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Reviews of Japanese Online Language Learning Resources

  • 17 Minute Languages Review: I Wouldn’t Recommend Using It

    17 Minute Languages

    Rating 1.5

    Summary

    17 Minute Languages is a language-learning program that uses spaced repetition and native-speaker audio to teach a wide variety of languages. In our opinion, the courses aren’t very engaging; the courses we tried included significant errors and didn’t offer any language-specific explanations. There are leaderboards for comparing your progress with other users and a language forum that’s available after four days of use.


    Quality 1.5

    Native speaker audio is the only thing that impressed me in the courses I tried; mistakes and glitches were many.

    Thoroughness 1.5

    Explanations are lacking, which I found made some material misleading.

    Value 1.5

    I think there are far better ways to spend your time and money studying a language.

    I Like
    • It uses native-speaker audio.
    I Don’t Like
    • I came across several bad translations.
    • I didn’t find any helpful explanations.
    • Site navigation wasn’t easy or enjoyable for me.
    • I didn’t find the exercises engaging.
    Price

    The Beginner’s Course is $59.95 and the Complete Package is $97. For the whole package and all languages it is $197. There is a free 48-hour trial.

    Superlearning technology? Fluency in 50 hours? Courses in 80 different languages? This is either the greatest language-learning resource of all time or it’s a painfully overpriced language site making absurd claims. Let’s find out.

  • Assimil Review — A Fresh Look at a Longstanding Resource

    Assimil

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    Assimil is a French company that has been selling language-learning resources since 1929. Assimil materials are available as books, CDs, and downloadable e-courses; there are a variety of available course types, and instruction is based on interacting with phrases in the target language. The popular Sans Peine or, With Ease, courses are for absolute or false beginners that would like to reach the B2 level, but we think you’ll need to incorporate some other study materials to make this happen.


    Quality 4.0

    The language materials are reliable, the audio is high quality, and the program is fairly easy to use after a bit of practice.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    Assimil is chock-full of explanations and thorough translations for all material, but you might need more to reach the advertised B2 level.

    Value 4.0

    There are cheaper resources out there, but Assimil provides super solid instruction for the price.

    I Like
    • The audio quality is great.
    • The culture notes add a lot of value.
    • There are plenty of grammar explanations, but they aren’t a focus.
    I Don’t Like
    • The mobile app isn’t super intuitive.
    • The pronunciation feedback method could be better.
    • The exercises aren’t especially engaging.
    Price

    Prices vary by course. The Spanish e-course is €49.90, the Spanish With Ease book (no audio) is €26.90, and the Spanish With Ease Superpack is €74.90

  • Busuu Review: Some Courses Are Better Than Others

    Busuu

    Rating 3.4

    Summary

    Busuu is a digital language-learning app with over 90 million registered users. The resource offers vocabulary and grammar practice through short, self-paced study exercises. It also has a social aspect that allows users to get writing and pronunciation feedback from native speakers. It is available on the web, iOS, and Android.


    Quality 3.3

    The layout is great, and the quality for non-Asian languages is decent, but there were significant errors in the Chinese course.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    It has some good explanations but doesn’t often offer much in the way of in-depth explanations.

    Value 3.8

    Busuu is relatively inexpensive, but there are more thorough and efficient resources out there.

    I Like
    • The layout is easy to use and engaging
    • The conversation lessons are especially useful
    • The social feature is great
    I Don’t Like
    • Translations aren’t provided for some exercises.
    • The Chinese course is low-quality.
    • The grammar explanations and practice could be better.
    Price

    Premium Subscriptions

    One month: $13.95
    Six months: $50.70 ($8.45/month)
    One Year: $40.70 ($3.48/month)

    What Is Busuu?

    Boasting a user base of over 90 million, Busuu is a heavyweight in the digital language-learning landscape. It was launched in 2008 and has remained a popular and relatively low-cost option for language learners.

  • Clozemaster Review: Limited Focus But Fun Way To Grow Vocab

    Clozemaster

    Rating 4.2

    Summary

    Ideal for people who are already at an upper beginner/intermediate level, Clozemaster will help you build your vocabulary and learn new words and sentences in context. While you won’t learn much grammar or improve your speaking and writing much, it is great at what it does and the videogame aspect makes it fun and addictive to work though. Although the exercises are all pretty much identical, there are various ways in which you can increase the difficulty and Clozemaster’s free account is almost as good as the Pro User one.


    Quality 4.0

    Very easy to use with thousands upon thousands of sentences for you to work through, Clozemaster’s main exercises are well-designed though some features are a bit hit and miss.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    Although you aren’t given any explanations, Clozemaster’s huge database of sentences allows you to learn words in context.

    Value 4.5

    The free version offers a ton of value, but for those who use Clozemaster regularly, it may be worth upgrading to a Pro account.

    I Like
    • There is an insane number of words and sentences for you to learn, and you’re exposed to them within the context of a sentence.
    • Just using the free account you are sure to learn a lot with only some extra (and undoubtedly useful) features being included in the Pro plan. This makes learning accessible to everyone.
    • Lots of languages available to learn, and you can do so from a wide range of languages, making it very useful for non-native English speakers or those who want to study two languages at once.
    I Don’t Like
    • A couple of features such as the Cloze-reading and the speaking exercises seemed like they could have benefited from a bit more thought and effort put into them.
    • There is no real progression and you are basically given an endless array of different words and sentences to work through and the various exercises are all pretty much identical.
    • Sentences are sourced from
    Price

    The free version is very useful, but you can upgrade to a pro account for $8/month or $60/year.

    Having never heard of Clozemaster before and having no idea what it was all about, I was immediately taken by its videogame-looking aesthetics and fun fill-in-the-missing-words exercises.

  • Cudoo Review — I Wouldn’t Even Use it if it Were Free

    Cudoo

    Rating 0.6

    Summary

    Cudoo is an online learning platform that offers courses in over 160 languages. The platform also offers courses teaching soft skills and other professional development courses. Certificates are available upon course completion, and courses are provided to libraries and non-profits for free. We feel that the quality of the language courses is quite low, and that the prices are relatively high.


    Quality 1.0

    It’s nice to have native speaker audio, but I personally found the course to offer very little learning potential.

    Thoroughness 1.0

    The course didn’t cover everything listed under “Course Content” and offers no explanations.

    Value 0.0

    This course is way overpriced in my opinion. I wouldn’t even use it if it were free.

    I Like
    • Audio by a variety of native speakers.
    I Don’t Like
    • I wanted more explanations
    • Practice opportunities felt severely limited
    • I found the material unengaging
    • Content doesn’t build on itself logically.
    Price

    Price varies by course, from $4.99 to $24.99, with language bundles costing up to $199.

    This seems like a reasonable list of goals, depending on the meaning of “…and more!” even if it is a little bit light for the $25 price tag.

  • Drops App Review – Decent As A Supplementary Resource

    Drops App

    Rating 3.9

    Summary

    Drops is a phone app for iPhone and Android that covers 33 languages. Daily games test the user on thousands of vocabulary words, and many of these words are ideal for everyday use. Drops has an entertaining, user-friendly interface, but it also lacks grammar lessons, and it works better for some languages than others. For anyone looking to supplement their vocab lessons, this app is worth considering; however, the free version might be more worthwhile than the paid version.


    Quality 4.0

    Though cute and easy to use, some visuals are hard to distinguish.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    Drops will teach you thousands of words and phrases, from transport and hobbies to astronomy and spices. Some languages, such as Japanese, have extra modules for culturally specific vocabulary.

    Value 3.0

    The free app is a great supplementary tool to help round out your vocabulary, but the paid app doesn’t offer many useful extras.

    I Like
    • The daily reminders keep me accountable.
    • If you already know a word, you have the option of swiping up and removing it from your lessons.
    • Though the app works better for some languages, the sheer amount of languages is a plus.
    I Don’t Like
    • It can be difficult to tell certain images apart, which means you’ll likely identify them incorrectly during your review.
    • Some of the categories seem to include random, unrelated words.
    • In languages where a noun’s grammatical gender or case isn’t obvious from the article, you won’t learn that information.
    • Drops only teaches you vocabulary, not grammar.
    Price

    A monthly subscription costs $9.99, a yearly subscription is $69.99, and a lifetime subscription is $159.99. You can use the app up to five minutes every ten hours for free.

    I’d previously heard about Drops on Reddit, where it achieved rave reviews and some pointed criticism.

  • Duolingo Review: Useful But Not Sufficient – 2 Language Learners Test It (With Video)

    Duolingo

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    Duolingo is a super popular free language-learning app. It’s available for desktop as well as mobile and offers over 90 different language courses in over 20 different languages — there are currently 35 languages with English instruction. The Duolingo approach is gamified and easy to use, but the bite-sized lessons don’t offer much in the way of in-depth practice. The Duolingo tag line is “Learn a language in just five minutes a day.”


    Quality 4.0

    It’s easy and fun to use, but some pronunciation and grammar instruction is of low quality, especially for Asian languages.

    Thoroughness 3.5

    The app works well for learning the basics, but there’s little speaking practice and grammar instruction is limited.

    Value 4.5

    It’s a lot of content for free, but you’ll need to use supplementary resources.

    I Like
    • The short lessons are ideal for quick, convenient practice
    • The game-like features make the exercises engaging and fun
    • The community aspect is motivating
    I Don’t Like
    • There’s no opportunity to create your own sentences
    • Grammar instruction isn’t part of the lessons
    • Text-to-speech audio is sometimes low quality
    Price

    Duolingo is totally free. Duolingo Plus offers a few additional features and is available for:


    $12.99/month (paid monthly) $6.99/month (12-month subscription)


    Their family plan is $119.99 a year

    What is Duolingo?

    Duolingo is one of the most popular language-learning programs out there. It’s been on the scene since 2012 and offers instruction in 35 different languages. It even offers courses in three constructed languages (perfect for brushing up on your Esperanto or High Valyrian).

  • Earworms Review – A Unique Idea But Lacks Substance

    Earworms

    Rating 2.5

    Summary

    Earworms is a unique language resource that relies on audio lessons mixed into music. The theory is that you will find the music catchy and thus remember your lessons easily.  The whole idea behind Earworms is the psychological theory of memory association. You would associate some information with the music and thus remember it easily. However, the music used in these lessons will not appeal to everyone, at least it didn’t for me. Moreover, the lack of visual aid and no exercises to assess your skills make it harder.  I would only recommend this for people who have failed to learn through other online resources or perhaps someone looking to learn a few phrases before a trip.


    Quality 2.0

    With a lack of exercises and visual aids, I can’t really say that it will prove to be a useful resource.

    Thoroughness 2.0

    All the lessons are comprised of various phrases that they think will be useful for anyone willing to learn French. Unfortunately, they’re too shallow and poorly structured.

    Value 3.5

    With such low utility, it is important to have a low-price tag. Fortunately, they have followed this idea and thus you won’t be losing out too much if you opt for this.

    I Like
    • The repetition of the phrases
    • Some of the tracks aren’t half bad
    I Don’t Like
    • Tracks aren’t as catchy as I expected
    • Lack of visual aids
    • Complete absence of a testing system
    Price

    Each volume can be purchased as an mp3 download for £10.42 or £31.26.

    When I first heard of Earworms, I was quite intrigued mostly because I know what it’s like to get a song stuck in my head. Compared to annoying lyrics, getting a new language stuck in there sounds pretty appealing.

  • Fluent Forever App Review – Lots Of Potential But Not There Yet

    Fluent Forever App

    Rating 3.2

    Summary

    The Fluent Forever mobile app is a language learning program currently available in eight languages. The approach it takes is based on the methodology described by Gabrial Wyner in his book, Fluent Forever. It uses flashcards and a spaced repetition algorithm to help the learner create meaningful connections with the language and commit language items to long-term memory. It’s best for people who are able to dedicate ample time and supplementary resources to learning a new language.


    Quality 2.5

    I noticed some spelling errors in the language I was learning. The activities aren’t super intuitive.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    Pronunciation is explained very well, but I was hoping for some grammar explanations as well. Some features are still in development.

    Value 4.0

    The price is reasonable, and the time spent using the app is productive.

    I Like
    • Creating my own flashcards was usually easy, fun and memorable.
    • The pronunciation activities were enlightening and practical.
    • Using the same sentence to learn multiple words got me speaking longer sentences quickly.
    I Don’t Like
    • I wanted to have more control over what I practiced and when.
    • Creating flashcards was sometimes time-consuming and difficult.
    • There are no explanations for grammar points.
    • There’s no offline functionality, and the app is only supported on mobile devices
    Price

    $9.99/month when paid on a monthly basis. $53.94 for a 6-month subscription ($8.99/month) $95.88 for a 12-month subscription ($7.99/month) $167.76 for a 24-month subscription ($6.99/month)

    My first introduction to the world of Fluent Forever was a TEDx talk done by its Founder, Gabriel Wyner.

  • FluentU Review — More Expensive than the Competition

    FluentU

    Rating 3.1

    Summary

    FluentU is a language-learning platform that uses real-world videos and interactive subtitles to create an immersive learning experience. The videos take on a variety of forms, including commercials, music videos, interviews, and more. Accompanying quizzes give users the chance to practice language used in videos.  FluentU offers videos in nine different languages and is available for iOS, Android, and on the web. Most of its content is beyond the beginner level, but it has videos for learners at all levels.


    Quality 3.5

    It’s very straightforward and easy to use, though not especially visually pleasing.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    There is a wide variety of videos, but they’re short and disconnected. They also aren’t suitable for absolute beginners.

    Value 2.5

    It is not the most complete way to study a language.

    I Like
    • The site is easy to navigate.
    • Interacting with subtitles is easy.
    • The videos are authentic and tied to practice activities.
    • Exercises recognize Chinese and Japanese characters.
    I Don’t Like
    • Flashcards use robotic text-to-speech audio.
    • Writing practice is limited, speaking practice is nonexistent.
    • Practice activities aren’t very interesting.
    • There’s no easy way to filter content by region.
    Price

    After a 14-day free trial, users can purchase one of two subscription options. Subscriptions grant access to all FluentU languages.

    Monthly Subscription: $30/month

    Annual Subscription: $360/year

  • Glossika Review – Not Cheap But Useful

    Glossika

    Rating 3.6

    Summary

    Glossika has learning resources for over fifty languages that impressively range from Armenian and Czech to Icelandic and Tagalog. While not suitable for absolute beginners, lower intermediates could use the resource to familiarise themselves with sentences in their language of choice using Glossika´s intuitive approach. Listening to native speakers and repeating what they say can help learners to improve their comprehension skills and spoken fluency. While it is amazing that so many languages are included, learners would have to use numerous other resources alongside it. The cost is unjustifiably high.


    Quality 3.8

    The audio recordings are well made but other aspects could be improved

    Thoroughness 3.8

    Glossika covers an impressive number of languages but their method requires you to intuitively learn

    Value 3.5

    Polyglots may find the price to be fair but for most language learners it’s not

    I Like
    • There are lots of languages available, including many that are rarely covered by other resources.
    • The subscription gives you access to all of the languages making it possible to study one language and review another at the same time.
    • It will force you to speak the language which will improve your confidence and prosody.
    I Don’t Like
    • As all of the languages cover the exact same material, the diversity of the languages and cultures are reduced to a simple formula with no cultural context involved in their teaching.
    • There are a fair amount of errors in the materials.
    • The cost is excessively high compared to other resources.
    • There are no explanations of grammar.
    Price

    You can try out Glossika´s learning method for free with their week-long trial. Their basic subscription is $16.99 a month. The monthly subscription costs $30.99 a month. The annual subscription costs $24.99 a month and will set you back 299.88$ in total.

    Click the link below to save $5 on a subscription to Glossika.

    Few resources cover as many different languages as Glossika does. Because of this, I was excited to try it out and see what it’s like to use.

  • HelloTalk Review – Make Friends & Practice Languages

    HelloTalk

    Rating 4.5

    Summary

    HelloTalk is a mobile app for language learners interested in language exchange. It facilitates communication between native speakers and those learning their language with the use of built-in language tools. It also offers audio lessons in 10 languages as part of a separate subscription.


    Quality 5.0

    There’s an active community of dedicated learners, but you’ll have to do some searching.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    The app is easy to use and the language tools are helpful, but you could end up relying on google translate.

    Value 4.5

    Both the basic and VIP membership provide great value. The paid audio lessons probably aren’t worth it however.

    I Like
    • It’s exciting to practice communicating with real people
    • The built-in language tools are helpful
    • It’s easy to pick up and put down whenever you like
    I Don’t Like
    • It’s too easy to rely on google translate
    • It can be hard to find good partners
    • The paid audio lessons probably aren’t worth it
    Price

    The basic features of HelloTalk are free. Audio lessons require a separate subscription after a short trial period.

    HelloTalk VIP is available for:

    $6.99/month and $45.99/year or $175.00 for lifetime access

    Learning a new language when you’re nowhere near other speakers of that language can be tricky. For example, I’m currently in Nepal and trying to learn Italian. I don’t exactly get a lot of opportunities to practice Italian here.

  • HiNative Review: Useful But Not Exceptional Q&A App

    HiNative

    Rating 3.7

    Summary

    HiNative is a Q&A app for language learners that want to have questions answered by native speakers. It’s available for iOS, Android and desktop, and it has over three million registered users. A free version is available that offers the basic features of the app.


    Quality 3.5

    The app is pretty basic, but it works.

    Thoroughness 3.5

    Many users are very helpful, but not all questions receive intelligent responses.

    Value 4.0

    The basic functions of the app are available for free, but you’ll need to pay for audio or video features.

    I Like
    • The community is active. Most of my questions received quick responses.
    • The points system is rewarding.
    • The free version is very useful.
    I Don’t Like
    • Many of the questions in my feed were unanswerable.
    • The community could be better.
    Price

    The basic features of HiNative are free to use. A premium subscription is available for $9.99/month paid monthly, or annually $34.99 payment

    While learning a new language, one of the best resources available is other people. Native speakers are one of the most reliable sources for authoritative answers to your language questions. They know intuitively and deeply how the language is supposed to be used.

  • Human Japanese Review: A Boutique App For Learning Japanese

    Human Japanese

    Rating 4.2

    Summary

    Human Japanese is a resource for learning Japanese that takes a thorough approach, delivering in-depth explanations and great attention to detail. The course is well-designed, builds on itself in a logical way, and offers quality instruction at a very reasonable price. It functions much like an interactive textbook, meaning users will progress at their own pace and may need to implement their own study techniques. It’s available for download on Mac, Windows, Android and iOS.


    Quality 4.0

    The program is easy to use, and the presentation of information is well-executed, but the practice activities could be better.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    There’s almost nothing missing in the way of instruction and explanations, but you’ll need to find additional practice methods.

    Value 4.5

    You get a lot for the price, and there are some complementary resources that are free.

    I Like
    • Really great explanations.
    • The overall tone of the written material is engaging.
    • The material builds on itself in a logical way.
    I Don’t Like
    • There aren’t many practice opportunities.
    • You may need supplemental materials for extended study sessions.
    • There isn’t much in the way of communication practice.
    Price

    $18.99 for PC or Mac, $14.99 for iPad, $9.99 for Android or iOS

    There are plenty of ways to go about learning Japanese. Some believe that learning too much grammar is a waste of time, that it’s all about exposure and practice. Others consider it essential to form a more comprehensive understanding of a language, including its grammar concepts and the reasons it works the way it does.

  • italki Review – The Good, The Bad, & The Just Alright

    italki

    Rating 4.5

    Summary

    italki is the most flexible and affordable place to find a tutor for the language you’re learning. They have a huge number of teachers offering classes to students of over 100 different languages. As a learner, you’ll be able to find a tutor that best fits your learning style, schedule, and personality. Teachers are able to set their own prices and make their own schedule.


    Quality 4.5

    You’ll find everyone from long-time professionals to brand new teachers.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    The overall platform has tons of useful features but also some room for improvement.

    Value 5.0

    Huge number of teachers, low prices, and flexible scheduling.

    I Like
    • There are large numbers of teachers available even for less common languages.
    • You can find skilled teachers even at low prices.
    • The flexibility to schedule lessons whenever convenient. The huge number of teachers guarantees you’ll find someone to fit your schedule.
    • The extra features in the italki Community make it easy to ask questions, get your writing checked, and find a free language exchange partner.
    I Don’t Like
    • Community features are only available through the app.
    • You may need to try several tutors before finding one that fits your learning and personality style.
    • It’s easy to not take classes as often as you should.
    Price

    The prices vary by teacher and language with some being as low as $5 and others as high as $60 per hour. Most will fall somewhere near the $10 per hour range. Right now italki is offering a $10 credit with your first purchase.

    It’s very rare for me to recommend a particular resource for everyone, regardless of the language that they’re studying. Usually each language will have their own unique resources that are great specifically for students of that language.

  • JapanesePod101 Review – It Works Well As A Supplemental Resource

    JapanesePod101

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    JapanesePod101 has thousands of lessons going back over a decade. It’s best used as a supplemental resource to improve your listening comprehension, grammar, and vocabulary. I wouldn’t advise trying to use it as a standalone course because the lessons don’t always follow a clear and suitable path. While very much imperfect, it’s a useful resource and available at an affordable price.


    Quality 4.0

    Some lessons are great and others leave a lot to be desired.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    A lot of content but it’s not always structured well.

    Value 4.0

    One of the more affordable tools around.

    I Like
    • Probably the best tool to improve your Japanese listening comprehension.
    • Tons of content for everyone from the absolute beginner level up to the intermediate level, though advanced learners would be disappointed.
    • Very detailed lesson notes give lots of good information.
    I Don’t Like
    • The chaotic course structure makes it hard to rely on as your only resource.
    • Many of the extra features aren’t useful or very well-made.
    • The older lessons can be a lot lower quality.
    Price

    There are three subscription plans with lengths available from 1 month to 2 years, with many options in between.

    Basic – $4/month with Premium $10/month and Premium Plus – $23/month.

    Use the coupon code “ALLLANGUAGERESOURCES” to save 25% on a subscription.

    JapanesePod101 is one of the better ways to learn Japanese. They have thousands of lessons, from the absolute beginner level, up to an advanced level.

  • Language101.com Course Review – The Worst I’ve Ever Tried!

    Language101.com Course

    Rating 0.6

    Summary

    Language101 (not to be confused with LanguagePod101) is the worst course I’ve ever tried. The platform has ten different languages for you to choose from and focuses on teaching speaking and comprehension. Consequently, you likely won’t learn how to spell, write or translate the language, or even learn any of the grammar. I found the courses to be poorly designed — each ‘lesson’ is identical in form, and the fast-paced learning method seems inefficient; it is doubtful whether even beginners will learn much. To make matters worse, the price is obscenely expensive.


    Quality 1.0

    Easy enough to use, but I thought the content was severely lacking.

    Thoroughness 1.0

    There are virtually no explanations at all. You just learn to parrot and memorize words and phrases.

    Value 0.0

    Terrible value in my opinion. It honestly feels like a scam. Not worth using even if it were free.

    I Like
    • They provide you with a literal translation of the phrase you are asked to produce.
    • Despite coming away thinking this is a terrible product (and it is), I liked being asked to produce words and phrases.
    I Don’t Like
    • I don’t agree with their ‘teaching’ method which basically asks you to produce words and phrases in a language you have never learned before as quickly as possible.
    • The ‘courses’ are a muddled mess, I didn’t see any logical progression, and there is only one exercise for you to do ad infinitum until you lose your mind.
    • It is insanely expensive. My god. It is insulting how much money they are charging for a product this terrible.
    Price

    Language101 has lots of different subscription plans for you to choose from. A one-time payment for access to all of its languages costs $727 or $97/month if you opt for the monthly installments option (that would end up working out at $1,164 if you chose the latter!!).

    For ‘1 Package’ of the language of your choice it is then $227 for lifetime access or $527 if you want all 3 packages in a given language.

    Alternatives: Literally anything else on the Internet (or in a bookstore) would be better!

  • LanguagePod101 — All Languages, Pod101 and Class101

    Updated November 20, 2023

    If you want a language learning podcast that consistently adds new content to keep you motivated, you will find the “Pod101” and “Class101” series quite useful.

    One great thing about LanguagePod101 programs is that they do publish new content ALL THE TIME. And their pricing structure allows language learners of any mastery and commitment levels to find contents that are useful. The pricing starts at a mere few dollars per month, and the top subscription called Premium PLUS gives learners personal feedback and a personalized program to follow.

    Visit Language Learning Programs in the LanguagePod101 Series

    Click the icon to visit the site for the language you want. Purchase or just check it out. Happy Learning!

    You can also read ALR independent reviews for each language’s program in the following section.

  • Ling Review — Gamified Practice in Less Common Languages

    Ling

    Rating 3.2
    Visi Ling

    Summary

    Ling is a gamified language-learning app with courses on over 60 different languages. Practice happens through short themed lessons, making for convenient and entertaining study time. It isn’t the most comprehensive resource out there, especially for more popular languages, but it can make a decent way to get started with a less common language.


    Quality 3.5

    The app is easy to use and visually appealing, but I found some mistakes in the material.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    There aren’t many explanations, and the materials are the same for each language, but practice is varied.

    Value 3.0

    For many of its less common languages, there aren’t a lot of viable alternatives, but the price feels high.

    I Like
    • It uses native speaker audio.
    • The activities are enjoyable and don’t become overly repetitive.
    • It’s easy to use and is visually appealing.
    I Don’t Like
    • There are very few grammar explanations.
    • There are no translations for individual words.
    • Some activities can be buggy.
    Price

    Monthly is $8.99, Annual is $79.99, Lifetime is $149.99

    Gamified learning is here to stay. The large pool of language-learning apps that leverage gamification in their courses is continually growing, and frankly, I’m happy about it..

  • Lingodeer Review – A Better Alternative To Duolingo, Busuu, Rosetta Stone, etc.

    Last Updated on December 12, 2023.

    Lingodeer

    Rating 4.3

    Summary

    Lingodeer may not be as well known as other language learning apps, but it’s actually better and cheaper than most of them. You’ll practice the language by completing lots of different types of exercises. They also include plenty of grammar explanations and opportunities to review what you’ve studied. All in all, it’s one of the better options for getting started learning a language.


    Quality 4.5

    It has a great design and everything works well with only a few minor issues.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    Not as thorough as some other courses but it’s good for what it is.

    Value 4.5

    Quite a bit of content is free and the premium plan is very affordable.

    I Like
    • Lots of different exercise types in the lessons.
    • Detailed grammar explanations.
    • Clear audio recordings.
    • Inexpensive!
    I Don’t Like
    • The content isn’t always ordered well with some unusual words thrown in too early.
    • Not sufficient for developing oral communication skills.
    Price

    $14.99/mo, $39.99 for 3 months, $150.99 for a year. There’s also a lifetime option for $299.99. You may also occasionally find sales, such as the yearly rate dropping by 50% to $79.99.

  • LingQ Review – Extensive Reading Made Easy

    LingQ

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    LingQ is a language-learning platform that focuses on extensive reading for over 30 different languages. You can import your own content or choose from the community library of books, articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, and more.

    The app highlights unknown words across every lesson and makes them reviewable via different types of SRS flashcards. The more you read, the more accurately you will be able to identify content that is suitable for your level.

    Although I did not find it beneficial for languages I had never studied before, I think LingQ can be helpful for upper-beginner to advanced language learners who enjoy reading. It is especially helpful if you struggle to find graded readers in your target language.


    Quality 4.0

    The LingQ reading app is enjoyable in most languages, easy to use, and can expand your vocabulary. However, I found the user content frustrating to navigate.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    With the import function, users can choose to study almost anything they want.

    Value 4.0

    Now that other apps provide similar functions, the monthly subscription may be a bit overpriced. However, the yearly subscription seems fair.

    I Like
    • I can easily import almost any material I want to study.
    • I can use SRS flashcards to quiz new words from a specific page.
    • Each lesson in the library displays the percentage of known and unknown words based on my reading history.
    • There are many dictionaries to choose from for definitions.
    I Don’t Like
    • Reviewing words is chaotic. Every word you look up gets added to a huge queue that quickly becomes unmanageable.
    • The extra features are overpriced and can be found other places for cheaper.
    • Very little of the content is original. Much of it was uploaded by users from other places.
    • The free version is extremely limited.
    Price

    Premium membership costs $12.99/mo, $71.94/half-year, $107.88/year, $191.76/2-years; single-language lifetime membership costs $199

    When I first signed up for LingQ, I wasn’t very impressed. Its seemingly random lesson library, filled with custom cover photos and inconsistent title formats, made me want to click on just about anything to get away from that page.

  • LinguaLift Review – You’d Be Better Off Using A Textbook

    LinguaLift

    Rating 2.7

    Summary

    LinguaLift currently offers courses in Japanese, Russian and Hebrew. I chose Japanese and working my way through the lessons was very much like going through an online textbook. Very text-based, the material is best suited to beginners although the slow pace and heavy use of English means that it takes a while to make progress. While it’s nicely designed and includes lots of interesting content about Japanese culture, you don’t learn how to speak or understand conversations as the focus is on learning how to read (which it does very well).


    Quality 3.5

    Very easy to use and nicely produced but all lessons look the same.

    Thoroughness 2.5

    Great for teaching reading and the cultural context of a language but not communication skills.

    Value 2.0

    The material is comparable to a textbook but much more expensive.

    I Like
    • LinguaLift is one of the best resources out there when it comes to teaching you about the cultural context surrounding the language.
    • The texts are quite humorous to read and each lesson concludes with a reward which usually comes in the form of a video about some part of the culture.
    • It really succeeds at teaching you how to read Japanese and the course is easy to follow.
    • Don’t have to pay extra to access courses in more than one language.
    I Don’t Like
    • All of the lessons look almost identical which gets monotonous.
    • The course is mostly in English and it takes a while for you to actually encounter all that much Japanese.
    • Other courses will almost certainly have you speaking and learning the language at a quicker pace.
    • The focus on reading means you don’t get to listen to much Japanese and there is no way to practice speaking or holding a conversation.
    Price

    $19.99 a month or one year is $156.00. Languages: Japanese, Russian, and Spanish

    In order to write this review, I subscribed to LinguaLift for one month. And, although they have courses available in Japanese, Hebrew, and Russian, I decided to focus this review on their Japanese course.

  • Live Lingua Review: My Experience With Their Lessons

    Live Lingua

    Rating 3.8

    Summary

    Live Lingua is an online language school that pairs students with certified teachers for one-on-one online classes. The platform aims to provide a more personalized service than online tutor directories by assigning a personal class coordinator and a customized curriculum for each student. Lessons are available in seven different popular languages and for a variety of different courses.


    Quality 4.5

    All teachers are native speakers and receive additional training through Live Lingua.

    Thoroughness 3.5

    Lots of extra free material, but with mistakes. There are specialized course options, and video lessons happen on Skype.

    Value 3.5

    More expensive than other online classes and less flexible, but more personalized.

    I Like
    • The huge library of free resources
    • The different course options
    I Don’t Like
    • The layout of the site is strange and doesn’t feel very professional
    • Relying on email to schedule lessons isn’t efficient
    • Limited flexibility in choosing a teacher
    Price

    The hourly rate for classes on Live Lingua ranges from $24 – $29 depending on the certificate, language, and number of classes you purchase. The first lesson is free.

    In the words of its founders, Live Lingua is a “boutique” online language school.

  • Living Language Online Course Review – Not Very Good

    Living Language Online Course

    Rating 0.0

    Summary

    UPDATE – it appears that the online course Living Language no longer exists. This review covers the old course when it did exist. You can however find a series of books with this name available on amazon.


    Quality 3.0

    Though the information itself is useful, Living Language’s presentation reads more like a database than an educational/interactive tool.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    Again, a lot of the information is there, but it’s scattered. Additionally, some of that information appears incorrect.

    Value 2.0

    Cheaper options offer the same amount of content with more interactive features.

    I Like
    • You can hop around between levels and topics, including Beginner and Advanced materials.
    • The subscription comes with a grammar guide, glossary, and forum access.
    • There’s a decent variety of games, including some games I hadn’t played before.
    I Don’t Like
    • Although the games are fun, they get stale pretty quickly. It’s easy to guess at answers, thereby completing levels without really having learned.
    • The system doesn’t keep track of your mistakes, so it’s hard to know what areas you need to improve in.
    • I found several translation and presentation errors that made me question the rest of the material.
    Price

    An annual plan costs $150, and half a year costs $75. Three months is $50 and 1 month is $39.

    An Overview of Living Language

    Living Language offers you the opportunity to choose between over 20 languages. Once you pick your language, you’re taken to the home screen which has options for Essential, Intermediate, and Advanced categories. You can start with any of these options and jump back and forth between them.

  • Mango Languages Review – Pretty Good For Beginners

    Mango Languages

    Rating 3.5

    Summary

    Mango Languages is a pretty good resource with numerous languages available along with their regional variations.  It’ll work the best for beginners or for those interested in studying a few languages at the same time. Anybody past the intermediate level won’t find Mango Languages very useful.


    Quality 4.0

    It is well designed, has a beautiful interface, and is intuitive to use.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    There are some gaps in terms of writing and grammar, along with a lack of materials for intermediate or higher level students.

    Value 3.5

    The price is fair and will give you access to materials for over 70 languages.

    I Like
    • It’s very easy to use and has a slick design.
    • The intense drilling of useful real life sentences and words during lessons will really help you remember them.
    • Cultural and grammar notes incorporated in the lessons are well-prepared to help you understand the language you’re learning better.
    • The subscription gives you access to over 70 languages.
    I Don’t Like
    • Most courses finish around the intermediate level with some less popular languages ending before that.
    • There’s not enough grammar practice.
    • During drilling, when a student is prompted to complete a task such as coming up with an appropriate translation of a sentence, the command is read out loud. Listening to someone repeat very similar commands over and over again is tedious.
    • The Google Translate plugin is a rather lazy and disappointing way to give students answers about words or sentences they’d like to translate.
    Price

    A subscription to Mango Languages costs $14.99 a month or 179.99 yearly.

    Mango Languages has high-quality beginner to intermediate level lessons in tons of different languages.

  • Memrise Review – Useful But Don’t Overuse It

    Memrise

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    Memrise is a super popular language-learning app available online and on mobile. It functions much like a gamified flashcard app, and it offers a lot of content for free. A lot of the content is user-created, and there is a premium subscription that provides access to additional features. Memrise can be a great tool in your arsenal, but you’ll need more to learn a language seriously.


    Quality 4.0

    The mobile app looks great and is easy to use, but the website is clunky. Works very well for memorization.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    There are quite a few official Memrise courses, and the number of user-created courses is massive, but you’ll benefit from using additional resources.

    Value 4.0

    The free version of the app provides a lot of value, but the paid version doesn’t offer much more.

    I Like
    • The spaced repetition software is effective for memorization
    • The huge range of available content
    • It’s more interactive than other flashcard apps
    I Don’t Like
    • It’s not enough for continued language learning
    • Website navigation is clunky
    • Premium version isn’t much more valuable than the free version
    Price

    For the full version of Memrise, the subscription prices are:

    $8.99/monthly $59.99/annually $119.99 – lifetime subscription

    Signing up for a free account with Memrise automatically gives you access to limited versions of their official courses.

    What do you get when a Grand Master of Memory and a Princeton neuroscientist team up to create a language learning app?

  • Michel Thomas Method Review – Avoid At All Costs

    Michel Thomas Method

    Rating 1.7

    Summary

    One of the most famous language teaching courses out there, Michel Thomas is a household name. The platform advertises itself as “The method that works with your brain” and boasts a teaching method “with no books, exercises, memorizing or homework” in several of its course descriptions. It’s available in 18 languages with courses that have material suitable for absolute beginners. I tried out the French foundation course and found it to be severely lacking and as such cannot recommend it at all. You may, however, have more luck with the other language courses that they offer.


    Quality 2.0

    Very easy to use, and the audios are decent quality, but I found that Michel Thomas’ discouraging manner flustered students, which detracted from the content’s quality in my experience.

    Thoroughness 2.0

    In my opinion, Michel Thomas doesn’t go into much depth and any explanations he offers up are just at a surface level.

    Value 1.0

    I wouldn’t use these even if they were free due to Michel Thomas’ teaching style which ruined the material for me.

    I Like
    • Um…in all honesty I’m not sure if I enjoyed any of it!
    I Don’t Like
    • Michel Thomas never praises the students, often interrupts them and creates a negative learning environment.
    • The pacing of the lessons often seems off to me and in certain places they feel very hurried.
    • I thought all of the lessons were almost identical and so it got quite monotonous working through them.
    Price

    There are several different courses available with prices ranging from $11.99 to $100.

    Before working my way through the French foundation course, I had never tried a Michel Thomas course despite hearing so much about it.

  • Mimic Method Review: Trying Out The Elemental Sounds Courses

    Mimic Method

    Rating 3.2

    Summary

    Created by Idahosa, the Mimic Method’s ‘Elemental Sounds Masters Classes’ are not your traditional type of language learning course as you won’t learn any grammar or vocabulary. The focus is instead on learning the elemental sounds of the language. This is because once you can conceptualise them, then you can train your ear to hear and understand them and afterwards train your mouth to produce and pronounce these sounds. Useful for both beginners and advanced learners, you would obviously need to use it in conjunction with a couple of other resources to progress in your target language.


    Quality 3.5

    Easy to use and navigate, the production quality is fine without being amazing.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    Quite technical throughout most of the course, Idahosa thoroughly explains the method and sounds in each language.

    Value 2.0

    Very expensive for what it is, I think it is as interesting take at learning pronunciation but you won’t get anything else from it.

    I Like
    • Some of the homework exercises are really interesting and quite unlike anything you’ll find on other language courses.
    • Idahosa goes into quite a lot of depth on how to pronounce the different elemental sounds of each language. At the end of the course you will know all the different sounds from the language that you are learning.
    • It was a fresh way of learning a language that I had never contemplated before
    I Don’t Like
    • I found the course to be very technical and while other people will surely find it interesting, it didn’t resonate so much with me unfortunately as it just wasn’t that fun to follow.
    • You would certainly have to use the course alongside other learning resources which actually teach you the grammar, vocabulary, reading, writing, speaking and cultural context of your target language.
    • You do not get much material for the high price that it costs.
    Price

    For lifetime access to a course, the Mimic Method website has slashed its cost from $394 to $197 although I am uncertain if it always stays that price.

  • Mondly Review – Made Significant Improvements Made in 2022

    Mondly

    Rating 2.7

    Summary

    Mondly is a language-learning app that teaches basic vocabulary and grammar structures. It seems most appropriate for learners with little to no exposure to their target language.

    The activities mostly rely on passive recognition of vocabulary and phrases, and therefore are not very challenging. However, they are varied enough that you probably wouldn’t get bored with short, daily practice sessions.

    Although I wouldn’t recommend Mondly to anyone looking to seriously learn a language, it may be appropriate for individuals studying languages with less available resources, or for individuals who are preparing to travel abroad.


    Quality 3.0

    Both the interface and the course itself could be designed better. *Edited on Nov 22* It has made many improvements this year. We will update soon.

    Thoroughness 2.5

    It’s decent for learning vocabulary, but I thought a lot of the material wasn’t explained very well.

    Value 3.0

    It’s fairly inexpensive.

    I Like
    • Daily lessons, weekly quizzes, and monthly challenges – these functionalities encourage you to practice every day.
    • The vocabulary included is useful and drilled in an effective way.
    • It’s fairly inexpensive.
    I Don’t Like
    • The content and exercises are the same for all levels and languages.
    • The exercises are mostly passive.
    • I don’t think the order of lessons and topics is very well thought out.
    • For me, the interface is not user friendly and the platform is visually unappealing.
    Price

    There are three plans… $9.99 per month for one language $47.99 per year ($4/mo) for one language and $99.99 for lifetime.

  • Pimsleur Japanese Review – We Like It Because It Makes Me Speak Japanese From Day One

    Pimsleur Japanese

    Rating 4.2

    Summary

    Pimsleur is one of the most popular and longest-standing resources out there for learning a foreign language. Its courses place a strong emphasis on aural and verbal communication skills, paying less attention to grammar explanations and reading or writing skills. There are over 50 language courses available with Pimsleur, and the bulk of the material is taught with audio lessons.


    Quality 4.5

    The platform is extremely well designed and easy to use. The content seems to be of high quality at all levels.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    Timely repetition and active practice work well, and lessons build on each other nicely, but the “intermediate fluency in 30 days” claim may be a stretch.

    Value 4.0

    The subscription option provides good value for some, but there may be more efficient ways to learn some languages.

    I Like
    • The lessons are structured well and are an appropriate length.
    • There are both male and female native speakers.
    • Lessons build on each other nicely.
    • The platform is easy to navigate and visually appealing.
    I Don’t Like
    • There’s very little visual content.
    • Lesson speed isn’t customizable.
    Price

    Subscriptions of either $14.95/month or $19.95/month are available for courses with at least 60 lessons. Prices otherwise range from around $20 to over $500. All purchases come with a 7-day free trial.

    The Pimsleur Japanese course is a language learning program based on a method that was developed by Paul Pimsleur in the 1960s. It is a language learning program that uses a method called “spaced repetition” (graduated intervals between being taught vocabulary and revisiting it) to teach Japanese to English speakers. The course consists of 30 lessons, each of which is about 30 minutes long. The lessons are audio-based, with native Japanese speakers teaching vocabulary and grammar through conversation.

  • Pimsleur Review — Learn While You… Do Just About Anything

    Pimsleur

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    Pimsleur is one of the most popular and longest-standing resources out there for learning a foreign language. Its courses place a strong emphasis on aural and verbal communication skills, paying less attention to grammar explanations and reading or writing skills. There are over 50 language courses available with Pimsleur, and the bulk of the material is taught with audio lessons.


    Quality 4.5

    The platform is extremely well designed and easy to use. The content seems to be of high quality at all levels.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    Timely repetition and active practice work well, and lessons build on each other nicely, but the “intermediate fluency in 30 days” claim may be a stretch.

    Value 3.5

    The subscription option provides good value for some, but there may be more efficient ways to learn some languages.

    I Like
    • The lessons are structured well and are an appropriate length.
    • There are both male and female native speakers.
    • Lessons build on each other nicely.
    • The platform is easy to navigate and visually appealing.
    I Don’t Like
    • There’s very little visual content.
    • Lesson speed isn’t customizable.
    Price

    Subscriptions of either $14.95/month or $19.95/month are available for courses with at least 60 lessons. Prices otherwise range from around $20 to over $500. All purchases come with a 7-day free trial.

    What is Pimsleur?

    Frankly, it’s an institution. The name comes from linguist Paul Pimsleur, author of many books on language acquisition and applied linguistics, and developer of what is now known as the Pimsleur Method.

  • Preply Review – Tutors Created Tailored Lesson Plans for You

    Preply

    Rating 4.5

    Summary

    Preply is an online educational platform that matches tutors with students. There are tutors on Preply offering instruction in a wide range of languages and other subjects. As a learner, you can find a tutor that works best for you by browsing their demo videos and filtering by price and rating. Each tutor’s teaching style is their own, but they all receive teacher trainings and resources to improve their style.


    Quality 4.5

    A little bit of everything. There are trained professionals with years of experience and tutors trying it out for the first time.

    Thoroughness 4.5

    The platform is easy to use, and tutors who specialize in subjects beyond languages, such as math and music are available. Lots of supplementary resources help reinforcement of lessons.

    Value 4.5

    There’s a huge range of prices and scheduling options, and tutors offer tailored lesson plans adapted to each student’s objectives and preferences.

    I Like
    • The number of available tutors is massive
    • Searching for a tutor is easy
    • Many tutors are very inexpensive
    • Finding a tutor with a schedule that works is easy
    I Don’t Like
    • You have to purchase a package of hours ahead of time
    • Teachers aren’t paid for trial lessons
    Price

    Each tutor sets their own price, but for most popular languages the average hourly price is around $15.

    Exclusive 50% discount for ALR readers! Make sure to use our link to receive it.

    With nearly every language-learning resource I’ve used, I run into the same problem. I don’t feel like I’m getting adequate speaking practice. I know from experience that learning a language academically and using it in the wild are two very different beasts.

  • Rocket Japanese Review – Exceeded My Low Expectations

    Rocket Japanese

    Rating 3.7

    Summary

    Rocket Japanese doesn’t excel in any one specific area, but it’s more well balanced than other Japanese courses I’ve tried. The lessons can be very repetitive, somewhat boring, and rely too much on memorization exercises. But, the various aspects of Japanese are all explained pretty well. Their lessons also push you to speak aloud often while not neglecting things like grammar or Japanese culture. Overall, it’s better than I expected. It will likely appeal more to learners that like a mix of audio and visual content as well as a clearly structured course. Advanced learners, those on a tight budget, or anyone particularly interested in improving their reading and writing skills may want to look elsewhere.


    Quality 3.5

    Everything works well, but parts of their teaching methodology could be improved.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    It covers most things well, but reading is mostly ignored.

    Value 3.5

    It’s somewhat expensive, but the price is reasonable considering everything included.

    I Like
    • Balances speaking, grammar, writing, and listening better than other Japanese courses.
    • There are less corny jokes and obnoxious English repetition found in other Rocket Language courses.
    • You’re pushed to speak often and practice the language with lots of exercises.
    I Don’t Like
    • There’s too much emphasis on memorization and not enough critical thinking.
    • The lessons are very boring and repetitive.
    • You’re asked to complete writing exercises before ever being taught how to write.
    Price

    Level 1 costs $99.95 Levels 1 & 2 costs $249.90 Levels 1, 2 & 3 costs $259.90

    Rocket Languages, the makers of Rocket Japanese, have courses available in several different languages – many of which I’ve already tried.

  • Rosetta Stone Review — Updated and Improved…And Needs More Improvement

    Rosetta Stone

    Rating 3.2

    Summary

    Rosetta Stone is one of the most well-known resources for learning languages. It takes an immersive approach to teaching and is widely used by corporations and individuals alike. High levels of repetition and an absence of translations or explanations are hallmarks of the course. Rosetta Stone course could be most suitable for learners that don’t mind repetitive exercises and prefer to learn from pictures and context rather than translations and explanations. It’s probably not a good option for anyone wanting to significantly improve their speaking or writing skills, or those looking for an engaging course.


    Quality 3.0

    The platform is a bit clunky on desktop, but the material is accurate and presented clearly; lesson mechanics are fairly intuitive.

    Thoroughness 3.0

    Without much opportunity to build your own sentences, I don’t think you’ll reach a conversational level with any notable speed.

    Value 3.5

    Rosetta Stone’s Lifetime Subscription ($199 on sale) is quite attractive if you like the Rosetta Stone Method. Shorter subscriptions are quite reasonable, too.

    I Like
    • The audio quality is very good.
    • Lessons progress naturally and logically.
    I Don’t Like
    • It’s repetitive and boring.
    • You don’t get to generate your own sentences.
    • Speech recognition doesn’t work very well.
    • No grammar explanations in core material.
    Price

    A three-month subscription to one language is $35.97, which works out to be $11.99/month.
    A year-long subscription to one course is $95.88, which is $7.99/month. Both of these subscriptions are automatically recurring.
    Lifetime access to all Rosetta Stone language courses is available for $199.

    ALR Readers Exclusive Holiday Deal!! Get the Lifetime Subscription for 25 languages for $179 (everywhere else it’s $199 right now!). See details on the website.

    Chances are, this isn’t the first time you’re hearing about Rosetta Stone for learning languages. The company has been hugely successful since its early start in the computer-assisted learning scene in 1992, and part of that is thanks to stellar advertising efforts.

  • Rype App Review: I Wouldn’t Recommend It To Anybody

    Rype App

    Rating 1.8

    Summary

    Rype is a resource that provides language learners with access to one-on-one lessons with teachers. According to its advertising, you’ll be able to “Learn anytime, anywhere, on-the-go.” Users purchase a subscription package that contains a certain number of lessons per month. The lessons are 30-minutes long and are easy to schedule.


    Quality 2.0

    The platform is very easy to use, but there aren’t many teacher details and lessons take place on Skype.

    Thoroughness 2.0

    There seems to be a range of experience levels on Rype and a very small number of teachers.

    Value 1.5

    The hourly rates are higher than similar online tutor options and you have to commit to a subscription.

    I Like
    • The interface is very easy to use.
    • The 30-minute lesson length.
    • A subscription grants access to lessons in all languages offered.
    I Don’t Like
    • There isn’t a lot of information provided on teachers.
    • I don’t think the monthly subscription model is worth it.
    • The selection of teachers for some languages is extremely limited.
    Price

    The price varies per subscription package and number of lessons each month. This ranges from $59.99-179.99.

    The availability of online one-on-one language courses has skyrocketed in recent years, and it’s made it possible for just about anyone with an internet connection to find a suitable language tutor.

  • Satori Reader Review – Engaging Japanese Texts and Dialogues

    Satori Reader

    Rating 4.3

    Summary

    Satori Reader is a Japanese learning method available on your computer and smartphone/tablet. It focuses on Japanese reading skills and teaches Japanese grammar and vocabulary by providing weekly annotated articles and dialogues. Satori Reader also contains a built-in vocabulary repetition app that uses new vocabulary learned from the articles. A basic free version and a premium subscription version are available.


    Quality 5.0

    The website looks clean and functions smoothly. The articles are well-written and enjoyable.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    Satori Reader should be used as a companion to a more comprehensive teaching method, but it is a good way to train reading and vocabulary.

    Value 4.0

    Each thematic series has a lot of articles, but some users will only be interested in a couple of the 21 themes. New articles are added weekly.

    I Like
    • Articles are sorted by theme and everyone will find a couple of themes that interest them.
    • New vocabulary can be easily saved for later.
    • Built-in repetition software to help with memorizing the new vocabulary.
    • Grammar and vocabulary are explained by hovering over the items. When things are unclear you can post under the article and staff will try to answer your questions.
    • Articles are accompanied by audio for listening along.
    I Don’t Like
    • New articles are usually added to existing thematic series but there could be more themes.
    Price

    A basic version of Satori Reader with limited articles is free to use. Subscription prices for the full version with over 550 articles and new articles released weekly are $9/month or $89/year.

    When I was learning Japanese at university, I often felt close to giving up. Every day I would do my grammar exercises and practice vocabulary like a good student. I did all my homework assignments and showed up for every class.

  • Skritter Review: Solid Chinese and Japanese Writing Practice

    Skritter

    Rating 4.2

    Summary

    Skritter is a language app that teaches learners to write characters in Chinese and Japanese. It uses handwriting recognition technology in conjunction with a spaced repetition system to teach stroke order, meaning, and vocabulary. Users can choose from many pre-made study decks, including some from popular textbooks or programs. It’s also possible to create your own decks.


    Quality 4.3

    The app has a great design and quality content; the handwriting recognition isn’t perfect, but it’s rarely inaccurate.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    It sets out to teach reading and writing and does a great job, but some additional explanations would be nice.

    Value 4.0

    The SRS makes practice efficient and worthwhile, but some people may only want to pay for a month at a time.

    I Like
    • Native-speaker audio is high quality.
    • The handwriting recognition works very well.
    • The design and interface are great.
    I Don’t Like
    • It’s somewhat costly for a resource with a narrow focus.
    • The review mechanics can be confusing at first.
    Price

    One Month $14.99
    Six Months $59.99
    One Year $99.99
    Two Years $179.99
     
    You can save 10% on any subscription by signing up with the link below.

  • Speaky Review: Better Than Other Language Exchange Apps?

    Speaky

    Rating 3.7

    Summary

    Speaky is a social language-learning app for people interested in language exchange. It’s available for iOS, Android, and the web. Users can chat with other language learners, share photos, leave voice messages or even have voice calls. The basic features on Speaky are free to use, but access to more than five translations per day requires a subscription.


    Quality 3.0

    There are some dedicated language learners on Speaky but not as many as similar apps.

    Thoroughness 3.5

    The platform is easy to use but lacks advanced features.

    Value 4.5

    Speaky is mostly free to use, extra features are available for a subscription.

    I Like
    • It’s mostly free.
    • It’s easy to use.
    • There are a lot of users.
    • There are tons of languages
    I Don’t Like
    • Many community members don’t actually seem interested in language exchange.
    • The web version doesn’t work well.
    • There are no extra social features.
    Price

    The basic features on Speaky are free to use. A premium membership is available for a subscription.

    Speaky is a language exchange app. It facilitates exchange by allowing users to chat with others in the language they’re learning. Its function is pretty simple and straightforward — search for a partner with a reciprocal language combination and say hello.

  • Speechling Review – I Didn’t Know I Was Saying That Wrong!

    Speechling

    Rating 4.3

    Summary

    Speechling is a website and app that makes it easy to improve your speaking skills in several languages. The free version is an incredbily valuable resource that makes it easy to practice mimicking native speakers. The Unlimited Plan provides unlimited corrections of your recordings by a teacher.


    Quality 4.5

    Speachling makes it easy to improve your speaking rhythm and pronunciation.

    Thoroughness 4.5

    Lots of different ways to practice speaking.

    Value 4.0

    The free version is better than most paid resources and the paid version provides outstanding value.

    I Like
    • An excellent method to improve your speaking abilities and get feedback from a real teacher.
    • Answer the Question, Describe the Image, and Freestyle mode are great for higher levels.
    • You can switch languages at any time. I like seeing translations in my second language while studying my third language.
    • Truly unlimited recordings with quick feedback.
    I Don’t Like
    • Absolute Beginners should learn the basics elsewhere first.
    • You’ll need to learn how to make the sounds of your target language on your own.
    • The amount of time given to record sentences can be too short.
    Price

    The Forever Free Plan is complete free. A monthly subscription to the Unlimited Plan costs $19.99 per month.

    Click the link to save 10% on Speechling’s Unlimited Plan.

    Speechling has quickly become one of my favorite language learning resources. The free version includes a ton of useful features and the premium plan is great value for the cost.

  • StoryLeaning Spanish Uncovered In-depth Review: One-of-a-kind and Surprisingly Effective & Enjoyable

    StoryLearning Uncovered Courses

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    StoryLeaning Spanish Uncovered (and the similar German, French, Italian and Japanese courses) come from Olly Richards, the creator of the super popular blog I Will Teach You A Language. It’s quite a bit different than most courses as it revolves around a story. It can be a bit more challenging than other courses, as you begin reading somewhat long texts right off the bat. Overall, I found it to be a more fun way to approach language learning that will be great for some but not ideal for others.


    Quality 4.0

    The instruction is clear but can have too much information crammed into a single lesson.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    You’ll practice every aspect of the language.

    Value 4.0

    It has a pretty high price, but if you stick with it, you’ll get good value from it.

    I Like
    • Centering the lessons around a story makes learning more fun.
    • Good clear instruction with lots of opportunities to practive what you’ve learned.
    • Gets students to actively participate and take control of their own learning.
    I Don’t Like
    • Too many unrelated grammar points are included in the grammar lessons.
    • The review quiz is too short.
    Price

    A one-time purchase costs $297, or for Japanese, $397. There’s also a 7-day free trial.

    Olly Richards, the creator of the popular blog I Will Teach You A Language has also created several language learning courses.

  • Storylearning Japanese Uncovered Review

    StoryLearning Japanese

    Rating 4.0

    Summary

    StoryLearning Japanese Uncovered comes from Olly Richards, the creator of the super popular polyglot blog. It’s quite a bit different than most courses as it revolves around an engaging story. It can be a bit more challenging than other courses, as you begin reading somewhat long texts right off the bat. Overall, I found it to be a more fun way to approach language learning that will be great for some but not ideal for others.


    Quality 4.0

    The instruction is clear but can have too much information crammed into a single lesson.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    You’ll practice every aspect of the language.

    Value 4.0

    It has a pretty high price, but if you stick with it, you’ll get good value from it.

    I Like
    • Centering the lessons around a story makes learning more fun.
    • Good clear instruction with lots of opportunities to practive what you’ve learned.
    • Gets students to actively participate and take control of their own learning.
    I Don’t Like
    • Too many unrelated grammar points are included in the grammar lessons.
    • The review quiz is too short.
    Price

    $397 with a risk free 30-day money back guarantee.

    The StoryLearning Method involves teaching grammar, vocabulary and writing in context. Stories weave Japanese vocabulary and grammar points together so that connections can be made between what a word means and how it is used, which research into language development shows is more useful than learning random, individual words from a vocabulary list.

  • Tandem Review: A Tinder-esque Language Exchange App?

    Tandem

    Rating 4.7

    Summary

    Tandem is a popular language exchange app with over one million active users. It’s available for iOS and Android and aims to bring language learners from all over the world together. It’s largely centered around its chat capabilities and language tools that facilitate communication, but there is also a tutoring service offered in the app.


    Quality 5.0

    There are lots of active language learners, especially those looking to pair with native English speakers.

    Thoroughness 4.5

    The interface is intuitive and the language tools are simple and effective, though you’ll quickly run out of free translations.

    Value 4.5

    The free version is all most people will need. Tandem Pro doesn’t add a ton of extra value.

    I Like
    • There are plenty of language partners
    • The interface is easy to use and attractive
    • The free version offers a lot of value
    I Don’t Like
    • You’ll need to use other learning resources as well
    • Though Tandem has some safety features, you may encounter people using the app as a dating tool
    Price

    There is a limited free version of Tandem and a pro version available at $6.99 for one month, $10.67/month for three months, and $6.67/month for a year’s subscription.

  • Transparent Language Review – Not Exciting, But Language Offering Is So Vast That You May Need It

    Last Updated on December 13, 2023.

    Transparent Language

    Rating 2.3

    Summary

    Transparent Language markets itself as “the most complete language-learning system for independent learners.” While there are lots of different exercises for you to work through in their Essentials Course, I thought that the material wasn’t all that helpful and that it got very repetitive. Although the courses might not be all that useful or in-depth, with over a hundred languages on offer it might be worth checking out if you want to learn the very basics of a more obscure language such as Buriat, Kazakh or Turkmen.


    Quality 2.5

    While the exercises are for the most part well-designed, diverse and easy to use, it is the core material itself that I found lacking.

    Thoroughness 2.0

    I hardly came across any explanations at all; practice was almost exclusively memorizing words and phrases.

    Value 2.5

    I would only consider using if I was studying a very rare language.

    I Like
    • I really like the fact that they offer up courses in languages that are usually overlooked.
    • It’s pretty well-designed, easy to use and has lots of different activities to work through.
    I Don’t Like
    • The core material is severely lacking in my opinion; it’s hard for me to imagine you’ll learn much grammar or how to form even a basic sentence yourself.
    • It gets very repetitive and so I didn’t find it that fun to work through.
    • You learn virtually nothing about the different cultural contexts of the languages you’re learning.
    • Their teaching methodology was the biggest issue for me, leaving you memorizing lots of words and phrases in isolation.
    Price

    There is a free two-week trial period for you to try it out. Otherwise, it is $24.95 per month or $149.95 for a whole year if you just select one language. If you want access to all of the languages it is then $49.95 per month and $249.95 a year.

  • uTalk Review – For Beginners Who Want To Learn Key Words & Phrases

    uTalk

    Rating 3.7

    Summary

    uTalk is a software program and mobile app offering learning material in over 140 languages. Its approach is based on learning keywords and phrases through gameplay. It covers a wide range of phrases, each spoken by a female and male native speaker, consequently offering listening and pronunciation practice. uTalk is most useful for beginners who want to get started in a language by learning key phrases. It could also be useful for intermediates looking to fill gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation, but it does not offer any in-depth language instruction or grammar explanations. It’s also worth mentioning that for some languages, such as Basque, the occasional overly literal translation leads to small errors and unnatural phrasing creeping in. However, we haven’t seen instances in which this would result in you being misunderstood, and there’s no denying uTalk’s value for languages with fewer learning resources.


    Quality 3.5

    The app is very user-friendly, and the content is mostly useful, but little variation in practice activities can become repetitive.

    Thoroughness 3.5

    The app does a good job of teaching key words and phrases, but review opportunities aren’t as transparent or comprehensive as they could be.

    Value 4.0

    The price is very low, there’s a lot of content, and the right learner could get some serious practical use out of the resource.

    I Like
    • The number of languages on offer is staggering.
    • Each phrase is recorded by a male and female native speaker. This was especially helpful in learning pronunciation.
    • You frequently get to hear recordings of yourself producing the language. I found this motivating and informative.
    I Don’t Like
    • The Memory Game exercise felt like a waste of time. It’s difficult to get a perfect score even if you know the language well.
    • I kept wishing there was a way to choose which phrases I could practice in games instead of them being randomly selected.
    Price

    $11.99 a month that can be cancelled anytime. 6 months costs $59.99 and for one year it is $99.99. 

    This was my first encounter with uTalk, so I didn’t know what to expect before trying it out. A quick search on the internet showed third-party reviews saying everything from “It’s just ok” to “Become fluent in another language with uTalk.” My experience was something much closer to the former.

  • Verbling Review: Online Classes With Helpful Revision Tools

    Verbling

    Rating 4.6

    Summary

    Verbling is an online language-class marketplace where you can take lessons with teachers of your choice. It has some student-friendly extra features, including a built-in online classroom, flashcards, homework calendar, and a filing system for lesson materials. There are also useful but disorganized forums where you can discuss languages, share writing for critique, and do free language drills and exercises.

    The lessons are generally high quality and well structured, plus the filters make it easy to find teachers who specialize in everything from accent reduction to interview preparation. 

    However, it can be slightly pricier than alternatives, so if you’re on a tight budget, you may want to look elsewhere. It also has fewer languages than some of the bigger competitors, so it might not be a good choice if you want to study Azerbaijani, Khmer, or Yoruba.


    Quality 4.5

    There are some less experienced teachers, but I found the lessons to be more consistently high quality than on italki.

    Thoroughness 5.0

    The classroom technology, flashcards, and filing system are fantastic for learners and easy to use.

    Value 4.5

    Some teachers charge more than on italki, but you get better classroom technology, more privacy, and fewer disorganized teachers.

    I Like
    • I quickly found great teachers.
    • The platform’s extra features, such as teacher-made, personalized flashcards, help you review the material learned in each lesson.
    • It seems focused on long-term progression as well as immediate student satisfaction.
    • You don’t have to give out your contact details, thanks to the classroom technology.
    I Don’t Like
    • Some teachers don’t use the platform’s flashcards and materials system.
    • There are fewer languages available than on italki.
    • You can only pay in US dollars, plus there’s a hidden fee.
    • The forums need more moderation.
    Price

    Prices are set by the teacher and range from $5 to $75 for an hour-long lesson. You can get discounts for buying packs of 5, 10, or 20 lessons with a teacher. Every student gets one free trial lesson, after which they’re $6 each.

    I’ve got a confession to make: italki is one of my least favorite online language-learning resources. However, it was my go-to option for a long time, and I understand why people love it: it’s cheap, has teachers in nearly every language imaginable, and the app has a bunch of extra community features.

  • Wanikani Review – A Useful Supplementary Tool For Studying Japanese

    Wanikani

    Rating 4.2

    Summary

    Wanikani is an innovative, useful site for beginning learners of Japanese kanji. The site provides mnemonic devices and a spaced repetition system (SRS) to teach radicals, kanji, and vocabulary. Although it offers a phenomenal foundation in kanji, it doesn’t provide everything you’ll need to learn the language. Still, if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, Wanikani is an excellent supplementary program.


    Quality 4.5

    Easy and fun to use, so long as you don’t fall behind on your lessons.

    Thoroughness 4.0

    It won’t teach you stroke order or too much grammatically, but it provides over 2000 kanji and 6000 vocabulary words.

    Value 4.0

    Wanikani is constantly adding new material, so even if you finish all the kanji, there’ll be more to learn. If you put in the effort, it’s more than worth your money.

    I Like
    • The mnemonic devices/stories are hilarious and make learning fun and memorable.
    • Wanikani keeps track of which radicals, kanji, and vocab you’re struggling with in its “critical condition items” feature. You can easily look at this resource to figure out your strengths and weaknesses, and you can restart a level if you’re having trouble with the new material.
    • Each kanji and vocab provides an audio reading by a native speaker. These recordings help you get an ear for the sound of the word, alongside the written form.
    I Don’t Like
    • If you skip a day, it adds up. Wanikani does allow you to pause via vacation mode, but if you forget, or if you need more time, you’ll potentially have hundreds of lessons to catch up on.
    • Some of the mnemonics are hard to remember.
    • Wanikani is great for reading, but if you’re trying to speak or write the language, this site doesn’t offer much. And while example sentences are provided, the actual process of learning grammar is left to each individual.
    Price

    A monthly subscription costs $9, a yearly subscription is $89, and a lifetime subscription is $299. The first three levels are available for free.

  • Word Dive Review: Falls Short Compared To Similar Apps

    Word Dive

    Rating 2.8

    Summary

    Word Dive uses artificial intelligence and short exercises to help language learners commit study items to long-term memory. The app provides instruction in ten languages and is available for desktop, iOS, and Android.


    Quality 3.5

    It’s very easy to use, but I thought the material was limited.

    Thoroughness 2.5

    You can practice vocabulary and grammar, but there are almost no grammar explanations.

    Value 2.5

    It isn’t very expensive, but other resources are similarly priced and more comprehensive.

    I Like
    • It’s convenient for mobile language practice
    • It’s fun to use
    • Partial credit answers motivate you to stretch yourself
    I Don’t Like
    • There are almost no grammar explanations.
    • I found the exercises repetitive.
    Price

    A subscription starts at $9.99. For 3 months it is $27.99. 6 months $47.99. 12 months $79.99. 

    Combine a strong affinity for things under the sea and a desire to make the lives of language learners easier, and you might produce something similar to Word Dive.

MiniReviews of Japanese Online Language Learning Resources

  • 50 Languages Mini-Review: Basically an online phrasebook

    50Languages

    Rating 2.8
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    It is clear that 50Languages aims to make language learning accessible to anyone with an internet connection There is no signup required to use the site, so its resources are both free, and anonymous. You can find 100 free downloadable audio files of native speakers and ‘lessons’ in over 50 languages, in addition to vocabulary, alphabets, quizzes, and games. Unfortunately, none of these resources follow a cohesive learning path, nor does the platform help you memorize any of the information provided. Only one section, the Translation Trainer, aims to help you retain phrases. However, if you have saved phrases in multiple languages, all of them will be bunched together into one review without an indication of which language you should be translating into. The audio files and phrasebook lessons contain a series of phrases that do not seem to build on what you have previously learned; learning from this website is essentially like referencing a phrasebook you might buy for a trip to another country. 50Languages has a lot of information available, but it doesn’t seem like it can be used as a standalone language resource. Perhaps you can take phrases and vocabulary that interest you and compiled them into an Anki deck to help with retention.

  • AmazingTalker Mini Review: Not Our Top Pick for Web Classes

    AmazingTalker

    Rating 2.5
    Price:

    From around $10 per 50-minute class

    Summary

    AmazingTalker is an italki and Verbling competitor that lets you book classes with language teachers and academic tutors of your choice. It has a lot of attractive features for students, but teachers complain about high commission rates and lack of support. It boasts a 3% acceptance rate for teachers and a 100% satisfaction guarantee. If you’re not happy with your class, they’ll rebook you another one for free. There are lots of teachers to choose from, or you can also use their AI Matching Service to find a tutor. The teachers’ profiles include videos, reviews, and their résumé. However, AmazingTalker doesn’t seem a great choice for teachers. It charges English and Japanese teachers astonishingly high commission rates of up to 30%. While these rates fall as teachers earn more through the site, they have to make $1,500 a month before the commission reaches levels comparable to italki and Verbling. Making it worse, there’s an additional 8% fee for payment processing and tax that all teachers have to pay, no matter what language they teach.  There have also been complaints on Reddit from teachers claiming to have been harassed by students and fellow teachers. However, we cannot corroborate these. Given all this, we’d recommend trying italki (review) or Verbling (review) first. Alternatively, check out our guide to the best platforms for online language classes.

  • Anki Mini-Review: The Go-To SRS Flashcard App

    Anki

    Rating 4.1
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    It is the go-to app for free (except on iOS) Spaced Repetition System (SRS) flashcards. It has a simple user interface with various features that more hard-core users can dive into if they choose. Your flashcards will appear according to your natural forgetting curve; the app will test you in increasingly spaced out intervals, with more difficult cards appearing more than once in a session, while easier cards spacing out over weeks — or even months and years. An SRS system is the most effective way to drive information into your long-term memory. The cards can sync between the web, desktop app, and mobile versions to keep your flashcards updated and with you at all times. You can add images and audio clips to your cards and change the text formatting (if you use it on your computer). One feature unique to Anki, as opposed to other SRS flashcard apps, is the “Cloze deletion” function, which allows you to block out parts of your card and create a “fill-in-the-blanks” type card format. If you want a resource for how to make effective flashcards, check out the book, FluentForever. The author leaves a whole section dedicated to understanding how to use your Anki deck to advance your skills quickly.

  • Bab.la Mini-Review: Use WordReference or Linguee Instead

    bab.la

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Bab.la is a bilingual dictionary for 28 different languages. Their site includes quizzes, games, grammar lessons, phrasebooks, and a forum for users to discuss language learning. You can also look up various verbs in the conjugation tables or find synonyms and examples of how to use words in context. Their quizzes should be taken with a grain of salt — If your purpose is to familiarize yourself with vocabulary and grammar structures, then these are probably a fun way to explore your target language. However, if your purpose is to understand the target language’s culture, beware of any quiz that touches on romance, as the advice is similar to that of the magazines found in grocery store checkout lines. Bab.la may be okay for general definitions, but other sites will probably help you dive further into different languages. Linguee provides examples of words in context sourced from articles and research papers in the target language, and Forvo has millions of words pronounced by native speakers in hundreds of languages. Also, check out WordReference (for a more relevant database of example sentences), Pleco (for Chinese learners), or SpanishDict (For Spanish learners or Spanish-speaking English learners).

  • Beelinguapp Mini-Review: Reading & Listening Practice

    Beelinguapp

    Rating 4.3
    Price:

    Freemium, $29.99/year

    Summary

    Beelinguapp makes it easier to read and listen to interesting content in a number of languages. You’ll find short stories, news, fairy tales, music, and more. Their side-by-side reading functionality highlights the sentence in the language you’re learning, as well as in a language you’re familiar with. The karaoke feature makes it easy to follow the audio with the written text. Some of the content and features are available for free, but there are also premium plans to unlock more.

  • Bilingual Oxford Dictionaries Mini Review: Handy Apps

    Oxford Dictionaries

    Rating 4.2
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Oxford Dictionary has published numerous bilingual dictionaries over the years, many of which are not designed to be comprehensive. While some are “complete” dictionaries, others are called “mini”, “concise”, “essential” or even “shorter”. Even the smaller ones are pretty thorough, however. The Oxford Mini Greek dictionary contains 40,000 words and phrases, many of which also contain multiple translations. It’s a lot shorter than the Oxford Hindi dictionary, at 100,000 entries, or the New Oxford American English Dictionary at 350,000 – but it’s still got a wider vocabulary than the average English speaker. You can purchase the books themselves, but most learners will prefer the convenience of the apps with their regular updates and learner-friendly features. Search Autocomplete, Fuzzy Filter, Wild Card and Voice Search help you find words you don’t know how to spell. Favourites help you save useful words and phrases, while Word of the Day will introduce you to new words. Some dictionaries also contain audio recordings and thesauruses. And the freemium Oxford Dictionary with Translator will translate words and paragraphs to and from 14 languages. For some languages, learners already have plenty of free, thorough dictionaries available to them. Spanish learners, for example, will probably prefer to combine the free apps SpanishDict and Diccionario RAE (Google Play, App Store). Mandarin Chinese learners will likely find Pleco more useful. But for some languages, these dictionaries may well be the most thorough and reliable ones available.

    The rating is our best guess, but we haven’t yet had the opportunity to fully test and review this resource.

     

  • Bluebird Languages Mini-Review: Over 160 Languages Available

    Bluebird Languages

    Rating 2.5
    Price:

    Free, Premium subscriptions cost $13.99/mo, $144.99/year

    Summary

    Bluebird Languages has several types of lessons you can choose from, including a daily lesson, core vocabulary, essential verbs, creating sentences, powerful phrases, and conversation. Each topic seems to have a beginner, intermediate, and advanced lesson, although it’s not clear how advanced “advanced” is. In each lesson, an English-speaking narrator will ask you to listen to and repeat translations of various phrases. The recordings in each language seem to use native speakers’ voices, which is quite the feat considering they have lessons in over 160 languages. Bluebird Languages’ phrases don’t construct a replicable dialogue, so the phrases don’t seem to have a lot of context other than the topic at hand. Furthermore, the topics seem to be identical in all languages, so most of the phrases will not be culture-specific. They also don’t break down complicated pronunciation, but you can try to break it down yourself by slowing down the recording to 0.5x speed. Bluebird Languages seems similar to Pimsleur but appears less organized and will probably not improve your communication abilities as quickly. Nevertheless, it may be a good free alternative for beginners, and the program will probably help you develop some confidence in speaking languages that have less challenging pronunciation. The conversation and personalized lessons require a monthly membership, but there is enough free content that these add-ons may not be necessary.

  • BondLingo Mini-Review: Live Japanese Language School Classes

    bondlingo

    Rating 3.8
    Price:

    $ 10

    Summary

    BondLingo provides real-time Japanese classes for JLPT N1 – N5 learners. There is a placement test you can take to determine your level, and the curriculum follows that of Japanese language schools in Japan. Live classes are offered once per week (although this may have become more frequent), but with a premium plan you can explore over 500  lesson videos at your own pace outside of class. The topics include JLPT prep, casual Japanese, survival Japanese, and business Japanese. During the live lessons, a digital textbook is available for students to follow along, and students can interact with the teacher over chat to ask questions or comment. There seems to be a good community of learners, and most instructors are enthusiastic about facilitating discussion. Other reviewers have stated that 80% of the classes are in Japanese, but it seems to depend on the teacher. Earlier videos seem to contain a lot of English, even at the N3 level, so if you are someone who is interested in a more immersion-based experience, you may want to try some of their free intro videos or sign up for a free trial to see if BondLingo’s style suits you.

  • Brainscape Mini-Review: Adaptive Flashcards

    Brainscape

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Freemium, Premium subscriptions start at $9.99/mo

    Summary

    Brainscape is a flashcard app that uses a Spaced Repetition System, also often referred to as ‘adaptive flashcards’, to help you memorize new vocabulary and facts. It has a team of scientists, engineers, and education experts working to optimize their program for effective learning. Brainscape is quite similar to Anki, but has a more modern and colourful interface. They also have Certified Classes, which are decks that seem to have been developed by experts in the chosen topic. The app adds what they call Intelligent Cumulative Exposure (ICE) to some of their Certified Classes; it seems to combine a Spaced Repetition System with gradually introducing new concepts, increasing the difficulty of the concepts, and providing context so you can build your own sentences. It has several Certified Classes for various languages (and other topics), and many more decks created by users. Unlike Anki, edits that creators make to user decks seem to sync up even after you have downloaded the deck. With the free version, you have limited access to premium decks but unlimited access to user-made decks.

  • BunPro Mini Review: Japanese Grammar Flashcards For N5–N1

    BunPro

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    $3/month

    Summary

    BunPro – not to be confused with Bunpo (review) – is a flashcard-based website and app that focuses on grammar. It’s best used as a supplementary resource, and BunPro knows it. In fact, as you go through the flashcards, BunPro will recommend websites where you can learn more about the grammatical feature or word in question, as well as the page number you should go to in certain textbooks. And as well as opting for the standard course order that seems to correspond with the JLPT, you can choose to study the flashcards in pathways that correspond with Genki, Minna no Nihongo, Tae Kim, and more. You can dip in and out of the pathways as you wish, and add and remove content from your flashcard reviews. Each level is divided into sublevels and themes, which makes it easy to spot material you don’t yet know. There are also community discussions about the different grammar points. You could skip the textbooks and just study with BunPro, although it would be a much more superficial introduction to Japanese. What’s more, you would need additional resources for the kana, kanji, vocabulary, and reading, writing, listening and speaking practice. The clue’s in the name, after all: BunPro wants to help you become a pro at Japanese bunpō or grammar. It doesn’t do much else, but as a supplementary grammar resource, it’s a great tool.

  • CaptionPop Mini-Review: Use The Free Version

    Caption Pop

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Free, Premium subscriptions start at $10/mo

    Summary

    With CaptionPop you can use YouTube videos to pursue your language learning endeavours using subtitles in both your target language and native language. Tap a single key to repeat the last caption, slow down the playback speed, and bookmark subtitles to study with SRS interactive flashcards. The flashcards will not just have you memorize words, but practice dictations with immediate feedback on your accuracy. Unfortunately there are currently some bugs in the programming, and you may only hear part of the caption you are being asked to transcribe. You can search for Youtube videos in your target language within the CaptionPop platform, but only those videos with subtitles in both your target language and your native language are available. This means that you will rely on captions translated and transcribed by the video’s creators, which improves your language learning experience but restricts the amount of available Youtube content. Nevertheless, there is a good amount of content from popular channels in more common languages. The free version of the platform combined with self-made Anki cards may be a better option than subscribing to the premium version, as the bugs in CaptionPop’s programming may not be worth the monthly payment.

  • Casual Nihongo Mini-Review: Topics Mostly Focus on Dating

    Casual Nihongo

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Nあ~ Casual Nihongo is a podcast and website that teaches you how Japanese is used in casual contexts. Most of the episodes feature short, spontaneous conversations between two people, recorded in a public setting. On the Casual Nihongo website, you can find full transcripts of these dialogues with notes on how to use new phrases in context. After March 2020, there are fewer transcriptions of the full dialogues, but you can still find notes on key questions and phrases. The sound quality varies in each of the episodes — sometimes the voices are difficult to make out because of the background noise. Depending on your goal, this could be good training for listening comprehension, or it could be a little frustrating. Although Dai, the creator, touches on a few different topics, such as gambling and job-hunting in Japan, most of the episodes focus on dating, which might not appeal to all audiences. However, if you want to learn some slang and familiarize yourself with casual conversations, Causal Nihongo could be an enjoyable, free option. Alternatively, you can also check out Japanese With Noriko or Small Talk in Japanese, which are both podcasts that cover a wide range of topics.

  • Complete Language Lessons Mini Review: Almost Useless

    Complete Language Lessons

    Rating 0.2
    Price:

    $8.99 for the CD/$1.29 per track on Amazon, free on Spotify

    Summary

    Complete Language Lessons has audio courses for numerous languages on Amazon, Spotify, and Deezer. We tried out the Swahili audio course, Learn Swahili Easily, Effectively, and Fluently – and were extremely disappointed. The audio tracks we sampled consist of Swahili phrases repeated over and over again, with no translations, explanations, or anything in English. The audio quality isn’t great, either, and the occasional muted club music adds to the bizarreness.  It feels to us like the audio tracks are supposed to accompany a textbook, but we couldn’t find one. If one existed at some point, we suspect it’s no longer available. If you already speak the language and are looking for native audio recordings to help you improve your listening and pronunciation, you might get some value out of Complete Language Lessons. However, if your aim is learn the language, we would skip these CDs.

  • Conversations by StoryLearning Mini-Review: There are Cheaper Options

    Conversations – IWTYAL

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    $197

    Summary

    Conversations by I Will Teach You a Language is a downloadable program that uses Comprehensible input (CI) as a strategy to improve your language level. Comprehensible input is when you consume second language material that is just above your current level, which in IWTYAL’s case, is about A2-B1 on the CEFR scale. The Conversations program includes material of a manageable length with full transcripts and English translations. It is 20 chapters long and follows six characters, two of whom have just moved to the countryside from the big city. You will listen to realistic dialogues between the characters and learn everyday colloquialisms and slang. The characters have a variety of accents within each language, and they speak at a relatively natural speed. The series has the same content in each language, but there are variations based on cultural differences. IWTYAL probably has good quality materials, but it is quite expensive compared to other CI resources. Intermediate learners can check out innerFrench, Japanese With Noriko, Russian With Max, and Dreaming Spanish for some high-quality, free alternatives. Chinese learners might want to check out Du Chinese and The Chairman’s Bao for graded readers with audio. 

  • Cooljugator Mini-Review: Conjugations For Uncommon Languages

    cooljugator

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    $ 0.00

    Summary

    Cooljugator is a free online verb conjugation dictionary for over 40 languages, with special attention to languages without existing free resources. Besides conjugated forms, the website also provides examples, English translations, pronunciation hints, related verbs, and more. On each page, you can also read the translation for your chosen verb into every other language available on the site. Unfortunately, there are no audio files to help you with pronunciation, but maybe that will change in the future. You can directly search for conjugations, or if you’re looking for inspiration, every language has a list of the most common verbs to choose from. On that same page, you can read some facts and a brief overview of what verb conjugation looks like in your chosen language. Although Cooljugator is 100% free, you can purchase the creator’s other project, Interlinear Books, to learn languages through stories. If you would like to practice verb conjugations for some common languages, check out Conjuguemos, another free resource with verb conjugation games. Also, SpanishDict is probably more appropriate for Spanish learners because of the extensive resources and activities that accompany their sections on verb conjugation. 

  • Coursera Mini Review: Great for Beginners, but Limited Options

    Coursera

    Rating 4.3
    Price:

    Free, with some courses starting at $39/month

    Summary

    Coursera has several paid and free online language courses developed by accredited universities. The quality of the courses varies, but the following recommendations have been well received — these courses are primarily for beginners who want an introduction to a new language. You can choose from a series of individual courses, or take a beginner specialization in RussianSpanishMandarin, and Chinese HSK 1-3 (with additional individual HSK 4-6 courses).  If you have just started, or haven’t yet started, learning Korean, Yonsei University has one course for absolute beginners, and another for those who have a basic grasp of Hangul.  Saint Petersburg State University’s beginner Japanese course is probably not as effective as other resources that we might recommend instead, such as JapanesePod101 or Pimsleur. École Polytechnique offers the only French course on Coursera; it’s technically for B1-B2 learners, although B2 learners may find it too easy.  Lastly, English learners can enjoy a specialization in intermediate grammaradvanced grammaracademic speaking and listening, or business English If you are starting a language and enjoy structured courses with a (flexible) weekly schedule, Coursera is a great option — especially since Coursera offers financial aid for those who can’t afford to pay the course fees. Pair your studies with a tutor from italki or Verbling for speaking practice and you’ll be good to go!

  • DeerPlus Mini Review: Fun Supplementary App

    DeerPlus

    Rating 3.7
    Price:

    Freemium; $8.99/month, $35.99/year, $59.99/lifetime

    Summary

    DeerPlus, also known as LingoDeer Plus, is a cute, gamified app from the makers of Lingodeer. It sets out to teach you words, phrases, and grammar through 11 different games, but it’s best used as a supplementary tool. You’ll drill vocabulary, build phrases, select the right particles, decide if a sentence is grammatically correct or not, do conjugation exercises, answer listening comprehension questions, and more. What you won’t do is learn the material prior to being tested like you do with LingoDeer (review), DeerPlus’ sister app.  DeerPlus is a fun supplementary tool that would work well alongside most resources, but especially LingoDeer. However, it’s a shame that there aren’t SRS features in what is essentially a review app. A word of warning: you can study in a range of languages, but not all the games have been translated. We were shocked when we switched from studying Japanese via Spanish to Japanese via English and discovered grammar and “integrated” games in addition to the five vocabulary and phrase-based ones we had been playing.

  • Easy Languages Mini-Review: Interviews Around The Globe

    Easy Languages

    Rating 4.3
    Price:

    $ 0.00

    Summary

    Easy Languages gets people involved from all around the globe —from Brazil to Mongolia — to film authentic interviews about everyday life with locals on the street. A typical episode format starts with the interviewer (or interviewers) introducing the topic and location for the day. Then, they will approach various locals to ask their opinion or test their knowledge. Only a handful of languages, like Hindi, and Swahili, don’t follow this format — these are also typically the languages with fewer videos. Easy Languages invites co-producers to join their channel, which means that anyone can apply to create videos, as long as they are filmed according to the Easy Languages guidelines. These co-producers receive multimedia training if they don’t already have experience in the field, so the videos typically have a baseline quality standard (although sometimes the filming can be a bit shaky). Most of the interviewers have a bubbly personality, and some of them appear in multiple language interviews within Easy Languages. Overall, the interviews are enjoyable and will train your ear to understand a range of voices and accents. Also, for anyone who uses Seedlang for German, you’ll be pleasantly surprised to see Cari’s friendly face in the Easy German episodes!  

  • edX Mini-Review: Worth It If You Audit, Maybe Not If You Pay

    Edx

    Rating 3.8
    Price:

    Freemium, prices vary

    Summary

    Like Coursera, many of edX’s courses were developed by accredited universities, and you can obtain certificates of completion at the end of your studies. Unlike Coursera, edX’s courses are all free to audit, non-profit, and open-source. It was originally founded by Harvard and MIT, and since then has been joined by universities around the globe. The Spanish and Italian courses in particular have many activities to reinforce your learning, including writing, reading, speaking, and listening activities. The Chinese course is less comprehensive, but could still teach you the basics if you don’t mind watching lots of videos — although, the Peking University courses on Coursera may be a better option. The Steps in Japanese series also includes lots of videos, but these videos are interactive and quiz you on the material. Overall, Coursera seems to have a better platform than edX, and their courses may be more intuitive to navigate. However, that shouldn’t stop you from trying out what edX has to offer, especially considering that you can get most of it for free. After you have learned the basics, you can enrich your knowledge through Open Learn’s free language courses.

  • Eggbun Mini-Review: Excellent for Understanding Hangul

    Eggbun

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Freemium, Premium subscriptions cost $17.99/mo, $30.99/quarter, $94.99/year

    Summary

    Learning with Eggbun is like text messaging a very enthusiastic friend. The 2-minute lessons take place in a chat box with a character named Lanny (who might literally be an egg bun). This review will focus on the Korean app, but the Japanese version has a similar lesson style (and the Chinese version is still under development). Lanny clearly explains the different sounds that Korean consonants can make depending on where they are located in a word. You will receive practical pronunciation tips for each new jamo, and you will be typing out your first words on a Korean keyboard before the end of the first lesson. After the writing lessons, you can explore both casual and formal language through cultural notes, dialogues, dictations, multiple-choice questions, fill in the blanks, role plays, and more. There are even entire sections dedicated to special topics, such as pronunciation, borrowed words, and verb conjugations. Whether you want to learn survival Korean, business Korean, or real-life conversations, Eggbun seems like an effective app for beginners to build their confidence in basic Korean conversation.

  • Elon.io Mini Review: A Bit Messy

    Elon.io

    Rating 3.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Elon.Io is a website that teaches basic Japanese, Turkish, and Spanish writing, vocabulary, and grammar. As you complete each lesson, a checkmark will appear beside it in the table of contents. You can also sign up for a free account to keep track of your progress.  You can review concepts from your errors in the SRS quizzes, but these review lessons carry into every language. So, if you have reviews leftover from Japanese, you will review them during your Turkish and Spanish studies. In Japanese and Spanish, the lessons seem to build on one another. For example, you may learn some basic kanji and then use them in the next lesson with a new grammar concept. In Turkish, however, you will have to look at the “exercises” section of the lesson to succeed in the quizzes. Unfortunately, the lessons put a strong emphasis on translation, and the Japanese version often uses romaji instead of kana or kanji. Although it’s free, you might want to check out our other recommended resources first.

  • Encore!!! Language Learning Mini-Review: Basically a Phrasebook

    Encore!!! Language Learning

    Rating 1.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Encore!!! Language Learning allows you to listen to playlists of common phrases, vocabulary, conjugations, and dialogues. It varies in terms of whether it uses native speakers or automated text-to-voice. The app is basically a phrasebook that allows you to practice translating sentences to and from your native language, or simply repeat after an audio in your target language. You can listen to a pre-made playlist, mute or unmute certain phrases within a playlist, adjust the number of repetitions of each phrase, or create your own playlist. You can also test your memory with the Test tool by reading prompts in your native language and translating into your target language. The app seems to focus more on understanding grammar structures than other phrasebook sites like Optilingo or Lingohut. Technically you could learn something by repeating the phrases aloud, but there are many other free apps that provide a clearer learning path and have a more intuitive interface than Encore!!! Language Learning.

  • Flowlingo Mini-Review: Has Potential, Still Developing

    flowlingo

    Rating 2.6
    Price:

    $19.99/month

    Summary

    Flowlingo allows you to browse websites and news articles in your target language while providing instant audio and visual translations when you tap on unknown words. They use an SRS based flashcard system to help you remember words you don’t know, and will automatically save flashcards from words that you translate.  This does mean, however, that you have less control over what is recorded in the flashcard deck, especially with the possibility of accidentally tapping on words you already know. The free content on Flowlingo’s app allows you to search the web and have access to instant translations. With a premium subscription, you can watch popular TV shows and movies, and upload your own books. The app seems to still be under development, and it is unclear whether the flashcard system only records unknown words with a premium subscription, or if the app currently has a bug. Either way, this is probably a good app to look into at a future time, but there are currently more refined apps that provide similar content. Check out Yabla to learn languages through videos or Readlang for flashcards and translations from webpages and other texts.

  • Forvo Mini-Review: Audio Pronunciation of Millions of Words

    Forvo

    Rating 4.8
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Forvo’s mission is to improve spoken communication across cultures. Anyone can explore pronunciations of millions of words in over 390 languages with maps displaying where each speaker is from. The site also organizes popular categories and essential phrases for when you don’t have a specific word in mind. As a registered user, you can contribute to the site by pronouncing words or phrases in your native language or by requesting pronunciations in a specific language. You are also encouraged to vote on audio files in your native language to help others identify the best pronunciation. For those of you who enjoy using Anki, Forvo allows you to download mp3 files to use in your learning endeavours. Forvo also has an e-learning course for French, Spanish, and English; you will find three levels and a group of topics with sets of the most common words in your target language. Using an SRS flashcard system, you will be able to learn the pronunciation of these words and view an example of how to use them in a sentence. If you are looking for a pronunciation reference guide, look no further than Forvo’s extensive database!

  • FSI Courses Mini-Review: Free, Comprehensive, but Also Outdated

    FSI Courses

    Rating 4.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    The Foreign Services Institute developed their language courses to help diplomats quickly reach professional working proficiency in a language. They would attend 5 hours of language instruction per day, plus homework, for 24-88 weeks (depending on the language). The table at the bottom of this page indicates the average time it would take for a student to reach professional working proficiency. The FSI program places a strong focus on listening comprehension, in addition to extensive exercises for grammar and vocabulary. If you follow along with the audio and respond to the prompts in each drill, you will also develop confidence in speaking the language. With hundreds of pages of text, dozens of hours of audio, and several levels in many languages, the FSI courses are still probably the most comprehensive, free courses you can follow. Just remember that they are decades old, so the audio is not very clear and the vocabulary often includes both sexist and obsolete language. Also, some of the topics will not be relevant to your everyday life. Several sites host these free, open-source courses, but the site linked below is  easy to navigate. Beware of any site selling courses “originally made for diplomats,” as these are probably free FSI courses with a price tag. You can also check out the DLI courses, which are equally as comprehensive (and free!).

  • FunEasyLearn Mini-Review: Build Vocabulary The Fun Way

    FunEasyLearn

    Rating 2.6
    Price:

    Freemium, monthly subscriptions starting at $11.99

    Summary

    Not only does FunEasyLearn have a slick app interface, high-quality recordings of native speakers, and a variety of activities to reinforce your learning, but it also allows you to learn from 61 mother tongues. The lessons were developed by a team of certified linguists and acting teachers; they cover reading, listening, speaking and writing. You have the choice of learning individual vocabulary or common phrases, both of which navigate between various common categories such as “Describing people”, “General Conversation”, “ and “Transport”. Unfortunately, FunEasyLearn does not seem to provide a foundation for learning more challenging scripts, such as Chinese or Thai; luckily they have a special feature where you can choose to omit the writing aspect and see transliterations; this will allow you to focus on speaking and listening. Ultimately, FunEasyLearn is a fun and easy way to develop some basic vocabulary, but it is probably not the most effective resource for hard-core language learners; you will need to use another resource if you want to learn more than basic vocabulary words.

  • Genki Mini Review: Beginner-Friendly Japanese Textbooks

    Genki

    Rating 4.5
    Price:

    From $48 per volume

    Summary

    Genki, along with Minna no Nihongo, is one of the most popular Japanese textbook series around – and for good reason. There are two volumes, and each of them has an accompanying workbook that you can buy. The main text will teach you reading, writing, grammar, vocabulary, and more. The chapters are focused on a specific activity, e.g. going shopping, which helps you to immediately put the language in context. While not designed to align with JLPT or CEFR levels, studying both volumes should take you roughly up to A2/N4. Genki is slightly more accessible than Minna no Nihongo: it uses English-language explanations and overall teaches less vocabulary and grammar, while still giving you a fairly decent introduction to the language. That said, you’ll find Genki easier to use if you’ve already studied the kana. If you haven’t yet, don’t worry – it won’t take you long to master that with an app like Skritter (review) or LingoDeer (review).  In short, if you’re looking for something beginner-friendly with English explanations, or are just learning Japanese as a hobby, Genki is an ideal textbook. If you’re planning to move to Japan, however, or want to challenge yourself with a more comprehensive textbook, check out our review of the Minna no Nihongo series.

  • Go! Go! Nihon & Akamonkai Online Japanese Course Mini Review

    In our search for the best way to learn Japanese, we came across an interesting Japanese course called Go! Go! Nihon. Here’s a quick review about our findings.

    Go! Go! Nihon & Akamonkai Online Japanese Course

    Rating 2.7
    Price:

    90,000¥

    Summary

    This 12-week beginners Japanese course attempts to recreates the experience of enrolling at a Japanese language school, but from the comfort of your home. You’ll get three to four hours worth of work, including homework, Monday to Friday for almost three months, plus access to a community forum – but it comes at a very high cost. The course is designed to let you pass the JLPT N5  exam, which means you’ll learn the kana, 80 kanji, 1,000 words, and basic survival Japanese for introducing yourself, shopping, expressing opinions, and so on. The lessons make use of text, video, downloadable worksheets, audio files, slideshows that break down grammar, and more. You’re prompted to repeat dialogue and participate in role-plays, and you’ll get the answers to your homework the following morning. However, it’s eye-wateringly expensive. The school justifies it because of the admittedly very high price of studying intensive Japanese courses in Japan. But of course, it’s not really the same as attending a Japanese language school. You’re still studying alone, even though there are learner forums. There’s no pronunciation feedback or group work, just like there aren’t any opportunities to use Japanese outside of the classroom. If you’re happy with the price point and have four hours free each day, then this course might be a good choice for you. However, there are lots more Japanese courses to choose from, most of which are more affordable. Alternatively, you could study a textbook such as Minna no Nihongo or Genki with the help of an online teacher.

  • Hey! Lingo Mini-Review: Has Useful Phrases

    HeyLingo

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    $5.99/mo, $24.99/year, and $39.99/lifetime access

    Summary

    Hey! Lingo, with its flashy, modern, desktop interface, offers a series of phrasebook-like flashcard courses in 26 languages. Each language is divided into 50 lessons, the first 20 of which don’t require a subscription. A premium subscription will allow you to filter flashcard formats, focus on which cards have been difficult for you, and specify which cards you would like to learn in one lesson. The lessons focus on specific skills and each have 10 flashcards. They use both the official alphabet of the target language and a transliteration of the alphabet. The audio pronunciation for each card seems to use a lower quality text-to-speech program than we’ve seen in other apps, which can detract from the learning experience. Although Hey! Lingo is a phrasebook app, it does not focus on typical travel phrases, like how to order food at a restaurant. Instead, it teaches you practical phrases that get to the heart of expressing oneself. Here are some example sentences in the Korean 1 course: “I feel lonely,” “I envy him” and “Stop following me”. The lessons don’t seem to provide a solid foundation for beginners, and they probably won’t help you have conversations in your target language. However, if you enjoy learning useful phrases and already have a basic foundation of the language, Hey! Lingo could be a good option for you.

  • iLanguages Mini-Review: Almost Identical to Learn 101

    ilanguages

    Rating 1.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Learn 101 is almost identical to iLanguages; they have the same native speaker audio files, languages, and mostly identical ‘lesson’ layouts. The main differences are that Learn 101 seems to have added some grammar explanations and reformatted a bit, while iLanguages seems to have added some extra phrases. Since every one of the languages’ “lessons” has the exact same format, including the grammar section, you will learn how to say ‘and’, ‘but’, and ‘or’, in 107 languages, but you will not learn where these types of words fit within a specific language’s sentence structure. Every page is just a list of words with a translation (and sometimes an IPA symbol transliteration). This site could be used if you want to hear native speakers pronounce basic words in very rare languages, or if you want to look up the IPA symbols of a rare language’s alphabet — otherwise, you’re probably better off making flashcards yourself on Anki or trying one of the hundreds of other resources we recommend on this site.

  • iLoveLanguages Mini-Review: Another Phrasebook SIte

    ilovelanguages.org

    Rating 1.6
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    iLoveLanguages seems similar to iLanguages and Learn101 in that every language has the same content and grammar. The eighteen 30-minute beginner ‘lessons’ in every language are essentially lists of phrases and vocabulary words, with audio recordings by native speakers. The site seems to provide a local teacher for each language, but for some reason, the same teacher offers at least 11 of the languages (including Gaelic, Basque, Filipino, Marathi, and Cantonese). Oddly enough, this teacher also appears in stock photos around the internet. Considering that the website advertises each language class as being taught by a native speaker, perhaps be cautious if you are considering taking a class from this site — maybe try italki or SpanishVIP for private lessons instead. iLoveLanguages may be helpful if you want to hear native speakers pronounce words in South-Eastern languages, like Marathi, Gujarati, Vietnamese, or Malay. You can compare the pronunciation with the speakers from either iLanguages or Learn 101 (but not both, as they use identical audio files). You could also check out Forvo, which is probably the most extensive pronunciation database on the internet right now. 

  • Imabi Mini Review: Thorough, Text-Based Lessons

    IMABI.NET

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Imabi is a thorough website that teaches Japanese vocabulary and grammar through text-based lessons. There are over 400 lessons that cover beginner to advanced topics, including over 30 lessons that teach classical Japanese. The website is entirely text-based and should probably not be used as a standalone resource, as there are no audio files and only occasional exercises. However, there are lots of thorough explanations and extensive examples of how to use new concepts in various contexts. Becoming a member gives you access to four kanji lessons that cover 60 characters. In these lessons, you will receive a basic explanation of the kanji, learn how it is used in a list of words, and differentiate between different readings. It is important to already have a strong grasp of hiragana and katakana before taking on these lessons. Overall, it is a comprehensive and well-organized reference guide to support your Japanese studies. You can also check out Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese, another free resource for learning Japanese. It has similar text-based explanations, but also some accompanying videos and comics.

  • Instant Immersion Mini-Review: No Longer a Good Investment

    Instant Immersion

    Rating 2.0
    Price:

    1 level costs $29.95, 3 levels cost $44.95

    Summary

    Instant Immersion offers programs in over 120 languages, narrated by native speakers. It claims to help you build your vocabulary, converse with ease, and perfect your pronunciation. It has interactive activities on the computer, interactive games you can play with your family on a DVD, and MP3 files for your car. Their topics include food, shopping, restaurants, animals, numbers, etc. In other words, Instant Immersion will probably not help you if you are looking to have immediately applicable conversations A common trend in many reviews is the lack of structure in these courses. While other courses build on what you have previously learned and help you learn vocabulary relevant to your everyday life, Instant Immersion seems to provide a large amount of information without transitions or a clear learning path. There is a lot of content, but this doesn’t necessarily mean you will learn a lot. Instant Immersion may have been a good investment several years ago, but now there are many other options for affordable, quality language learning.

  • Internet Polyglot Mini-Review: Word Lists With Games

    Internet Polyglot

    Rating 1.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Internet Polyglot is a website for memorizing vocabulary words in dozens of languages. It has 44 “lessons” that cover topics like cars, time, religion, politics, feelings, measurements, and more. Each lesson is essentially a word list with native speaker pronunciation, an English translation, and a link to a picture to help you remember each word. There are picture games, matching games, guessing games, and typing games, plus a word search and a slide show that reviews all of the words in the lesson. Given that none of the vocabulary words in Internet Polyglot are taught using example sentences or context, learning vocabulary using this site may not be the best use of your time. You are probably better off using Anki to curate personalized vocabulary lists and downloading native speaker audio files from Forvo to accompany your flashcards. Nevertheless, you may find it useful if all you are looking for is a site that already has lists of vocabulary words with native speaker audio. If you are looking for audio files for less commonly-studied languages in context, you can check out iLoveLanguages.

  • iTranslate Mini-Review: 5 Apps To Support Communication

    itranslate

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    $ 0.00

    Summary

    iTranslate is a dictionary, thesaurus, and phrasebook. At first glance, it seems similar to Google Translate’s free app, but a couple of extra paid features make a big difference. Like with Google Translate, you can take pictures of text in your surroundings, such as signs or newspapers, and receive instant translations into your native language. It differs in that you can also take pictures of objects in your surroundings and receive translations into your target language (although it’s not clear what the boundaries are on this function). Two people who don’t speak the same language can use iTranslate Converse as a mediator between them, translating each sentence to create a transcript on their phone (with a slight delay). You can also use the iTranslate Keyboard in any texting app to receive instant translations. To get the most out of your subscription, iTranslate includes five different apps that can support language learning and communication through text, voice, and games. Although iTranslate translates into over 100 languages, check the website to verify which languages are supported in the other apps. iTranslate seems suitable for traveling and communication in different languages. If all you need is a dictionary to support your studies, try WordReference and Linguee, or Pleco for Chinese and SpanishDict for Spanish.

  • Japanese (Renzo Inc.) Mini Review: Excellent Organized Word Lists

    Japanese (renzo inc)

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Although other apps offer more example phrases and verb forms, Japanese by Renzo Inc. excels in the organization of its contents. It offers a simple, free reference guide for kanji, katakana, and hiragana with tables of diacritics, digraphs, and stroke order animations. The kanji section divides about 2000 kanji into levels by school grade (which kanji are learned by Grade 1 children, then Grade 2, etc.) and frequency. You can see examples of compound words that use the selected kanji, more complicated kanji that use the selected kanji (a little bit of inception there), and example sentences that use the kanji in context. You can also sort kanji by their radicals, or sort words by parts of speech, adjectives, nouns, verbs, suffixes, expressions, idiomatic phrases, proverbs, dozens of topics, and more. Although there is a flashcard section, you are probably better off using Kanji Study or Anki, as they offer more interactive flashcard activities and have better formatting. Japanese is free, but you can pay to have advertisements removed. Another option is Takoboto, which is also free and includes lists of word forms.

  • Japanese For Busy People Mini Review: Not That Great

    In this post we review Japanese For Busy People. It’s not my top pick for learning Japanese, and here’s why….

    Japanese For Busy People

    Rating 2.5
    Price:

    From $27/volume

    Summary

    Japanese For Busy People is a popular textbook series, but unless you’re set on learning business vocabulary, we think there are better books available. The biggest issue with this series is that you won’t learn how to write Japanese in the standard version, which only uses romaji. This not only makes it impossible to read or write, but also means learning the pronunciation is much harder. You can purchase a kana version of the textbook instead, but even that doesn’t teach kanji until the second volume. The grammar explanations are quite superficial, while the vocabulary is limited and tends to be business-oriented. If you’re learning Japanese to travel, watch anime, or study in Japan, you might become frustrated with the material. In its favor, it includes a variety of exercises and practice drills. However, we believe there are better Japanese textbooks available. We recommend trying Genki or Minna no Nihongo instead.

  • Japanese From Zero! Mini Review: Slow, Easy, Fun Textbooks

    Japanese From Zero!

    Rating 2.5
    Price:

    From $25/volume

    Summary

    If you’re looking for an easy introduction to Japanese, you might like Japanese From Zero! It is engagingly written and has lots of information about Japanese culture, but it teaches the language at a snail’s pace. In fact, it reminds us of storybooks designed to teach young children foreign languages, in that it mixes kana with romaji. You’ll see words written half in hiragana, half in romaji. And the entire first textbook won’t teach you any katakana or kanji at all. There’s also an accompanying video course, YesJapan (review), which contains a ton of useful material. Ironically, in this course, kana and kanji are used. For serious learners, we think there are better textbooks out there, such as Genki and Minna no Nihongo. But if you’re looking for the textbook equivalent of Duolingo, you might like Japanese From Zero! It’s an easy, fun way to learn the language while never feeling overwhelmed. You’ll make extremely slow progress – but it will still be progress.

  • Japanese Level Up Mini-Review: A Step Up From Basic SRS

    Japanese Level Up

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    $119.99/level, $299.99/all levels

    Summary

    For beginners and intermediate Japanese learners who are frustrated with their learning process and just can’t seem to find the right resource, Jalup might just be the answer to your struggles. The app has improved the basic Spaced Repetition System flashcard method by ensuring that each new card combines with previously learned content. This means that, if you have been following their program, you will fully understand every sentence that is presented to you. There are six levels, from total beginner to ‘Jalup expert’; as a beginner, you will learn to read and write the basic Japanese alphabets, and gradually increase your understanding of vocabulary, grammar, sentence structures, and kanji. By level 4, all definitions and explanations are in Japanese. The app claims to “Make you fluent so you can enjoy anime, manga, and video games,” teaching you practical Japanese and enriching practice with stories that parallel what you have already learned. The downside to this app is how expensive it is. Although each level has 100 cards that you can sample for free, to buy a full level within the app costs over $100 (or slightly cheaper if you want the Anki-version.)

  • Japanese With Noriko Mini-Review: BIte-Sized Listening Practice

    Japanese With Noriko

    Rating 4.6
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Noriko is a qualified Japanese teacher with an education degree who provides podcasts, YouTube videos, and Italki classes for Japanese learners. On her website, you can find transcripts of her podcasts and videos with translations of difficult vocabulary words. Her resources seem most appropriate for upper beginner to intermediate learners. Noriko speaks at a relatively natural speed but articulates clearly in her bite-sized episodes. She speaks almost entirely in Japanese, except to occasionally translate one word here and there (although some YouTube videos have full-sentence translations). She also repeats new vocabulary words multiple times throughout the episodes to help with retention. Although she only started her episodes in February 2020, there are already hundreds of podcasts for your listening enjoyment. Her YouTube videos have various focuses: sometimes she will publish a short story with subtitles, other times you may listen to her talk about vocabulary words specific to everyday contexts. For example, you may learn what to say when you are sick, how to talk about your work, or how to describe the textures of food or drink. Listening to one of Noriko’s episodes can fit into anyone’s schedule; you will surely feel accomplished even after a 5-minute lesson.

  • Jisho Mini-Review: Search From Romaji, Kanji, or English

    Jisho

    Rating 3.8
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Jisho is an online Japanese dictionary that provides words in context, in addition to definitions, example sentences, audio recordings by native speakers, and stroke order diagrams. Occasionally it will also display collocations and verb conjugations. The example sentences come from Tatoeba, so you may want to double-check that they are correct, as sometimes Tatoeba contributors write in a language in which they are not proficient. The audio files come from WaniKani, whose review you can read here. You can search for single words in romaji, hiragana, kanji, radicals, English, or by directly drawing the character on the screen. If you search full sentences in hiragana and kanji, the site will identify the different words, phrases, and particles, and link you to each part’s definition. If you want to contribute to the dictionary, you can register as an editor to edit existing entries or add new ones. Overall, Jisho is a decent dictionary to help you learn Japanese in context. However, you may want to check out Kanji Study mobile app for a slightly more organized interface.

  • Kanji Study Mini-Review: Comprehensive Dictionary and Flashcards

    Kanji Study

    Rating 4.5
    Price:

    Freemium, $12.99 for full access

    Summary

    Kanji Study’s user interface for Android is simple and intuitive. It will help you study hiragana, katakana, and over 4000 kanji with interactive flashcards. You can race the clock with multiple-choice questions, study through rote memorization, or physically write out the characters on your screen. It also includes an extensive dictionary of characters. Each character page includes stroke order animations, writing practice, definitions, On-yomi, Kun-yomi, notes for mnemonics, and a unique visual decomposition of radicals that make up the kanji. The pages also identify the JLPT level of each kanji and provide a list of example sentences. Some of this information may be overwhelming for a beginner, but the beginner Kanji, katakana, and hiragana are free, so try it out! Kanji Study extends its support beyond the app to help you learn new words. Although you can’t study compound words within the app, you can add words you want to learn to AnkiDroid with two taps. At any point during your Anki review, you can tap on the word to link back to Kanji Study for a more detailed explanation. For intermediate to advanced learners, the flashcard part of the app will require a one-time purchase — however, it is affordable and can definitely support you in mastering your writing skills. Another great, free dictionary app is Takoboto, which has a slightly more organized interface, but less interactive flashcards.

  • Kanshudo Mini-Review: A Must-Have, And It’s Free!

    kanshudo

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Freemium, Premium subscriptions start at $6/mo

    Summary

    Kanshudo is unique, diverse, thorough, and an overall fantastic resource for anyone wanting to train their reading skills in Japanese. This mini-review can only brush the surface of Kanshudo’s many features. The program teaches beginner to advanced levels; there are a variety of activities to engage in, such as lessons, SRS flashcards, challenges, games, and reading. One of the many neat features of Kandusho is that the more you study, the more coupons you can earn to receive free Pro access. Beginner lessons will introduce you to 5 new kanji, then reinforce your understanding of each kanji through several engaging activities. After completing 20 beginner lessons, you can tackle the next 1000 kanji and more complex vocabulary and grammar. You can take a kanji quiz whenever you like to determine roughly how many you have learned; the site will change its study recommendations based on your score. You can also use Kanshudo with your current textbook — many of the most common textbooks are supported. In the Reading Corner you can find reading practice organized by level. In each text you can click the sentences to receive audio pronunciations, translations, grammar explanations, vocabulary explanations, and a breakdown of each of the kanji (including the radicals within the kanji and mnemonics to remember them).

  • L-Lingo Mini-Review: Textbook Content, Depends On Your Style

    L-Lingo

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    $14.95/mo, $75/half-year, $120/year

    Summary

    Each language on L-Lingo contains 105 lessons and 5000 words. The lessons seem to be the same in every language, and will teach you typical textbook lessons, such as booking a hotel reservation, naming different colours, or navigating to an airport. If you are looking for something that will help you communicate naturally with native speakers, this probably isn’t the resource for you. Similar to Rosetta Stone, L-Lingo plays an audio recording of a sentence or word, and then asks you to find the image that corresponds to what you just heard. Unlike Rosetta Stone, L-Lingo provides seemingly clear and concise grammar explanations of the concept you are about to learn. They provide three types of quizzes with every lesson, and also use Spaced Repetition Software to help you remember new vocabulary. There are currently some technical difficulties signing up on the website, but you can access their content on your mobile device. The program has mixed reviews on various platforms, but you can check out the first five lessons for free to see if it suits what you’re looking for.

  • Lang Workbooks Mini Review: Thorough Writing Practice

    Lang Workbooks

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    $5.99

    Summary

    For learners of languages that use unfamiliar writing systems, the Lang Workbooks series can be a helpful and practical way to master the intricacies of writing in their target languages. Among numerous other writing systems, the series includes the Korean, Russian Cyrillic, and Armenian alphabets; Persian and Thai script; the Hindi Devanāgarī abugida; Chinese characters; and Japanese Hiragana and Katakana. The series also covers languages that use the Latin alphabet with diacritical (accent) marks, such as French, German, and Portuguese. Many books in the series have been translated into other languages, such as Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. The series also covers writing systems that may have fewer available resources for learners, such as Lao script and the Cherokee syllabary. Each book in the series presents its featured writing system with suggested pronunciations. The practice pages in each workbook have useful features for each letter, symbol, or character, such as a recommended stroke order, font variations, example words, and a “Trace and Learn” section. Each workbook is relatively inexpensive. In addition, the publishers of the series have granted teachers and students a license to make photocopies of the workbook pages for personal use, so you can get unlimited chances to practice. Considering the depth of information in each language’s workbook, the books in this series can provide great value for learners.

  • LangCorrect: Unlimited, Free Writing Practice With Feedback

    LangCorrect

    Rating 5.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    LangCorrect is a free community-driven writing site where users can both contribute to editing others’ work and receive feedback on their own writing. After writing your piece, you may submit it to receive feedback from other site users. In order to ensure accurate feedback, multiple users can cross-check the corrections that were made and add comments. Volunteers and Patrons have access to writing in up to 10 languages, but typical users can write in a maximum of two languages at a time. Everyone is encouraged to both write and correct others’ work on the site. If you are looking to improve your writing skills in one of the over 100 languages available, trying out this resource is a must! However, if you’re studying a less common language and not finding many users to give you corrections, consider trying the exercise section in italki’s community features.

    The rating is our best guess, but we haven’t yet had the opportunity to fully test and review this resource.

  • Language Learning WIth Netflix Mini-Review: Easy to Use

    Language learning with Netflix

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Freemium, Free Trial, $4.95/mo

    Summary

    If you want to make language learning more accessible while watching Netflix, this chrome extension is for you. The free version allows you to skip subtitles forward and backward in case you didn’t catch what was said, and you can also choose to automatically pause the movie or show after each subtitle. The full transcript is also displayed on the side. By hovering over a word you can see a short translation and hear an audio pronunciation, or you can click on the word for more context and further links to various dictionary sites. With a Pro membership you can save words or phrases, receive translations that are closer to the meaning in the original language, and create subtitles for dubbed movies. LLN’s catalogue can help you find Netflix movies or shows with high-quality subtitles to improve your experience,

  • Learn Japanese: Bunpo Mini Review: One-Stop Grammar Practice

    In this post we review the Japanese learning app Bunpo. While there are a ton of ways to learn Japanese, this app will be of interest to anyone learning Japanese gramnar!

    Learn Japanese: Bunpo

    Rating 4.3
    Price:

    Freemium, Premium subscriptions start at $6.99/mo

    Summary

    Learn Japanese: Bunpo provides simple and clear grammar explanations from JLPT N5 to N1. The app is not intended to be used alone in order to become fluent in Japanese — rather, it is a support for those who want to have a better grasp of Japanese grammar. A good portion of each section is spent on quizzes to test your understanding (although some people may still find that they advance a bit too quickly). There are some improvements that could be made, but overall Learn Japanese: Bunpo seems to be an effective resource for anyone who wants their grammar practice in one place. Learners new to Japanese can enjoy a free introductory level that will provide you with a basic foundation of vocabulary, hiragana, and katakana. For N1-N5 learners, you can try the first section from each of the levels without making any purchases. The paid version includes SRS review, listening exercises, and chat functions with native speakers for support. You can choose to pay monthly, but the Lifetime option is more economical.

  • Learn WIth Oliver Mini-Review: Simple With Lots of Content

    Learn with Oliver

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    Free Trial, with premium plans starting at $96/year

    Summary

    Learn With Oliver is a simple website that offers SRS flashcards with audio recordings by native speakers, random videos and articles with a list of keywords, choose your own adventure stories, writing practice with corrections by native speakers, and progress tests. The flashcard words and sentences seem to have been randomly chosen rather than curated to specific learning goals, so they are probably better used as enrichment than as a primary learning tool. The site as a whole is probably best for learners who already have a good grasp of basic vocabulary in their target language. The mixed exercises use spaced repetition to first introduce you to new words, then get you practicing through various word order, fill-in-the-blanks, listening, writing, and multiple-choice activities. Each “card” (more like “page”) allows you to see an overview of each word with example sentences. A cute perk you will receive after completing each day’s lesson is a “reward link,” which is typically a cute or funny picture on Reddit. If you’re looking for alternatives to some of the features on this site, LangCorrect may have a larger community of language learners to support you in improving your writing, Readlang and the Zhongwen Chrome Extension will help translate words on most websites, Yabla will teach you languages through video clips, and sites like Readle (German) and Du Chinese can help with your reading comprehension.

  • Learn101 Mini-Review: A Re-Formatted Version of iLanguages

    learn101

    Rating 1.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Learn 101 is almost identical to iLanguages, but neither of them seem to be very helpful; they have the same native speaker audio files, languages, and mostly identical ‘lesson’ layouts. The main differences are that Learn 101 seems to have added some grammar explanations and reformatted a bit, while iLanguages seems to have added some extra phrases. Since every one of the languages’ “lessons” has the same format, including the grammar section, you will learn how to say ‘and’, ‘but’, and ‘or’, in 107 languages, but you will not learn where these types of words fit within a specific language’s sentence structure. Although there are examples of various grammatical structures, the explanations for these structures are also identical for every language, which, practically speaking, doesn’t seem plausible. This site could be useful if you want to hear native speakers pronounce basic words in less-common languages, or if you want to look up the IPA symbols of a less-common language’s alphabet — otherwise, you’re probably better off making flashcards yourself on Anki, or trying one of the hundreds of other resources we recommend on this site.

  • Lexilogos Mini-Review: A Resource Bank For Dictionaries and Books

    lexilogos

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Although Lexilogos seems to have entirely neglected its aesthetics, it holds more than meets the eye. If you click on one of the 130+ languages listed at the bottom of the page, you will find a series of resources to support your studies. This is especially useful for less-studied languages, like Marathi, Basque, and Pashto. Although the lists don’t provide recommendations for applications, they do provide a list of dictionaries, keyboards, news sites, books, and research papers. Additionally, if you switch to the French version of the site, there are even more languages and resources available for you to explore. Within each language’s page, there is also a dictionary search function. You will notice that more commonly studied languages will have dozens of dictionaries to choose from, while less commonly studied languages may only have one or two. Overall, Lexilogos is a great option for finding resources for less commonly studied languages. They regularly update their site, so make sure to check back if you don’t find what you’re looking for the first time around.

  • Lingo Mastery Short Stories Mini-Review: Lots of Unique Words

    Lingo Mastery Short Stories

    Rating 3.7
    Price:

    Kindle Books cost $4.60

    Summary

    Lingo Mastery provides 20 short stories in a series of advanced beginner books (about A2 on the CEFR scale) for various languages. Each book has a vocabulary list, reading comprehension questions, and a summary in both English and the target language.   If your primary goal is to acquire new vocabulary, then Lingo Mastery’s Short Story series may be helpful to increase your skills. Each chapter has a specific language focus, such as directions, verbs, nouns, or activities. These stories have a considerable number of unique words, so you may find yourself referring to the vocabulary list more frequently than in other graded readers. Keep in mind that the stories are not as engaging as a novel you might read in your native tongue, but the repetition is helpful to familiarize you with different concepts. Other graded readers, like those by Olly Richards, ESLC, and Mandarin Companion follow a single storyline — each chapter in Lingo Mastery, however, follows a separate storyline. Therefore, although the chapters are a manageable length, finishing one may not make you eager to move onto the next. If you do decide to invest in these readers, make sure to buy the Kindle version, which is about 20% of the paperback price.

  • LingoHut Mini-Review: Good Intentions, So-So Follow Through

    lingohut

    Rating 2.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Kendal and Philipp, the creators of the LingoHut, are passionate about teaching languages. Their website supposedly helps A1 and A2 language learners develop their confidence in listening and pronunciation. All audio clips were recorded by native speakers so that beginners can get accustomed to natural pronunciation, and each lesson has a series of matching games for listening comprehension and reading. Unfortunately, the creators’ genuine intention to support beginners doesn’t seem to translate into their lessons. The lessons are essentially a series of phrases that are not adapted to each language’s culture; each of the 50 languages use the exact same set of sentences and lesson formats. This means that you will learn how to say ‘dumpling’ both in Chinese and Italian. There is also no section to learn the script of languages such as Korean, Hindi, or Arabic, nor are there transliterations to help beginners sound out the pronunciation. Furthermore, some sentences switch between formal and informal language without explanation, which would not be intuitive for an A1 learner. If you want a free resource to listen to native speakers’ pronunciation of hundreds of common phrases, LingoHut is definitely a free option. However, there are other resources that can help you learn languages more effectively.

  • Lingua Boost Mini-Review: Use Pimsleur Instead

    Lingua Boost

    Rating 2.2
    Price:

    1 level costs $19.90, two levels cost $33.90

    Summary

    Lingua Boost’s website sells downloadable volumes of phrasebook-like lessons that teach everyday phrases in context. The lessons are about 10 minutes long; they are narrated by native speakers and focus on vocabulary within a specific topic. Although each lesson seems to contain something that resembles a dialogue, every phrase is spoken by the same person. Additionally, many of the lessons initially appear to be dialogues, but end up as a list of sentences. For example, the first line of a lesson might be, “what do you like to do?” followed by a series of statements such as “I like to read books,” or “I like to go swimming.” Furthermore, for languages that have more difficult pronunciation, such as Russian and Hindi, the lessons do not break down pronunciation. In Pimsleur, for example, they use an excellent technique of working backwards with each syllable in a word. In Lingua Boost, it seems that you are expected to just listen and gradually catch on, even from the absolute beginner level. Finally, each volume must be purchased separately, but you can test out the first 5 lessons for free on their website. If you’re looking for a similar course that breaks down pronunciation, has interactive activities and helps you learn full dialogues in context, check out Pimsleur’s subscription plan.

  • Linguee Mini-Review: Best Dictionary for Formal Language

    Linguee

    Rating 4.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Linguee was developed by over 400 lexicographers. It is unique in that it does not use machine-translation to provide examples of words in context — instead, it sources words from articles and research papers in the original language. As a result, it is an excellent dictionary app to find translations for specialized terminology. You will learn the subtleties of various translations by reading paired paragraphs of text that have each been professionally translated, not translated by a machine. In some languages, you can listen to pronunciations by native speakers and read multiple translations of your chosen word or phrase. Although translations are highlighted in each paragraph so you can compare how to use them in each language, they can be difficult to navigate quickly. If you are looking for a website with simple and professional translations, you can check out WordReference for several different languages. SpanishDict is also an excellent option for Spanish, and Pleco is the only dictionary you will ever need for Chinese.

  • Loecsen Mini-Review: Phrasebook App For Absolute Beginners

    Loecsen

    Rating 2.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Loecsen’s strengths are its attractive interface and drawings that accompany the content. It also uses high-quality audio recordings by native speakers, even in the less-common languages. The website offers 41 different languages, but unfortunately, there are only about 432 phrases to learn, which will not take you beyond even the absolute basics. These phrases are practical, however, so in a pinch, they may save you abroad. Despite the attractive interface, the buttons are not very intuitive, so you may have to click around to figure out what each one does. Below the main interactive program, you can see a list of vocabulary and a progress bar for speaking and vocabulary activities — the vocabulary highlights in green as you complete the quizzes. At the very bottom of the page, you can also see an overview of basic pronunciation. For pronunciation practice, the read-aloud tool provides you with a series of songs or text excerpts that you can record yourself reading aloud and then compare with the original song (or a robot voice). If you’re just looking to learn basic essential phrases and pick up some vocabulary for a trip, Loecsen is an attractive program for the very casual learner. Otherwise, many other resources can take you to at least the intermediate level in most of the same languages.

  • LyricsTraining Mini-Review: Listening Practice Through Songs

    LyricsTraining

    Rating 3.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Lyrics training is a free app that claims to improve your ability to recognize the different sounds in your target language. Through listening to different songs, you can reinforce vocabulary, expressions, and grammar concepts. Although it does not provide any translations or explanations for these skills, it does seem to train listening comprehension and memorization. While listening to your chosen song, you will be provided with a choice of 4 words to help fill in an increasing percentage of lyrics; by the advanced level, you will be responsible for filling in 100% of the lyrics. Each of the 14 languages available seem to have a wide variety of song choices, and even if you don’t understand what the lyrics mean, you will probably be able to sing along. If you would prefer an app that focuses more on comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar, check out Lirica.

  • Manga-Sensei Mini-Review: Bite-Sized Podcasts and Lessons

    Manga Sensei

    Rating 3.8
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Manga Sensei is a free resource with podcasts, YouTube videos, comics, and a 30-day challenge to learn the basics of Japanese from scratch. The daily 5-minute podcasts clearly explain complicated grammar points and break down vocabulary. On the weekends, you can also enjoy interviews with various Japanese learners, teachers, and business people. Each day, the 30 day challenge introduces 20 words and one grammatical concept, each of which can be practically applied to every day life. If you go through these lessons without the help of the Manga-Sensei field guide (currently available for pre-order), you may want to create an SRS flashcard deck with Anki to effectively memorize the vocabulary, and write some sentences on LangCorrect to test your understanding of the grammar points. Every Thursday the site publishes a new comic that teaches vocabulary and grammar. They should be read in order, as the concepts build on one another. Because the intro to each comic has a lengthy grammar explanation, you may prefer to go straight to the comic and then occasionally read the intro if you struggle with specific concepts. Under each panel is a list of translations for each word or expression — this way you will learn the structure of Japanese sentences rather than reading translations of the spirit of the text. Overall, the content seems most appropriate for beginner to lower-intermediate learners, but this might change as the site develops its content.

  • Marugoto Mini Review: Astonishlingly High-Quality and Free

    marugoto

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Marugoto Japanese Online Course is a free interactive online course that teaches A1 to A2 Japanese learners. The explanations are available in multiple languages, including English, Indonesian, Spanish, Chinese, and French. If you’re unsure of your level, you can take a placement test on the website. There are two types of self-study courses: one for casual learners (Katsudoo) and one for more intensive learners (Katsudoo and Rikai). Both courses contain dialogues, videos, and speaking and writing activities. Katsudoo and Rikai adds a level of intensity by getting you to read and write short compositions and dive deeper into grammar topics. There is also an option to pay for group classes with a Japanese tutor while following the Marugoto curriculum. Overall the courses are of considerably high-quality, with lots of opportunities for listening and speaking practice. One of the most impressive features is the way the course quizzes you on vocabulary in context through a variety of dialogues recorded by native speakers. You will not find yourself repeating the same basic sentence structures; instead, you will learn the multiple ways that Japanese is spoken in everyday life. Additionally, some activities allow you to take on the role of one of the characters and speak as if you are part of a dialogue.

  • Master Any Language Mini-Review: No Words To Describe the Nope

    Master Any Language

    Rating 0.2
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Master Any Language has a counterintuitive interface with activities that are frustrating to navigate. Its only perk is that it supports less-studied languages, but even if you do find yourself lacking resources in your target language, this website will probably detract from your learning. You will jump through hoops trying to find the audio recordings by native speakers, so you may want to try ilovelanguages or Learn101 instead; they have low ratings, but they won’t make you lose your motivation to learn altogether. Most of the activities on Master Any Language are matching games that require you to click on two identical characters, words, or letters: the purpose of this is unclear because it tests neither recall nor recognition. Another activity asks you to form or match nonsensical sequences of words (Ex. Find the sentence identical to “el el el el tchèque tchèque tchèque el el tchèque tchèque”….). Ultimately, you would probably be better off trying to decipher a page of text with absolutely no guidance than to even attempt to wrap your head around MAL’s activities.

  • Miageru Mini Review: Useful for Drilling Beginner Japanese

    Miageru

    Rating 3.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Fun fact: miageru means to raise your eyes upwards, to admire, or to respect. Yet it’s not entirely clear why this course is named Miageru, or who is supposed to be looking up to whom (or what). Miageru contains basic, easy-to-understand explanations for beginner-level Japanese kana and grammar. It also has games to help you drill kana, kanji, vocabulary, and grammar. However, you’ll only learn how to recognize kana and kanji, not how to write them. While a useful tool, Miageru is not the most well-organized platform. There’s no learning pathway, for example, and neither is there a section on essential Japanese phrases (greetings, directions, etc.). When we tried it out, there was no way to even learn how to say hello and introduce yourself. To study kanji, you have to select sentences that you’re interested in learning. Studying a kanji in a sentence isn’t a bad idea: learning things in context will help you remember them. Yet this system does mean that you might learn things in an odd order. Miageru claims it’s a replacement for Japanese courses and includes everything you need to know for JLPT N5. We’re not convinced because it misses out a lot of essential phrases. However, it’s a helpful supplementary resource for drilling beginner Japanese alongside a course or textbook.

  • Minna no Nihongo Mini Review: Thorough Japanese Textbooks

    Minna no Nihongo

    Rating 4.7
    Price:

    From $35 per volume

    Summary

    Minna no Nihongo, along with Genki, is one of the most recommended Japanese textbooks you can find – and it lives up to expectations. There are two beginner-level (shokyu) volumes that roughly correlate to A1–A2 or N5–N4 and two intermediate-level (chokyu) volumes that should take up to N2. Each textbook contains 25 chapters and will teach you grammar, vocabulary, and more. They also come with a CD. Minna no Nihongo’s main selling point, especially at the beginner level, is that it’s generally more in-depth than other popular textbooks. Compared to Genki, it has more vocabulary and grammar, more exercises, and more accompanying workbooks, including ones specifically for kanji, reading, and writing. That said, many students are put off by the lack of English in the main textbook. They are entirely in Japanese. You can buy the official Translation and Grammar Notes for each level in a variety of languages, including English, Mandarin, and Spanish. While purchasing two separate texts can be annoying, it also has its positives: you’re pushed to try to understand the Japanese first, plus it makes it more accessible for people who don’t have English as a first language. You should also learn the kana before getting started with Minna no Nihongo. If you’ve yet to study this, apps like Skritter (review), Scripts (review), and LingoDeer (review) will help you pick it up. If you’re planning to move to Japan, or want to learn the language as thoroughly as possible, then Minna no Nihongo is a great starting point. You’ll get a strong understanding of the grammar and learn a lot of vocabulary. However, if you’re looking for an easier entry point or don’t want to buy the official translation, check out our review of Genki.

  • My Language Exchange Mini-Review: Millions of Active Users

    My Language Exchange

    Rating 4.2
    Price:

    Freemium, Gold Memberships start at $6/mo

    Summary

    My Language Exchange has been growing since 2000. Although the website seems out of date, it still has an active community of millions of language-learners who speak almost 200 native languages (including less commonly studied languages). You can choose a pen pal by reading their bios, or there is a chat room available for you to instantly connect with a language exchange partner — note that if you create a Gold account, you can initiate chats with other users, but as a regular user, you will have to wait to be contacted. Using the Cormier Method, the website provides tools to help intermediate speakers effectively practice with other learners. It advertises a Chat Companion with lesson plans to accompany your exchange, or lesson plans developed by teachers (although the quality of these resources varies drastically).  You can also find language teachers on the site, but given that the transactions take place directly between you and the teacher, you may feel safer using a 3rd party platform like italki or Verbling Although there are outlines on how to participate in language exchanges, how these outlines are followed depends entirely on you and your partner(s). My Language Exchange will help you build connections with other learners, but it’s up to you to plan how to practice. The concepts can also be used with any language exchange platform, such as Lingbe, italki, Tandem, and Amikumu.

  • MyTest Migii Mini-Review: Thorough and organized JLPT Prep

    MyTest Migii

    Rating 4.5
    Price:

    Freemium, Quarterly subscriptions start at $27

    Summary

    MyTest Migii helps you practice for the N5-N2 JLPT tests. It provides a comprehensive explanation of the JLPT test, in addition to 40 mock exams that provide specific recommendations for how to improve your weaknesses at the end. The practice sections are organized to train specific skills — the vocabulary section includes Kanji reading, orthography, and contextually-defined expressions, while the grammar section will improve your sentence composition. You can read passages of Japanese texts with reading comprehension or thematic comprehension activities, or test your listening comprehension with a variety of different tasks. The app’s SRS flashcards will support your studies, dividing grammar and vocabulary into separate flashcard sets. Furthermore, there are detailed explanations about sentence structure, which are accompanied by audio pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and a link to the dictionary with stroke order and example sentences. The app seems to have a couple of bugs, and you may find that some of the tests contain vocabulary or grammar not suitable to your chosen level. Furthermore, it seems to use text-to-voice instead of native speakers for its listening activities, and the flashcards are not as developed as Anki or other SRS apps. Nevertheless, it’s worth checking out, and there is a lot of free content to explore before deciding whether to dive into an annual or semi-annual membership.

  • NHK World Mini Review: A Quality Introduction to Japanese

    NHK World

    Rating 4.2
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Easy Japanese, by NHK World Radio Japan, provides a series of free Japanese grammar and conversation lessons for beginners. The 48 10-minute audio lessons and 48 30-second video lessons are designed like an audio-drama. They will teach you useful expressions through practical everyday scenarios, such as in the classroom, at a bakery, or during conversations with friends. You can keep track of your study records and add vocabulary notes to your notebook in the My Haru-san dashboard. If you haven’t yet learned hiragana and katakana, you will find a table with stroke order diagrams and audio. NHK World recommends using Memory Hint, another free app that teaches you basic hiragana, katakana, and kanji through mnemonic devices. Although it is sometimes a little confusing to navigate, overall, NHK World is a high-quality resource for beginners to start learning the basics of Japanese writing, grammar, conversation, and culture. The bite-sized animated videos and step-by-step lessons seem both manageable and fun.

  • OPLingo Mini Review: Community Driven, Non-Profit

    OPLingo

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    Freemium, Premium Subscriptions cost $6.99/mo, $60/Year

    Summary

    OPLingo is a community-oriented, non-profit language learning site. It essentially combines the functions of LingQ, LangCorrect, Readlang, iTalki, and HelloTalk. The free version gives you limited access to some functions, but by paying for a membership you support ethical causes — such as building a primary school in Tanzania. You can browse user-contributed texts or easily import your own YouTube videos, articles, or ebooks into the Reading Tool. OPLingo has also developed hundreds of audio conversations in several languages, including Tagalog, Cebuano, Thai, Swahili, and Russian. Within each page, you can read a transcript and get definitions and pronunciations of unknown words. By identifying which words you don’t know, the next passages you read will highlight the number of known or unknown vocabulary words. In their Write & Correct section, you can write in over 100 languages and exchange corrections with other users, although Spanish, French, and English learners have a better chance of receiving corrections than other languages at the moment. You can also practice a language by texting with fellow community members, or by hiring a teacher in your target language. OPLingo has a lot of potential and is a good alternative to LingQ, but it needs a community of learners to help it grow — so check it out!

  • Optilingo Mini-Review: Use if You Absolutely Love Slideshows

    optilingo

    Rating 1.5
    Price:

    $11.99/mo, $23.97/quarter, $41.94/half-year, $71.88/year

    Summary

    Optilingo is essentially a phrase-bank in slideshow form. Each of the 20 languages available includes 100 lessons, none of which contain information about the topic or learning goals during the writing of this review. You can expect to listen to a series of phrases, and then review (what seems like) the last 45 phrases you have learned before moving onto the next lesson. The phrases are not in flashcard form — instead, they are in a slideshow with both the English and the target language displayed together. Optilingo advertises learning and practicing with over 29 hours worth of phrases, and while you can surely practice with their phrase-bank, actually learning to speak any of the languages offered using their platform is questionable. If you are keen on language learning, check out our bank of reviews for other resources.

  • Polly Lingual Mini-Review: Phrasebook With Simple Games

    Polly Lingual

    Rating 2.0
    Price:

    Freemium, yearly subscriptions start at $2.99/mo

    Summary

    Polly Lingual is a phrasebook app and website with a series of basic word lists, flashcards, and memory games. Some of the phrases are pronounced by native speakers, while others use text-to-voice. Unlike other phrasebook apps that focus on phrases alone, Polly Lingual introduces the basic alphabet in languages with non-romanized scripts. You can quiz yourself on the basic vowels and consonants in Russian, Hebrew, Korean, Japanese, and Arabic. Polly Lingual may be helpful for a quick review of what you’ve already learned, but if you’re keen on learning to write a new script, you may want to check out Write It! or Write Me. There are also Polly Ambassadors — tutors who will provide short videos of language learning tips throughout the site. You can send them a personal message or hire them as a private tutor. Overall, Polly Lingual only teaches basic phrases and will probably not help you learn how to construct your own sentences. If you’re just beginning to learn another language, check out French in Action, Red Kalinka (Russian), Chinesefor.us, 90 Day Korean, Portuguese lab, or Pimsleur to get more out of your time. Also, Italki will give you more options for private tutors, if that’s what you’re looking for.

  • Readlang Mini-Review: A Must-Have For Language Lovers

    Readlang

    Rating 4.5
    Price:

    Freemium, Premium subscriptions start at $5/mo

    Summary

    With Readlang as your Google Chrome Extension, you can have instant translations for words or sentences in over 45 languages at the tip of your mouse cursor (or fingertip)! Browse the internet and effortlessly click on unknown words to get a translation that stays on your screen until it is no longer needed. If you can’t find anything to read on the internet, you can access a bank of public texts organized by word count and difficulty, browse the most popular websites for Readlang users, or upload your own text to study. If you read on the Readlang website, you can see words that you have previously translated highlighted across every text. Readlang collects SRS flashcards for you from words that you have translated. It will only record the most useful words for you to practice based on word frequency lists, which could be either a pro or a con depending on your study goals. Each flashcard also includes audio pronunciation and the sentence from which the word was taken. You can choose to reveal the flashcard to check your comprehension, or type in your response for more effective recall. The free version provides enough for the casual user, but upgrading to an affordable premium membership allows unlimited phrase translations and unknown word highlighting across texts. Although there may be some problems with translations in beta languages, and sometimes it fails to recognize text, overall Readlang is an excellent resource for language lovers.

  • Reverso Translation Mini-Review: Best for French learners

    Reverso Translation

    Rating 3.8
    Price:

    $ 0.00

    Summary

    Reverso is a translation and spell check app. Its features primarily target French and English learners, although it also translates into a handful of other languages. Compared with BonPatron, Reverso’s spell-check function (available only for French and English) is less attuned to general mistakes, such as capitalization or inappropriate commas. Reverso only catches some of the errors related to inappropriate accordance of genders or numbers from “The House of Être” verbs. Nevertheless, it does a decent job of catching obvious mistakes, and it will provide you with synonyms to enrich your writing. You are encouraged to use the spell check function at each stage of the writing process because when you correct one error, the program may identify new ones. The free version allows you to check 1200 characters at a time, and upgrading to a premium version will allow you to check unlimited characters. The Reverso Contexto dictionary is an excellent resource for most of the available languages. While Linguee takes examples from relatively formal sources, Reverso Contexto provides example sentences professionally translated from movies, dialogues, official documents, websites, and newspapers.  Other resources include Reverso’s dictionary (which is usually from Collin’s) a verb conjugator, French and English grammar articles, a thesaurus, and a document translator.

  • Samidori Mini Review: Free Online Japanese Course

    Samidori

    Rating 3.7
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    samidori is a free online Japanese course from the University of Kyoto, and as you might expect, it’s a comprehensive, well-organized introduction to the language. There is an extensive range of lessons from absolute beginner up to lower intermediate. They cover the kana, grammar, vocabulary, listening, and reading. However, there are no writing or speaking activities, and although you’ll learn to recognize them, you won’t be taught how to write any kanji. Higher levels also contain fewer lessons than the lower levels. Most of the lessons follow the same format: the lesson topic and vocabulary are introduced in both Japanese and English, then there are example sentences, audio recordings for the vocabulary and example sentences, and finally practice questions. For beginners, samidori is a decent introduction to Japanese, although you’ll want to pair it with kanji studies and writing and speaking practice. Intermediate learners, however, will likely want to use it as a supplementary resource only.

  • Scripts Mini-Review: Flashy and Fast-Paced

    Scripts by Drops

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    Freemium, $9.99/mo, $69.99/year, $159.99/lifetime-access

    Summary

    Although it has a flashier interface, Scripts by Drops offers similar content to Write it! and Write Me. However, unlike these other apps, which sound out the name of each character, Scripts by Drops seems to focus on how the letter would sound if it were in a sentence. For example, instead of pronouncing the Hebrew character ב (vet or bet) you will hear /v/ or /b/. You can practice writing different characters with your fingers, and there are a variety of fast-paced activities to help you remember the different alphabets. Under the same membership as Scripts by Drops, you can also use the Drops app to learn and practice words that use your chosen alphabet. Similar to Write Me and Write It!, Scripts by Drops doesn’t seem to give much background about script. Also, some people may find the animation is too flashy and time-consuming; you can test Write it! (free), Write Me (paid lifetime access), and Scripts by Drops (monthly or lifetime access) to see which app best suits the language you are learning. For more comprehensive apps, check out Eggbun for Korean or Skritter for Chinese and Japanese.

  • Shirabe Jisho Mini-Review: Great for Apple Users

    Shirabe Jisho

    Rating 4.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Shirabe Jisho is a Japanese Dictionary app for Apple users. You can search over 170,000 dictionary entries in both Japanese and English using handwriting, radicals, and romaji. Each entry is comprehensive, with stroke order diagrams for several thousand Kanji and example sentences from the Tatoeba project. It also provides positive, negative, and masu conjugations when relevant. You can customize your own word list or choose from the pre-made lists that include common words, expressions, slang terms, colloquialisms, JLPT levels, and parts of speech. Unfortunately, the app uses text-to-speech pronunciation, but you can use Forvo on your desktop browser to listen to native speaker pronunciations for free. The lists of similar kanji under each kanji entry are especially helpful to identify potential mix-ups. Although Shirabe Jisho’s breakdown of kanji components is not as comprehensive as in Kanji Study for Android, it still provides a helpful list of the basic components. If you have both an Android and an Apple product, Kanji Study for Android is still your best bet. However, for Apple users, Shirabe Jisho is a 100% free and ad-free dictionary option that is well worth your time.

  • Simply Learn Mini-Review: Spaced Repetition Phrases For Travelers

    Simply Learn

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    $ 9.99

    Summary

    In Simply Learn, by Simya Solutions, you can search for and review over 1000 phrases in over 30 categories. It takes the typical phrasebook app one step further by allowing you to add your favorite phrases to SRS flashcards. Given that its developers also developed Ling, an additional, more comprehensive resource that supports language learning, it seems that Simply Learn is a supplementary app for individuals who need to learn basic phrases for traveling abroad.  The creators don’t seem to have intended for people to use this app to learn a language in its entirety, but rather to support them in memorizing basic phrases for travel. As with Simya Solutions’ other apps, Simply Learn is most helpful for less commonly learned languages, such as Hokkien and Khmer. Beginners can access the basic cards for free, but the advanced traveler will have to make a one-time purchase to access all the content. If what you truly want is to have a set of phrases under your belt, Simply Learn’s SRS flashcards and native-speaker audio can support you. However, if you are studying a less commonly learned language and want to understand the basic sentence patterns and writing system, check out Ling.

  • Small Talk in Japanese Mini-Review: Covers Many Different Topics

    Small Talk in Japanese

    Rating 4.2
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Small Talk in Japanese is a podcast for intermediate to advanced Japanese learners to practice listening to real Japanese conversations. Typically the conversations are held by two enthusiastic Japanese friends who discuss topics relevant to Japanese culture and daily life. Each episode is about 45 minutes long, during which the narrators speak at a relatively natural speed, but not so fast that intermediate learners would struggle to make out each word. The last 5 minutes are dedicated to reviewing the new vocabulary mentioned during the episode. During this review, sometimes one of the narrators explains the new words in Japanese, other times she will provide a direct translation into English. You can also find this vocabulary list on the Small Talk in Japanese blog — if you do visit the site, however, don’t be deceived by the “sign up” function at the top — this will simply sign you up for your own blog, rather than give you extra podcast benefits. Overall, Small Talk in Japanese is an excellent resource for practicing listening comprehension. You can also check out Japanese With Noriko if you would like more structure in your learning.

  • Speekoo Mini-Review: Dip Your Toes in a Language and Culture

    Speekoo

    Rating 2.5
    Price:

    Classes start at $15/hour

    Summary

    Learning with Speekoo is more of a cultural journey than an intensive language learning app. With every lesson, you will explore some tourist attractions, unusual aspects, and funny anecdotes about different cities that speak the language you are studying. With each correct answer, you “walk” a kilometre further on your journey and gradually unlock videos and articles. Unfortunately, all of these features are in English (or French if you are learning from French). Speekoo’s free lessons build on one another, and you can easily apply new words to your everyday life. Unfortunately, although you will effectively learn what the app teaches you, the extent of the material will only give you the absolute basics of each language. You will not be able to have even simple conversations once you have finished all the levels. The app also doesn’t introduce new scripts, so you won’t learn how to read Japanese or Chinese; instead, you will write the sounds using the English alphabet. Despite its simplicity, Speekoo is a fun, free option for the extremely casual learner who wants to dip their toes in a language. Hopefully, the developers will take the levels further.

  • Strokes International Mini Review: Pricy but Comprehensive

    Strokes International

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    53.00 CHF

    Summary

    Strokes International sells courses for 24 different languages. They’re more focused on European languages, from the popular German, Spanish, and French through to Slovakian, Czech, and Danish. They do have a couple of non-European ones, though, such as Arabic, Chinese, and Japanese. Using a Strokes International course feels a bit like going back in time. You have to download the program onto your computer (and we had to install additional software to run it). In the days of language apps and on-the-go learning, this seems a little inconvenient. Despite that, the course seems to be fairly effective. You listen to and repeat a natural conversation, before being slowly taught the words and phrases. You practice speaking them aloud, typing them, and playing Match Pairs card games. Although grammar takes a back seat, there are explanatory notes throughout and you can access a detailed grammar guide. There’s also a Pronunciation Trainer and Vocabulary Trainer. The Danish beginner course, which we briefly trialed, has 100 lessons.

  • Sublearning Mini-Review: There Are Better Uses For Your Time

    Sublearning

    Rating 1.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Sublearning is a very simple website that supposedly helps you learn languages through movie subtitles. You will be presented with 1 to 6 lines of subtitles from your chosen movie, and then you can reveal the translation after thinking about the response. There are 62 source and target languages, which does make one wonder where the translations are coming from; be wary of Sublearning’s translation quality. Just to clarify, the subtitles do not seem to be sourced from the most iconic phrases from your favourite movies; rather, they seem to be random lines from the movie, sometimes as simple as “I don’t think so”. If you’re just looking to reminisce about anything that was said in movies you have seen, you can go to Sublearning to pass some time. However if you’re interested in language learning, I recommend checking out some of the many resource reviews we have on this site.

  • SuperMemo Mini-Review: Not to Be Confused With Super-Memo

    Supermemo

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    Free trial, $9.90/mo

    Summary

    *The app SuperMemo is often confused with Super-Memo SuperMemo seems to advertise its courses and their efficacy by emphasizing the SuperMemo Method. The website states that it is the only scientifically-proven computer-aided learning method — however, the method is a typical Spaced Repetition System that Brainscape, Anki, Pleco, Skritter, SpanishDict, and countless other resources use. If SuperMemo made any special improvements, they do not stand out. SuperMemo’s courses can be accessed through a monthly membership or through purchasing individual courses. Each course contains a series of flashcards with some interactive activities (such as fill-in-the-blanks, multiple-choice questions, and dropdown menus). In some beginner courses, like Hungarian and Dutch, you can learn basic pronunciation with the International Phonetic Alphabet; this can support you in both understanding and producing the sounds of the language later one. They also use native speaker pronunciation to train your ear. The Fast Track courses may have potential, but there do not seem to be many grammar explanations, and it may be up to you to understand your errors. Additionally, you may find that you are suddenly reading translations from your target language in Polish, whether or not you speak Polish. Overall, Supermemo seems okay, but there are probably other resources that will help you learn a language more effectively.

  • Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese Mini-Review: Very Thorough

    Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese is a helpful guide for anyone learning Japanese and struggling with grammar. Here’s why…

    Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese is not a phrasebook or an app that will get you speaking from day one. Instead, it is a guide that was made with the intention that learners would refer to it only when they don’t understand Japanese grammar. If you love grammar, technically you could read it from start to finish, but the guide seems most helpful as a supportive tool during your studies. That being said, learners have complained about oversimplifications and mistakes throughout the guide. Tae Kim will explain everything from scratch, breaking down sentence constructions so you can make sentences on your own. The English translations reflect the Japanese sense of the meaning, so you will be reading the literal translation of each sentence. Japanese words are typically displayed using kanji, but if you tap on a word, you can get a popup of the pronunciation in hiragana. You should already know hiragana and katakana before using the guide, as Tae Kim doesn’t use romaji at any point (Write It! Is a simple, free app that can introduce you to kana, or you can subscribe to Skritter for kana and kanji practice).

  • Takoboto Mini-Review: Dictionary App With Conjugations

    Takoboto

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Takoboto is a free dictionary app and study tool. It has flashcards, study lists, kana tables, and links to external sites for detailed grammar explanations. Takoboto differs from other dictionary apps, like Kanji Study, in that it offers a section for conjugated forms. Like other high-rated apps, it also includes example phrases, kanji with stroke order diagrams, and a breakdown of definitions. You can seamlessly transfer words from the app into AnkiDroid. Although Takoboto’s in-app flashcards are not as interactive as those in Kanji Study, Takoboto has a slightly smoother flashcard transfer to AnkiDroid; while Kanji Study transfers oddly formatted definitions, Takoboto transfers well-formatted definitions with an example sentence.  Although Kanji Study seems to be more thorough with its breakdowns and explanations, both apps have their strengths — and luckily, these two apps can be used together! If you tap on any kanji under the kanji section in Takoboto, you can link directly to further explanations in the Kanji Study app.

  • Tatoeba Mini-Review: A Community Writing Sentences in Context

    Tatoeba

    Rating 3.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Tatoeba is a sentence-focused reference dictionary, not word focused. Therefore, by searching for a word in any language, you are searching for examples of that word in context. The site is community-driven, but you don’t have to be multilingual to contribute to the site — it needs native-speaking writers to expand the example database and proofread user sentences. All of the translations are interconnected: even if there is technically no direct translation from Zulu to Chinese, an English translation for the same sentences in both languages will provide direct translations between them. Although Tatoeba supports about 388 languages, about 200 of these languages have less than 100 sentences, and about 58 have less than 10. Nevertheless, the database is continuously growing, and with more community members, the less common languages may have a chance to develop further. It is prohibited to use a translation tool or copyrighted sentences to contribute to the translation database. Unfortunately, some contributors write in a language in which they are not proficiently fluent. As a result, the site has grammatical mistakes and sentences that don’t sound natural. You may have to do some digging to figure out if the contributor is a native speaker or not. Because of the potential user errors on the site, you may want to check out WordReference, Pleco, SpanishDict, Kanji Study , and Linguee to find words in context for more commonly studied languages.

  • The Japanese Page Mini Review: Engaging and Unintimidating

    The Japanese Page

    Rating 4.3
    Price:

    Free; free trial; premium subscriptions cost between $3/mo – $10/mo

    Summary

    The Japanese Page is a website with a variety of resources for beginner to intermediate Japanese learners. Each lesson’s explanations will make you feel like you’re quickly moving through the material, and they are often accompanied by exercises, examples, audio files, and comics to diversify your experience. Beginners can check out the Beginning Japanese Phrases podcast with an accompanying transcript. These two-minute episodes introduce you to a new word in context while encouraging speaking practice. The Nihongo No Tane podcast is for upper beginner and intermediate learners. Becoming a Makoto member gives you access to a transcript of these episodes, plus other benefits, like the monthly e-zine and shadowing exercises to learn everyday Japanese. The interactive e-zine has articles on grammar, kanji, culture, and art — not to mention short stories with audio recorded by native speakers. Beginners can enjoy an excellent introduction to hiragana, katakana, kanji, and basic grammar. Upper-beginner and intermediate learners can check out stories, dialogues, blog posts, and songs. Although the content does not go as in-depth as other sites, like Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese or Imabi, they provide a helpful and manageable introduction to complex concepts. Overall, The Japanese Page’s content seems well-thought-out and would be an excellent place for beginners to gain a better understanding of how Japanese is spoken beyond the parameters of your average textbook.

  • TODAI Mini-Review: Decent, but Not Perfect

    TODAI

    Rating 3.6
    Price:

    $ 0.00

    Summary

    TODAI creates interactive articles from news websites such as Forbes, CNN, Google, and BBC. You can listen to text-to-voice audio as you read along, and even download the file to listen to offline. The colour-coded text will help you identify N1-N5 JLPT vocabulary that you can convert into flashcards within the app. When you look up a word in the app’s dictionary, you can see example sentences, Kanji strokes, grammar explanations, and related images. Also, you can practice dozens of mock JLPT exams. TODAI has an extensive Japanese-Japanese and Japanese-English dictionary with example sentences, analyses of each sentence, and dozens of phrases that contain your chosen word. Although the app identifies grammar structures within the articles and lists them at the bottom of each page, the grammar explanations are hit and miss — some are clear and concise, while others lack formatting, punctuation, and coherency. Overall, TODAI seems to be a decent app for reading comprehension practice. You can also try Readlang to define words and create flashcards from any website in any language, or Human Japanese and Tae Kim’s Guide to Learning Japanese for more concise grammar explanations. 

  • Verbix Mini-Review: Adequate for Less-Studied Languages

    Verbix

    Rating 2.3
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Verbix is a verb conjugator website and app developed by an independent non-profit organization. It conjugates over 100 languages, including Old English, Latin, and Yiddish The amount of information on the conjugation page varies depending on how common the language is. At its best, it will display nominal forms, most common verb conjugations, verbs that have similar conjugations, translations, synonyms, antonyms, cognates, and a section on etymology. Sometimes there are sample sentences (without translations) that seem to come from articles and books. The final section on additional information seems a bit random, and its purpose is unclear. To conjugate a verb in another language, you have to know the verb in its infinitive form. Unfortunately, although Verbix has a translation function, it doesn’t seem to cover all of the available languages, so you may not be able to find the verb you are looking for in the first place. A fun page to explore is Verbix’s list of over 6000 languages with a map depicting where each of these languages is spoken. Otherwise, Verbix seems a bit random and incomplete. It may be a helpful resource for less commonly studied languages, but check out Reverso Translation, Cooljugator, and SpanishDict first.  Also, if you want to practice verb conjugations in Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, or Latin, check out Conjuguemos

  • Vocabulearn Mini Review: Unlikely to Teach You a Language

    Vocabulearn

    Rating 0.6
    Price:

    $29.99 on Amazon, free on Spotify

    Summary

    Vocabulearn has so-called audio courses for numerous languages on Amazon and Spotify. We don’t believe you’ll learn much from them, but they could help you practice your pronunciation. For this mini review, we tried out the Vocabulearn Swahili/English Level 1 course. It’s split into four CDs, each with its own theme, and then each theme is divided into four lessons. The themes are: Nouns; Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions 1; Expressions; Verbs. In each track, we listened to long lists of words and phrases. First, it was said in English; secondly, it was said in Swahili. However, there were no grammar or contextual explanations, drills, or activities to help you remember the material. In short, we’re not convinced that you’d be able to make your own sentences or even remember the vocabulary after listening to these CDs. However, if you’re studying a language with fewer resources, we think you could use it to practice your pronunciation by repeating each word after the speakers say it.

  • Vocly Mini-Review: Expand Your Vocabulary in Less Common Languages

    Vocly

    Rating 3.0
    Price:

    $ 11.99

    Summary

    Vocly is a vocabulary learning app that uses a couple of different techniques to reinforce new words (although it’s unclear whether or not the app uses an SRS system). Each word comes with audio pronunciation by native speakers and a toggle to either reveal or hide the romanization of the word. As with most of Simya Solution’s apps, Vocly is best for languages with fewer available resources. Instead of using English translations in the flashcard activities, the app will prompt you to associate the new word with a small picture. On one hand, this will help you make fewer translations into your native language. On the other hand, the pictures can be ambiguous and you may forget what they symbolize. The flashcard activities include matching activities, identifying new words that fit under a specific category, matching the sound of a word to an image, and asking you to spell the word in the language’s script. Unfortunately, the free version only allows 7 minutes of learning per day, which can feel rushed. Ling is a more comprehensive option for learning multiple facets of a language, but if your goal is to expand your vocabulary, Vocly has over 1600 words. The paid version is quite expensive for what it offers compared to other resources, but for less common languages it is a fun and interactive option.

  • Wakarukana Mini-Review: Japanese Media You Can Understand

    Wakarukana

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Wakarukana does an excellent job of determining which Japanese anime, books, movies, and manga, are suitable to your current level. Once you have clicked on an item, the site will provide you with 5 sentences or audio clips and ask you to select which ones you understand. Depending on your comprehension, it will determine how difficult the item you selected would be relative to your level. As it’s a new site, they don’t yet have a ton of options, but they do provide a solid start to finding level-appropriate media. Note that each search only displays 10 results — search again and you will receive another 10 random results. The site seems to be affiliated with Japanese Level Up.

  • Wasabi Mini Review: Japanese Classes & Self-Study Lessons

    Wasabi Mini Review: Japanese Classes & Self-Study Lessons

    Rating 4.2
    Price:

    3,780¥/month

    Summary

    Wasabi is an online Japanese school that also publishes an impressive amount of free resources for beginner and intermediate learners. This includes grammar guides, graded readers with audio recordings, video lessons, and other self-study materials. The online classes are one-to-one and typically taught in Japanese, although they will allocate you a teacher who speaks English if you request it. You need to purchase the classes in monthly packs, with a minimum of two per month. There’s no upper limit. Meanwhile, you can study by yourself without classes using their self-study materials – although, of course, you’ll miss out on the practice opportunities and personalized feedback. These materials are written in English and contain clear, easy-to-follow breakdowns of Japanese grammar, pronunciation, and more. There are no exercises, however, so you’ll have to drill the material on your own. Whether you take classes with them or not, Wasabi is worth bookmarking. There’s an enormous amount of free, quality resources for beginner and intermediate-level Japanese students. You could use them to supplement courses and textbooks or even to structure your independent studies.

  • WordReference Mini-Review: Thorough and Professionally Translated

    Wordreference

    Rating 4.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    WordReference is one of the best websites for single-word translations. It uses a combination of its own dictionaries and Collins’, depending on the language, and relies on professional translations rather than machine-translations. With each word you look up, you will receive multiple examples of how to use it, nuances of each meaning, and a list of how to incorporate it into multiple phrases. Whereas sites like Bab.la seem to have machine-translated examples that sound quite random at times, WordReference’s examples can be applied directly to your everyday conversation. You can also find conjugation tables and the Collins COBUILD English Usage dictionary, which shows you how to use individual English words correctly — through its explanations, English learners will be able to differentiate between words that are easily confused (such as ‘current’ and ‘currant’). If the explanations don’t make sense, you can ask questions in the WordReference Language Forum — there you will find an active community of language learners discussing language learning topics. Unfortunately, not all words have audio pronunciation, but those that do can be played back at different speeds and with different accents (depending on the language). Although WordReference is a thorough resource, SpanishDict is probably a better option for Spanish learners, and Pleco is the only dictionary you will ever need for Chinese. Linguee is also similar to WordReference but specializes in formal language, and Forvo has millions of words pronounced by native speakers in hundreds of languages.

  • Write Alphabet Mini-Review: Try Our Other Recommendations Instead

    Write Alphabet

    Rating 1.5
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    Write Alphabet seems to be a less developed version of Write It! Its purpose is to help users learn to write in different languages, guiding you through the alphabet of several scripts and allowing you to practice by drawing the characters with your finger. Like Write It!, Write Alphabet is free, but it has a lot of advertisements without an option to buy them off. Additionally, the app does not recognize your attempt to replicate each language’s script unless you start and finish within the lines of the template. Instead of this app, you can test Write it! (free), Write Me (paid lifetime access), and Scripts by Drops (monthly or lifetime access) to see which one best suits the language you are learning. For more comprehensive apps, check out Eggbun for Korean or Skritter for Chinese and Japanese.

  • Write It! Mini-Review: Simple and Straight-Forward

    Write it

    Rating 3.5
    Price:

    $ 0.00

    Summary

    Write it! will teach you the basic scripts of several different languages, using audio by native speakers to familiarize you with proper pronunciation. You can first practice learning to write a small set of characters, then you can test yourself through answering multiple-choice questions and more writing exercises. Although the interface is less flashy than Write Me, Write It! may be a better option for Korean learners because you will learn how to write Hangul from the start. Similar to Write Me and Scripts by Drops, Write It! doesn’t seem to give much background about each script. However, the creators of Write It! also developed Infinite, which you can use for free to learn and practice beginner words that use your chosen alphabet. You can test out Write it! (free), Write Me (paid lifetime access), and Scripts by Drops (monthly or lifetime access) to see which app best suits the language you are learning. For more comprehensive apps, check out Eggbun for Korean or Skritter for Chinese and Japanese.

  • Write Me Mini-Review: Learn Basic Scripts

    Write Me

    Rating 3.2
    Price:

    One language costs $9.99, Access to all languages costs $67.99

    Summary

    Write Me seems to be a decent app to learn different scripts, especially for lesser studied languages like Bulgarian and Khmer. Each character in a given script is accompanied by a sample word that contains those characters. You will watch an animation of the proper stroke order before having the opportunity to write by yourself. Later you will be quizzed in various formats to help you retain what you have learned. Write Me seems to support the act of writing and recognizing individual characters — however, similar to Write It! and Scripts by Drops, it doesn’t seem to give much background about each script. You won’t learn that Korean Hangul consists of morphosyllabic blocks, or that its consonants are pronounced differently at the beginning of a word than in the middle. You also won’t learn that Khmer stacks consonant clusters, or that you are writing Hebrew cursive script but receiving a print script prompt (which gets confusing without a little research). You can test out Write it! (free), Write Me (paid lifetime access), and Scripts by Drops (monthly or lifetime access) to see which app best suits the language you are learning. For more comprehensive apps, check out Eggbun for Korean or Skritter for Chinese and Japanese.

  • YesJapan Mini Review: Simple Explanations With Intuitive UI

    YesJapan

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    YesJapan is a free website and YouTube channel for beginner to intermediate learners. It is based on the textbook series, Japanese From Zero!  The online courses consist of lesson videos, new phrases and words, cultural notes, grammar explanations, dialogues, and quizzes. You can choose to display each lesson’s Japanese words in romaji, hiragana, hiragana and katakana, or Kanji, depending on your comfort level. Also, throughout each lesson, you can add sentences or phrases to be saved to your Notebook for future review. To support your listening comprehension and speaking abilities, every word, sentence and conversation has been recorded by native Japanese speakers. Their 5 levels of courses supposedly bring you from being a total beginner to a high intermediate learner, but since they are each only about 13 lessons long, you will probably need extra support from a tutor or language exchange partner to feel comfortable with the language. Despite what the website advertises, it seems that Course 1 is 100% free, while other courses require an upgrade to a premium membership. The membership also gives you access to the Ask-a-Teacher function. There doesn’t seem to be any writing practice included in the lessons, so you may need to use Skritter, or LangCorrect for practice.  Overall, YesJapan seems like an effective resource to introduce beginners to Japanese in a simple and engaging way.

  • YouGlish Mini-Review: Thousands of Words in Context From YouTube

    YouGlish

    Rating 4.0
    Price:

    Free

    Summary

    YouGlish is a website that has indexed millions of video clips to put words in context for language learners. After searching for a word in your target language, you will see a YouTube video with subtitles and your target word highlighted in yellow. When you have heard the word, you can continue listening to the video or move on to the next example. You can also slow down the speed of the audio, click on a sentence in the transcript to replay it, or skip backwards 5 seconds to listen again. Sometimes you can watch over 1000 videos with your target word, other times there may only be a couple dozen available. Some languages also allow you to choose between different regional dialects, such as: French from Canada or France; Chinese from Taiwan or China; and Spanish from Spain or Latin America. You will need to search for the word in your target language, so you can check out WordReference or Linguee to get a translation. Forvo also provides audio clips of native speaker pronunciation, but with YouGlish, you can practice listening to these words in context. If you want help with reading the subtitles, you can download Readlang for on-screen translations. The Zhongwen Chrome extension will be better for Chinese learners, as it provides the pronunciation of each character as well as a definition.