Anki Mini-Review: The Go-To SRS Flashcard App

Anki

Rating 4.1

★★★★

★

Price:

Free

Summary

It is the go-to app for free (except on iOS) Spaced Repetition System (SRS) flashcards. It has a simple user interface with various features that more hard-core users can dive into if they choose. Your flashcards will appear according to your natural forgetting curve; the app will test you in increasingly spaced out intervals, with more difficult cards appearing more than once in a session, while easier cards spacing out over weeks — or even months and years. An SRS system is the most effective way to drive information into your long-term memory. The cards can sync between the web, desktop app, and mobile versions to keep your flashcards updated and with you at all times. You can add images and audio clips to your cards and change the text formatting (if you use it on your computer). One feature unique to Anki, as opposed to other SRS flashcard apps, is the “Cloze deletion” function, which allows you to block out parts of your card and create a “fill-in-the-blanks” type card format. If you want a resource for how to make effective flashcards, check out the book, FluentForever. The author leaves a whole section dedicated to understanding how to use your Anki deck to advance your skills quickly.

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Comprehensible Russian Mini-Review: Best for Absolute Beginners

Comprehensible Russian

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Price:

Freemium, Premium subscription costs $15/mo

Summary

Comprehensible Russian is a Youtube Channel and website that supports learners through videos and online lessons. Inna, the founder, emphasizes learning through comprehensible input — lessons and videos are entirely in Russian, and there is little focus on grammar. She will speak at a pace suitable to the target audience’s level and use various techniques to help you understand the content, such as gestures, illustrations, and maps. Inna’s 5-10 minute videos are for absolute beginners who want to pick up basic vocabulary. If you like her teaching style, you can support her through Patreon or make a one-time purchase to access longer, 15-60 minute videos. The Youtube videos come with free PDF transcripts to follow along. When you feel confident in your understanding of the beginner videos, you can take private lessons with her online or in person. There is also the option to support her through Patreon and attend live lectures. Inna does most of the speaking during these lectures, but you can feel free to ask questions in English or Russian.

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BeFluent Mini-Review: Friendly and Supportive

BeFluent in russian

Rating 4.3

★★★★

★

Price:

Paid plans start at $19.99/mo

Summary

BeFluent supports Russian learners in two ways: On Youtube and through an online program. They have also written 2 books to improve your reading and listening comprehension. The Youtube channel has hundreds of quality videos for beginners, intermediate, and advanced learners alike. Fedor, the founder of the channel, is entertaining and friendly with his audience. He seems to truly enjoy teaching and supporting the community of Russian learners. However, he does speak a lot of English to explain complex grammar points, so you may have to search a bit for his Russian immersion videos. The BeFluent Class contains an ever-expanding resource library and a main curriculum, with lessons that become increasingly difficult as they progress. There is a strong focus on communication so that you can learn to express your thoughts and understand others. You can participate in weekly group calls with the BeFluent team to ask questions and learn about different topics, and with BeFluent Class Premium you can also receive private coaching. The library includes vocabulary books, street Russian vocabulary, grammar manuals, listening comprehension exercises, and more. Subscribing to BeFluent, whether on Youtube or through the paid membership, seems like a very supportive and effective way to improve your Russian.

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3ears Mini-Review: Free Learning Through Russian Videos

3ears

Rating 4.5

★★★★

★

Price:

Free

Summary

3Ears is a (mostly) free platform that helps you learn Russian through videos and interactive transcripts. It is similar to Yabla, FluentU, and Caption Pop, but dedicated solely to learning Russian. Although you can choose an interface language, the translations seem to only be available in English. Each video contains a script in Russian that follows along with the audio. There is also an English translation that appears at the top of the screen which seems to have been written and edited by the site’s users. If you click on the words in the Russian transcript, you can receive a translation, multiple audio samples from various pronunciation websites, classification for the word, various forms of the word, and sample sentences that link to an audio example from other media. You can also mark words in the transcript as ‘known’, and those words will then appear in green in future videos. This way, you can assess how familiar you are with the vocabulary in various videos just by looking at the colour of the transcript. On the home page you can filter content by various themes, such as films (entire films are available on the site), cartoons, news, songs, humour, reading, and poetry. Videos that you enjoy or would like to watch in the future can be sorted into personalized folders.

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Encore!!! Language Learning Mini-Review: Basically a Phrasebook

Encore!!! Language Learning

Rating 1.5

★

★★★★

Price:

Free

Summary

Encore!!! Language Learning allows you to listen to playlists of common phrases, vocabulary, conjugations, and dialogues. It varies in terms of whether it uses native speakers or automated text-to-voice. The app is basically a phrasebook that allows you to practice translating sentences to and from your native language, or simply repeat after an audio in your target language. You can listen to a pre-made playlist, mute or unmute certain phrases within a playlist, adjust the number of repetitions of each phrase, or create your own playlist. You can also test your memory with the Test tool by reading prompts in your native language and translating into your target language. The app seems to focus more on understanding grammar structures than other phrasebook sites like Optilingo or Lingohut. Technically you could learn something by repeating the phrases aloud, but there are many other free apps that provide a clearer learning path and have a more intuitive interface than Encore!!! Language Learning.

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CaptionPop Mini-Review: Use The Free Version

Caption Pop

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Price:

Free, Premium subscriptions start at $10/mo

Summary

With CaptionPop you can use YouTube videos to pursue your language learning endeavours using subtitles in both your target language and native language. Tap a single key to repeat the last caption, slow down the playback speed, and bookmark subtitles to study with SRS interactive flashcards. The flashcards will not just have you memorize words, but practice dictations with immediate feedback on your accuracy. Unfortunately there are currently some bugs in the programming, and you may only hear part of the caption you are being asked to transcribe. You can search for Youtube videos in your target language within the CaptionPop platform, but only those videos with subtitles in both your target language and your native language are available. This means that you will rely on captions translated and transcribed by the video’s creators, which improves your language learning experience but restricts the amount of available Youtube content. Nevertheless, there is a good amount of content from popular channels in more common languages. The free version of the platform combined with self-made Anki cards may be a better option than subscribing to the premium version, as the bugs in CaptionPop’s programming may not be worth the monthly payment.

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Russian With Max Mini-Review: Engaging For Intermediate+

Russian with max

Rating 4.5

★★★★

★

Price:

Freemium, Courses cost $59

Summary

Russian with Max supports intermediate and advanced learners from several angles. He has a podcast, Youtube Channel, and purchasable courses, all of which provide content that introduces Russian culture, history, and everyday life in an interesting and understandable way. If you would like to access transcripts for both his Youtube channel and podcasts, you can sign up for the membership program; you will receive additional audio lessons that focus on new vocabulary, listening, speaking, and pronunciation. Max articulates clearly and speaks at a relatively natural pace. His personality is engaging and he provides lots of examples for how to use new words and grammar structures. If you watch his Youtube videos, you can choose to watch with subtitles. However, Max has also identified challenging words in each video, and will provide translations only when necessary in order to maximize your Russian Immersion. His courses on learning Russian through stories and conversations provide six months of independent study, with audio and PDF files to support your learning.

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Instant Immersion Mini-Review: No Longer a Good Investment

Instant Immersion

Rating 2.0

★★★★★

Price:

1 level costs $29.95, 3 levels cost $44.95

Summary

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.

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Readlang Mini-Review: A Must-Have For Language Lovers

Readlang

Rating 4.5

★★★★

★

Price:

Freemium, Premium subscriptions start at $5/mo

Summary

With Readlang as your Google Chrome Extension, you can have instant translations for words or sentences in over 45 languages at the tip of your mouse cursor (or fingertip)! Browse the internet and effortlessly click on unknown words to get a translation that stays on your screen until it is no longer needed. If you can’t find anything to read on the internet, you can access a bank of public texts organized by word count and difficulty, browse the most popular websites for Readlang users, or upload your own text to study. If you read on the Readlang website, you can see words that you have previously translated highlighted across every text. Readlang collects SRS flashcards for you from words that you have translated. It will only record the most useful words for you to practice based on word frequency lists, which could be either a pro or a con depending on your study goals. Each flashcard also includes audio pronunciation and the sentence from which the word was taken. You can choose to reveal the flashcard to check your comprehension, or type in your response for more effective recall. The free version provides enough for the casual user, but upgrading to an affordable premium membership allows unlimited phrase translations and unknown word highlighting across texts. Although there may be some problems with translations in beta languages, and sometimes it fails to recognize text, overall Readlang is an excellent resource for language lovers.

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

italki

Rating 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.

Quality 4.5

★★★★

★

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

Thoroughness 4.0

★★★★★

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

Value 5.0

★★★★★

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 $5 and others as high as $60 per hour. Most will fall somewhere near the $10 per hour range. Right now italki is offering a $10 credit with your first purchase.

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It’s very rare for me to recommend a particular resource for everyone, regardless of the language that they’re studying. Usually each language will have their own unique resources that are great specifically for students of that language.

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