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uTalk review: tons of vocab in tons of languages

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uTalk is a vocab app that brings languages to us that can be hard to find elsewhere; so whether you’re learning something common like Spanish or not-so-common like Cebuano, uTalk pretty much as you covered.

With 140+ languages, there are plenty of options to choose from. But that’s not all you should be thinking about when it comes to your language learning strategy! In this uTalk review, let’s discuss the pros and cons of using this app to learn a language.

uTalk review: languages

One of the best reasons to use uTalk to learn a language is that there are so many languages available that you can’t find anywhere else. uTalk currently supports 140+ different languages to learn, with new languages being added all the time.

You can use uTalk to learn:

  • Afrikaans
  • Albanian
  • Amharic
  • Arabic (Egyptian)
  • Arabic (Gulf)
  • Arabic (Lebanese)
  • Arabic (Modern Standard)
  • Arabic (Moroccan)
  • Armenian (Eastern)
  • Assamese
  • Azerbaijani
  • Basque
  • Belarusian
  • Bengali
  • Bosnian
  • Bulgarian
  • Burmese
  • Cantonese
  • Catalan
  • Cebuano
  • Chibemba
  • Chichewa
  • Chinese (Hakka)
  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Corsican
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Dzongkha
  • English (American)
  • English (Australian)
  • English (British)
  • English (Canadian)
  • English (Cockney)
  • English (Indian)
  • English (Scottish)
  • Esperanto
  • Estonian
  • Fijian
  • Filipino (Tagalog)
  • Finnish
  • Flemish
  • French
  • French (Canadian)
  • Galician
  • Georgian
  • German (Swiss)
  • Greek
  • Greek (Ancient)
  • Greenlandic
  • Gujarati
  • Haitian Creole
  • Hausa
  • Hawaiian
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Icelandic
  • Igbo
  • Ilocano
  • Indonesian
  • Irish
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Javanese
  • Kachchi
  • Kannada
  • Kazakh
  • Khmer
  • Kinyarwanda
  • Korean
  • Kurdish (Kurmanji)
  • Kurdish (Sorani)
  • Kyrgyz
  • Macedonian
  • Malagasy
  • Malay
  • Malayalam
  • Maltese
  • Manx
  • Maori
  • Marathi
  • Mongolian
  • Neapolitan
  • Nepali
  • Norwegian
  • Oriya
  • Oromo
  • Papiamentu
  • Pashto
  • Persian (Dari)
  • Persian (Farsi)
  • Persian (Tajiki)
  • Pidgin (Nigerian)
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Portuguese (Brazilian)
  • Punjabi (Indian)
  • Punjabi (Pakistani)
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Saami (Southern)
  • Samoan
  • Sardinian
  • Scots
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • Serbian
  • Shona
  • Sicilian
  • Sindhi
  • Sinhala
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Somali
  • Spanish (Spanish)
  • Spanish (Argentinian)
  • Spanish (Latin American)
  • Swahili
  • Swedish
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Thai
  • Tibetan
  • Tigrinya
  • Tok Pisin

Suffice to say…it’s a lot (151, to be precise). So many different languages, including different accents! Now let’s talk about what uTalk does with them.

uTalk walkthrough

When you first open up the uTalk app, you’ll be shown this screen, featuring every single one of those 140+ languages, with your most recent language at the top.

As you can see, it’s pretty straightforward! No fancy tutorials or overwhelm, really. This can be nice for those who don’t need the complicated AI features or techy chatbots; uTalk keeps it simple.

  1. Select your language
  2. Select your category
  3. Go!

Each category of phrases is provided with the following exercises.

Phrase practice

    Your first exercise introduces these phrases to you. There are quite a bit of them, honestly, so you may want to take a few tries to get through them.

    https://vimeo.com/1045387465/7d524a7bbc?ts=0&share=copy

    And if this is too difficult for you, go back to the prior “first words” lessons.

    Study each of these phrases by listening to the audio, understanding the phrase (try to depend just on the image to figure it out! It may be difficult, but I promise it’ll be worth it), and repeating it until you get the pronunciation down.

    This is the last time you’ll see the English translations – for the rest of these quizzes, you’ll be identifying each vocab word by either its picture or its audio.

    And it’s self-correcting, as well, so you can decide if your understanding is “good enough”. Like I said, no AI or speech recognition to complicate things!

    Easy game

    If you’re not sure if you studied the first exercise well enough, the next exercise will immediately tell you. Easy game takes your knowledge of the phrases a step further and gives you some multiple choice selections of the audio clips and imagery.

    https://vimeo.com/1045390342/14c6123301?ts=0&share=copy

    In this way, uTalk is very similar to Rosetta Stone: teaching you the language by letting your brain “figure it out”. As I said, this is more difficult in the short term, but much more effective in the long-term. If you’ve ever struggled with getting stuck translating in your head when you’re trying to communicate, this approach will circumvent that entire step.

    And don’t worry: even if you don’t understand every single word at this point, that is totally normal. This sort of game trains your brain to differentiate between different inflections, vocab words, etc., not necessarily to have “correct” grammar or vocabulary.

    Speaking game

    In this activity…well, you can see for yourself how I tricked myself by trying to trick uTalk! Basically, it’s time for you to prove if you’re pronouncing the phrases correctly enough to understand yourself compared to the native audio.

    This can technically be helpful for pronunciation (though I recommend Speechling more for that), but I’d say this would be more helpful for retaining the vocabulary into your memory.

    1. Easy game
    2. Speaking game
    3. Hard game
    4. Memory game
    5. Recall game

    Hard Game

    The Hard Game is where you start testing to see how effectively you’re learning, and whether or not you need to study more. This is active use of your memory.

    You get a number of images and an audio track. Your job is to select the image that belongs to that audio track. No more text, no more translations. Now it’s up to you to know which words mean what.

    Once you get to this point, you should have a decent idea of if you need more practice or not. By now you’ll be tested on whether or not you kind of have a hang on this or not.

    Memory Game

    Memory Game takes it a step further by cutting your time shorter. With the Hard Game, you get plenty of time to process and think, and then make your choice.

    With Memory Game, you’re flashed with images for a couple of seconds, and they’re instantly covered back up. Then audio plays, and you have to select which image (remembering which image is where) goes with the audio clip you’re hearing.

    This is where uTalk gets intense! You only get to see these images for like 3 seconds before they’re covered up. When you tap on one card, only that one card flips back over, so there’s no getting around it!

    Recall Game

    Last but not least we have Recall Game! In this final exercise, you’ll be tested on this vocab with every skill you’ve been practicing: you get the English word/phrase and the image, and your job is to record yourself saying the correct foreign phrase.

    Just like with the Speaking Game, there’s no attempt at speech recognition – you’re trusted to know for yourself whether or not you’ve got it. Once you make your recording and the English is translated, you have the option to:

    • replay your own recorded audio
    • play uTalk’s native audio
    • report that you got it wrong
    • report that you got it right

    I love that it’s totally up to you to say how well you did on your own speaking portion, and whether or not you got the phrase right. Self-reporting is where it’s at!

    uTalk review: prices

    uTalk’s payment model is super interesting! uTalk gives you the option to earn more time, earn more information. Or, to make things simpler, you can just pay to play.

    Click here for uTalk’s updated pricing.

    For one, uCoins gives you the option not only to work your way through (earning uCoins as you play uTalk’s games) but also to only pay for a little at a time.

    If 60+ different topics spanning 140+ different languages is too much for you (’cause that is definitely a lot), just pay for the topics that are actually beneficial to you.

    uTalk review: who it’s for

    I do genuinely love uTalk, both because it’s an excellent way to learn a new language, but also because of their ethics, and their commitment to making endangered and less common languages more accessible.

    As for actually using uTalk to learn a language, this uTalk review proves that it’s a great app for those who are looking for a quick route to effective use and understanding of the language in very specific situations, without the hullabaloo of fancy add-ons or confusing features.

    uTalk is simple, direct, and effective.

    If that’s your way to learn languages, similar alternatives to uTalk include Rosetta Stone and Speechling; both are just as simple and focus on speaking, but Rosetta Stone is more modern while Speechling isn’t as effective for teaching the language as it is promoting your pronunciation.

    Alternatively, if you need heavier gamification to keep you interested and engaged long-term, I might recommend something like Polygloss or Speakly.

    Suffice to say, uTalk is a great option for language learners looking for resources to support lesser-known languages that aren’t available elsewhere. Click here to get 20% off uTalk!

    Conjuguemos Review

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    Conjuguemos is a study tool used to learn verbs, vocab, and grammar in a handful of languages. The vision behind it is a way to make learning these things fun for the classroom – it’s not a fancy app, but that also means it’s totally free to use (for individual students, at least).

    So amongst all the other resources and apps out there for language learners, who is Conjuguemos for? What does it do right, and what does it need to work on? In this Conjuguemos review, I’ll discuss just that!

    Conjuguemos languages

    As always, let’s start this Conjuguemos review with the languages available themselves. Conjuguemos supports a handful of very popular foreign languages, including:

    • French
    • German
    • Italian
    • Korean
    • Latin
    • Portuguese
    • Spanish

    However, not all these languages are totally complete – it looks like the more popular languages (Spanish) have significantly more material than less popular languages (Latin).

    conjuguemos

    It’s kind of like Duolingo in that it’s totally free, but…you get what you get, ya know?

    As an experienced Spanish language learner and considering Spanish is the most evolved language on Conjuguemos, let’s buckle up and focus there!

    Conjuguemos review: verbs

    Once you select a language, all the materials available in said language are shown to you in a pretty well-organized way. And, I gotta say, if this is supplemental to the tools you’re already using, there’s nothing better!

    conjuguemos

    As an independent language learner who’s full up on vocab and really just needs to brush up on the past tense and subjunctive sometimes, I stick to the first section.

    Under this section, all your options for studying these verbs are laid out for you by subcategory. You can practice all of your Spanish conjugations, or you can narrow it down by something as vague as Indicative/Subjunctive/Imperative moods, or as specific as stem-changing Preterite tense verbs.

    conjuguemos

    You can chew up all these grammatical differences any way you choose, whichever way works for you and your grammatical weaknesses.

    My past tense isn’t nearly as good as it should be, so I’m gonna go with the Preterite tense, regular verbs only.

    conjuguemos

    Don’t know this tense at all, or very little? That drop-down menu on the right links you to all the learning materials you could ever need: conjugation charts, worksheets, flashcards, everything.

    While you can get that information in so many different places online, it’s handy to have links right here to review before testing yourself. I won’t go too in-depth, though, ’cause that’s not where Conjuguemos shines!

    Let’s start with Graded Practice.

    conjuguemos

    This bit is simple but effective! For 5 minutes (or however long you set your timer for – I’ve found 5 minutes to be plenty to both get my practice in and also not exhaust myself) you conjugate your verbs.

    If you need a hint, click “Show Hints” on the bottom right. If you just want to guess (like I do), try your best and you’ll be corrected and won’t be moved on until you get it right, correct accents and all! Conjuguemos also keeps track of what you struggle with and will show you those terms a couple more times.

    Not quite an SRS algorithm, but more like common-sense practice!

    Plus, if you have an account, you can opt to record your results and keep track of your improvements over time.

    Next up, we have flashcards!

    conjuguemos

    On the front you get the English verb – on the back you get the translation and all the conjugations you need.

    Personally not my favorite method (I like translating on the fly MUCH more than this rote memorization), but I do appreciate the self-reporting, like Anki and Rocket Languages also do very well.

    Last but not least (in this section), we have games!

    conjuguemos

    If you’re not using Conjuguemos under a teacher (I’ll talk about what that means in a bit) you, unfortunately, can’t play those first 3 multiplayer games, but you still have plenty of options!

    They’re all very simple and fun – here are some shots from Frog Game, Crossword, Wordsearch, and Memory:

    conjuguemos
    conjuguemos
    conjuguemos
    conjuguemos

    Yeah, I know, not the fanciest looking. I mean if you’re into the whole 80s/90s video game vibe (I’m not sure that was intentional, but it’s the impression I get) the aesthetics are great!

    But we’re talking about learning languages, so aesthetics aren’t necessarily the priority anyways.

    Suffice to say, Conjuguemos offers a ton of methods for us to learn and practice our verbs. And that’s just the one section! Let’s move on to vocabulary.

    Conjuguemos review: vocabulary

    Conjuguemos takes an interesting approach to vocab. Because it’s primarily meant to supplement formal classes, we get two options: vocab by textbook and vocab by theme.

    Under “vocab by textbook”, Conjuguemos has a list of what I’m assuming are popular Spanish textbooks in a variety of levels. If you’re using one of these textbooks, Conjuguemos has vocab separated by textbook and chapter, so you (or your teacher) can use it to help you through!

    Selecting any of these individual chapters within these textbooks will send you to that same activity page with Graded Practice, Flashcards, and Games options.

    The idea is that your teacher uses Conjuguemos to keep track of how you’re doing in these chapters, as well as provide you with a more entertaining way to do homework! Not bad at all!

    Or, if you’re not using Conjuguemos for a class, you can also just sort vocabulary by theme and learn them that way. It appears to be the same words that you’ll study in any textbook (food, clothing, colors, etc.).

    Spanish grammar

    Next, let’s take a look at the Conjuguemos approach to grammar! While yes, verb conjugations are a part of grammar, Conjuguemos gives them their own independent sections, and rightly so.

    Under grammar, we get concepts like Gustar, Por vs Para, and more. Each of these concepts sends you to a Graded Practice, which is basically a digital worksheet to use to practice your use of said concepts.

    And just like in all the other sections, accents matter! If you don’t use accents, you will be marked as wrong. It’s tough, but it’s true.

    Listening activities

    Finally, we have some listening activities. These don’t really seem to relate to any subject in particular but are great for working on listening comprehension in a couple of ways.

    All the listening activities are organized into Themes, Grammar, and Cultural Topics. They’re also in a variety of different accents, which is noted right on the activity page.

    These videos are great snippets of real Spanish-speakers talking at native speed, though with easy vocab that relates to their themes.

    For example, this exercise is a boy named Dani being “interviewed” about basic information: where he’s from, how old he is, etc.

    It’s not the slow, crystal clear speech that you’d expect from beginner audio, so be prepared to not understand a lot of it. This is some serious comprehension practice!

    From here you have two options to test yourself: the comprehension quiz and the listening quiz. Here’s the comprehension quiz, answering the same basic questions that Dani is answering.

    For more of a challenge, the listening quiz gives you the transcript and asks how many words you want to fill in for yourself. Obviously, the more words you remove, the more difficult the challenge.

    This’ll take some time and some serious thinking! This is a great way to practice listening comprehension, especially considering not only the number of different accents available but they’re also labeled as such so you can easily broaden the number of accents you can understand.

    In other words, this is hella supplemental study content!

    Conjuguemos review: pricing

    The pricing plans here are interesting and are clearly different from most other resources in that it’s built specifically as supplemental content for more formal classes.

    Independent language learners don’t pay a dime! This pricing is more for teachers and educational institutions who can use Conjuguemos to help communicate their students’ individual needs.

    And independent language learners also aren’t missing out on a whole lot! The only glaringly obvious thing you’ll be missing if you’re joining without a teacher is that you can’t play the multiplayer games, since those are based on playing against other classmates.

    Otherwise, teachers or institutions who opt for a paid plan for their students can use Conjuguemos for a very reasonable price.

    Who should use Conjuguemos?

    I love using Conjuguemos for one-off grammar practice as shown in this Conjuguemos review. Just five minutes here and there remembering my past tenses or other various grammar concepts gives me a little instant gratification.

    I love the Graded Practice, that it’s just a simple but effective way to practice grammar rules in context. That bit’s my favorite.

    Unfortunately, while Conjuguemos technically supports a handful of languages, many of them (namely Latin and Korean), this Conjuguemos review shows that they just don’t have enough content (yet) to make it worthwhile. If you’re learning any of the other languages, though, and need some basic grammar practice, Conjuguemos is gold!

    Especially if you’re taking a formal course using a textbook that’s supported, this is an amazing supplemental resource! Or, if you’re a teacher looking for easy, convenient help for your students, see what Conjuguemos can do for you!

    OkyDoky Review: very fun way to get useful vocab

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    Note: this review is currently being updated. Some information may be outdated.

    OkyDoky (formerly Hey! Lingo) is a new resource for foreign language vocab that offers language learners a ton of languages. What it lacks in history it makes up for in diversity (both in languages and in the ways you can learn the vocab in them).

    In this OkyDoky review, I’ll explain all the ways in which you can learn all this vocab, and what kind of language learner OkyDoky is best for.

    OkyDoky languages

    OkyDoky is for learners of 38 different languages, including:

    • Albanian
    • Bosnian
    • Bulgarian
    • Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Croatian
    • Czech
    • Danish
    • Dutch
    • Estonian
    • Filipino (Tagalog)
    • Finnish
    • French
    • German
    • Greek
    • Hungarian
    • Icelandic
    • Indonesian
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Latvian
    • Lithuanian
    • Macedonian
    • Norwegian
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Romanian
    • Russian
    • Serbian
    • Slovak
    • Slovenian
    • Spanish
    • Swedish
    • Thai
    • Turkish
    • Ukrainian
    • Vietnamese

    Bonus! Just like Mondly, OkyDoky is great for language laddering: any language you can learn with OkyDoky can used to be learned any of their other languages as well.

    Using OkyDoky

    Once you create an account, you’ll immediately be walked through a tutorial of the app so that you’re aware of both how to use it, and what options are available to you to learn a language.

    https://vimeo.com/1044386409/527c5bd612?ts=0&share=copy

    At first glance, this seems like a completely reasonable way to approach learning a language, as long as you already have some beginner knowledge behind you. This tutorial assumes you know beginner vocabulary and verbs, which is worth noting.

    Also worth noting? Just from this first glance, all I see is AI. I’m hoping that it’s just the tutorial and the cover art that is AI, and the rest is human made (let’s not take a lesson from Duolingo, please!).

    1. Your path to 3000+ words (which leaves you a solid-sized vocabulary to practice actually speaking)
    2. Courses (start with frequently used words & end speaking long sentences)
    3. Vocabulary (learn useful words related to a single theme)

    You can choose to learn vocabulary with either of these two paths, whichever one is more useful or interesting to you. For example, if you want to be conversationally fluent as quickly as possible, you’d go by way of courses; if you want to be able to talk about specific things, you’d go by vocabulary.

    This right here is already a pretty good indication of the flexibility language learners can get from OkyDoky! This not only offers us a specific road map to achieve a specific goal, but it also includes several ways to get there.

    And, no matter which path you choose, you can pick up whichever course you like, whenever you like. This allows us the flexibility to be spontaneous and creative in what we’re learning, while still working towards the same long-term goal of 300 words.

    OkyDoky review: flashcard types

    I’m a big fan of resources that allow us to switch up how we’re consuming our flashcards. There’s Anki, which has several different options that we can mix and match however we please. There’s uTalk which takes us through a predictable pattern to build our skills in multiple ways. How does OkyDoky do it?

    Hey! lingo review

    Here’s what I got when I selected a French course. There’s a lot here, so let’s dissect it.

    • How many cards in the course, depending on if you’re a plus member or not (more on that later)
    • Different tabs to go through as you make your way through these cards: “Study”, “Review”, “Difficult”, and “Pinned” cards. These are great tools for keeping track of the terms that are more difficult for you
    • “Timer Speed”, which you can use to speed things up or slow them down if your comprehension is higher/lower than average. You can also turn this off if it’s putting too much pressure on you
    • Card types

    Card types is the biggun’ here! We’ve got “Translate”, “Listen”, “Build”, “Switch”, and “Blank” (I told you, OkyDoky is all about options and flexibility!).

    Here’s what some of the different card types looked like when I just selected “all”.

    Hey! lingo review
    Hey! lingo review
    Hey! lingo review
    Hey! lingo review

    There’s a couple of things I really liked about how this session went. First of all, even though I left myself open to all the card types, it started easier and slowly got a little harder (i.e. “Build”).

    Second, if you like all the fun little sound effects and graphics of Duolingo, you’ll love OkyDoky. With the little clicking sounds and the “success” sound effect, plus a big giant reward star that pops up every time you get 5 or 10 in a row right…OkyDoky’s got the gamification thing down pat. This will absolutely keep you interested in language learning.

    Oh, and for the sake of building your comprehension, the term is repeated multiple times, whether it’s a “Listen” card or not.

    If you get it wrong? No worries, it’ll show you the answer for you to review, and make a note of it to test you on again later.

    And that’s pretty much it for the cards themselves! While you’re not going to get any grammar lessons or explanations, this can make for an excellent way to pick up grammar in context. Simple, yet very fun and effective.

    Looking for more information? Scroll down to see a list of all the flashcards you’ve been working on.

    Seriously, OkyDoky’s graphics are on point! The whole website gives off a great fun/easy-going/perky feel.

    You can see a visual representation of how well you know each phrase, the translation (and transliteration for languages with non-Latin alphabets), two different audio recordings of said phrase, a little emoji describing the phrase, and a link to a forum to discuss (again, much like Duolingo).

    Because OkyDoky is still so new, there’s not much in terms of discussion. However, just like Kwiziq was when they first expanded to Spanish, you’ll get a response pretty quickly.

    Fair warning: if you head on over to the Discussions sections, you’ll find a lot of users correcting OkyDoky’s content and complaining that there shouldn’t be so many errors.

    They make a fair point, but I can’t say how their content is created, and they consistently heed the advice and make the corrections. So, you know, take that bit as you will. A brand new website isn’t going to have all the kinks fixed just yet.

    OkyDoky’s chat courses

    Recently, OkyDoky has released 80+ new language courses in a new feature called chats! To access them, make sure you have the most recent version of the app (or just use the website on desktop) and click on the brown speech bubble courses.

    With these chats, OkyDoky switches it up a little bit and goes from kind of random phrases to phrases that you’ll use in an actual conversation. You don’t have all the options of the other courses, but it is a good option for connecting the information you’re taking in into some more realistic “conversational” practice (you’re not actively having the conversations, i.e. speaking, but you’re still creating those connections between random words/phrases and getting used to real-life chats).

    It’s pretty simple: you’re given a phrase, a few fill-in-the-blank options, and a timer. Your job is to make it make sense.

    As you can see, your correct answers are in green speech bubbles, and incorrect ones are in red. In the end, you get your stats, which let you know how you did in that particular session.

    And, per the rest of the app/website, you can replay the chat just with the phrases that you struggled with to really dive deep into the more difficult stuff. So it’s a challenge because you’re essentially throwing yourself into the conversation, but it’s not a challenge because you’re still not actually speaking.

    OkyDoky’s other tools

    Besides the main show, the flashcards, OkyDoky has a few other tricks to help us stay motivated, consistent, and interested in our language learning.

    First we have the Leaderboard. As OkyDoky continues to improve I can see this as a really helpful motivation tool to keep us learning!

    At the moment there are two versions of the site-wide Leaderboard: one by language, and one for all OkyDoky users put together. It’s pretty easy to rank at the moment because there aren’t that many users, but I hope once enough language learners join you’ll be able to compete just against those in a particular course.

    I would love to see this develop into something along the lines of Duolingo’s leagues, where you’re pit against a certain amount of members every week. But, as of right now, they’re working with what they’ve got (i.e. not too many members).

    Another option, if you have friends who are also using OkyDoky, is groups! Create a group and give your 4-digit group code to anybody you like in order to compete with your friends (a much easier and personal competition than everyone learning a certain language).

    You can create a group with as many languages as you like, and edit which languages are counted at any time.

    Next up we have daily goals! Go into your account page and see some simple statistics for your study habits.

    Unfortunately, these aren’t really front-and-center – it took me a minute of exploring the website to find this. However, I do really like the calendar view. Some may want some more in-depth stats (especially for paid members), but at the moment this section is pretty simple.

    Besides the fact that I really need to focus on one course at a time, you can see the percentage of the words I’ve learned, when I’ve studied, and how long I’ve studied for (excellent fodder for PolyLogger!).

    Underneath, you also have the option to set a daily study goal and set a daily reminder, either via email or via the mobile app.

    OkyDoky prices

    Even for a paid language resource, OkyDoky keeps it pretty accessible. They don’t block out entire courses but instead give you a little bit of everything. Just in the French course I reviewed for this post, it included 38 free words and 329 extra for paid users.

    So what does it take to get those extra words? Well, not much!

    OkyDoky is very accessible. I recommend getting that membership now; like I said, it’s a pretty new resource, so these prices may very well increase over time.

    And keep in mind, OkyDoky currently covers the most often-used vocab of 26 different languages, and we get access to every single one of them with an account. The sky’s the limit folks!

    Who should use OkyDoky

    That’s the end of this OkyDoky review. Do I like it? Yes. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Because it’s still in its beginning stages, there are a lot of errors that need fixing. While it’s easy enough to report errors and get them fixed, this does mean we need to take these flashcards with a grain of salt sometimes.

    OkyDoky really shines in its use of gamification, giving us those little endorphin rushes whenever we click around the site. It also mixes up the flashcards really well and gives us the power to choose what kind of learning we want to be doing.

    And, of course, I love the visualization of the OkyDoky goal. With that specific goal in mind, language learners who are looking to bulk up on phrases in a variety of different languages in a fun way are gonna love this!

    It’s a lot like Duolingo, but strictly for vocab and phrases. Like I said, you’re also not going to get any explanations behind grammar rules or anything like that, so if you can’t figure out these phrases via context, you’ll need to go somewhere else for backup.

    MosaLingua review: more theory than active language practice

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    MosaLingua is a combination website/mobile app that boasts its own unique method of learning a language, called The MOSA Learning Method. What is this method, what does it teach you, and how effective is MosaLingua for learning a language?

    In this MosaLingua review, let’s find out.

    MosaLingua review: languages

    MosaLingua is an international company, and it’s pretty clear right from the get-go that they’re not English-centric in their communications. Currently, you can use MosaLingua to learn:

    • English
    • Business English
    • English TOEIC
    • English TOEFL
    • Medical English
    • Business Spanish
    • Arabic
    • Chinese
    • French
    • German
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Portuguese
    • Russian
    • Spanish

    Let’s talk about what MosaLingua’s method actually is; the last time I saw a resource so proud of their strategy was Pimsleur, which can be effective for the right learner, but generally (in my opinion) is a bit overrated.

    MosaLingua review: the method

    As this MosaLingua review goes on, you’ll see why this part is so important. Apparently based on “several cognitive science and psychology concepts”, the MosaLingua method includes:

    • Spaced repetition (my fave!)
    • Active recall
    • Metacognition
    • The Pareto principle
    • Learner motivation and psychology

    Those are a lot of fancy terms. What do they actually mean for us? I’ll take these concepts and explain them in not-so-formal terms that we can understand pretty easily.

    1. Spaced repetition: this one isn’t new to the language learning world at all, and it’s most popularly used with Anki. But you review words more or less depending on how difficult they are for you; you’ll also be shown old words just before you forget them. Very efficient.
    2. Active recall: multiple-choice questions aren’t the best because it’s easy enough to get them right without thinking. It’s like choosing the correct sentence between 5 sentences, you hear the word for “school”, and you pick the only sentence that has “school” in it. So MosaLingua doesn’t do that.
    3. Metacognition: once you answer right or wrong, report back on how easy or difficult it was for you. Again, something that Anki does very well.
    4. The Pareto principle: something like 80% of the conversations you’ll have in a language will use only 20% of the vocabulary. Learn high-frequency words first to learn more efficiently.
    5. Learner motivation and psychology: this is the concept that half of the struggle with learning a language is the barriers that we have in our minds. Defeat those to learn your language!

    All that said, this method seems to be pretty much common sense.

    MosaLingua review: getting started

    Once you log in to MosaLingua, you’ll first be directed to take a 20-30 minute long test. I have never seen such a time-intensive start to learning a language, and especially not one that begins from such an advanced level.

    I won’t put you through my whole test, but here’s how it started.

    Feel free to take breaks when necessary (I certainly did), especially when switching sections. You’ll be tested on your use of all the language skills, and it’s tough even if it is multiple choice.

    I do have to say it’s pretty accurate – MosaLingua judged my Spanish comprehension at a B2, and my grammar at an A2. At the end, you can submit your email to get these results in your email, but I don’t see any glaringly obvious “start here!” signs anywhere.

    MosaDiscovery

    Honestly, I spent about a week trying to find the meat of MosaLingua and I think I found it with their Chrome extension. It’s not clearly advertised within the online platform (or even the app, really), but MosaLingua’s strength starts with MosaDiscovery, the Chrome extension.

    Find the link to download the Chrome extension within the “Premium” section of the app, as this is a premium feature.

    Download MosaLingua’s MosaDiscovery Chrome extension, and collect new terms wherever on the internet you’re using the language! Just right-click, select “Add to MosaLingua”, edit the terms if you see fit, and then add them to your account.

    Now you’ll have to download the MosaLingua app; be aware that there is a different app for each language, so pay attention and make sure you’re downloading the right one.

    When you open the MosaLingua app, you’ll be directed to review these terms using the context in which they were found.

    The app has you learn your new foreign language vocab using these strategies:

    1. Listen & repeat (AKA shadowing)
    2. Memorize
    3. Write
    4. Self-evaluate

    It’s a perfectly decent approach, though not executed nearly as well as some other alternatives (which I’ll mention at the end of this MosaLingua review).

    The best part of this whole strategy, though, is the process of collecting these words from the internet. This makes vocab collection easy and meaningful.

    MosaLingua challenges

    Next, on MosaLingua’s homepage (dashboard? The first page you land on when you log in) you’ll first see the option to choose a challenge after (or before, it’s up to you) you take the aforementioned test.

    There’s no “challenges” section within the app. So basically, the idea behind these challenges is more of a mental note than anything else. When you select your challenge, you’ll get a few pointers for learning a language with books or music or whichever challenge you choose, but there’s no content or accountability provided.

    MosaLingua’s courses

    This is very confusing because MosaLingua labels these courses as optional, but they’re the only real content you can see if you’re on desktop. To access all the aforementioned vocabulary collection and review, you have to be on the app.

    And no, MosaLingua won’t tell you this itself if you’re on desktop. I had to spend a significant amount of time figuring this out.

    MosaLingua’s optional courses include MosaSeries, MosaSpeak, and MosaTraining.

    MosaSeries

    MosaSeries is a series of audio sessions that help you improve your listening comprehension, mostly. It’s targeted at beginners who are learning how to listen to and understand a new language.

    There’s lots of words to read to guide you in a step-by-step for testing and improving your listening.

    For the first lesson, for example, the image below the audio helps you gauge your abilities (as opposed to just a black-and-white “either you understand or you don’t” approach).

    Then you’ll listen to a short, 2-minute audio clip starting the story of a man who wakes up with amnesia.

    Lesson 2 is key vocab words in case you didn’t catch them, and lesson 3 is repeating lesson 1 again.

    Finally, MosaSeries introduces the text (with the same audio) to help you build your comprehension.

    To be totally honest, it’s nothing special. MosaSeries in particular is best if you want to practice building your listening comprehension with stories, but alternatives like StoryLearning and LingQ don’t quite do it for you.

    You’ll quickly run out of these stories, but it can be helpful for nailing down how to use this particular strategy to learn a language.

    MosaSpeak

    MosaSpeak is more aptly named because its focus is on speaking the language. Though to be fair, a vast majority of this mini-course is texts upon texts upon texts explaining all sorts of aspects of speaking the language, not so much actually practicing.

    To illustrate this concept, this lesson was several lessons into the first module. This is a legitimate approach called shadowing, but the app is so clunky it drove me bananas!

    Trying to find the next lesson with active use of the language was so difficult because these courses aren’t the primary function of the app; to get here, you have to go more > Premium Courses > and then choose the course you’re working on.

    With the amount of effort it takes to use a simple shadowing exercise that’s completely bookended by essays of text, I would just go to another app that does shadowing really well.

    This isn’t to say that any of these strategies are wrong, but MosaSpeak is a mini-course, generally sold separately (hence the Premium), but it’s basically just a bunch of blog posts copied & pasted into an app.

    MosaTraining

    MosaLingua’s final major course, “MosaTraining”, is the priciest. Instead of focusing on one subject or one language skill, MosaTraining is more conceptual and teaches you “absolutely everything you need to know to successfully learn a new language”.

    This is accomplished in 12 modules:

    1. Introduction and prep
    2. Immersion
    3. Improving listening comprehension
    4. Learning vocabulary quickly
    5. Improving pronunciation
    6. Learning how to learn
    1. Common mistakes and preparing for your first conversation
    2. Speaking
    3. Grammar
    4. Improving reading skills
    5. Improving written skills
    6. Continued language improvement

    And just like MosaSpeak, it seems to be more of a book than anything else; in fact, I think MosaTraining would be easier to consume if it was a PDF, ebook, or audio book. Yeah, there are a few videos sprinkled in here and there, but it’s largely text-based.

    While I agree with everything shared within MosaTraining’s lessons, I wouldn’t say it’s absolutely everything. Compared to The Method, MosaTraining lightly scratches the surface of some key elements of how to learn a language. You’ll get lots and lots of theory, but no execution of it.

    MosaLingua Premium prices

    MosaLingua is a paid service, and unfortunately the payment structure is just as complicated and clunky as the app and website.

    I’ve mentioned quite a few different options in this MosaLingua review, and unfortunately they’re all separate payments. And between the monthly/biannual/annual/one-off payment options, it’s enough to go cross-eyed.

    Here are the details:

    • MosaLingua Web: the all-in-one platform that hosts your vocab and whatnot: $4.99/month or $59.90/year; included for free if it’s necessary for another course you’ve purchased
    • MosaSeries: the audio series about a man who wakes up in the hospital with amnesia: $9.98/month or $58.80/six months
    • MosaSpeak: speaking practice recommended for levels A2-B2, and only available in Spanish, French, Italian, and German: $99
    • MosaTraining: teaches you how to learn a language quickly and efficiently, very conceptual: $130 for Premium, $180 for Premium+MosaWeb, $330 for Deluxe+MosaWeb

    For the courses that do not come with that 15-day trial, MosaLingua does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.

    MosaLingua review and alternatives

    I’ll be honest, this language app was not easy to review; I’m a tech-savvy millennial, and even I struggled to understand what I was supposed to be doing and where I was supposed to go. If ease-of-use is important for you, MosaLingua will not help you learn a language.

    Regardless, MosaLingua does have its perks. My favorite is the Chrome extension, MosaDiscovery. This is a decently effective way to immerse yourself in the language while online, and save terms for later. I just wish the app to study said vocab terms was nicer, like Lingvist (much easier to use, and similar functionality).

    I also like the concept behind MosaSpeak, though I wish there was more actual speaking practice than mountains and mountains of text. Pronunciation practice is important, though, even if I do prefer how Speechling and Fluent Forever actually accomplish it.

    MosaSeries is also good idea, I just wish it were more fleshed out considering it’s a paid program. I wouldn’t be against starting out with MosaSeries, but eventually you may want to move on to something like Trancy or Kwiziq.

    At the end of the day, I can absolutely see the value of MosaLingua web; it’s very well-priced and could be the exact thing that you need to connect to the language. Despite my qualms with how hard it is to maneuver, now that I *get it*, MosaLingua may be just what you need to learn a language.

    Click here to try MosaLingua for yourself!

    Memrise Review for language learners

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    Memrise is a flashcard platform for language learners (plus a variety of other subjects). They’ve been upping their game over the past year or so, too: a completely new website, new native content, and some extra features popping up on what used to be just your average online flashcard resource.

    So how can Memrise help you, a language learner? Is it a resource that’s worth your consideration? What will you get, and what do you have to put into it? This Memrise review will help you decide.

    Memrise Pro: what is it?

    Memrise is a flashcard website that’s popular with lots of independent language learners out there. It’s pretty nice to look at, comes with its own app, and has both free and paid versions.

    There’s close to unlimited content on it, too; some of it was created by the folks at Memrise themselves, and some of it’s from the users of Memrise. This means Memrise’s content is effectively unlimited.

    I always say to take user-generated content with a grain of salt, because you don’t know if you’re actually learning the right stuff. It can definitely be helpful, though, since Memrise’s own content might not quite do it for you (more on that in a sec).

    Memrise courses

    Okay, so Memrise courses are the official content created by the Memrise team. There are plenty of options when it comes to Memrise courses, especially for the more well-known languages. I went looking for Afrikaans help, and Memrise itself doesn’t have any. That isn’t a make-or-break thing, since Afrikaans is not a popular language to learn, but I was personally disappointed just a smidgen.

    That isn’t to say you can only learn the most common romance languages, though. Memrise courses are available in the following languages:

    • Arabic
    • Chinese (Mandarin)
    • Danish
    • Dutch
    • English
    • French
    • German
    • Icelandic
    • Italian
    • Japanese
    • Korean
    • Mongolian
    • Norwegian
    • Polish
    • Portuguese
    • Russian
    • Slovenian
    • Spanish
    • Swedish
    • Turkish
    • Yoruba

    20 languages is not bad at all! The next question, and arguably the more important one: what exactly does Memrise offer in all these 20 languages?

    Memrise review: is experience important?

    To start my own Memrise review, I decided to start with Spanish. I’ve found that this is a pretty good way to gauge how much of a challenge different resources will put you to, especially when this was the first thing Memrise showed me when I signed up.

    Memrise Pro

    As a language learner, the impression I get when this is the first screen is that your level in that language is important (ie. they cover more than just beginner content, so they ask you if you’re more experienced so you don’t waste your time). The same thing happened when I reviewed Mondly for Spanish and Afrikaans.

    And, unfortunately, just like with Mondly, this assumption left me completely disappointed. This is the first lesson Memrise Pro gave me after telling them I was an advanced Spanish learner.

    Memrise Pro

    This was a video of a Spanish man saying “emocionante”. In fact, all of Memrise’s content starts out with a video of everyday Spanish speakers saying the word or phrase. This feels a lot more intimate than a robot voice or someone in front of a white screen, so I’m a fan!

    While I wouldn’t consider this word advanced (more intermediate), I’m glad that Memrise didn’t ask me what my level was and then throw me into beginner stuff anyways. You might have to do some searching to find the right content for your level (there’s no assessment or anything like that) but it is there.

    Memrise review: the Memrise process

    Now that we know what Memrise can teach us, how do they go about teaching it? With a touch of SRS, a smattering of repetition, and a bucket of gamification.

    Memrise follows the metaphor of a plant: first, you plant the seeds (see the word/phrase for the first time), and then you water those seeds (review the word/phrase) a bunch of times in a few different ways until you have yourself a plant (and have learned the word/phrase). Check the icon in the upper right-hand corner to see how far you are in the word/phrase.

    First, they’ll start by showing you the word/phrase. If you’re a Memrise Pro user, this involves that video that I was talking about. After it gives you a couple more, it’ll throw it all together and give you a few multiple-choice & fill-in-the-blank drills.

    Memrise Pro

    There are a couple of things that I really like about how Memrise approaches these lessons. The first is that they show you the literal translation of what you’re learning. This is something that I do a lot when I’m learning something new because it helps me understand it in the way that I understand language. Kudos, Memrise!

    Second: in that bottom-left lesson, there are no capital letters to denote the beginning of the sentence! I love this because I find myself cheating a lot with these kinds of things by looking for the capital letters to start a sentence. This way, you actually have to figure it out.

    It’s the little things, right?

    Memrise review: mems

    There’s one more aspect of Memrise that is (as far as I know) unique to them. They call it “mems”, and it’s a way to help you remember new words if you just can’t seem to get it. You may refer to this strategy as a mnemonic device.

    A lot of you may already be familiar with this, but since Memrise seems to be geared towards beginners, good for them for informing their users about this strategy! Many words and phrases have these “mems” already submitted by other users, but you can make up your own if you want.

    Memrise’s TikTok function: Immerse

    If you spend a lot of time on TikTok (guilty!), then you’ll probably like Memrise’s new Immerse section! I can’t say for sure which languages this is available in just yet, but it’s real fun.

    Literally, tap on the button on the bottom right, and find short, fun little TikTok-esque clips meant to entertain and up your listening and reading comprehension. As you can see from the videos below, you can have the subtitles in either English or the language you’re studying.

    Super fun, amiright?! I love this totally low-key, low-effort practice. All these videos I’ve seen are really relatable and very enjoyable to watch. There’s no easy way to save words for later, or get more in-depth lessons on anything said, but who knows what Memrise will do with this as time goes on?

    Memrise review: accountability

    Another helpful detail that Memrise offers is its reminders to study. If you go into the settings of your account, you can turn on notifications for your device, as well as stipulate when you get those notifications – certain days of the week, a specific time, etc.

    This is a fairly new addition to the app, so it’s nice to see language learning apps growing with the times and giving us more tools to keep us moving forward.

    Speaking of accountability tools, Memrise also features (much like Duolingo) a daily goal/streak function, based on the daily goal you set for each individual course you’re learning.

    You can also just opt in to study your “difficult words”, which are the terms that you seem to be having a more difficult time with (considering you’ve gotten them wrong). It’s not self-reporting so if your finger slips you may have “el sofá” in your list, but it’s one step closer to an Anki-level of SRS.

    Memrise Pro statistics

    If you choose to go the paid Memrise Pro route, you’ll have access to some statistics on how you’re learning, which may be helpful to you.

    For some language learners, this might be super motivating. I know it can be hard to realize how much you’re learning, so being able to see it in a graph like this is awesome (ignore the fact that there’s nothing on this particular graph!).

    If that’s not helpful for you, Memrise Pro does dive in a little deeper when it comes to your learning statistics. Seriously, for those analytical minds out there, this could get pretty exciting. Take a look!

    This is a super interesting take on language learning that nobody else does, only available to Memrise Pro users.

    Memrise Pro review: what you get

    On the topic of these statistics, let’s talk about the difference between Memrise free and Memrise Pro. Is Memrise free? Well, certain parts are, and they might just be enough for you.

    A lot of the things I’ve been talking about so far are only available to Memrise Pro users. The video clips of native speakers, for example, are only on Memrise Pro. Just like those statistics, as well as the Difficult Words section (that SRS bit I was talking about).

    It’s not like Memrise Pro is unreasonably priced, either! $9 per month is pretty cheap, especially compared to some of our other language learning options.

    Memrise review: who it’s for

    At the end of the day, I think Memrise Pro is doing a pretty okay job. They’re targeting a similar audience to Duolingo: language learners who want to dabble in a few languages but don’t feel particularly inclined to dive deeper into more intermediate grammar or vocab.

    The thing that sets Memrise Pro apart from everybody else is definitely the analytics of your study habits. What you’re studying, how often you’re studying, when you’re studying it, and how successful you are at studying it. You may be surprised to find what your patterns look like, and you may also find this information helpful for creating new, more productive patterns, too!

    If you don’t want to (or can’t) pay for Pro, Memrise can still be hugely helpful for creating your own flashcards in a more engaging way, even without all the bells and whistles. In that case, you may also consider Quizlet!

    Babbel Review: textbook, but make it modern

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    Babbel is a very well-known language learning app that’s been around since 2008. Named after the Tower of Babel (a biblical myth attempting to explain the existence of different languages), Babbel combines educational strategies with real-life conversations to teach users a variety of different languages.

    In this Babbel review, let’s talk about how Babbel teaches languages behind-the-scenes, and what kind of language learner can benefit from the Babbel app and Babbel Live.

    Babbel is available for learners of the following languages:

    • Danish
    • Dutch
    • English
    • French
    • German
    • Indonesian
    • Italian
    • Norwegian
    • Polish
    • Brazilian Portuguese
    • Russian
    • Spanish
    • Swedish
    • Turkish

    So, if you’re learning one of these languages, this Babbel review is right for you!

    Babbel review: overview

    When starting with Babbel, you can either choose your level yourself, or take Babbel’s assessment. While this isn’t a unique concept, Babbel does take a unique approach.

    Now, this is interesting because there’s no objective testing when it comes to specific skills; unlike Busuu (one of Babbel’s direct competitors), you’re not tested on your ability to use grammar correctly, or whether you can fill in the blank. Instead, it’s focused on real-life abilities.

    And by real-life abilities, I mean your own perception of your abilities. It’s more of a “would you feel comfortable doing this” than a “how do you appropriately conjugate this verb” kind of thing.

    Is this helpful? That’s for you to decide. I appreciate how it reflects how subjective language learning is as a whole, but also respect that some feel the need to be “tested”. 9 times out of 10 I do not trust more objective assessments because languages are simply too complex, so I always suggest taking these things with a grain of salt.

    And if you’re not satisfied with this assessment, you’re free to choose your own path anyway.

    Babbel’s beginner content starts off with basic vocab, grammar, and pronunciation; the advanced stuff finishes with slang, cultural insights, and more of the subtle aspects of the language. It’s all relevant, real-life stuff, for a variety of different language levels.

    And none of it is “required” – you can skip around however you like, whenever you like.

    Babbel’s lessons

    Starting from Babbel’s dashboard, you’re directed to either learn something new or review your past lessons (assuming you’ve used Babbel in this language in the past).

    We’ll start with a new lesson, which is a very quick, bite-sized snack that you can either do real quick when you have 5 minutes to spare, or you can “marathon” as many in a row as you want. Great for the busiest of language learners who want to make good use of their limited time.

    As you can see, the interface is very modern and smooth and leads you to use the language in a variety of ways to both keep things interesting and give you a well-rounded education. This approach is a decent reflection of the different ways that language is used, so you’re prepared.

    Like anything, there are pros and cons to Babbel’s lesson format.

    Pro: you can choose between selecting the provided letters/spaces, or just type them yourself

    Con: it automatically turns non-accented letters into the appropriate accents, without even suggesting you make the effort yourself. This causes a lot of bad habits!*

    Pro: you’re not using rote memorization: you get context via sentences, imagery, and a native audio recording*

    Con: you can’t speed up or skip lessons, or even skip the repeating of phrases after completing them

    Honestly, I’d consider the statements with the asterisks to be objectively important; the other two are my own personal preference.

    So what about Babbel’s review option? Let’s take a look.

    You start by choosing the review style that best meets your goals: flashcards, listening, speaking, or writing.

    The review you choose is then powered by spaced repetition, which is a common algorithm across many language learning apps.

    Basically, Babbel’s spaced repetition is based on levels; the level that particular word or phrase is on dictates when you’ll see it next, and whether you get it right dictates if it stays on that level or moves around:

    • Level 1: one day
    • Level 2: four days
    • Level 3: seven days
    • Level 4: fourteen days
    • Level 5: sixty days
    • Level 6: six months
    • Correct answer: move up a level
    • Incorrect (first time): maintain level, review again the next day
    • Incorrect (more than once): move down a level, review again the next day

    Obviously, this is more useful the more often you use Babbel, but as a whole it’s a great approach. Choose when you want to review, and went you want to learn something new! You’ll theoretically be reviewing more often than you’ll learn, and you also get to choose your method of review each time.

    Again, I like the amount of choice involved. Especially in more academic settings, it can feel really stifling when you’re done with a particular topic or lesson, but you have to complete a set number of exercises before you get the option to move on.

    Babbel doesn’t put up these obstacles.

    Babbel Live

    Over recent years, Babbel has grown from just the app and lessons to include live group coaching! This is a separate membership not included with the Babbel app (more on that later), but can really make your Babbel experience more engaging and valuable.

    Signing up for a Babbel Live class is just as smooth as the rest of the Babbel experience.

    To start, you set the parameters of your level and your schedule. From there, you find a group class on a theme that interests you. Sign up with a couple of clicks, and you’re set! Add this class to your preferred calendar and download the material you’ll be using in class to prepare.

    Once you add the class to your calendar, I like that the event includes the link shown in the above video, so you have easy access to all that info.

    However, the self-study lessons mentioned in that link don’t seem to relate at all to the theme of the lesson; the theme is the society of the future, but the linked lessons are about professional emails?

    I would love to see these themes/topics match up directly with Babbel’s lessons, so you can take the lesson independently, and then actively practice it with a professional tutor and other peers. This would really tie the two options together, as well as help solidify these lessons for language learners who like to practice via conversation.

    As of the date on the bottom of this post, Babbel Live is only offered in Spanish, German, French, and Italian.

    Babbel’s pricing

    Freebie seekers look elsewhere! Babbel is offered exclusively at a monthly membership rate. Depending on your commitment (ranging from monthly to lifetime), the Babbel app is available for $8-15/month. Click here for updated pricing.

    As aforementioned, a subscription to the Babbel app does not include Babbel Live – however, a subscription to Babbel Live does include free access to the app; suffice to say, this makes Babbel Live that much more valuable.

    At commitments ranging from monthly to annually, Babbel Live offers unlimited group classes! At $50-100/month, it’s honestly a steal. It’s important to note that if you commit to more than a month at a time for a lower per-month rate, you will be paying the full financial commitment at signup.

    Click here to learn more about Babbel Live.

    At these prices, assuming you will reliably attend a Babbel Live lesson at least once a week, I would absolutely consider the Babbel app and Babbel Live worth the price, even just at the monthly rate.

    Of course, whether that’s feasible to you depends on your own lifestyle and your goals.

    Babbel review: who it’s for

    Babbel is an oldie but a goodie in the language learning industry, and I’m happy to see them growing with the times (i.e. offering live coaching). In general, there’s a lot of potential for language learners of the offered languages, especially those ready to invest both the time and money in Babbel Live. Not to mention Babbel’s recent acquisition of the Toucan Chrome extension.

    Because Babbel is still pretty academic, it can feel a little stale if you’re not into the strict, structured approach. If you want to avoid language learning that feels like a textbook, you’ll want to steer clear; maybe try Busuu’s similar approach, or head to the other end of the spectrum with something like Tandem.

    However, if you appreciate the structure of a textbook combined with a modern platform and convenient access to conversations with professional tutors, Babbel is a safe bet for your language learning.

    Sold? Click here to start with Babbel!