Yabla is a platform for language learners to find listening practice in all levels of the languages that are currently supported. It’s an awesome way to take in new vocab in context, play games, etc.
What does Yabla do well, and what are its flaws? In this Yabla review, let’s talk about what kind of language learners can really benefit from Yabla and who should give it a shot!
Yabla’s languages
Yabla has a ton of video content at every level imaginable, but it’s not available in many languages, at least not yet. Right now, Yabla is an option for those learning:
- Chinese (Mandarin)
- English
- French
- German
- Italian
- Spanish
These are all very commonly learned foreign languages, which makes it a great option for many language learners.
Yabla review: getting started
When you first join Yabla, you’ll get a kind of dashboard with a huge list of videos you can watch. It’s kind of overwhelming at first glance, but I suggest you start from the left-hand side, where you can choose things like:
- collection (not really sure what that means)
- difficulty
- region
- category
I recommend you start with “difficulty” and narrow down your search from there.
Make whatever choices make sense to your language learning and pick a video to watch!
There are a lot of random buttons and options and I don’t know what any of them mean yet (some sort of tutorial would be helpful here) so I just clicked one…and then was overwhelmed by more options!
On this 2000’s era platform, you can immediately see:
- target language subtitles
- English subtitles
- normal options like fast forward, pause, slow down, etc.
From what I can tell, Yabla really wants you to use its platform to learn new vocab using their videos. So we’ll talk about that function before my preferred one: games.
Yabla review: learning vocab
In recent years, it’s been so much easier to learn a language with free videos with resources like Language Reactor and Trancy. Yabla, however, has been around for around 20 years now. So let’s see how Yabla handles things like translations, saving flashcards, etc.
It’s very simple, but it works.
It’s not nearly as pretty as something like Lingopie, and it doesn’t do things like highlight words you’ve selected, but it functions.
It’s also automatically set to autosave your new words as flashcards. There’s no confirmation or anything that it’s happened, so we have to leave the video and actively find the flashcard section to see what that looks like.
Again, this is perfectly functional, but an eyesore.
It’s fine that the flashcards automatically include SO much information, but flashcards are meant to be simple. Especially for beginner vocab like this, do we really need a whole paragraph from the dictionary?
Yabla may want you to use its platform primarily to learn new vocabulary, but it’s not better than (if not significantly worse than) more modern options.
Let’s move on to my favorite part of Yabla: games.
Yabla review: games
The thing that was super confusing to me when I started this Yabla review were the 2 orange buttons under every video: warmup and workout. There doesn’t seem to be a clear explanation as to what those are and when you should use them.
If you click over to the games section of a video, this starts to make more sense.
The warmup is comprised of 3 games: vocab review, multiple choice, and fill-in-the-blank.
As you can see, there is a small handful of vocab that Yabla expects you to learn from this particular video, and those words are the focus in these games.
I can see why Yabla has survived the test of time thus far; even if it’s not particularly kind to the eyes, this does keep the vocab interesting, and has you practicing it in a variety of ways (and not just vocab).
Using these words to exercise different language skills is a great approach. So far, I’m a fan.
So let’s see what kind of games are considered a “workout”.
The workout games include scribe (aka dictation), speak (shadowing/voice recognition), and recall.
They’re almost the same premise, but a significant step up in difficulty that is, again, exercising a variety of language skills! Scribe is a combination of listening and writing, speak is speaking, and recall is translating (not a necessary skill in my opinion, but you’re not obligated to play that one).
I told you that my favorite part of Yabla is their games!
And again, the platform itself isn’t great…I think if it was updated to look and feel like a more modern platform, it would most definitely be worth the price (more on that later).
Finally, if you just want to review the transcript (or print it) you can do that, too. There’s no audio linked to it, but you can click any of the vocabulary words to get a translation, which can be helpful.
Yabla review: lessons
While Yabla’s focus is vocabulary, they do have a collection of lessons. These are really just blog posts that connect some grammatical concepts to their already licensed clips.
Great in concept, I just wish they took the extra step to make these grammar points as engaging as their vocabulary. And if they were organized/searchable? Now that would be helpful.
In reality, these topics are random at best. There’s a search function, but I wouldn’t rely on it.
As of now, though, I think you’re probably better off using another website that’s more intentional about teaching you grammar.
For example, if you’re learning Spanish or French, Kwiziq is a much better alternative for grammar. For German grammar, I’d go with German Foundations instead.
Yabla’s prices
Yabla is a paid language learning resource. New users get a 15-day free trial, and then you’ll pay around $10/a month.
You can see updated pricing here.
Despite the aesthetics (or lack thereof) of the platform, if it’s something that you’re motivated to use consistently, I would say the price is worth it.
Yabla review: is it for you?
We’re at the end of this Yabla review, and I do have to say that I approve.
Yabla functions very well, and you will get a quality language education if you can get past the 2000’s era platform (literally, I don’t think it’s changed since they opened for business in 2005).
If you can’t, though, and you want the flexibility of choosing your own videos (Yabla licenses their own videos, so you’re stuck with what they give you), I would keep an eye on Trancy. It’s new, and I can Trancy being better and more accessible as time goes on.
Lingopie is another possible Yabla alternative – it’s not the most stable, but it’s beautiful!
And of course, there’s the crowd favorite, Language Reactor, which is super customizable but it’s missing the games and automatic flashcards that Yabla does so well.
Or if you’ve decided that Yabla is in fact the language learning resource for you, start your 15-day free trial now.
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