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.

Visit Learn with Oliver

Learn WIth Oliver Mini-Review: Simple With Lots of Content Read More »

Vores Fællessprog Mini Review: Danish Grammar Breakdown

Vores Fællessprog

Rating 3.8

★★★

★

★★

Price:

Free

Summary

Looking for something that will help you understand Danish grammar? Try Vores Fællessprog, which will break down word order, verbs, conjunctions and more in 11 different languages. You can also drill your understanding by pressing some of the buttons at the bottom of each screen. While they’re not overly intuitive, they’ll load up quizzes in a pop-up window. Our biggest gripe with Vores Fællessprog is also our favorite thing about it: it’s simple and easy to understand. The explanations are clear. Unfortunately, this is partly because it’s quite superficial. If you find you need something more in-depth, try Basby instead.

Visit Vores Fællessprog

Vores Fællessprog Mini Review: Danish Grammar Breakdown Read More »

Lexin Billedtema Mini Review: Not Bad, But Pair It With Anki

Lexin Billedtema

Rating 3.0

★★★★★

Price:

Free

Summary

Lexin Billedtema describes itself as a picture-based dictionary, but that’s not strictly true: there’s no way to look up words, for example. Despite that, Lexin Billedtema is a genuinely useful tool for Danish language learners looking to learn new vocabulary. Our favorite thing about it is how many languages you can use it in: you have the standard ones like English and Spanish, and then you have the ones like Somalian, Arabic, and Yiddish. Once you’ve selected your language from the Danish-language page (just scroll down until you get to the table of languages), you’ll be presented with a list of themes. Choose one and you’ll be presented with labeled illustrations. You can choose whether the labels are in Danish or your own language and listen to audio recordings of the new vocabulary. The vocabulary is impressively detailed, with words such as “parting” (hairstyle), wisdom tooth, and even dorsal fin. As a result, this probably isn’t the best tool for absolute beginners. Disappointingly, there’s no inbuilt way to practice output or drill the new language, so you’re best off making your own flash cards. We suggest using Anki. Alternatively, if you’d prefer something more engaging, skip Lexin Billedtema altogether and use an app like Drops instead.

Visit Lexin Billedtema

Lexin Billedtema Mini Review: Not Bad, But Pair It With Anki Read More »

The Danish Study Mini Review: Most Useful for Drilling Verbs

The Danish Study

Rating 3.0

★★★★★

Price:

Free trial, then roughly $6/month or $35/year

Summary

The Danish Study is a well-designed website that makes practicing verb conjugations, basic vocabulary, and numbers a little bit more engaging. While it’s a well-thought-out tool, we’re not convinced the vocabulary and numbers features are worth paying for – not when you can download and use something like Drops for free. The verb conjugations tool, on the other hand, is pretty useful. You can drill them separately or in phrases, as well as testing your memory of their conjugation, spelling, and meaning.

Visit The Danish Study

The Danish Study Mini Review: Most Useful for Drilling Verbs Read More »

Speakdanish Mini Review: Dull But Good for Pronunciation

Speakdanish

Rating 3.2

★★★

★

★★

Price:

$158 for a year’s access ($110 for low-income learners)

Summary

Speakdanish is a pronunciation- and communication-focused course where grammar takes a back seat – although the grammar explanations are still clear and pretty thorough. Each of the 20 classes begins with a dialogue, along with the stern reminder “Remember everything you learn. You will be tested on it later.” The conversation is then translated phrase by phrase. In many cases, additional grammar or contextual explanations are given, such as “Professions don’t get an article (a teacher)” or “Many names of British towns are derived from by (town).” It’s worth mentioning, though, that the explanation’s usefulness can be slightly limited at times: while you might understand that you don’t put an article in front of “teacher,” you still won’t know how to say “teacher” or what the Danish articles are. You’re then introduced to additional materials, which may include grammar breakdowns and word lists. In the first lesson, for example, there’s a word list, additional phrase list, and a pronunciation guide for the hard, soft and silent d. Finally, you get to the tests, in which you either type what you hear or translate sentences into Danish. Our initial impression is that Speakdanish is thorough and excellent for pronunciation and listening, yet it could be hard work. The tests take us back to school exams, the material is extensive and can seem overwhelming, and you’re left to drill lots of information on your own. We recommend going slowly and pairing it with plenty of other learning materials.

Visit Speakdanish

Speakdanish Mini Review: Dull But Good for Pronunciation Read More »

Sundhedsdansk Mini Review: Danish Course on Health & Illness

Sundhedsdansk

Rating 1.5

★

★★★★

Price:

Free

Summary

There are some things so important, and with so much material, that they almost deserve their very own language course. Take, for example, going to the doctor’s or understanding your child’s illness. That’s where the online, introductory course Sundhedsdansk comes in. While we think this is a fantastic idea, there are some issues with the course. Since it only uses Danish, it can be challenging to work out exactly what the new language means. Pictures and videos help you out, but even so, we frequently had to turn to Google Translate. Moreover, we were unconvinced by the choice of – at times astonishingly simple or tangential – vocabulary. For example, in the lesson on “infections,” we wonder if vocabulary such as “door handle,” “hug,” and “pencil” could have been replaced with words like “bronchitis,” “antibiotics,” and “wet cough.” We also felt that the course would have benefited from vocabulary on additional topics, such as “broken bone,” “lump,” and “take the pills twice a day.” In fact, this course at times seems more concerned with teaching immigrants basic hygiene than how to communicate with a medical professional. While there are some useful phrases, expect to still feel quite confused when you visit the doctor’s – especially if they give you instructions about medicine, self-care, or medical procedures.

Visit Sundhedsdansk

Sundhedsdansk Mini Review: Danish Course on Health & Illness Read More »

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.

Visit Loecsen

Loecsen Mini-Review: Phrasebook App For Absolute Beginners Read More »

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.

Visit ilanguages

iLanguages Mini-Review: Almost Identical to Learn 101 Read More »

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.

Visit learn101

Learn101 Mini-Review: A Re-Formatted Version of iLanguages Read More »

Dansk Her&Nu Mini Review: Not for Complete Beginners

Dansk Her&Nu

Rating 3.5

★★★

★

★★

Price:

$ 0.00

Summary

Dansk Her&Nu, also known as Dansk her og nu and Danish Here & Now, is a free online beginner-level Danish course developed with support from the Danish government. The only catch is that it’s all in Danish. If you’re a complete beginner, you’ll probably struggle without the support of a teacher. Lesson one dives straight in with three relatively long texts, each 7–10 sentences long, and then questions you, in Danish, about whether you believe Danish people greet each other politely or kiss too little. However, if you’ve already got a little Danish knowledge, or you can work through it with a friend or teacher, it seems like it could be a good supplementary resource. There’s plenty of audio recordings and vocabulary, plus some clear grammar explanations, exercises, and cultural information.

Visit Dansk Her&Nu

Dansk Her&Nu Mini Review: Not for Complete Beginners Read More »