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French

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.

VISIT THE MIMIC METHOD

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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.

Try Glossika For Free

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.

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An Honest Review of Francais Authentique With Image of The Arc de Triomphe in Paris

Français Authentique Review: Testing Out Their Courses

Français Authentique

Rating 3.8
★★★
★
★★

Summary

These audio lessons focus on teaching you authentic French that is used in everyday life. As everything is in French, it is not suited to beginners although it will certainly help intermediate learners gain fluency and improve their comprehension skills. Speaking and writing are not featured much but the listening and reading resources are generally very good. It will help you improve these skills but it is up to you to put in the time to practice the lessons.

Quality 4.0
★★★★★

Very easy to use with good content. Could maybe vary up the exercises a bit more.

Thoroughness 3.5
★★★
★
★★

The vocabulary explanations in French are great though this approach means you learn grammar intuitively without any analysis of how it works.

Value 4.0
★★★★★

Very authentic and is worth checking out. Not everyone will be a fan of the heavy amount of repetition. Cheaper than a lot of resources.

I Like
  • Everything is in French which is great! The complete immersion will help you improve.
  • The PDFs accompanying the audio lessons are very useful as you can read them while listening.
  • The vocabulary explanations were very clear and serve to clarify the meaning in your mind and give you other ways in which you can use the word or phrase.
  • Motivation is key and Johan provides you with clear instructions on how to get the most out of his teaching method.
I Don’t Like
  • This method is a bit too repetitive for me. I don’t think I could listen to the audios ten – thirty times as is recommended.
  • Speaking and writing takes a backseat. This is because Johan believes that improving your comprehension skills and your vocabulary will eventually lead to speaking and writing coming naturally.
  • The audios are clear to listen to, authentic and well done but are not the most riveting things in the world.
  • You are supposed to learn intuitively and automatically which explains why there is no in-depth focus on grammar. Not all learners will relate to this approach.
Price

Divided into three bundles of courses that increase in difficulty:

Pack 1 costs 49 euros and contains 4.5 hours of audio. Pack 2 costs 129 euros and includes 17 hours of audio. Pack 3 is 149 euros and includes 14.5 hours of audio as well as 3.75 hours of videos.

All three packs together cost 327 euros and this includes 3.75 hours of video, 36 hours of audio, 355 pages of text and should take you over a year and a half to complete.

For a look at how Francais Authentique is taught and whether it fits your learning style, you can access a week of free lessons on the website.

Visit Francais Authentique

This course isn’t for beginners – you’ll be completely immersed in French

I had never heard of Francais Authentique prior to writing this review and upon checking out the website I was immediately intrigued as absolutely everything is in French.

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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.

Visit Earworms

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.

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An Honest Review of Frantastique with Image of French Architecture

Frantastique Review – Unjustifiably Expensive For Limited Lessons

Frantastique

Rating 2.8
★★
★
★★★

Summary

One of the most simply designed resources on the web, Frantastique is more than meets the eye. It follows an ideology which believes in immersing the students in the language and culture while making use of AI. I would recommend it to people who know at least bits and pieces of the language and don’t care about spending the insane prices they’re asking for.

Quality 3.5
★★★
★
★★

The immersive lessons force you to sink or swim but the design is lackluster.

Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★

The content that is presented to you is based on where you lack in the language and their revision system is very well done.

Value 1.0
★★★★★

With the high price and a limit on the number of lessons you can access per week, Frantastique is terrible value for the money.

I Like
  • The unique way of teaching
  • The emphasis on revision
  • The level of personalization of lessons
I Don’t Like
  • The extremely high cost
  • You’re limited to accessing five lessons per week
  • Bad graphical interface
Price

£23 euros /monthly for the basic plan,  £34 euros /monthly for premium, and  £45 euros /monthly for the gold plan.

Try a free trial of Frantastique

This is the first time I have used a language resource as unique as Fantastique. Even for someone like me who had some basic conversational skills in the language, the resource wasn’t a walk in the park to use.

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