Multilingual Mastery

Online language learning coaching & education

Target Language

Mango Languages review: 70+ beginner languages

by 2 Comments

Mango Languages is a crowd favorite for language learners because it’s engaging, offers real-world education, and can be accessed for free through institutions everywhere. In this Mango Languages review, learn everything you need to know about this resource for your own language goals: what it does well, what it doesn’t, and who should use it.

And if you fall under the category of language learners who won’t really benefit, this Mango Languages review ends with a couple of other recommendations, based on Mango Languages’ biggest flaws.

Mango Languages available

To start, Mango Languages offers plenty of languages, plus quite a few different dialects/accents within those languages, including:

  • Arabic (Egyptian)
  • Arabic (Iraqi)
  • Arabic (Levantine)
  • Arabic (MS)*
  • Aramaic (Chaldean)
  • Armenian
  • Azerbaijani
  • Bengali
  • Cantonese
  • Cherokee
  • Chinese (Mandarin)*
  • Creole (Haitian)
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Dzongkha
  • English
  • English (Shakespeare)
  • Filipino (Tagalog)
  • Finnish
  • French*
  • French (Canadian)
  • German*
  • Greek
  • Greek (Ancient)
  • Greek (Koine)
  • Hawaiian
  • Hebrew
  • Hebrew (Biblical)
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Icelandic
  • Igbo
  • Indonesian
  • Irish*
  • Italian*
  • Japanese*
  • Javanese
  • Kazakh
  • Korean*
  • Latin
  • Malay
  • Malayalam
  • Norwegian
  • Pashto
  • Pirate
  • Polish
  • Portuguese (Brazil)*
  • Persian (Dari)
  • Persian (Farsi)
  • Potawatomi
  • Punjabi (Pakistani)
  • Romanian
  • Russian*
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • Serbian
  • Shangainese
  • Slovak
  • Spanish (Castilian)*
  • Spanish (LAm)*
  • Swahili
  • Swedish
  • Tamil
  • Telugu
  • Thai
  • Turkish
  • Tuvan
  • Ukrainian
  • Urdu
  • Uzbek
  • Vietnamese
  • Yiddish

The languages marked with an asterisk(*) also include a variety of different cultural courses, from etiquette to business to superstitions and beyond.

These courses mean that you can also use Mango Languages to learn professional phrases, or even just fun ones (Like St Patrick’s Day Irish, for example). If you’re looking for a clear-cut, specific path in your target language, this is a great, unique approach.

Fun vocabulary options are a great way to make sure you’re enjoying the language learning process! Even if you don’t *need* St Patrick’s Day vocabulary, it still qualifies as legitimate exposure to the language. These fun sections are not reliable across languages, though, so check what’s available before assuming you can use it to learn professional Uzbek, for example.

Mango Languages: an overview

Mango Language’s courses are laid out in a very simple, modern way – no advertising, no outside podcasts or blog posts, nothing – so you can focus on the language and nothing else. It’s been completely redone within the past couple of years, and these updates have made massive improvements to the platform’s usability.

These courses are broken up into units and chapters. Once you start whichever chapter you like (there are no requirements for going through any prior lessons or units, just pick and choose whichever lessons suit your fancy), you’ll see that each chapter is one conversation that you’ll be dissecting. You’ll get a collection of phrases/sentences for a real-life conversation, and break them down bit by bit.

Specifically, you’ll learn to have these conversations by learning the individual words, phrases, and then sentences, with some nice little cultural facts thrown in. You’ll then learn to piece together all of this information yourself, with the option for plenty of help along the way.

As you continue on through these lessons, you’ll learn and understand each individual word and phrase in a variety of different ways. And each of these ways will be repeated many times.

When I say Mango Languages takes sentences bit by bit, I mean bit by bit. The first thing you learn isn’t the entire phrase included in the first piece of dialogue, but just the first word. Mango Languages crawls. Excellent for beginners, but painful for everyone else.

Nope, can’t fast-forward the speed, either.

For each and every little bit, you’ll get:

  • the word you’re learning
  • its translation
  • an audio recording (you can repeat as many times as you like)
  • the option to record yourself saying it (to compare with their audio)
  • the pronunciation

Think you’ve got it? The next step is a chance for you to translate it independently.

These sections are giving you the tools that you need to use the language, it’s up to you to piece the tools together correctly using critical thinking. Using the examples, grammar notes, and cultural notes, you’re led to rise to the challenge of forming foreign language sentences.

Did you notice the color coding? As a visual learner, I do love this part. It makes it easier for me to create the link in my brain between the two phrases and helps me to pick apart what each individual word means, and how the words come together in a way that makes sense.

As you learn new languages, you learn that sometimes the most difficult part is that sentences aren’t built the same across different languages. Words are all out of order, some words don’t even exist in other languages, and some languages need 10 words to say something that another language says in one.

Then, each phrase is repeated consistently while you continue to learn more, which is very helpful in turning that short-term memory into long-term memory if you need to take it slow. Later on in this post, we’ll take a look at Daily Review, which helps even more with building long-term memory.

Note: I completely forgot to turn off the narrator’s voice up until now in this Mango Languages review! From here on out, you’ll hear limited English and mostly Spanish. This is easily configured in the settings, in the upper right-hand corner.

Once you have the meaning down, Mango Languages has you actually practice the words and sounds.

So, if you’re an ultimate beginner in the language and have never studied any language before, Mango Languages definitely has a few decent options to offer!

And a lot of simple repetitions. This is, again, excellent for beginners. A lot of the time, there’s no easy way to learn something except seeing or hearing it as many times as it takes for your brain to catch on. Consistency is key, especially when it seems like a word is never going to stick!

Daily Review

Recently, Mango Languages has also included more tools to help baby language learners form a habit. With the mobile app, you can add and customize study reminders by day of the week and the time of day you want to receive your reminder. Very handy for even the busiest or most distractible language learners.

And even if you’re not using the mobile app, desktop users can access the review section at any time. Instead of going through the initial lessons over and over again, you can basically review the flashcards automatically created based on your past lessons.

Click the button, and you get those same options for self-study:

  • switch between “literal” and “understood” translation
  • listen to the audio
  • record yourself saying it

PLUS, unique to this section is the self-reporting buttons on the bottom and the option to take a card out of the deck in cases where you know that card like the back of your hand, so you don’t waste your time.

Self-reporting flashcards are my absolute favorite! They make it easier to get an accurate understanding of what you’re learning, instead of a resource assuming that you know any given term better or worse than you actually do.

I also love the power language learners have over what they need to review. Some language learning resources are much stricter about this, so it’s good to see this level of customization. There’s nothing more irritating than being forced to review terms that you already know.

Plus, it’s such an attractive interface! The only other resource that does this as well is Rocket Languages.

Mango Languages review: pricing and access

While Mango Languages is a paid resource, there’s a good chance you can find your way to free access through local institutions. They partner with public libraries, corporations, schools, and other public entities all over to provide free, unlimited access to all 70+ of their language learning courses at any time.

If you can’t find access through an institution, however, you can always opt for a paid subscription yourself. Fortunately, paid subscriptions are still very reasonably priced at less than $10/ month. Click here for updated pricing.

Who Mango Languages is for

For one, this Mango Languages review makes it clear that beginner language learners would benefit the most. As you grow in your language learning, the speed and repetition become unbearable, but it’s a very generous start for those who process slowly or are simply brand new to the language. This is also true concerning the content itself – it’s just for beginners.

It’s also pretty surface-level, meaning you’re not going to be able to find clear, tangible grammatical explanations to study. I mean, there are some tossed into individual chapters, of course, but it doesn’t suit grammar- and rule-focused learners. You’ll get a general feel of the grammar that you need to understand one particular phrase, and that’s it.

At the end of the day, if you want a simple, modern design with hand-holding through a collection of pretty simple phrases, as well as some cultural education (depending on the language) in a frankly huge variety of languages, I recommend you give Mango Languages a shot.

But for many language learners, Mango Languages will be much too slow. If this is the case, I might suggest uTalk for support in the less commonly learned languages or Glossika for a more advanced approach.

Clozemaster review: customizable, engaging, and simple

by Leave a Comment

Clozemaster is a retro-themed website & app with a huge collection of sentences for intermediate+ language students to practice their vocabulary and grammar. These sentences are grouped into tons of categories, with the option for users to create their own categories, so the sky is the limit with this Clozemaster review.

In this Clozemaster review, you’ll learn where Clozemaster shines, its flaws, and whether Clozemaster is best for your language learning needs. And, if it’s not, keep reading for the Clozemaster alternative for you.

Clozemaster review: languages

While Clozemaster is not for beginners, it is for learners of a ton of languages:

  • Afrikaans
  • Amharic
  • Arabic
  • Armenian
  • Basque
  • Belarusian
  • Breton
  • Bulgarian
  • Cantonese
  • Catalan
  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Chinese (Mandarin)(Traditional)
  • Croatian
  • Czech
  • Danish
  • Dutch
  • Esperanto
  • Estonian
  • Filipino (Tagalog)
  • Finnish
  • French
  • Galician
  • Georgian
  • German
  • Greek
  • Guaraní
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Hungarian
  • Icelandic
  • Indonesian
  • Irish
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Kazakh
  • Korean
  • Latin
  • Latvian
  • Lithuanian
  • Macedonian
  • Norwegian (Bokmål)
  • Occitan
  • Persian (Farsi)
  • Piedmontese
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Scottish Gaelic
  • Serbian
  • Slovak
  • Slovenian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian
  • Vietnamese
  • Welsh
  • Yiddish

Because Clozemaster sources their sentences from an external website (more on that later), it is clearly accessible to a huge variety of foreign languages.

It is worth noting, however, that the options and opportunities are not equal across all languages. After deciding if Clozemater is a language learning app that you’re interested in using, you’ll then need to take a look at your target language and see the variety of content you’ll have to work with.

But what is Clozemaster?

The name “Clozemaster” wasn’t created out of thin air; if you’re not familiar with “clozes”, they’re a type of activity that’s very common in language learning, basically a fill-in-the-blank deal. Specifically, a “cloze” is defined by them as:

Of, relating to, or being a test of reading comprehension that involves having the person being tested supply words that have been systematically deleted from a text.

Thus, Clozemaster is the master of clozes.

It’s worth mentioning that Clozemaster isn’t the only resource that offers clozes, but clozes are all that Clozemaster offers. And I do have to say, Clozemaster is absolutely the master when it comes to learning a language online with clozes.

Clozemaster review: a walk-through

After creating an account on Clozemaster and selecting a few different options, you’re spat out onto the dashboard. It’s a retro-themed view (with retro sounds, too) that adds a touch more fun to the process, since you feel like it’s more of a game than anything else.

At first glance, Clozemaster isn’t very user-friendly. You’re presented with a ton of different options without any obvious indication as to which option to take or what you’re supposed to do. It’s a little bit better than LingQ’s lack of usability, but it can still take a minute to get your bearings.

Across all languages, you get some form of “beginner” content, like:

  • Most Common Words
  • Fluency Fast Track
  • Cloze-Collections

The third one is your own collection of sentences.

You would think that these would be beginner-friendly, but they are definitely not! Clozemaster requires at least an intermediate understanding of the language, and it’ll be abundantly clear if your language skills are up to snuff the second you try using Clozemaster.

While those “beginner” collections are free for all, premium subscribers also get Grammar Challenges, which are collections of sentences that are meant to help you master traditionally difficult grammatical concepts. These are different in every language, as every language has different grammar concepts.

But again, the concept is simple: fill-in-the-blank sentences.

Depending on the language, you also get a few settings to decide how you want to play:

  • vocabulary
  • listening
  • speaking

Not all languages feature all skills, so make sure you take a look at your target language before you commit. For example, audio recordings are only available in a fraction of these languages. Expect them in more commonly learned languages, not-so-much in others.

You can also choose how many sentences you’re shown per round: 5-∞ (yes, the site really says that). Then, either multiple choice or text input. Choose text to really challenge yourself! You’ll also earn 2x the points.

If I’m already at an intermediate level in a language (or at any point, personally), I prefer to manually type in the answer. This helps cement words and conjugations into your brain, as you’re forcing yourself to spell correctly as opposed to going off a general idea of what the correct word looks like.

This is the difference between vaguely recognizing a word and truly learning it.

I also love that Clozemaster holds you accountable for appropriate accents (including offering the letters if you don’t have your keyboard set up for that yet), and encourages you to try, one letter at a time. That can make the difference between making an educated guess and just giving up.

Clozemaster also approaches languages less from an academic standpoint and more from a colloquial one. In the lesson above, you learn phrases that are actually used every day in Spanish, and not necessarily the ones you’ll learn in a textbook.

And then, at the end of all that, you’ll level up with a super fun GIF. Doesn’t quite match up with the retro theme, but I’m willing to let it slide 😉

Creating flashcards with Clozemaster

Clozemaster’s premade collections can do a lot of good (my favorite being the grammar stuff), but some language learners may have specific goals, or find these general and unpredictable collections boring.

No worries – using the Clozemaster system, you can create all the collections you want! You can either create them manually, or you can search through already-created cloze sentences and organize them as you like.

When using these options, it is totally possible to use Clozemaster for beginner content; however, it does take some extra work and is probably not great if you’re not a seasoned language learner.

Experienced language learner starting a new language? Sure. New language learner just trying to figure everything out? Not ideal.

Speaking of options, you also get the freedom to dictate how you’re learning the language every single time you press play. These settings take Clozemaster’s sentences and create entirely different exercises based just on the skills you want to practice.

(Again, not all languages will necessarily have all these options.)

How Clozemaster gets its sentences

Clozemaster has access to so many sentences because they’re sourced straight from Tatoeba.org, which is an open collection of sentences and translations. Anybody can hop onto the website, search for a word, and find sentences to give their words some context.

While it is an amazing use of an open-source website, it has limitations.

For one, it’s not unusual to get sentences like these.

No need to read too into it – they’re just sentences that someone in the world uploaded in Spanish/English, and maybe they’ll pop up as you study. At any time, you also have the option to remove these sentences from your collections.

Besides that, Clozemaster provides not only sentences with a single cloze, but you can also use it for a whole passage!

This is an option to vary up your studies and keep you on your toes, as well as throw some reading comprehension into the mix.

Okay, clearly it’s not perfect, but it is an option. Once you apply the right settings, this could be great for reading comprehension and finding new vocabulary, which you can easily add to any cloze collection at any time.

Clozemaster review: should you go pro?

Let’s talk about becoming a Clozemaster subscriber. Certain aspects of Clozemaster are always free, i.e. the “Fluency Fast Track” and all the reading practice.

Honestly, though, Clozemaster Pro opens up a ton of doors when it comes to both reading and listening practice.

Pro subscribers get access to all of these lessons, both as reading and listening, all as fill-in-the-blank, contextual questions. It’s a lot of simple yet very useful content and considering Clozemaster themselves don’t “create” anything per se, Clozemaster Pro is very reasonably priced: $8 a month, and even cheaper as an annual subscription.

Honestly, if Clozemaster is something that keeps your interests and matches your language goals, I’d spring for Pro. For $8/month, you’ll get a step more of a holistic language education. If you enjoy Clozemaster free, I’d recommend Clozemaster Pro for pretty much any kind of language learner and their goals.

Clozemaster review: who’s it for?

Clozemaster is an excellent resource for intermediate-advanced level learners looking to build their vocabulary and drill some of the more difficult grammar concepts they face. It’s also excellent for language learners looking for more context in general: just search for a term and Clozemaster will bring you all the sentences you need from Tatoeba for you to create a collection.

Easy as pie.

However, beginner language learners should definitely be looking elsewhere, maybe at something like Lingvist (a bit more pricey, but provides similar context) or maybe Anki (much less user-friendly, but great for clozes).

If you need more direct, clear-cut grammar lessons, go somewhere else (maybe Busuu or Babbel?), because Clozemaster assumes that you know the basic idea of these concepts, and you only need practice and repetition.

Or, if you’d rather apply clozes to texts you’re already reading, VocabBoost may be for you.

That said, repetition is important for any language learner, and Clozemaster is an excellent option!

Lingvist review: absolutely gorgeous vocab app

by Leave a Comment

Lingvist is a beautiful, modern way to learn vocab, both with their curated lists and a great opportunity for you to create meaningful vocab lists for yourself with the tap of a button. In this Lingvist review, you’ll learn all you need to know about this way to learn foreign language vocab.

In particular, this Lingvist review will touch on what kind of language learners can benefit from it, who won’t, and Lingvist alternatives that may be better if you’re of the latter category.

Lingvist languages

For native and higher-level English speakers, you can use Lingvist to learn:

  • Dutch
  • English (American)
  • English (British)
  • Estonian
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Portuguese (Brazilian)
  • Russian
  • Spanish (Castilian)
  • Spanish (Latin American)

However, Lingvist does teach English from a variety of other languages – in fact, you can learn English from just as many, if not more, languages than the other way around! Simply visit Lingvist’s website to see your options.

Lingvist review: getting started

As you create an account and get funneled into the Lingvist process, you go through an assessment to see where your vocab and reading comprehension is. It’ll start out at the very very beginning, and it’ll go about as far as you can!

To get you started in the Lingvist mindset, this initial assessment is 50 flashcards long. It might take a minute, but be patient and help Lingvist get a good idea of where your foreign language skills are at.

Get an answer wrong? Lingvist will correct you and have you try again – even if the only thing you got wrong was missing an accent. This may seem like a small detail, but it’s an important one – many language learners underestimate the importance of accents.

Without making any decisions on the content you’re learning (you can, and I’ll get to that in a sec), Lingvist puts you through a 50-card set of flashcards every day. Apparently, 4 days of this and you’ll “really start feeling the difference!”.

What else does Lingvist have to offer besides their automatically generated selection of flashcards? Let’s walk through Lingvist decks, Challenges, Insights, and Grammar.

Lingvist review: decks

Basically, Lingvist decks are collections of vocab words organized into themes. You can use the ones that Lingvist generated, or you can generate them yourself.

These flashcards follow the same rules as the others: Lingvist will start you out basic and easy, and continue to push your knowledge of the language until it can get a gist of your level.

When you go to create a course, you have several options:

  • Type in a couple of words and let Lingvist expand for you
  • Upload an image with words on it
  • Copy & paste text from somewhere else

Lingvist has their own walkthrough for you to see these options at work.

Note: the following 2 videos are from a previous version of Lingvist (hence the different look), but I left them in as more examples of this unique feature.

When you select this option, all you have to do is throw a couple of related words in there, and the app will automatically (like, within seconds) spit out a whole list of related words for you to add to your arsenal. Excellent feature for those who need specific jargon!

And, like Lingvist’s own curated decks, you’ll automatically get sentences to provide some context.

Don’t like those particular sentences? You also get the option to choose from a variety of other sentences that uses that same word in different contexts.

Or, if you already have your own context or something like a book or magazine that you want to study, Lingvist has a similar feature for pulling out the vocabulary words in any given text and creating a deck straight from that.

And yes, if the app already knows you know any of the words, it’ll put those terms to the side.

Honestly, this feature in itself is worth the price. No other language learning resource on the market does anything like it!

In my professional opinion, don’t sleep on this feature if it’s something you’re likely to use.

All three of these options are meant to improve your vocabulary, and they all do so through sentences to A) not get boring and B) be much more efficient.

So, if you’re looking to work your vocabulary muscle, Lingvist gets an A+!

Lingvist review: Challenges

The second tap of the Lingvist app is labeled Challenges. You can either pick one from the whole list of Lingvist challenges, or you can filter by Conversations, Grammar, Listen, or Read.

These challenges are all very quick, very easy activities that you can use to practice speaking, grammar, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension, respectively. They’re also all labeled by level, so if you’re at a more advanced level, just scroll down.

While the platform is undoubtedly gorgeous, you can see the challenges can be a little glitchy. As a user of Lingvist for German (which isn’t yet advanced enough to use these challenges), I don’t personally use this section of the app, so don’t let this feature make the decision for you.

The Conversations challenges feature an honestly really beautiful chatbot to help get you used to the flow of a conversation. Just follow along with the pre-made script, practice some pronunciation, and get yourself in the mindset of someone fluently speaking the language.

Suffice it to say, the challenges are a cool bonus, but definitely not the star of Lingvist’s show.

P.S. The actual fun facts at the end of these challenges are pretty good! You’ll come across more obscure language facts, rather than something simple, like “in Spain, people greet each other by saying ‘buenas’!”.

Lingvist insights

Another handy tool for consuming mass amounts of vocab: Lingvist’s insights. Under this section of the Lingvist app, you can not only see your 5 last seen vocab words, 5 most practiced vocab words, and your entire word list complete with:

  1. native audio
  2. contextual sentence
  3. how long it’s been since you last saw it
  4. and how often you’ve practiced it

…but also fun numbers like your success rate, how much time you’ve spent, and more.

These statistics are language-specific, so you’ll have to switch to studying a different language if you want the statistics for another one.

I’m normally not a fan of in-app statistics, but I love this. This view is on par with Anki’s statistics; they’re much more aesthetically pleasing than Anki’s stats, but a little less detailed.

Lingvist review: Grammar

While Lingvist does have grammar explanations and examples from beginner to advanced – which is a good sign that there is plenty of room for growth in your language – these sections don’t connect to any practice.

Lingvist does flashcards really well, so I’m disappointed that this grammar section doesn’t have flashcards (or at least some sort of fill-in-the-blank practice) connected to it. I would love to see these lessons paired with the beautiful, contextual sentences that Lingvist does so well.

What I would love is to be able to go into the grammar section, review a concept, and have the opportunity to actively practice that concept, either on the same page or through a simple link.

Unfortunately, this section looks like something that was just copied and pasted from a textbook or something. There’s no opportunity to truly use this information.

Lingvist Pricing

Lingvist is a paid app, and in my opinion, it is 100% worth the price! This is a wildly high-quality and effective method for learning foreign language vocabulary, as well as some comprehension and speaking practice on the side.

You can view Lingvist’s current pricing here, but it’s generally around the $10/month range (less if you pay annually).

Whichever subscription type you choose, you can also start out with a free trial, during which Lingvist will show you how it matches up with your level based on your initial 50-term deck.

Plus, all subscribers get access to all languages at the same time and are able to switch languages as they please.

And remember: you’re not just limited to the vocab they’ve put together, you can also (instantly & easily) create your own vocab lists that are relevant to whatever it is that you’re working on.

Who should use the Lingvist app?

Lingvist is genuinely beneficial to language learners of all levels, from total beginner to advanced, who want to improve their vocabulary with a beautiful, effective resource. Personally, I am a huge fan and hope that Lingvist expands to more languages for English speakers in the future.

I’m honestly hard-pressed to think of language learners who wouldn’t benefit: those who don’t want to grow their vocabulary, obviously, and maybe those who need excessive levels of gamification. While the Lingvist app is absolutely gorgeous, it’s definitely more modern and “grown-up” than many other vocab apps.

If you’re looking for that heavy gamification, you may be better off with something like Quizlet, though it doesn’t have the handy “create a course” features, advanced vocab, or comparable high-quality context built-in.

For what it does, I feel safe saying that Lingvist can’t be beat!

LingQ review: probably not worth your time

by 2 Comments

LingQ (pronounced like ‘link’) is excellent for language learners who want to pick up vocabulary through reading and listening to audiobooks, stories, podcasts, etc. Given that it’s such a huge, popular resource, there’s a lot to say about it – some of it good, some bad. In this LingQ review, you’ll get a taste of it all.

In this LingQ review, learn if LingQ is the language app for you, or if it’s just not worth it.

LingQ review: languages

One thing that’s excellent about LingQ is that you can create your own content (more on that later) in the following languages:

  • Arabic
  • Chinese (Mandarin)
  • Czech
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Esperanto
  • Finnish
  • French
  • German
  • Greek
  • Hebrew
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Latin
  • Norwegian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish
  • Ukrainian

LingQ review: your dashboard

LingQ’s dashboard has been modernized in recent years, in an effort to be a more “bingeable” way to learn languages.

There’s a lot of information to take in, and I wish there were some sort of tutorial or something first because if I hadn’t been using this platform for years, I would have no idea where to start!

LingQ has a history of being…not very user-friendly, and that hasn’t changed. There’s a lot to take in here.

  • every video shows you how many words you know and how many you don’t*
  • you can see the percentage of words you don’t know*
  • while each cover photo is in your target language, it’ll automatically translate as soon as you roll over it
  • you can scroll through different categories of audio lessons, including Steve Kaufmann (co-creator of LingQ)’s podcast
  • you can search for specific content based on level or keywords

*neither of these stats is accurate if you don’t use LingQ religiously

Of course, like any other Netflix-esque platform, the more you use it, the better it can recommend you content that you’ll actually use.

So let’s move onto what it’s like to actually learn a language with LingQ.

LingQ review: basic lesson

Click to any video that you can see on your dashboard to get started with a LingQ lesson.

Once you press play, you’ll hear an audio recording in your target language, and it’s your responsibility to follow along with the written words.

Don’t get distracted or lost, though, because there’s literally no way to find your way back if you do. There’s on highlight to follow along with…the audio doesn’t even automatically turn the page, so you can be at the end of the audio but still on the first page, and you wouldn’t even know.

Plus, collecting new vocab words (i.e. LingQs)? What a pain. Not only does the audio not automatically stop to give you a second to learn the new word, but it gives you a robot voice for that word instead of just rewinding the audio a little bit.

I hate it. Maybe I’m spoiled by Language Reactor which makes it genuinely easy to learn new vocabulary by watching foreign language movies and TV. But just in that clip alone, I was stumbling so hard to pause the audio and catch up wit the word I just collected, I completely lost track of everything.

The idea is to make language learning easier, not more difficult.

LingQ review: words and lesson history

To find the LingQs (vocab words) you’ve collected within these lessons, click over to Vocabulary.

Again, LingQ’s usability is…wanting. While you do get to see how (theoretically) well you know any particular term, it’s hard to see what you’re supposed to do here. Again: mild inconvenience for some, completely handicapping for others.

The actual system of learning these LingQs definitely has potential, but it could also use some real help.

Fortunately, if you like finding your vocab using this method but have your own flashcard deck elsewhere, you can export all of your vocabulary to a CSV file, and upload that to any resource that’ll accept it.

The last tab, Playlist, holds your place if you’re in the middle of a book or series. This is definitely handy for when you click something in your Library feed, and it’s in the middle of a playlist or book.

Importing content to LingQ

LingQ has a plethora of practice options – tutors, forums, challenges, etc. – but I don’t want to spend time on those because they’re not really worth your time. There are plenty of other language learning resources that already do these things much better than LingQ could.

The important feature to know about LingQ is the ability to import content to use with LingQ’s technology

Anybody with an account can upload whatever content they like to the platform, and LingQ will stick it right into your feed. Either click the import button right from your dashboard or download the Chrome extension to import from anywhere on the internet.

You have three options: lesson, ebook, and vocab.

And, honestly, it’s pretty cool if you’re looking for a place to host your content all in one place, plus keep track of the vocabulary you’re learning in a centralized platform.

LingQ review: price

You can access any content at any time for free!

However, if you want to use LingQ as your primary language learning platform, you’ll definitely need to pay for premium due to the unlimited LingQs and unlimited imports.

You’ll also get access to all the other perks that I haven’t really mentioned in this LingQ review since other resources do those things much better, but if you decide to pay for premium, it might be worth taking advantage of them.

You can find updated prices for LingQ Premium here.

LingQ review: the bottom line

At the end of this LingQ review, it can be a great resource for you if the lack of usability doesn’t get in the way for you. If it’s as handicapping for you as it is for me, though, there are plenty of alternatives.

Readlang is my favorite for finding words and articles on the internet.

Lingvist is excellent for creating themed vocab lists, or lists from books you’re reading.

Language Reactor is best for new vocab in YouTube and Netflix media.

But if the cons mentioned in this LingQ review don’t dissuade you, LingQ is a solid option for finding new foreign language vocab through a variety of content available online!

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo: the ultimate guide

by 17 Comments

Babbel, Rosetta Stone, and Duolingo are 3 of the most popular ways to learn a language, so what’s the difference? When comparing Babbel vs Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo, what should you keep in mind as a language learner?

All 3 language apps are available in the following languages:

  • Dutch
  • English
  • French
  • German
  • Italian
  • Polish
  • Portuguese
  • Russian
  • Spanish
  • Swedish
  • Turkish

If you’re here and already know that one of these options isn’t for you, I’ve already compared all 3 head-to-head. Go ahead and skip right to the appropriate comparison:

If not, let’s continue through this comparison of Babbel vs Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo. Just as the title suggests, we’ll start with Babbel, continue with Rosetta Stone, and end with Duolingo.

Babbel

To start, Babbel is great for language learners looking for a structured approach, from beginner to advanced, based primarily on grammar.

If you’re interested in this approach, I recommend reading my Babbel review here, but at the end of the day, it is an excellent, very handy app for building a “correct” understanding of your target language.

This doesn’t mean that Babbel doesn’t foster communication – actually, recently they’ve offered a group coaching service called Babbel Live. It’s still very new and has a lot of growing to do (for example, I hope one day they offer coaching classes based specifically on their own lessons), but I’m excited to see Babbel’s future!

At the moment, Babbel Live is available in French, German, Italian, and Spanish.

Babbel prices

Babbel’s recently started to realize that the real value in a language learning program is having a human there to give you feedback, and their pricing has changed to reflect that!

Access to just the Babbel is a monthly subscription, ranging from $6-10 a month, depending on your commitment. If you really love Babbel’s approach, you can also opt for lifetime access to all languages. Click here to access current prices.

If you also want the Babbel Live classes (which I recommend if you like Babbel and you also want to improve your conversational skills), it’s a different story. Babbel Live is also a monthly subscription for unlimited classes, for $50-100 a month, depending on your commitment, but you’ll also get the app free for the duration of your subscription!

Click here for up-to-date prices for Babbel Live.

Rosetta Stone

Next, we have Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is one of the original language learning resources, starting out as CD-ROM software back in 2013 at astronomical prices (like $300 for a single box set). Fortunately, as tech has developed and the language learning industry has exploded, Rosetta Stone has had to shift their prices to stay current.

You can read more in my Rosetta Stone review here.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone: similarities

Babbel and Rosetta Stone have more differences than similarities, but they’re both convenient for language learners with any device and operate smoothly.

They are also great for learning the basics of the languages, which makes both Rosetta Stone and Babbel solid choices for beginners.

They’re also priced similarly: $10-$15 a month for ongoing subscriptions, or one easy lifetime membership.

Rosetta Stone vs Babbel: differences

Unlike Babbel, Rosetta Stone’s main goal is to get language learners a well-rounded education…but only to the tourist level. You’ll learn to say the words, read them, and think in the language instead of translating it, but you’ll only get through beginner words/concepts, and some may find it horrifyingly slow.

If you’re not a beginner language learner, Rosetta Stone is not for you. However, if you have pretty much zero experience with learning languages and you just want to get a foundation in the language, Rosetta Stone may be for you.

And my favorite part of Rosetta Stone: there are no words in any other language besides the one you’re learning. This prevents any habit of translating or relying on English, and fast-tracks your ability to use your target language.

Babbel, on the other hand, is less static, and less simple.

With Babbel, your language skills have the option to get to more intermediate levels, with more complex grammar and more niche vocabulary.

Babbel also takes another step to get you conversational by providing the option of live coaching. This is a separate membership and limited in the languages offered, but the live component of a teacher and fellow students can make for unmatched motivation.

Now the final comparison: Babbel vs Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo.

Duolingo

Finally, how does Duolingo fit into Babbel vs Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo? Duolingo is arguably the most popular, thanks to its $0 price tag and heavy gamification, but that doesn’t mean it’s the language learning app for you.

For one, Duolingo’s heavy gamification keeps its information much more surface-level than Rosetta Stone or Babbel. Duolingo is the industry’s best for short-term motivation, but not for advancing your ability to use a new language.

Be wary: even though the above lesson is more intermediate, most language learners leave Duolingo and are disappointed that their skills disappear in other contexts. This is more of a game than an education.

With Duolingo, don’t expect to get too advanced. At most, it’s great for building/reviewing the basics, and for the days when you’re just too tired to do anything else.

Learn more in my Duolingo review here.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone: similarities

As mentioned in my Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone review, both Rosetta Stone and Duolingo are great for beginner language learners. Both are appropriate for starting a new language from absolute zero, and neither is particularly good at more intermediate or advanced knowledge.

And just like Babbel, both Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are easily accessed on any device, and easy to maneuver. If either one of them is the first step in learning a language, you likely won’t have any issues with them.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone: differences

In my opinion, these two apps are wildly different, and that’s not just talking about the price tag (Duolingo’s $0 price tag compared to Rosetta Stone’s….not $0 price tag).

For one, their approach: Duolingo teaches you to implicitly pick up grammar, generally without any direct lessons, and with limited (and random) vocabulary. Many language learners complain that the sentences they learn using Duolingo are totally useless (though that is an intentional part of Duolingo’s strategy).

This isn’t always the case, fortunately. Duolingo’s Stories are their most popular effort to simulate a real-life conversation.

Rosetta Stone, on the other hand, teaches you the basic vocabulary to get you speaking ASAP. With Rosetta Stone, you’ll stick to relevant, everyday sentences that you’re likely to actually use at some point in your language learning journey.

And while Rosetta Stone is not nearly as “fun” as Duolingo (though most apps aren’t as fun as Duolingo), they do a significantly better job at providing you with a well-rounded language education by building all of your skills.

Think of it like a gym: Rosetta Stone is a full-body workout, while Duolingo is mostly just abs. There’s nothing wrong with just focusing on abs, but you’ll be a lot less functional in the real world.

Duolingo vs Babbel: similarities

Babbel and Duolingo also have more differences than similarities.

Beginners can benefit from both, and both are modern, accessible ways to learn a language in a more engaging way than staring at a textbook. Both have some form of gamification (daily streaks, satisfying sounds, etc.) and both mostly focus on understanding the language (outside of Babbel Live, of course).

Babbel vs Duolingo: differences

While Duolingo does feature some speech recognition practice, Babbel takes it a step further by offering access to professional tutors. This difference is also reflected in each app’s price tag: Duolingo is free, and both Babbel’s app and live coaching service are paid.

The clearest difference, however, is in the popularity of each app. Because Duolingo is fun, easy, and free, its audience is huge, quite frankly. Duolingo is a master of keeping their users motivated and entertained with short-term activities and shareable, like their “year in review”.

Babbel doesn’t have the same cult following, but there’s no doubt you’ll get a better language education.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone vs Duolingo

Now that we’ve made comparisons between Babbel, Rosetta Stone, and Duolingo, how do you choose a language app?

Here are a few things to keep in mind when it comes to comparing any language app:

  • what are your language goals?
  • how do you like to learn?
  • how do you stay motivated to learn a language?
  • what kind of knowledge do you need?

For example, if you only have the motivation for a little at a time, you might be better off with Babbel or Duolingo (Rosetta Stone’s no-translation approach is hard!).

Or, if you don’t want to waste time with surface-level cartoons and get annoyed by childlike sounds, I’d recommend Rosetta Stone or Babbel – all 3 are engaging, but some find Duolingo to be outright obnoxious.

And if none of the 3 are doing it for you? These are the most popular, but certainly not the only options to learn a language.

Instead, I’d recommend you take my free course on how to choose a language app, where you’ll learn how to use my language app search to find the best resource for you.

Lingoda Review: high risk, high reward

by Leave a Comment

Lingoda is an online language school that offers both private and small-group language classes to suit your schedule. It also has a couple of interesting perks (i.e. Lingoda Sprint) which we’ll also learn about in this Lingoda review.

Should you use Lingoda to learn to speak a language? Continue reading this Lingoda review to find out!

Getting started with Lingoda

Basically, Lingoda is a monthly membership (or pay upfront) that provides you a certain number of private/group conversations, depending on what route you choose, in a number of languages:

  • English
  • English for business
  • French

  • German
  • Spanish

The level you can reach using Lingoda depends on the language itself, but you can generally achieve upper intermediate, if not advanced.

When you opt for a membership, you do have to select a language and stick to it, but there are a few membership options for each language.

Once you choose your language, you can either tell Lingoda your level, or take a placement test.

lingoda review

I took the placement test, which involved a series of intermediate-beginner phrases in a multiple-choice format. I may be a bit rusty with my active knowledge of Spanish, but I thought I did pretty decently.

NOPE!

lingoda review

As usual, the native assessment was far from accurate – my Spanish is definitely beyond “soy Jamie” and “tengo un perro”. Using this platform at A1 would be a significant waste of my time.

Fortunately, you can easily change your level at any time, which I quickly did. Phew! Suffice to say, if you have a general idea of your current level, skip the assessment.

On that note, Lingoda does something pretty cool. Once you go through the structured classes and check all the boxes, you can receive a Lingoda certificate.

My first thought (as should be yours, too) is “okay, what does that actually mean?”. Fortunately, unlike the McGraw-Hill certificate from Busuu, this one actually seems pretty legit.

lingoda review

Now obviously if you’re looking for a resume-builder for an actual foreign language-related job, you’ll probably want to double-check with the employer just in case, but the CEFR is the guy that you want documentation from.

Now that’s awesome.

Booking a class

Once you’ve got your level and everything all figured out, it’s time to book your first class! You can book classes by:

  • Level
  • Group/private
  • Day of the week
  • Time frame
lingoda review

Weirdly, Lingoda does not allow you to search for classes with one teacher. Considering the competition depends a lot on the relationship you build with your teachers, it’s different to see Lingoda put more emphasis on taking certain classes and gaining certain skills.

You’ll also notice that the previews of these classes include the skill you’ll be focused on. Except for the “skill” skill…I’m not entirely sure what that’s supposed to mean.

I had never taken a group language class online before (and I was more interested in seeing the Lingoda process than getting high-quality, one-on-one attention), so I opted for a group class. The white bar on the bottom of these squares will tell you how many student spots are still available out of 5.

One last thing about that screenshot: I wanted to take a class the same day, and there weren’t that many! The impression I got from the teacher I ended up with did note that the class was full, so I’m assuming that they have enough classes to satisfy their students.

Taking a class

This is the class I took.

lingoda review

Before the class started, I had access to a few different things: the materials that the class would be reviewing, a FAQ about the meetings, etc. Lingoda told me the class would be over Zoom and gave me an option to test my device for Zoom, but didn’t give me anywhere to go, nor did it tell me how long the lesson would be.

With a group class, I assumed it would be an hour long, but I’d still like to know! I also wish it would confirm I was in the right time zone in some way – I’ve definitely set up online lessons like this and missed them because my account wasn’t in the right time zone.

Regardless, Lingoda told me to go to the My Classes page and wait.

Once 10:00 hit, a blue “Go to Class” button appeared. I clicked it, Zoom popped up, and I was ready to go.

The six of us (5 students and 1 teacher) went through the PowerPoint that I had had the option to download before it started. I did like having an idea of what we were going to talk about – that hasn’t always been the case with other platforms.

While we waited for everyone to log on, the teacher took us through some questions to answer and ask each other.

lingoda review

Then the teacher walked us through some of the slides. And by the way, apparently “skills” just means all of them!

For the next hour, the teacher took us through, making sure that we each got an equal opportunity to speak and ask questions. It was a very relaxed atmosphere, and I felt more than comfortable asking questions. A+!

Like I said, my spoken Spanish was rusty, so I had to deal with that uncomfortable feeling you get when you know you used to be SO GOOD and now you’ve lost fluency because you haven’t used it. So at first, it was kind of a painful class for me.

But because it was so low-key with a few other students to take their equal attention, I had time to get in the flow. And apparently, the teacher noticed. How do I know that?

Once your Lingoda lesson is over, you give a quick review (just stars, you don’t have to write anything) and you can access your Class Report!

Nice!

Lingoda review: prices

Lingoda wants you to really commit to your language learning – good for them! Outside of Lingoda Sprint, they offer two plans: monthly or “marathon”. Both options are the same across all language courses.

It can get complicated, but Lingoda has made it a bit easier to choose a subscription that works for you. You can find updated prices here.

No matter what kind of subscription you choose, you’re signing up for either group classes of 3-5 students or private 1:1 classes. All subscriptions include a 7-day free trial.

Lingoda group classes

Monthly subscription:

  • pay every 4 weeks
  • cancel/change anytime
  • 4-40 classes/month
  • ~$50-400 per month

“Marathon” subscription:

  • pay upfront
    • 50 classes, 3 months
    • 100 classes, 6 months
    • 200 classes, 12 months
  • $60-450 cashback if you attend 90% of classes
  • ~$500-2,500

Lingoda private classes

Monthly subscription:

  • pay every 4 weeks
  • cancel/change anytime
  • 4-40 classes/month
  • ~$150-800 per month

“Marathon” subscription:

  • pay upfront
    • 50 classes, 3 months
    • 100 classes, 6 months
    • 200 classes, 12 months
  • $140-1100 cashback if you attend 90% of classes
  • ~$1,300-5,000

Note: the exact cost of your subscription depends on the language you’re learning and the number of classes you commit to. Click here to see current prices.

Also note: the “Marathon” subscription notes their prices with the assumption that you attend 90% of your classes and get your cash back. In order to see the real price, you’ll have to go to checkout.

While the “Marathon” subscription isn’t wildly different from the Language Sprint, it is less intense with lower reward.

Lingoda review: Language Sprint

Last but not least, you have Lingoda’s “Language Sprint” and “Super Sprint”.

Language Sprint is their unique language marathon that runs every 3 months – the closest competition is BaseLang, but that’s only for Spanish. Commit to Lingoda Sprint and you commit to:

  • 2 months of classes
  • 15-30 classes per month (15 for the regular Sprint, 30 for Super Sprint)
  • guaranteed refund* (50% for Sprint, 100% for Super Sprint)

Suffice to say, Lingoda Sprint is high risk, high reward.

*Make sure you read all the rules carefully because many language learners lose their opportunity for a refund by accidentally scheduling classes before the official time frame.

Is it a trick to limit Lingoda’s refunds, or is it poor organization? That’s not for me to say.

Regardless, it’s an interesting motivational tactic for language learners to really commit to their goals for 2 months – make sure you think carefully about the next 2 months of your life before you jump on this!

Lingoda review: should you try it?

If you’re prepared to commit to growing your language skills with a tutor (either private or in a small group setting), this Lingoda review shows that it’s probably worth a shot. While the classes themselves are pretty flexible, you do have to commit some energy regularly. This isn’t a 5-minute Mondly session, it’s the real deal.

I definitely enjoyed my Lingoda lesson – low pressure, good conversation, and a solid level of attention, too. It’s easy to get language students in a group lesson, it’s not necessarily easy to make sure everyone can actively participate, nor to give every student enough personalized attention to have them walk away with something to practice.

Thanks to the post-class note, I had something to work with independently.

If you’re not into classes with a tutor, though, Lingoda’s not for you. Same for language learners who want to work independently, or those who get overwhelmed with significant commitments.

But if that doesn’t sound like you? Click here to give Lingoda a try!