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In-Depth Reviews And Recommendations - Without The BS

Fluent Forever App Review – Lots Of Potential But Not There Yet

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Quick Review
Summary: The Fluent Forever mobile app is a language learning program currently available in eight languages. The approach it takes is based on the methodology described by Gabrial Wyner in his book, Fluent Forever. It uses flashcards and a spaced repetition algorithm to help the learner create meaningful connections with the language and commit language items to long-term memory.

It’s best for people who are able to dedicate ample time and supplementary resources to learning a new language.

Quality
I noticed some spelling errors in the language I was learning. The activities aren’t super intuitive.
Thoroughness
Pronunciation is explained very well, but I was hoping for some grammar explanations as well. Some features are still in development.
Value
The price is reasonable, and the time spent using the app is productive.
I Like
Creating my own flashcards was usually easy, fun and memorable.

The pronunciation activities were enlightening and practical.

Using the same sentence to learn multiple words got me speaking longer sentences quickly.

I Don’t Like
I wanted to have more control over what I practiced and when.

Creating flashcards was sometimes time-consuming and difficult.

There are no explanations for grammar points.

There’s no offline functionality, and the app is only supported on mobile devices

Languages: There are currently eight languages available on the Fluent Forever app: Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Italian, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, and Korean. Six more are currently in development.

Price:

$9.99/month when paid on a monthly basis.
$53.94 for a 6-month subscription ($8.99/month)
$95.88 for a 12-month subscription ($7.99/month)
$167.76 for a 24-month subscription ($6.99/month)

There’s a free 14-day trial available that gives you full access to all of the languages on the app. You’ll be prompted to select one language if you decided to pay for the app after the trial. If you pay for a subscription instead of per-month, there’s a 30-day money-back guarantee.

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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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Living Language Online Course Review – Not Very Good

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Quick Review
Summary: Living Language provides numerous learning materials for multiple languages, including complete and essential courses that come with textbooks and CDs. They also have specialty courses covering business, travel, and several jobs. However, their standard online version isn’t very practical, and it’s difficult to tell if you’re actually learning or simply going through the motions. While the resource might be useful for those who want access to a large vocab list with grammar reading materials, there are better, cheaper options.

Quality
Though the information itself is useful, Living Language’s presentation reads more like a database than an educational/interactive tool.
Thoroughness
Again, a lot of the information is there, but it’s scattered. Additionally, some of that information appears incorrect.
Value
Cheaper options offer the same amount of content with more interactive features.
I Like
You can hop around between levels and topics, including Beginner and Advanced materials.

The subscription comes with a grammar guide, glossary, and forum access.

There’s a decent variety of games, including some games I hadn’t played before.

I Don’t Like
Although the games are fun, they get stale pretty quickly. It’s easy to guess at answers, thereby completing levels without really having learned.

The system doesn’t keep track of your mistakes, so it’s hard to know what areas you need to improve in.

I found several translation and presentation errors that made me question the rest of the material.

Price: An annual plan costs $150, and half a year costs $75. Three months is $50 and 1 month is $39.

Languages: American Sign Language, Arabic, Dothraki, Dutch, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, and Vietnamese

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Drops App Review – Decent As A Supplementary Resource

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Quick Review
Summary: Drops is a phone app for iPhone and Android that covers 33 languages. Daily games test the user on thousands of vocabulary words, and many of these words are ideal for everyday use. Drops has an entertaining, user-friendly interface, but it also lacks grammar lessons, and it works better for some languages than others. For anyone looking to supplement their vocab lessons, this app is worth considering; however, the free version might be more worthwhile than the paid version.

Quality
Though cute and easy to use, several visuals are hard to distinguish, and some games aren’t too useful for retention.
Thoroughness
This app won’t help with grammar or verb conjugation. However, it does offer hundreds of unique vocab words.
Value
The free app is a great supplementary tool to help round out your vocabulary, but the paid app doesn’t offer many useful extras.
I Like
The daily reminders keep me accountable.

If you already know a word, you have the option of swiping up and removing it from your lessons.

Though the app works better for some languages, the sheer amount of languages is a plus.

Great audio examples.

I Don’t Like
It can be difficult to tell certain images apart, which means you’ll likely identify them incorrectly during your review.

Some of the categories seem to include random, unrelated words.

This app isn’t ideal for beginners, as it skips over basic lessons.

 Drops only teaches you a single verb form, meaning you’ll need different apps to learn how to conjugate.

Price: A monthly subscription costs $9.99, a yearly subscription is $69.99, and a lifetime subscription is $159.99. You can use the app up to five minutes every ten hours for free.

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28 Online Russian Courses Ranked From Best To Worst In 2019

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The internet is full of language courses that claim to teach you five languages by next Tuesday. But how can you tell which ones will give you the most bang for your buck?

Luckily for you, we take learning languages seriously around here, and learning Russian is no exception.

To make choosing the best Russian course as easy as pie, we’ve grouped them into four tiers so you know what’s worth your time (and your hard-earned money).

Top Tier2nd Tier3rd TierStay Clear
Red KalinkaDuolingoGlossikaRocket Russian 
PimsleurGrammar HeroMango LanguagesRosetta Stone
LingodeerBabbelThe Mimic MethodBusuu
RussianPod101FSI RussianLingualiftMichel Thomas Method
MemriseLingvistRussian PlusTransparent Language
Learn Russian RTRussianlessons.netMondlyRussian Accelerator
Russian For FreeUdemyHuliganov
From Zero To Fluency

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