a good site, it’s not something I would pay $20 a month for- but I’m also not the best auditory learner. But if MangoLanguages sounds like your perfect website, and if it fits your learning style, by all means, do what works for you.

First up: Duolingo

That little owl up top is the mascot for Duolingo, arguably the most famous freemium language site there is. I figured there was no better way to kick off this blog than to start with one of the most well known language-learning services out there. So, today, I’ll be giving you a rundown of what Duolingo has to offer!

Price:

Duolingo is a freemium service. All the features (like courses, languages, forums, etc.) are free- literally, you’ll never pay a cent. But there is a Duolingo Plus, which allows you to go ad-free and download lessons off of their mobile app. It has three subscriptions: $9.99/month for one month, $7.99/month for six months, and $6.99/month for a full year. But, again, it’s honestly not necessary to pay for Duo unless you really hate ads. Or really like downloading. Pick your poison. But having regular old Duolingo won’t leave you deprived of any essentials.

Languages:

There are a total of 68 language programs available; 24 of them are designed for native English speakers. Some of them are even fantasy languages, like High Valyrian from Game of Thrones, so that’s really neat. There are also 22 courses being developed at the time of writing this, so there’ll be more to look forward to soon! But you definitely have a wide variety of languages to pick from, so that’s always a plus.

Courses:

Duo offers one main course in any language that you choose. They call these programs “Language Trees” (and it’s sort of shaped like a tree, which I love) and they’re broken down into three or four levels of varying difficulty. The levels all have their own categories, which are then broken down into different amounts of lessons depending on the content- some categories have one lesson, others can have nine or ten.

 

That’s a picture of my new Spanish tree that I started for this review. This is on the first level (The level 2 refers to my individual Spanish skills), and the little circles are the categories. The numbers below them indicate how many lessons there are to each category, so you know what you’re getting yourself into. When you learn a category completely (which is when it turns into a little gold medal) you unlock the ones below it, and so on and so forth until you get to the end of the tree.

Features:

Okay, so Duolingo has a lot of neat features to it. I feel like it’s important to know that going in. But I’ll just stick to the ones that I think are the neatest and/or most important:

1. Mobile App: Duolingo has it’s own mobile app, which I plan to review in and of itself on a later date. But I think it’s important that it’s existence is made known.
2. Discussion Boards: Duo has a huge forum dedicated to helping learn languages. You can filter posts out by the language you’re learning to get specific questions and answers, or you can view the entirety of the forum (and boy, there’s a lot of posts) to solve any issues you’ve got. You can ask questions about grammar, vocabulary, conjugations, specific lessons, specific sentences, or anything else your heart desires. Not to mention you can find plenty of resources on there, posted by fellow Duolingo users who want to make it easy for you to learn! Teamwork at its finest.
3. Words: Duo also has a tab open to view every. single. word you’ve learned in your target language. You can see, right off the bat, if it’s a word you know well or if it’s one you need to practice. There’s also an audio guide for how to say the word, conjugations if it’s a verb, and examples of how to use it.
4. Stories: This one is my favorite. It’s still a work in progress on the site (hence why it’s located under the “Labs” tab), but I love the stories feature. You work your way through stories, written entirely in your target language, and you translate them, one level at a time, through six levels total. There are only four languages so far that are available for the stories feature- German, Portuguese, Spanish, and French- but considering the fact that there were only two languages on there about two months ago, when I first used it, it’s safe to say that it’s growing fast.
5. TinyCards: Tinycards is a flashcard-based website run by Duolingo. Although it’s technically a separate program, if you sync your Duo account to the Tinycards site, it’ll instantly give you all the decks of cards for the language(s) that you’re learning, right at your disposal. It’s a great way to review and memorize the many, many vocab words that Duolingo gives you in its courses.

How it Works:

Duo is really heavily focused on learning sentences and sentence structure. It is a vocabulary site, sorta, in the sense that it will teach you words by using them in sentences, but at its core, it’s a website built on translating sentences. And that’s awesome, don’t get me wrong, but it can get a little confusing when the words in the sentences aren’t defined clearly, or grammar rules are a bit unclear. It kinda just throws new words at you and has the hope that you’ll understand them through repeated use- which works really well for some people, but not for everyone. If you’re someone that really is keen on memorizing words themselves and isn’t totally into that gung-ho immersion, this might not be the place for you. On the other hand, if you’re someone who likes to figure things out as you go, and who would really prefer to see the language used as it actually is in the real world and not through flashcards, this might be perfect for you.

Final Thoughts: 

Duo is a great site; let’s just put that out there right now. And I think that the old phrase “You get what you paid for” doesn’t really apply here for a few reasons: A) you pay for nothing, and B) You get a lot more than the usual for a free site. Think about it: you have access to 68 languages, entire courses, discussion forums, stories, flashcards, and so much else, all free of cost. That’s pretty amazing. That said, Duo isn’t for everyone, and it’s not a site that will make you completely fluent in any language, though it will give you a pretty good understanding of it. I wouldn’t recommend using only Duolingo if you’re really serious about language-learning, but it’s a great place to start and can give you a solid foundation of plenty of other languages.