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In-Depth Reviews And Recommendations - Without The BS

uTalk Review – Learn Set Phrases But Not A Language

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Quick Review
Summary: uTalk is a software program and mobile app offering learning material in over 140 languages. Its approach is based on learning set keywords and phrases through gameplay. It covers a wide range of set phrases and offers pronunciation practice. It does not offer any in-depth language instruction or grammar.

uTalk is most useful for people who want to learn key phrases in a new language and aren’t interested in a more comprehensive understanding.

Quality
The app is very user-friendly, and the content is mostly useful, but the features are limited.
Thoroughness
The opportunities for focused practice are somewhat lacking.
Value
The price is very low, and there’s a decent amount of content, but there are more time-efficient ways to learn.
I Like…
The number of languages on offer is staggering.

Each phrase is recorded by a male and female native speaker. This was especially helpful in learning pronunciation.

You frequently get to hear recordings of yourself producing the language. I found this motivating and informative.

I Don’t Like…
The Memory Game exercise felt like a waste of time. It’s difficult to get a perfect score even if you know the language well.

I kept wishing there was a way to choose which phrases I could practice in games instead of them being randomly selected.

I’m not a fan of learning a bunch of set phrases. I’d prefer some instruction related to grammar and sentence construction.

Price*:

$2.99/month on a monthly basis and can be canceled at any time
$1.67/month for a year-long subscription
$1.00/month for a two-year subscription

*This is the price for the more popular languages like Spanish, German, Arabic, etc. Less common languages such as Afrikaans and Tibetan cost slightly more.

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Review Of Transparent Language – Their Courses Are Awful!

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Quick Review
Summary: The Transparent Language Essentials Courses aim to get absolute beginners engaged and interacting with the language they’re learning and speaking the basics in no time at all. While there are lots of different exercises for you to work through, the material isn’t all that helpful and it does get very repetitive. Although the courses aren’t all that useful or in depth, with over a hundred languages on offer it might be worth checking out if you want to learn the very basics of a more obscure language such as Buriat, Kazakh or Turkmen. But, even then, I’d try to find other resources first.

Quality
While the exercises are for the most part well-designed, diverse and easy to use, it is the core material itself which is lacking.
Thoroughness
There are hardly any explanations at all, you just have to endlessly memorize words and phrases.
Value
I would only consider using if it were free and I was studying a very rare language.
I Like
I really like the fact that they offer up courses in languages that are usually overlooked.

It’s pretty well-designed, easy to use and has lots of different activities to work through.

I Don’t Like
The core material is severely lacking and you won’t learn much grammar or how to form even a basic sentence yourself.

It gets very repetitive and so I didn’t find it that fun to work through.

You learn virtually nothing about the different cultural contexts of the languages you’re learning.

 Their teaching methodology is the biggest issue, leaving you memorizing lots of words and phrases in isolation. 

Price: There is a free two-week trial period for you to try it out. Otherwise, it is $24.95 per month or $149.95 for a whole year if you just select one language. If you want access to all of the languages it is then $49.95 per month and $249.95 a year.

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

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Quick Review
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 like answers, notebook, and language partners makes it easy to ask questions, get your writing checked, and find a free language exchange partner.

I Don’t Like…
You have to load money onto your account before paying for a class. You can’t simply pay one class at a time without buying credits first.

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.

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Mango Languages Review – Pretty Good For Beginners

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Quick Review

Summary: Mango Languages is a pretty good resource with numerous languages available along with their regional variations.  It’ll work the best for beginners or for those interested in studying a few languages at the same time. Anybody past the intermediate level won’t find Mango Languages very useful.

Quality

It is well designed, has a beautiful interface, and is intuitive to use.

Thoroughness

There are some gaps in terms of writing and grammar, along with a lack of materials for intermediate or higher level students.

Value

The price is fair and will give you access to materials for over 70 languages.

I Like…

It’s very easy to use and has a slick design.

The intense drilling of useful real life sentences and words during lessons will really help you remember them.

Cultural and grammar notes incorporated in the lessons are well-prepared to help you understand the language you’re learning better.

The subscription gives you access to over 70 languages.

I Don’t Like…

Most courses finish around the intermediate level with some less popular languages ending before that.

There’s not enough grammar practice.

During drilling, when a student is prompted to complete a task such as coming up with an appropriate translation of a sentence, the command is read out loud. Listening to someone repeat very similar commands over and over again is tedious.

The Google Translate plugin is a rather lazy and disappointing way to give students answers about words or sentences they’d like to translate.

Price: A subscription to Mango Languages costs $19.99 per month or $199.99 per year.

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Alternatives:  Babbel is a somewhat similar course that’s a bit cheaper.

The best alternative will likely depend on the language that you’re learning. Take some time to look through some of our reviews for courses in the language you’re learning.

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LingQ Review: It’s Alright – A Detailed And Honest Opinion After Using It For A Month

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Quick Review
Summary: LingQ is a language learning platform that makes it easy to read and listen to interesting content at varying difficulty levels. As you read, words will be marked as known and LingQ tracks the total number of words you “know”. The content comes from lots of different places with very little of it being original. They also make it very easy to upload your own content.

Quality 
Reading on LingQ is really easy though there are some features I’d like to see improved or removed
Thoroughness 
Although there isn’t much original content, there’s still a lot of material to read regardless of your level
Value 
The price is fitting for the value provided
I Like…
It’s easy to add your own content which makes reading more fun.

The content is quite diverse and comes from lots of different places.

 Looking up words is quick and easy.

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: A Premium subscription to LingQ costs $12.99/month.

Languages: Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, English, Korean, French, Russian, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Esperanto, Latin, Ukranian. There are also 11 additional languages in Beta.

Alternatives: 

Readlang can do much of what LingQ does and is available for free. I didn’t realize all of its functions when writing this review, otherwise, I would have been a bit less enthusiastic about LingQ.

If you’re studying Chinese, I’d recommend Du Chinese or The Chairman’s Bao.

For those studying Spanish, Storyling is a newer resource that I like quite a bit.

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