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Instant Immersion Mini-Review: No Longer a Good Investment

Instant Immersion – 2

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.

Visit Instant Immersion

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

By Nick Arabic Afrikaans Aiki (Runga) Ainu Albanian Alsatian Aramaic Argentine Sign Language Armenian Aromanian Assamese Assiniboine Austrian German Avar Aymara Azerbaijani Azeri Bago-Kusuntu Bagri Balinese Balochi Bambara (Bamanankan) Banjar Barawana (Baré) Bari Basque Batak Toba Bats Bavarian Beja Belait Belarusian Bengali Berber (Tamazight) Bhojpuri Bislama Blackfoot (Niitsi'powahsin) Bosnian Brazilian Sign Language (LIBRAS) Breton Bugis Bulgarian Burmese Cantonese Catalan Cebuano Chavacano Chechen Cherokee Chewa (Chichewa) Chibarwe Chiquitano Choctaw Chukchi Chuwabu Coptic Cornish Corsican Cree Croatian Crow Czech Daakaka Dakota Danish Dari Daza Dela-Oenale Dinka Domari Dotyali Drehu Dutch Dzongkha English Erzya Esperanto Estonian Ewe Ewondo (Fang) Faroese Fijian (ITaukei) Filipino Finnish Flemish Fon (Fon gbè) French Frisian Friulian Fulah Fur Ga Galician Gallo Garifuna Georgian German Gikuyu Greek Greenlandic Guambiano Guarani Gujarati Gullah Haitian Creole Hakka Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hokkien (Taiwanese) Honduran Sign Language Hungarian Iban Icelandic Ido Igbo Indonesian Ingush Inuinnaqtun Inuktitut Irish Italian Ixcatec Jamaican Creole Japanese Javanese Judeo-Tat K'iche Kachin (Jingpho) Kalanga Kalmyk Oirat Kannada Kanuri Kazakh Kekchi (Q'eqchi') Kenjeje Khmer (Cambodian) Khmu Khoemana Kinyarwanda Kirundi Koisan (Tsoa) Konkani Korean Kurdish Kyrgyz Ladin Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) Lakota Lao Latin Latvian Lau Limburgish Lithuanian Litzlitz (Naman) Lombard Luganda Luo Luxembourgish Maasai Macedonian Maithili Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maldivian (Dhivehi) Maltese Mamuju Manchu Mandarin Chinese Mandingo (Madinka) Manggarai Manx Maori Mapudungun Marathi Marri Ngarr Marshallese Masalit Mauritian Creole Mazatec Mekeo Mexican Sign Language Minangkabau Mingrelian Mirandese Miyako Mnong Mon Mongolian Montenegrin Nahuatl Nambya Natchez Navajo (Diné bizaad) Ndebele Neapolitan (Napoletano) Nepali Neverver Newar Nigerian Pidgin North Efate (Nakanamanga) Norwegian Nubian Nuer Occitan Odia Ogiek (Akiek) Ojibwe Okinawan Oneida Oromo Pa'o Palauan Papiamento Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Qashqai Quechua Rohingya Romani Romanian Romansch Russian Sa Sami Samoan Sanskrit Sardinian Scots Scottish Sekani Sena Serbian Sfyria Shan Shanghainese Sherpa Shona Shoshoni Shumashti Sicilian Sign Language Silbo Gomero Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Sotho Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swazi Swedish Swiss German Syriac Tajik Tamang Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tharu Tibetan Tigrinya Tlingit Toki Pona Tongan Tsonga (Xitsonga) Tswana Turkish Turkmen Tutong Twi Tz’utujil Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Venda Vietnamese Waray Welsh Wolof Wyandot Xhosa Yakut Yiddish Yola Yoruba Yucatec Maya Zaghawa (Beria) Zapotec Zarma Zaza (Northern) Zhuang Zulu

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

Quick Review

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.

Teacher Quality

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

Platform

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

Value

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 $4 and others as high as $60 per hour. Most will fall somewhere near the $10 per hour range.

Visit italki Now

(more…)

By Tara Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Assamese Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bengali Bhojpuri Bulgarian Burmese Cantonese Catalan Cebuano Croatian Czech Danish Dari English Estonian Faroese Filipino Finnish Flemish French Frisian Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Korean Kurdish Kyrgyz Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Maithili Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Mandarin Chinese Mongolian Nepali Norwegian Oromo Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Sanskrit Serbian Shona Sicilian Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Somali Spanish Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Turkish Turkmen Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zulu

Bluebird Languages Mini-Review: Over 160 Languages Available

Bluebird Languages – 3.5

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.

Visit Bluebird Languages

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

By Tara Arabic Afrikaans Albanian Aramaic Azerbaijani Bosnian Bulgarian Burmese Catalan Cebuano Chewa (Chichewa) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Esperanto Estonian Filipino Finnish French Georgian German Greek Haitian Creole Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hmong Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer (Cambodian) Korean Kurdish Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malay Maltese Mandarin Chinese Maori Mongolian Nepali Norwegian Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Samoan Sanskrit Serbian Sign Language Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Xhosa Yiddish Zulu

Brainscape Mini-Review: Adaptive Flashcards

Brainscape – 4.5

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.

Visit Brainscape

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

By Tara Arabic Afrikaans Albanian Armenian Assamese Belarusian Bengali Breton Bulgarian Cantonese Catalan Chechen Corsican Cree Croatian Czech Danish Dutch Dzongkha English Esperanto Estonian Ewe Faroese Fijian (ITaukei) Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Guarani Gujarati Hausa Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Inuktitut Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kanuri Kazakh Khmer (Cambodian) Kinyarwanda Korean Kurdish Latin Latvian Limburgish Lithuanian Luxembourgish Malay Malayalam Maltese Mandarin Chinese Manx Maori Marathi Marshallese Mongolian Navajo (Diné bizaad) Nepali Norwegian Occitan Ojibwe Oromo Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Quechua Romanian Romansch Russian Samoan Sanskrit Sardinian Serbian Shona Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Sotho Spanish Sundanese Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Tatar Telugu Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Tongan Tsonga (Xitsonga) Tswana Turkish Turkmen Twi Ukrainian Urdu Uyghur Uzbek Venda Vietnamese Welsh Wolof Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zhuang Zulu

LangCorrect: Unlimited, Free Writing Practice With Feedback

LangCorrect – 5

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 italki’s Notebooks.

Visit LangCorrect

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

By Brian Alsatian Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Assamese Aymara Azeri Basque Belarusian Bengali Berber (Tamazight) Bosnian Breton Bulgarian Burmese Catalan Cebuano Chewa (Chichewa) Cornish Corsican Croatian Czech Danish Dari Dutch Dzongkha English Esperanto Faroese Fijian (ITaukei) Filipino Finnish Flemish French Frisian Galician German Greek Greenlandic Gujarati Haitian Creole Hausa Hawaiian Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Igbo Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Kazakh Kinyarwanda Korean Kurdish Lao Latin Latvian Lithuanian Luganda Luxembourgish Macedonian Malagasy Malay Malayalam Maltese Mandarin Chinese Manx Maori Marathi Mongolian Navajo (Diné bizaad) Nepali Norwegian Oromo Papiamento Pashto Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Quechua Romanian Romansch Russian Sami Samoan Sardinian Scots Scottish Serbian Shona Sicilian Sindhi Sinhala Slovak Slovenian Somali Spanish Swahili Swedish Tajik Tamil Telugu Thai Tibetan Tigrinya Tswana Turkmen Ukrainian Urdu Uzbek Vietnamese Welsh Wolof Xhosa Yiddish Yoruba Zulu

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

Quick Review

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

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

Thoroughness

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