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An Honest Review of Speechling With Image of Girl Looking at Phone

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.

Visit Speechling

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.

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An Honest Review of Ripeti Con Me With Image of Italian City on the Ocean

Think In Italian (FKA: Ripeti Con Me) Review – An Alternative To Glossika and LingQ

Ripeti Con Me

Rating 4.0
★★★★★

Summary

Think In Italian (formerly “Ripeti Con Me”) by Italian polyglot Stefano now offers two libraries of online lessons. The first one is a course that’s similar in style to Glossika but fixes many of the problems I have with it. It teaches the language intuitively and requires you to speak throughout the lessons. Not everyone will love the lesson style but it’ll definitely improve your speaking rhythm and understanding of Italian. The second one is a huge collection of bilingual readings with audio that could replace LingQ if you are frustrated by its organization of the library. New features include live tutoring, a community forum, and a mobile app.

Quality 4.0
★★★★★

The lesson materials are fairly basic but well-structured.

Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★

Previously taught materials are reviewed frequently in new sentence patterns.

Value 4.0
★★★★★

The price is fair for what’s included in the lessons and on the website.

I Like
  • The focus on Italian culture, names, and places.
  • The manner in which things you’ve learned come up later on in future lessons.
  • The lessons and recordings have better spacing than Glossika. The reading materials follow the same format.
I Don’t Like
  • It’s not a particularly exciting course. There are no game elements to keep you motivated.
  • Not everyone will like the lesson style where key concepts aren’t explicitly taught.
Price

Starts with a 7-day free trial and is then $39.80/month or $357/yr

Use the promo code “ALRRCM” to save 5%

Visit Ripeti Con Me

Lessons last approximately 30 minutes and you’re meant to complete one lesson each day. Currently, there are 215 lessons available but additional lessons have already been designed and will continue to be added. In each lesson, there are 30 sentences for you to learn.

Each day, you’re meant to listen to 3 audio files that will get you thinking in Italian and speaking throughout. There are three parts – Part A, Part B, and Part C and you’re meant to go through them in that order.

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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.

 

Visit Oxford Dictionaries

20 Best Podcasts To Learn Italian In 2022

Finding a great Italian podcast won’t only help you improve your listening comprehension, but it will also bring Italy closer to you. And don’t worry about spending hours searching for that perfect fit—we’ve already done that for you.

Below are 23 podcasts to improve your Italian, organized by level. Most of them are 100% in Italian, and many have free transcripts. We’re sure you’ll find something that can accompany you in your Italian studies that will be both challenging and fun.

You may also want to check out our list of Italian YouTube channels, as some of them have recordings in podcast form.

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23 Fantastic YouTube Channels For Learning Italian

If you’re learning Italian, you’ll find plenty of podcasts and online courses, but some of the best learning strategies are available for free on YouTube. Since Italian is known for having lots of hand gestures, YouTube videos can give you additional insight into the mannerisms of the language that a podcast just can’t cover.

Whether you choose to learn from a native speaker or someone who’s studying Italian just like you, here are a few of the best YouTube channels to put on your playlist.

They’re loosely organized based on the learner’s level, but there can be some overlap, so intermediates shouldn’t necessarily skip right over the beginner section.

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The 23 Best Online Italian Courses Compared: A Showdown

Italian is the language of art, food, music, poetry, fashion – and according to the BBC, even love. (Just don’t tell the French.) It will take you from romantic Venice with its sun-dappled canals to fashionable Milan. You’ll walk the same paths as emperors in Rome and take in the incredible coastlines of Sardinia. And what’s more, you’ll make friends around the world, from Italian nonnas to Erasmus students and language-lovers.

Italian isn’t just a beautiful language, however. It’s also one that’s relatively similar to English, thanks to their shared ancestor Latin. And if you also speak some French, Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, or Romanian, you’ll have a head start. 

But even though Italian may be generally less challenging for English speakers than, say, Arabic or Korean, that doesn’t mean it’s a walk in the park. You’ve still got a lot to learn, from vocabulary and grammar through to the Italian accent. And the right course will help you by not only teaching you Italian well but also making the process enjoyable.

While these sources may not be considered Italian language schools with Italian language courses, we have gathered our highest-ranking Italian resources – and there were lots to choose from. Here at All Language Resources, we’ve reviewed over 100 Italian resources. Every single course that made it onto this list scores at least 3.5 stars, which puts it above average for our website.

What’s more, these courses have plenty that set them apart. It doesn’t matter whether you’re looking for a five-minutes-a-day gentle introduction, an intense course that throws you into the deep end, or something innovative that doesn’t feel like you’re in the classroom: we’re confident that you’ll find the right course for you on this list.

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An Honest Review of News in Slow Italian With Image of Italian Beach City

News in Slow Italian Review – Lots of Fun!

News in Slow Italian

Rating 4.5
★★★★
★
★

Summary

News in Slow Italian is an excellent learning resource; it’s very comprehensive and offers all the necessary tools to be able to practice all the aspects of the language. It’s also one of the most fun and original language learning tools I’ve seen and manages to be so without sacrificing on quality. This program is helpful for anyone who wants to learn Italian.

Quality 4.5
★★★★
★
★

They really thought of everything when creating this program – audio lessons, PDF files, exercises, grammar and expressions catalogs, podcasts.

Thoroughness 4.5
★★★★
★
★

Clear and explanatory grammar lessons, expressions and idioms included in every lesson, lots of vocabulary to practice and plenty of information to help you become fluent.

Value 4.5
★★★★
★
★

News in Slow Italian is a great learning resource and students of all levels should try it.

I Like
  • Comprehensive information in every lesson with various levels to fit different abilities
  • Downloadable materials
  • One of the few resources that really is fun to use
I Don’t Like
  • Conversations are a bit too fast sometimes
Price

7-day free trial, then $19.90/month. You also have the option to prepay for any amount of months at a time, which doesn’t change the monthly price.

VISIT NEWS IN SLOW ITALIAN

News in Slow Italian is a brilliant learning resource that offers students of all levels a great opportunity to improve their Italian. The lessons are very thorough, containing a lot of information with plenty of explanations and cultural details.

The resource offers three levels of news stories: beginner, intermediate and advanced. There are also more focused courses and a series section. All of them are equally valuable and helpful as an independent source of learning or as a complementary resource.

News in Slow Italian has it all – fun lessons, easy browsing, easy-to-understand grammar explanations, practice exercises, podcasts, and catalogs with additional information for the extra diligent.

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Mondly Review – Made Significant Improvements 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.

Visit Mondly

To see all of our favorite programs, online subscriptions, apps, podcasts and YouTubes for the language you’re learning, look for your language in the table below.

Most Recommend Resources By Language
ChineseSpanishGermanFrenchItalian
PortugueseKoreanRussianJapaneseArabic

First Impressions

I’ve previously tried out several language learning apps like Duolingo, Busuu, Babbel, and Mango Languages, that on the surface seem to be fairly similar to Mondly.

However, after testing out Mondly for a few different languages, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed.

Immediately, I felt that their interface wasn’t very intuitive to use and the aesthetics were underwhelming.

I wish I could say that Mondly makes up for it with quality content, but that just wasn’t the case. It was nothing special and, in my opinion, below average compared to similar platforms.

There is a pathway for users to follow, but it seems a bit random. For instance, parts of the body is the last topic covered and that comes after the vocabulary related to emergencies.

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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.

Visit Lang Workbooks

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

VISIT LINGQ

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.

However, after exploring every function I could find, I realized that the reading tool has several useful functions for anyone trying to learn a language through extensive reading. Most importantly, it makes reading in other languages feel manageable.

The site has three main pages: Lessons, Tutors, and Community. Within them, you can find free and purchasable lessons, coins, an avatar, writing exchanges, a community forum, audio playlists, and challenges.

I mostly used LingQ for reading in Spanish and dabbled in French, Chinese, Japanese, Swedish, and Korean.

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