Language app reviews

Anki review

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Vocab and conjugations are two of the most important parts of any language learning strategy – without them, there is no way you will ever be able to communicate in the language of your choice. They can also be some of the hardest because so many of us have been traumatized by having to learn flashcards in school.

Fortunately for us in the digital age, the internet has come up with flashcard apps that are significantly better for actually learning the stuff we want to learn because they use something that we just can’t get with physical flashcards: spaced repetition software. My personal favorite flashcard app for language learning is Anki, and I think you’ll agree with me by the end of this Anki review.

What is spaced repetition software?

First off, to understand what’s so special about Anki, as opposed to just normal flashcards (besides saving trees), we need to address spaced repetition software. It’s a super important factor in language learning that will honestly transform the way you get new vocabulary into your brain.

So, we all know how flashcards work: you put your hint on one side, the answer on the back, and flip them over to see if you’re right or wrong. If you’re smart you’ll put the easy words in a separate pile from the harder words so you don’t have to waste your time on them, but most of us aren’t.

Spaced repetition software does that little step for us and so much more. It’s an algorithm that separates your flashcards into categories of how easy they are for you to recall. For the flashcards that you can remember pretty much immediately, spaced repetition software will stick them away and hold onto them for you; more difficult terms will be shown to you more often until you can consistently recall the information.

Then, as time goes on, the spaced repetition software will judge when you’re most likely to forget your terms and shows them to you just before you forget. This way, it helps bring your vocabulary from your short-term memory to your long-term memory, without wasting your time by showing you the words you already know as often as the more difficult ones.

While spaced repetition isn’t unique to Anki, the visible time frames are; sure, LingoDeer’s self-reporting SRS is much more beautiful, but it doesn’t tell you how long it’ll be before you see the term again!

For language learners, spaced repetition software is a game-changer. We’re learning thousands of words per language – nobody has the time to review all of them every day, nor do we have the brain space to keep track of when we should be reviewing each individual term. Thanks to spaced repetition software, we don’t have to do anything more than telling it how easily we remembered the card.

Anki review

So, with the basic idea of spaced repetition software in mind, let’s continue to the Anki review. Let me preface by saying that while Anki isn’t the prettiest program on the block, it works. Anki is the spaced repetition software most commonly used by language learners, and it’s for good reason.

To start off:

Yes, it’s free (only on Android, though. iPhone users have to pay. Sorry!)
Yes, it’s both on desktop and mobile
No, you don’t have to choose between the two: you can sync all your lists to Anki’s database at any point

Anki cards

Anki has its own lingo for the flashcards you create: the terms themselves are Anki cards, and the individual lists of terms are Anki decks.

When you make your Anki cards, the first option you’ll see is to select the type of Anki card. This defines how your vocab is presented to you, and you can use this for a whole bunch of things: learning to recognize vocab, learning to spell it, or even learning to fill in the blank. Anki does this with the following options.

Basic Anki cards

If you don’t define your type of flashcard (which is completely okay), Anki will select a Basic Anki card for you. This is your run-of-the-mill flashcard maker: you put your vocab word on the front and put the answer on the back. Flip the card over to see your answer and whether you were right or wrong.

With Basic Anki cards, you also have the option to switch the cards from back to front; you can do this for more of a challenge, since it forces you to actually learn the word in your foreign language, instead of just kind of recognizing the first few letters of your new vocab.

Basic (and reversed card) Anki cards

Next, we have basic and reversed Anki cards. When you choose this option, you’ll get two Anki cards for every card that you create – one will be the card you create, and the other will have the back for the front and the front for the back.

This is a good way to not only reinforce the vocabulary you’re learning by reviewing it twice, but you’ll also learn to associate your new word with your English word by creating that link in your brain. Do keep in mind, though, that because you’re doubling your Anki cards, you’ll spend twice the time reviewing, which may not be the most efficient, especially for more simple vocab.

Basic (optional reversed card) Anki cards

Fortunately, Anki recognizes that the reversed card option might not be efficient for every single one of your flashcards, so they also give you the option so you do not have to flip back and forth between types of Anki cards.

As you can see, this type of note has three fields; the first two are for the flashcard itself, and the third field is where you let the app know whether or not you need the reversed card. If you don’t, leave it blank. If you do, don’t leave it blank; it doesn’t matter what you put in the field, and, honestly, I feel like it should be a check box, not another field. Nonetheless, it is convenient to have this option as opposed to constantly flipping back and forth.

Basic (type in the answer) Anki cards

This type is my favorite. It’s important to me to know how to spell my words because it not only makes my knowledge of my vocab more specific, but I’m also practicing how to write the word, which helps me later on when I’m practicing my writing.

This option looks the same as the Basic notes. You won’t see the difference until you actually go to review your vocab, at which point you’ll be asked to spell out the other side of your flashcard, as opposed to just flipping it over.

Cloze Anki cards

Finally, we have the Cloze Anki cards. This option is less for learning vocabulary and more for practicing quizzes and how to complete sentences, which is also helpful. This is a great tool for learning conjugations, for example.

Cloze Anki cards removes a word or phrase out of a sentence. Your job is to fill in the blank. So, for example, you can use this as a fill-in-the-blank for verb tenses (because we all know how annoying those are to learn):

Types of answers in Anki cards

On top of all these different types of Anki cards, we can also switch up the media type. Besides just typing in the words, we can use our Anki cards to upload an image or record audio. I mean hey, the more options we have in taking in our new vocabulary the better, amirite?

I personally really love the audio option, because it helps me to train my ear for listening. Being able to read the word is only half the battle – I need to learn to hear and say the word, too! This is great, especially for brand-new languages, when you’re not used to the sounds just yet and need them consistently reinforced. You can opt to hear the pronunciation every time you see the word, which is incredibly helpful for taking it in.

While the option to upload an image isn’t personally helpful for me, it can be very helpful for a couple of reasons. First of all, this can really help with connecting the new vocabulary with the concept, as opposed to just the translation (we all need to learn how to think in our languages, not just translate them!).

Second, because you have the option to both upload an image you’ve already found online and take a new picture with your camera, you can connect vocabulary with the things you see every day; for example, pair a picture of your computer at work with the word for computer in your target language. That, my friends, is called immersion.

Suffice to say, Anki provides you with a variety of methods to learn your vocabulary. Because this option is in the same table where you create your notes, you can create an entire Anki deck with any and all of these types of cards, which can really mix up your practice, keeping it interesting.

Anki shared decks

If you’re not interested in creating your own Anki decks and find it easier to go off what others have used, another option is using Anki shared decks. They’re exactly what they sound like – Anki decks that someone has created and stuck online for the purpose of helping other people who want to learn the same things.

There are, obviously, pros and cons. While finding the right Anki shared decks for you might be easier than creating your own, you do need to take them with a grain of salt. Anybody can put up anything, so there is the possibility of what you’re studying being wrong. Also, since you’re not creating these Anki decks yourself, they’ll be harder to learn; I always say it’s best to learn new vocabulary and concepts from context.

If you’re new to Anki decks, though, I do suggest at least taking a look. You can see how others have used the platform and can get inspiration for the possibilities of Anki, as opposed to just using it as a basic flashcard maker and missing out on all the tools available to you.

Anki app vs Anki desktop

When you first go about making your Anki account, you’ll get a message suggesting you start out on desktop; apparently, it’s meant to be primarily a desktop program, and the Anki app exists mostly for convenience. Never fear, I use the Anki app almost exclusively and have not had any problems.

While the Anki app is almost exactly like the desktop program, there are a couple of small differences. For example, the desktop program gives you more freedom to edit the HTML of your Anki decks, which is nice, but not something that is usually important to language learners.

The desktop program does also give you a few more opportunities for personalizing your Anki decks. You can change colors, bold/italicize/underline the text, and go into exponents. This could be helpful for your memorization, so if colors work for you, please start out on the desktop program. But, otherwise, if you don’t even have a computer, the Anki app will work just fine for you.

How to use Anki for language learning

As you can see, the Anki decks in the Anki app are a really amazing tool for language learners. You can learn vocabulary, conjugations, practice listening, spelling, upload images, and have a computer figure out when the best time to show you each Anki card. It’s honestly one of the best resources for language learners, in my humble opinion.

And, as the Anki website states, please make sure you look around the program to figure out how to use Anki in a way that will work for you. I mean, plain, basic text flashcards are helpful, but you can really use Anki to your advantage to cement the things you’re trying to learn into your brain.

Decide how to use Anki for yourself, and I promise you’ll never look back. The way you learn your vocab will go from an overwhelming number of flashcards to a well-rounded review of what you need to review and nothing else.

HelloTalk review

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Without a doubt, immersing yourself in a foreign language is the best thing anybody could ever do for their language learning. It can be hard to find immersion in a foreign language, though, especially when you don’t have the time, money, or flexibility to go abroad.

Fortunately, there are workarounds like the HelloTalk app. HelloTalk is basically an app built specifically to foster texting combined with a language exchange. This makes HelloTalk a great option for serious language learners who want immersion but just can’t have it.

So let’s talk about it: the strengths, weaknesses, and what you can expect. In this HelloTalk review, we’ll see if this app can help push your fluency forward and meet your language learning goals. What does the HelloTalk app have to offer, and where does it fail? Is it the right app for you?

HelloTalk review: the lowdown

Okay, so the HelloTalk app is like a constant language exchange over text, but what does that mean? How does it work? Well…it’s actually pretty great. The folks over at HelloTalk really seem to understand what goes into language learning, because they’ve built the app to offer the tools to suit almost any language learner.

The HelloTalk app isn’t just another texting app that connects you with other language learners. It also has a whole bunch of tools specifically made to help you refine your communication skills in your chosen language. It’s almost like a texting app on steroids…except more healthy and not cheating.

Basically, you should look at the HelloTalk app as a kind of international social media made specifically for language learners, which is awesome! Honestly, it can be difficult to find a good, dependable language exchange partner, and HelloTalk provides a low-key, low-stress alternative.

The biggest issue, at least the biggest issue that I’ve found, with language exchanges is getting your language partner to show up in the same place and the same time as you. Life happens so it can get really, really difficult. With HelloTalk, you just need your phone! So let’s jump right into the specifics of this HelloTalk review with explaining how the HelloTalk app is organized.

Talks

Once you have an account and have selected your language and all that good stuff, it’s time to talk! This first section will be empty at first, and it’ll fill in with all the conversations you find. Really, it’s just like any other texting app you’ve ever used, which is easy.

Once you have these conversations started, HelloTalk provides a variety of ways to converse. I personally love this, because not only can you practice a variety of methods of communicating, but it also gives you options depending on your learning style. Unlike most language learning resources out there, you can practice more than just 1 method of communicating – you can practice them all if you can find someone willing!

So, while you can obviously just text, you can also send and receive audio, pictures, doodles, and even have a video chat! This is seriously awesome because you can get all of your language skills in one shot: reading, writing, listening, and speaking. No other language learning resource works quite so efficiently, so kudos!

You don’t need to find someone and then ask them for their Skype and then find them on Skype and then get them to add you and then talk about what time you’re available and then hope that there are no technical difficulties, but of course, there are, so you need to take a rain check, and then you never hear from them. No. You just find someone and ask for a video chat. Easy.

What’s more, is the corrections. As long as you find someone to talk to who will take the time to correct you, you can have all of your mistakes corrected in real-time, which is awesome! HelloTalk makes it really easy, too – when you make corrections, you can put the incorrect text in a red font, and write out the correction in a green font. Seriously, seriously helpful for visual learners, and everyone trying to learn how to write correctly in their language.

And that’s a big deal, because finding someone to talk to isn’t necessarily the hard part. I mean, you could get a journal and talk to yourself about your own life! But it’s less easy to find a native to correct your mistakes and help you out.

Moments

After the section with all of your actual conversations is Moments. This is basically a language-wide forum where you can put yourself out there and solicit conversations, or just check out what everybody else is posting. You’ll only see posts by those who are learning your language and speak your desired language, so it’s a cool way to find more language exchanges, and even already have something to talk about.

Then, in that same Moments tab, you’ll see Help Others. It’s pretty self-explanatory: members have questions in your native language, and you can answer them. Again, a good way to find someone to exchange languages with, so long as you’re up to making some corrections.

In my opinion, this is the best way to go about it; if you’re willing to make corrections, you’ll likely find someone who is also willing to correct you, as opposed to finding someone who just gets the basic idea of what you’re trying to say (which, you know, there’s nothing wrong with that, but it’s just not optimal).

And, of course, you can post your own stuff on this forum. It doesn’t even have to be language related! HelloTalk is more than welcoming for literally any inspiration you find to either try to communicate in the language you’re learning or provide more practice for others.

It’s pretty cool – you can talk about just about anything with just about anybody! Talk about travel, your life, current events, your hobbies…literally anything and everything. Starting conversations is good!

Search

Alright, Search is where you’ll generally find your actual language exchanges. In this tab, you search through all of HelloTalk’s members that speak the language you’re learning and are learning the language you speak. They’re organized by how recently they’ve been online, so you can find more active members. (By the way, if you start conversations and then just don’t ever open the app again, you lose all of your past conversations.)

Right off the bat, you see a list of language learners: their names, their country (which can be important when it comes to accents/dialects), a picture of them, when they were last online, and their skill level in the language they’re learning. Really, just go down the list and pick someone who jumps out at you. There are no rules for this! You can even just message a whole bunch of people and go off of who responds.

Once you click onto a profile, you’ll get some more information about them and their activity on the HelloTalk app. Everybody has the option to provide a self-introduction, and you’ll also see their local time, gender, age, and basically a social media scroll of their Moments. Depending on how much they’ve put in their profile, you might be able to learn a thing or two about them and find someone who you have something in common with.

This is when I do have to make a note to the women out there: you will get inundated with men wanting to talk to you. Doesn’t matter what you look like, what you sound like, or any of that. You will get an avalanche of messages from men.

You can choose who you talk to and who you don’t, but, in my experience, the only members I’ve found who were actually interested in exchanging languages were women. Nothing wrong with choosing to respond to these men at all – you do you, boo! I’m just making the statement that it happens.

BUT. Outside that, if you’ve found someone you think you might want to have a language exchange with, message them and say hi! Or hey, if their Moments are particularly interesting, you can always just opt to follow them. There are no rules to this! Also, this is the tab of the HelloTalk app where you can block someone in case you need to. Like I said, it’s like social media for language learners.

Learn

Finally, we have the Learn tab. This is where you can switch languages, or you can find discounts on whichever language course they’re recommending to you. It’s entirely up to you whether or not you buy it – I’m sure HelloTalk is getting some affiliate income on the side.

If you’re a free member you can switch languages, but then you lose everything in your current language. With their new VIP membership, you can learn up to 3 languages at a time. If that’s your jam, it’s honestly not a bad deal – only $5 a month! That would be pretty overwhelming for me, but if that’s how you like to live your life, toss them a few bucks! I’m always happy to support the people who provide the language learning community with useful products.

HelloTalk review: is it right for you?

If you couldn’t already tell from this HelloTalk review, I have a pretty glowing opinion of the HelloTalk app. I personally think it’s a really great resource that provides a lot of opportunities for language learners and aspiring language learners around the world. I think that it’s executed well, and I will happily recommend it to anybody who asks. Plus, they advertise offering 100+ languages, which is crazy! There’s almost no reason why you shouldn’t be able to find the language you’re learning.

HelloTalk review: if you're already on your phone anyways, use the HelloTalk app

But is it right for you? Yeah, I love this app. Yeah, I think it can help a lot of people. But do I personally use it? Nope. It’s a great idea, but it’s just not for me. I’ve tried it a few times on and off, and I really do love the idea, but let’s face it: I hate answering the phone! Hearing my phone go off all the time is really stressful to me, and then I feel guilty about starting conversations and then just disappearing. But that’s just me.

It’s such a random thing to get in the way of my language learning, but it doesn’t work for me. And if this kind of thing wouldn’t work for you, there’s nothing wrong with that. If your phone is always in a different room, if your friends generally have a hard time getting in touch with you…the HelloTalk app won’t work for you. You have to be pretty attentive to your phone if you’re going to be trying to have these conversations because, unfortunately, it’s only an app. There’s no desktop version available.

But if you’re always on your phone? I highly, highly, highly suggest giving the HelloTalk app a go. It can be hard to find a native speaker to correct your writing, so I would take full advantage of this resource if answering your phone doesn’t stress you out.

Rosetta Stone review: for beginner language learners only

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Rosetta Stone has been a major name in the language learning world longer than most. This Rosetta Stone review will help you decide if it’s the language app for you.

Can you really get fluent using Rosetta Stone? Is it worth the money? Should you be considering it? In this Rosetta Stone review, I’ll touch base on all these questions, so you can make an educated decision on whether to take the plunge.

First things first, though, is to make sure Rosetta Stone actually teaches the language you’re interested in learning. Rosetta Stone offers the following languages:

Arabic
Chinese (Mandarin)
Dutch
English (American)
English (British)
Farsi (Persian)
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Irish
Italian

Japanese
Korean
Latin
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Russian
Spanish (Latin America)
Spanish (Spain)
Swedish
Tagalog
Turkish
Vietnamese

Rosetta Stone review: what works

First off, let’s talk about how exactly Rosetta Stone accomplishes what it says it will accomplish. I’m very particular about making sure I’m practicing all of my language skills and knowing exactly what my goal is with any language.

That being said, how does Rosetta Stone work, and what does it teach you?

The closest thing to immersion

Rosetta Stone’s claim to fame is that it teaches you the language by immersion, which is great! And it’s true – you will never see or hear a single English word using this program. Using Rosetta Stone as an ultimate beginner is great because you’re learning to think using the language right off the bat; compared to other programs, where you’re translating between languages in order to learn, this is undoubtedly the best way to take in a language.

And Rosetta Stone is great for this very reason: it makes you think. With every round of questions, the way it’s designed forces you to actually think in the language. This is the first step in learning a new language authentically and efficiently.

So, if you’re starting out with the language fresh and new, the Rosetta Stone method is incredibly challenging, but in the best way.

The lessons may not go by as quickly and painlessly as Duolingo’s 5-minute lessons – you’ll spend a significant amount of time really using your brain, just like you would in real-life immersion. In fact, I had to take a break after the first 2 lessons because my brain hurt like it does when I’m in actual language exchanges!

Multiple-choice questions that you can’t fake

Another thing about Rosetta Stone that I really love is that you can’t really BS it. The program depends heavily on multiple-choice questions, but they switch it up. For example, you’re given a phrase, and then you’re given 4 pictures – your job is to match the phrase to the correct picture.

Once you’ve done that, not only is the text taken off the picture (so you still have four images to choose from for the next phrase), but the order of the pictures is flipped around. It’s just another level at which you actually have to think, as opposed to “well I’ve already matched up 3 pictures, so I don’t even have to look at the last phrase to know which picture it belongs to”.

It’s a simple thing, but it really makes a world of difference when it comes to making you actually think in the language, which, again, is one of the most important parts of effectively learning a new language.

Speaking from the beginning

Another thing that Rosetta Stone does really well is making you speak from day one. At the beginning levels, this is really helpful, as a lot of newbie language learners don’t realize that getting used to forming the words correctly is a skill in itself.

Foreign languages use different sounds, and just recognizing them by ear isn’t enough – you need to build muscle memory, and Rosetta Stone helps with that.

Rosetta Stone makes very large claims about speech recognition. I personally tend to take this with a grain of salt, because this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that, and it’s usually pretty useless. Most of the time, speech recognition is either easy to fake or says you’re wrong even when you’re right.

In my experience…Rosetta Stone’s speech recognition is about 50/50, as well. In some ways it has alerted me to how I’m pronouncing incorrectly, but whether or not it’s been a convenient fluke…who knows. I say that because after saying the same word with the same exact pronunciation four times and being told it was wrong the first three and right the fourth…it’s still not 100%.

So, take what it tells you with a grain of salt. Listen carefully, and absolutely practice your speaking, but I feel like there are better ways to go about that one.

…and all the other language skills

Yes, speaking is the big thing that most newbie language learners might avoid. Besides speaking, Rosetta Stone is surprisingly good at hitting the other language skills: reading, writing, and listening. Once you get through your core lesson, where you’ll learn all the things you need to learn about that unit, you’re also taken through lessons for each individual skill, which is amazing.

You get all of your language skills, appropriate to your level of learning, right in one go. Honestly, no other independent language learning resource does that, so in this way, Rosetta Stone is way ahead of the game (and has been for more than 20 years now).

That being said, this is a big deal. From the very very beginning, you get in the habit of practicing the language in every way necessary. Pretty good for beginners!

Rosetta Stone review: what doesn’t work

Now that I’m done raving on and on about how wonderful Rosetta Stone is, let’s talk about its failings. Now, keep in mind that it’s not that this program does things wrong necessarily – Rosetta Stone knows who its target audience is, and if these faults are a big deal, it’s not meant for you anyway.

I say this because I’ve seen plenty of reviews talking about how Rosetta Stone is heavily flawed, but so is every other language learning resource. Nothing is one-size-fits-all; if it were, there wouldn’t be a reason for all of these products. Know what you’re looking for in your language learning journey, and that will help you to make the right choice.

It’s repetitive

Right off the bat, Rosetta Stone can get infuriatingly repetitive. If you’re used to learning languages, and it’s easy for you to grasp linguistic patterns, Rosetta Stone is horribly boring and slow. The most basic words and grammatical patterns don’t need to be drilled so incessantly for learners who have already learned these same exact patterns in other languages.

If you’re an ultra-newbie this is great, because you’ll learn the basics and you’ll learn them well. However, if you’ve already done the legwork to recognize and be familiar with these basic patterns, you’re gonna get real bored real quick, which means you’ll give up.

Even with more advanced-level content, this was too slow. I tried to go into the settings real quick to speed it up, but no-go.

Rosetta Stone will provide you with a great base level to build on, which is great if you need it. If you don’t need it, don’t bother with it.

It’s basic

Rosetta Stone has 5 units of lessons for languages that are related to English, but only 3 or 4 for other unrelated languages. There is a lot of content, and the content is very thoroughly broken down into all of the language skills. It involves a lot of drilling and a lot of basic hand-holding.

However, the amount of drilling and hand-holding involved means that the content doesn’t get you very far. If you’re planning a trip abroad and want to feel comfortable understanding and communicating at a basic level, it’s very thorough and efficient. However, you won’t get much farther than that. And if you’re a seasoned language learner, you’re gonna get bored real quick, even if you’re still learning things.

You will not be learning intermediate or advanced words or concepts with Rosetta Stone. If you’re just starting out with the language, you’ll be fine, but there is no real building on the basics using this program. You’ll get a very solid root to the language, and you’ll be at a good place to push onward, but you can’t get onward depending solely on this program.

It’s expensive

This has been a major sore spot for Rosetta Stone since the beginning. Especially since the internet became a thing, and a variety of cheap or even free resources have become available, the steep price tag (think $200 for a single-level CD-set!) has turned a lot of people off.

As time has gone on, Rosetta Stone’s prices have become a bit more palatable by switching to a monthly model like a majority of the industry. The caveat is that you cannot invest month-by-month. You can see current prices here.

Fortunately, they do offer a 30-day guarantee.

Rosetta Stone review: stories

With stories, you get 3 different options for practice: read the story, read and listen, or read and read aloud. These stories are very on-level, and offer you another resource to practice both input and output.

I’m a big fan of listening to text while you read it, plus highlighting each individual word as it’s read? Two thumbs up!

When reading aloud with the story, the concept is exactly the same – the highlight tries to follow along with you word-by-word. It’s not exactly 100%, but it does the job enough.

Use this tool to listen to how you’re pronouncing the words, and then switch back to listening to compare.

My only complaint here is that I wish you had the option to download your recording. That way you could send it to a tutor or language exchange partner for feedback, or even just keep track of your progress for yourself.

Rosetta Stone’s audio companion

Then we have the audio companion. With each lesson, Rosetta Stone offers audio tracks of vocab pronounced correctly and slowly, with a beat after each word for you to repeat.

On mobile, you have the option to rewind, pause, and fast-forward; on desktop (as pictured), you just get the audio tracks downloaded straight to your device. In this case, it’s up to you to have a program that offers these options.

This first lesson had 18 audio clips (including the intro), by the way, not just the 3 shown here.

Rosetta Stone review: is it for you?

Rosetta Stone is a great language learning program that satisfies every language skill (that in itself is hard to come by), meaning you don’t have to look elsewhere for practice. If you’re a total beginner looking for a very confident base in the language, click here to get started with Rosetta Stone.

However, if you’re not a beginner or find the pace to be much too slow, I’d skip it. Instead, I’d recommend these comparisons if you’re interested in something similar:

italki review: the best place for private language lessons

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Italki is arguably the most popular language-learning resource online used by learners of all languages under the sun, so an italki review only seems reasonable! Like Verbling, italki provides its users the opportunity to practice speaking the language they’re learning with real live native speakers, regardless of geography.

From a social network for language learners in 2006 to the world’s most popular platform to find foreign language teachers, let’s dive into this italki review and see what the italki experience is like.

Finding your italki teacher

Italki boasts hosting native speakers of any and all languages you could be learning. Because there are so many italki teachers available to you, the site helps you narrow down your search, so you’re not sifting through all kinds of italki teachers that you don’t actually have any interest or need in setting up a conversation with.

That being said, your italki teacher search can and should be incredibly specific if you can make those decisions for yourself. This will really narrow down the number of choices you have to make.

So, for example, when I’m searching for an italki teacher to practice Spanish with, I’ll always choose Spain in this first category. Most of my experience communicating in Spanish is from living in Spain, so I have a hard time understanding accents from any other countries.

Though you do have a plethora of options to narrow down your search, my personal sticking point is that you can’t easily search by gender.

italki price

Hopefully, you’ll notice that one of those categories is “price”. Your italki price depends entirely upon the teacher that you choose. If, for example, you’re searching around for italki Spanish lessons, and you choose an italki tutor that’s from Spain (like I do), your italki cost is going to be just a bit pricier than if you’re learning from someone based in a Latin American country.

This is also the difference between an italki community tutor and professional teachers – because professional teachers are more experienced and likely have some sort of degrees or certification, you’ll pay a premium.

Fortunately, if you’re just testing the water, you do have 3 free trials to spend. Free trials are 30-minute lessons that must be used with different teachers. Not all teachers offer these trial lessons, but it makes it just a bit easier to try out using italki for the first time.

Choosing your italki teacher

After you’ve narrowed your search for an italki teacher, it’s time to do some deeper research. Each italki teacher offers a ton of information: an intro video, About Me, calendar, statistics, reviews, any packages they offer (like specific test prep, for example), and more.

Suffice it to say, all the information any reasonable language learner would need to make an educated decision.

And if you have any further questions, you can easily send your potential teacher an email, no pressure.

The italki lesson experience

Once you’ve gone through all these options and decided who you want to try out, you’ll go through a few steps. The italki platform does this all pretty well and very smoothly, in my opinion. Everything is very clear and to the point.

As you can see above, you’re already given a preview of your italki teacher’s availability on their page. And yes, this availability is presented in your time zone, so you don’t have to do any gymnastics to find a teacher that matches up with your schedule.

Once you’ve made an actual decision regarding who you want to learn from, you’ll get access to their calendar and be able to make a selection based on their open slots. If you’ve opted for a trial lesson, you’ll be able to select a 30-minute slot, and if you’re making a request within 24 hours, you won’t be able to cancel or reschedule your lesson after your teacher accepts it.

Then, once you choose a time, you’ll be able to choose your communication tool. Italki offers 3 options for you to host your lesson:

italki Classroom
Zoom
Skype

If you choose the italki Classroom (which I honestly recommend* – it runs well, and you don’t have to worry about tech issues/passwords), you’ll be granted access once your teacher accepts your lesson.

*it is worth noting that my experience using the italki Classroom is limited, and my teacher stated the platform isn’t as good as just using Skype or Zoom.

Then, like any lesson with a language teacher, you’ll be able to make full use of whichever platform you choose – talk to your teacher via the video chat, get corrections in the chatbox, or follow along if your teacher shares their screen to walk you through an activity.

italki language partner & other perks

Besides being able to pay to talk to native speakers of the language you’re learning, italki has also expanded to offer a few other perks. If you head to the Community tab on the upper right-hand side, you’ll see your options.

Articles are written by italki tutors, and you can specify which language you want to be reading in. Notebooks, on the other hand, are written by your fellow language learners, and you have the opportunity to both review others’ content and post your own practice and potentially have it reviewed by someone else.

You can see the option to listen to a recording, participate in a quiz, and answer a question, all of which can be great ways to engage in your target language.

italki review: group classes

Usually language learners seek out italki for private lessons, but some learners can try out italki’s group classes as well. It’s not nearly as popular on this platform, so you’ll have fewer options, but it’s still an opportunity you may want to take advantage of.

As of the date on the bottom of this post, group classes are only an option for learners of English, Spanish, and Japanese. To be honest, though, I’d be more inclined to use Lingoda for group English and Spanish lessons, as that’s Lingoda’s bread and butter.

But if you’re more interested in one-off group lessons, every bit of exposure to the language helps.

italki review: alternatives

If this italki review just proves that you’re looking for something else, there are also a few italki alternatives you might also consider. There aren’t many other major platforms like italki, especially considering the sheer number of languages available.

For websites like italki that also host a variety of languages, you might consider Verbling, which is very closely related – the biggest difference is that Verbling does not support as many languages. HelloTalk is a free option if finding a professional teacher isn’t important to you.

And if you’re looking for one language in particular, that may help narrow down your search. BaseLang, for example, is a potential option for Spanish language learners who are open to a more intensive commitment..

italki review: in conclusion

This italki review proves that the platform has a lot to offer any language learner. There’s a reason it’s the go-to for most of us in the language learning community. Conversations with natives in almost any language you could think of are easy to find with just an internet connection; it doesn’t get much simpler than that!

Ready to give italki a try? Click here to get $10 in free italki credits!

Verbling review: don’t sleep on this language teacher platform!

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

In the language learning community, there are two well-known and well-trusted ways to practice having conversations with native speakers: italki and Verbling. They have their similarities and differences (as noted in my Verbling vs italki review), but now let’s focus on this Verbling review.

In this Verbling review, I’ll take you step-by-step through going to the Verbling website for the first time, all the way through your first lesson, pros and cons, and alternatives to Verbling for all your language learning needs.

Verbling review: find a private language teacher

Starting from the “Find a Teacher” button right next to the italki logo, you’ll find yourself confronted with a huge list of people who teach your target language, as well as a few options to narrow down your search.

As you can see, Verbling keeps the search criteria pretty simple: language, location (important because you may be more confident with certain accents), any particular goals you have, and availability.

In the past, Verbling used to allow you to search by gender, which was a huge plus for me. They seem to have removed this option, though.

After applying your preferred search, click through to any of the Verbling teachers that stand out to you. And if none stand out to you, pick one at random! You can learn about any teacher you like, including listening to their voice/accent, and hopefully getting to know them a little bit before booking a lesson.

You’ll find tons of information on the Verbling teacher you chose, like their resume, how long they’ve been on Verbling, how many lessons their average students take with them, detailed reviews, any articles they’ve written, and more.

It can be a lot to take in, but you only need to take what’s most important to you. The idea is to give you an opportunity for an educated choice before you spend your time/money on your first lesson, even if you opt for a discounted trial lesson.

Once you make your choice, you’re just 2 clicks away from your first Verbling lesson. They don’t make it difficult, which is helpful. I definitely understand the pressure of hitting that “buy now” button, so I appreciate how easy it is to get started.

Once you complete your trial lesson (or even before), you can also opt for bulk lessons with that teacher at a slight discount. This is a plus not only for convenience but also for accountability – you’re more likely to consistently practice if you’ve already bought the lessons.

It’s worth noting that the discount you get with bulk lessons differs from teacher to teacher (and not all Verbling teachers offer lessons in bulk) so don’t make any assumptions based on this Verbling review. However, this is a feature unique to Verbling.

What Verbling classes are like

If you’ve never taken an online class with a private language tutor, you can expect your language teacher to start a conversation with you by asking some getting-to-know-you questions.

This will likely be primarily over video chat, with the added perk of using the chat box to help with spelling or vocabulary. If your Verbling teacher has an activity for you, they’ll probably share their screen, like any Zoom call you’ve been in.

However, Verbling language lessons do not occur over Zoom or even Skype – they use Verbling’s own proprietary software and that’s it. This does make things easy when it’s time for your lesson because all you have to do with click a button and be connected.

Then, once your lesson’s finished, Verbling will email you summarizing your lesson. This summary can help you keep a record of when/how often you’re practicing, with whom, the vocabulary you referenced, and your conversation. If you really like your teacher, you can also go ahead and book another lesson right from this summary.

The Verbling community

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, you can also check out Verbling’s Community tab. You may be able to find an interesting article or a future Verbling teacher you may like, but it’s definitely not Verbling’s strongest suit.

Honestly, it seems more like a side project than a full-blown feature.

If your teacher referenced an article they wrote or a discussion thread they started, you can also click on the My Teachers tab and easily find any of the content they posted. Or, if you’re just browsing around the Trending tab, and you find an article that you’re interested in or have a question regarding, each article links to the teacher who posted it, so it’s easy to send them a message asking for clarification, or (better yet) book a lesson to chat about it in the language you’re learning.

This option is definitely helpful for coming up with material to talk about in your lessons, as your teacher will probably ask you what you want to talk about after you’ve had your initial “getting to know you” lesson.

It can be tough to come up with good material for yourself, especially when your new language teacher doesn’t know you well enough just yet to recommend study material that will be engaging to you. Think of this section as Verbling’s library.

Verbling review

While Verbling (now a part of Busuu/Chegg) isn’t as popular or well-rounded as italki, this Verbling review shows that it’s still a great option for language learners who want focused conversational practice with professional native speakers.

There are a few key differences, as noted in my italki vs Verbling comparison review, but the most significant thing to know is that the value and experience you get from either platform depends not on the platform itself, but on the teachers you work with.

My recommendation? If you are looking for conversational practice with professional, experienced native speakers, Verbling is an excellent place to start.

You can also look for non-professional native speakers (so basically a glorified Tandem or HelloTalk language exchange) on italki, but regardless of your choice, don’t be afraid to shop around for a private language teacher on Verbling!

Busuu review: the best combo of academic & social

March 21, 2022 by Jamie 1 Comment

Busuu is one of the most popular, recognized, and biggest language apps out there (so much so that they bought out Verbling, and are now owned by Chegg, a huge education company), and in this Busuu review, it will be made clear why it’s so well-liked. Get to know all of Busuu’s features and how to best use them for your own language learning so you can reach your language goals faster.

If after this Busuu review you find that it’s not the best solution for your language learning, I’ll also share some alternatives based on Busuu’s flaws so you can make the best choice for your languaeg learning.

Busuu review: languages offered

Busuu is available to learners of the most common foreign languages:

Arabic
Chinese
English
French
German
Italian

Japanese
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

Busuu is appropriate for all levels of these languages, making it accessible for language learners coming from all over. This is important because some of Busuu’s features are only successful because of its huge audience.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at Busuu and see if it’s the language app for you.

Busuu review: quality of lessons

Thanks to Busuu’s partnership with Chegg (a college education company), you can rely on Busuu for a high-quality education based on the CEFR levels (or Fluency Score, as they put it). Right from the start, this sets our expectations: Busuu is focused on academic use of the language, i.e. passing exams and textbook knowledge.

While many of us language learners have been taught that this is the only and/or best approach to learning languages, but it quite simply is not (always). If your goal is not an academic one, and you instead want to focus on being conversational as a priority…well, we’ll talk about this lower down in this Busuu review.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at Busuu’s first lesson to see how they execute their academic approach.

If you’re not a total beginner in the language, you have the option to take Busuu’s assessment. As a general rule, I take these online language level assessments with a grain of salt; no matter the platform, they’re almost always some variation of inaccurate. I recommend you do the same.

From the start, it’s clear that I was right about Busuu’s approach to learning a language! Very academic, very focused on using the language “correctly” and working towards the eventual goal of taking and passing an assessment.

Busuu’s assessment basically judges my ability in Spanish based on grammar, and much less so on things like communication or understanding. As such, I was really frustrated to be put at the A2 level in Spanish. I understand why – my A2 grammar is top-notch, and my intermediate is fairly functional but not quite textbook – but A2 is much too conservative, and I know that the content will be too easy.

It doesn’t seem like this would be too big of a deal, but in the past (and in the present for many language learners) I’ve followed these assessments, learned what they’ve told me to learn, and then quickly gotten bored and given up because of it.

After completing the assessment, you’re sent off to a comprehension lesson based on where Busuu thinks your level is. And keep watching, because I was genuinely shocked at the end to see some gamification.

As I assumed, the A2 level was boring and repetitive for me. The vocabulary was snooze-worthy, and I was not even the least bit challenged. This isn’t as much of a problem for me because I know how to solve the problem, but it can prove to be an insurmountable obstacle for language learners who are used to being bored and use this as further proof that they don’t like/are not good at learning languages.

Fortunately, Busuu allows you to switch lessons and attempt checkpoints at any time! You have to achieve at least 80% in this checkpoint, and the questions are pretty well-rounded. They prioritize grammar, of course, but also include other ways to use the language.

Regardless, I do really like the lessons themselves (once I get to my appropriate level!). Everything is very smooth and user-friendly, and the video comprehension questions make the language just a touch more 3-dimensional, too. I can tell that they’re trying to make a traditionally boring skill just a bit more engaging.

And like any intentional journey to learn a language, Busuu lessons end with a certificate! Unfortunately, official institutions will not accept a McGraw-Hill (another textbook company!) certificate from Busuu as proof of foreign language fluency.

You can use it as a resume builder for unrelated career paths, or you can frame it for your own personal pride, but it’s not the same as an official CEFR exam.

This certificate is also only available to paid users (which we’ll talk about more in a second).

Vocab review

Need to review? Busuu has a sleek way to have you review the vocabulary terms you come across in the lessons. The platform itself looks great, and I appreciate how you not only have to spell the words, but you also will be marked wrong if you don’t use appropriate accents, but there’s room for growth.

For one, I wish I could tell Busuu that I already know these terms. If I continued on with more at-level vocabulary, it would be easier to kick these easier terms out and focus on what would actually be helpful for me. I don’t see that option anywhere, though.

I do also wish you could add your own vocab! Assuming you’re using more than just Busuu to learn a language, or that you’re not a total beginner, it would be helpful to include other terms that you find off-platform. Spanishdict is an excellent example of this improvement.

Honestly, the fact that you can’t give Busuu any input whatsoever is a major bummer. These words are super easy for me (I told you I wasn’t A2!), and if I follow this lead, I’ll just be studying these terms that I already know until my eyes bleed.

Busuu community

Besides the frankly awesome lesson pathway, Busuu really excels with their community! You can only get so far in your language learning without actively using the language and making any kind of connections; fortunately, Busuu’s got you covered.

Click over to the “Community” tab to participate.

Here you have the opportunity to make connections with other language learners who can benefit from your native skills (hello, potential language exchanges!), as well as to practice your own use of the language in whichever way you see fit.

If your priority is communication, focus on the different ways to practice speaking. Likewise with written skills.

Whichever method of communication you want to improve, your response will be automatically submitted to the community, where native speakers can help correct you and encourage you along the way, just like you can encourage those practicing and learning your native language.

Wait a beat, check your notifications, and you’ll get a handful of corrections from the native-speaking community.

If you like, you can also go through and add respondents as friends and form a mutually-beneficial relationship where you correct each other’s submissions.

Finally, you can see all your corrections, submissions, and potential language friends by visiting your profile.

Busuu’s community may not be their primary talking point, but do yourself a favor and keep it in mind when you consider using Busuu to learn a new language! Even if this isn’t the only version of an online community for language learners, I think it blows communities like HelloTalk out of the water completely.

The difference between Busuu Premium and free

The bulk of Busuu is available for free to all, which is amazing! It’s awesome to see such a high-quality resource accessible to language learners of all different economic backgrounds. If you opt for Busuu Premium, you can also access:

No ads
Additional “fun” courses (travel, pronunciation, etc.)
AI-powered vocab review
Faster community feedback
The aforementioned Busuu certificates

These features are all not required for basic learning of the language. If you find them beneficial to your language learning and believe they would help keep you motivated, you’ll be happy to know that Busuu Premium is also very reasonably priced!

You can also start out with a 14-day free trial before you commit.

Click here to see updated pricing.

Busuu review: worth the hype for you?

Busuu’s success isn’t a mystery – it combines the academic approach to learning a language with a more motivating platform (meaning modern technology, not boring textbooks) and a strong community of other language learners to help keep you and your language learning on track.

If this sounds like your kind of language app, you can click here to get started with a free trial of Busuu Premium.

However, if grammar is not high on your list of priorities, you may find Busuu boring. If, for example, you want a stronger focus on conversational skills, you might consider finding a tutor on Verbling (which is owned by Busuu, fun fact!)

Or, if you like the structured, step-by-step approach to mastering a language but don’t want to rely so heavily on grammar, LingoDeer may be another option for you to consider.