All Language Resources is an independent review site. If you click a product link, we may earn money from a seller at no cost to you. Writing and analyses are author opinions. Learn More

Author name: Tanya

Tanya writes and edits her way around the world, trying to pick up new languages along the way. When not exploring new places or getting tongue-tied over pronunciation drills, she spends her time dancing and reading.

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.

Visit Complete Language Lessons

Complete Language Lessons Mini Review: Almost Useless Read More »

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.

Visit Vocabulearn

Vocabulearn Mini Review: Unlikely to Teach You a Language Read More »

Learn Malayalam with EliKutty Mini Review: Fun & Accessible Malayalam Lessons

Learn Malayalam with EliKutty

Rating 3.5
★★★
★
★★
Price:

Free

Summary

Are you learning Malayalam as a second language and looking for an engaging and comprehensible resource? We’ve got you covered.

Learn Malayalam with EliKutty is a frequently updated YouTube channel that mixes one-minute Malayalam lessons with videos about EliKutty’s life with her Malayali husband. 

Eliza Keyton, aka EliKutty, is an English teacher and US expat. While not a native speaker, her lessons have a pedagogical foundation and are easy to understand. Eliza’s content ranges from short, bite-sized videos—one-on-one and group lessons—to longer playlists such as the Beginners and Pronunciation Playlists that follow a learning plan that you can use for self-study. These work well to help non-native speakers and heritage learners connect with the fantastic language of Malayalam.

Her One Minute Malayalam series will help you learn things like different ways to say “no” or “give” and how to make conditional sentences. Eliza also has a Malayalam Alphabets series on how to learn the Malayalam script, which nicely explains the subtle differences in pronunciation. 
Aside from her YouTube, Eliza has more free content accessible via Facebook and Instagram, Discord, as well as her website. The learning content is easy to follow, and Eliza does well to highlight the challenges faced when learning Malayalam to help you overcome them. 

What makes Learn Malayalam with EliKutty different from resources such as Fluent in Malayalam and Moags Malayalam grammar-coursebook, is that it delves deeper into helping you understand Malayalam grammar and the content is kept up-to-date.  

Because Eliza is also learning, sometimes her accent and pronunciation isn’t as accurate as what’s spoken in Kerala. However, this should not deter you from trying out this resource. Although the content can seem unstructured for a complete beginner and could have more vocabulary, if you’re a beginner Malayalam student, you will likely find it a short-and-sweet way to supplement your studies.

Visit Learn Malayalam with EliKutty

Learn Malayalam with EliKutty Mini Review: Fun & Accessible Malayalam Lessons Read More »

Malayalam Smart Slate Mini Review: Don’t Waste Your Time

Malayalam Smart Slate

Rating 1.0
★★★★★
Price:

Free with ads

Summary

The Malayalam Smart Slate app from BigKnol aims to teach you the Malayalam script. Unfortunately, we don’t think you’re likely to learn much from using it. When you open the app, you’ll be able to choose between Practice and Write. Under Practice, you can view the script, complete with audio recordings and occasional example pictures and words. There’s no actual practice involved, however. Under Write, you can draw something and it will tell you which Malayalam symbol it thinks you’ve drawn. However, this doesn’t mean you’ve drawn it correctly: we found that even if you scribble on the screen, it will produce a symbol for you. Unfortunately, this app seems to be missing a key stage: the one where it teaches you how to write the symbols. There’s no explanation of stroke number, order, or direction, nor do you get the opportunity to trace the symbols. Save yourself some time, and try Malayalam Aksharamala or Malayalam Alphabets instead.

Visit Malayalam Smart Slate

Malayalam Smart Slate Mini Review: Don’t Waste Your Time Read More »

Write Malayalam Alphabets (Sathish Shanmugam) Mini Review

Write Malayalam Alphabets

Rating 2.0
★★★★★
Price:

Free

Summary

Use the Write Malayalam Alphabets app to practice tracing the Malayalam script on your smartphone or tablet. Yet while we like the idea of learning on the go, this isn’t our first choice of app for learning the Malayalam alphabet. The app won’t teach you stroke number, order, or direction. We found ourselves guessing at whether we should double back on our strokes to draw a symbol in one go, or whether we should stop and draw it in two or three strokes. There isn’t an in-built quiz, either, and you can’t select which symbols you want to practice. Write Malayalam Alphabets certainly isn’t the worst script-learning app we’ve come across, but we think there are better options available. Try Malayalam Aksharamala (reviewed here) instead.

Visit Write Malayalam Alphabets

Write Malayalam Alphabets (Sathish Shanmugam) Mini Review Read More »

Malayalam Alphabets App (Times Hunt) Mini Review

Malayalam Alphabets App (Times Hunt)

Rating 2.4
★★
★
★★★
Price:

Free

Summary

The Malayalam Alphabets App by Times Hunt left us with mixed feelings. Let’s start with the positive: we think it’s a great way to practice writing the scripts. Unlike most apps, it teaches stroke number, order, and direction. This often isn’t intuitive, so apps that don’t break it down can leave you confused or with terrible handwriting. This app is also very child-friendly. Here’s the negative: it doesn’t contain any audio recordings of the scripts. You’ll have great handwriting but you won’t know how to pronounce what you’re writing. There aren’t any quizzes, either, so you never get to practice writing independently. There are also a few undeveloped ideas. For example, it teaches you some basic Malayalam vocabulary but doesn’t give you the option to practice writing them. We would still use this app. However, we think it’s best used alongside Malayalam Aksharamala (review). Alternatively, purchase a workbook and just use Malayalam Aksharamala.

Visit Malayalam Alphabets App (Times Hunt)

Malayalam Alphabets App (Times Hunt) Mini Review Read More »

Learn Malayalam Alphabets Audio Mini Review: Not Worth It

Learn Malayalam Alphabets Audio

Rating 1.0
★★★★★
Price:

Free

Summary

The Learn Malayalam Alphabets Audio app from BigKnol is free and contains clear audio recordings. However, it’s not much use for learners. When you open the app, you’ll be able to access “vowels” and “consonants.” Each option takes you to a list of Malayalam symbols. Press the audio button to hear a recording of one. Alternatively, you can press the lightbulb button to see a picture of a word that is written with that symbol – sometimes. At other times, it will tell you “Ho! No Example!”. You don’t get to practice writing or even speaking the Malayalam script with this app, and there is no quiz or test, meaning that learning the symbols is up to you. In short, we just don’t see the point in using this app. There are far better alternatives available, such as Malayalam Aksharamala or Malayalam Alphabets.

Visit Learn Malayalam Alphabets Audio

Learn Malayalam Alphabets Audio Mini Review: Not Worth It Read More »

Learn Indian Languages Quickly With Alter Gyan: Mini Review

Alter Gyan/Learn X Quickly

Rating 3.2
★★★
★
★★
Price:

Free; watch an ad or pay to unlock some themes

Summary

Alter Gyan’s apps set out to teach you essential words and phrases in 13 different Indian languages. The series include Learn Hindi Quickly, Learn Punjabi Quickly, and Learn Bengali Quickly. What makes it even better is the fact that you can learn from other common Indian, East Asian, and European languages – not just English. Although Alter Gyan (also called Altergyan) has also made apps for European and East Asian languages, we can’t recommend them. Our score is solely for the apps for the Indian languages. This is because the biggest selling point of these apps is the variety of languages for which, frankly, there aren’t always many resources. When you open the app, you can view word lists for over 30 themes. You can drill them with flash cards, take multiple-choice quizzes, and even record yourself speaking and listen back. If you can find your language on something like uTalk (review), Ling (review), Simply Learn Languages (review), or Vocly (review), we would recommend studying with those apps instead. We find them more effective, engaging, and comprehensive. However, if these apps aren’t an option, or if you want to learn from Tamil or Telugu, Alter Gyan’s Learn Quickly apps could help you memorize basic words and phrases for essential situations.

Visit Alter Gyan/Learn X Quickly

Learn Indian Languages Quickly With Alter Gyan: Mini Review Read More »

Kannada Alphabet Mini Review: It’s Good, But Not Enough

Kannada Alphabet

Rating 3.0
★★★★★
Price:

Free – and ad-free, too!

Summary

With the Kannada Alphabet app from Bhasha.io, you’ll practice pairing the Kannada character to the right transliteration. It makes heavy use of audio files.  However, it doesn’t teach you how to write the script, so you’ll need to pair it with another app such as Kannada101 or practice on your own. It could be further improved with a record yourself or speaking option. We also feel it could do with more quizzes and drilling, especially as you move into later lessons. The app is divided into 11 different sections, each one teaching you 4–5 characters. The quizzes are built into the sections and test you on the characters from the same section and the one before. In other words, Vowels – Part 3 will drill you on the material from Vowels – Part 3 and Vowels – Part 2 but not Vowels – Part 1. We found ourselves quickly forgetting characters from earlier sections and mixing them up. Bear in mind that you also have to provide an email address in order to use the app.

Visit Kannada Alphabet

Kannada Alphabet Mini Review: It’s Good, But Not Enough Read More »