All Language Resources

In-Depth Reviews And Recommendations - Without The BS

Lingodeer Review – A Free Alternative To Duolingo

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Quick Review

Summary: Lingodeer may not be as well known as other language learning apps, but it’s actually better than most of them, and free. You’ll practice the language by completing lots of different types of exercises. They also include plenty of grammar explanations and opportunities to review what you’ve studied. All in all, for a free resource, it’s excellent.

Quality

It has a great design and everything works well with only a few minor issues.

Thoroughness

As thorough as you could hope for from a free resource

Value

Free and still better than many paid resources.

I Like…

Lots of different exercise types in the lessons.

Detailed grammar explanations.

Clear audio recordings.

Free!

I Don’t Like…

The content isn’t always ordered well with some unusual words thrown in too early.

Not sufficient for developing oral communication skills.

Not yet available in lots of languages.

Price: Free!

Languages: Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Chinese, German, Portuguese, Vietnamese are all taught in English. There are also some courses not taught in other languages.

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Mondly Review – I Wouldn’t Recommend Using It

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Quick Review

Summary: Mondly is a below average online language learning resource. It does some things right and other things poorly. It’s pretty cheap, and a decent enough crash course that could help you before a trip abroad. Still, it wouldn’t be my first choice.

Quality 

Both the interface and the course itself could be designed better.

Thoroughness 

It’s decent for learning vocabulary but a lot of material isn’t explained very well.

Value 

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 and won’t help you use the language.

The order of lessons and topics isn’t very well thought out.

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
$47.99 per year ($4/mo) for all languages

Strangely, I was able to access multiple languages even though I only signed up for one month at $9.99.

Visit Mondly

Alternatives:

The best alternative to Mondly depends on which language you’re studying. Here are our top choices for Spanish, Mandarin, French, Italian, and Portuguese.

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Rosetta Stone Review (Subscription) – Painfully Repetitive And Overpriced

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Quick Review

Summary: One of the most famous language learning resources out there, the Rosetta Stone method relies on immersive teaching so students will only find the material in the language they’re learning. Starting off with the basics, the units get progressively harder and cover a large range of topics. Suitable for beginner and intermediate students, it is more expensive than competitors and the exercises get very repetitive after a while. While it isn’t a bad resource, you can definitely find something better.

Quality

Very easy to use and navigate, the content is well presented but the similar format becomes deadly boring after a while.

Thoroughness

While a lot of material is covered, you have to infer everything from the pictures that you are given. As such, there are no explanations at all.

Value

It’s not as good and more expensive than other resources.

I Like…

It’s easy to use and navigate – the content is very clearly laid out.

The extra features in the ‘Extended Learning’ pack make the material a bit more interesting to engage with.

While it is not particularly fun to use overall, I do believe that learners would improve their language skills using Rosetta Stone.

I Don’t Like…

The main units are very repetitive and I think I would find it demoralising after a while if I kept using it.

It doesn’t explore the cultural context of the language at all.

There are no explanations about any of the content and so you have to infer the meaning of everything through pictures.

It’s too expensive.

Price: The price varies by subscription length:

$79 for 3 months
$119 for 6 months
$179 for 12 months
$249 for 24 months

Visit Rosetta Stone

Alternatives:

The best alternatives will depend on the language you’re learning but two good ones available in most languages are Babbel and a Pimsleur subscription.

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Coffee Break Spanish Review – Are The Paid Courses Worth It?

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Quick Review

Summary: Coffee Break Spanish offers some really good free lessons available as podcasts. Additionally, they sell premium courses with extra materials on their website. For most people, there probably isn’t enough extra material included in the premium lessons to make it worth paying for the courses as they’re pretty expensive. This review will look at the free audio lessons, as well as the premium content.

Quality

It feels like you’re sitting in on a Spanish class.

Thoroughness

Takes you from the very basics to at least an intermediate level.

Value

The free lessons are amazing value but the paid courses are a bit expensive.

I Like…

They offer a comprehensive, well-structured, and free audio course.

Lots of detailed explanations of vocabulary and grammar with lots of explanations.

The lessons start fairly slowly but build up to where a lot of Spanish is used in later seasons.

I Don’t Like…

I wish there were more extra materials included or the price were lower for the paid courses.

It’s primarily an input based course and you’ll need to practice speaking and writing Spanish more on your own.

It doesn’t have a lot of the interactive exercises as some other resources.

Price: The audio for all of the lessons is completely free but the extra materials cost money. Each season costs £80 ($104) and a bundle of Seasons 1-4 costs £255 ($335).

Find all of the audio lessons for free on Itunes.

Try a free lesson of Coffee Break Spanish

Alternatives:

SpanishPod101 is somewhat similar as they also offer a lot of audio lessons.

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Fluencia Review – My Experience Trying It Out

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Quick Review

Summary: Fluencia is one of the best online Spanish courses I’ve come across. The course content is very well designed including tons of detailed explanations and exercises to practice what you’ve learned. While many other courses are more gamified and less challenging, Fluencia is more challenging and less game-like. While I like Fluencia quite a bit, you’ll probably want to get more speaking practice elsewhere.

Quality

It’s obvious that a lot of thought and planning went into making these lessons.

Thoroughness

The cultural and grammar lessons stood out as being exceptionally thorough.

Value

It’s a good course and very affordable.

I Like…

You’ll have actually needed to have learned the content to answer the exercises correctly.

Everything is explained clearly with a lot of attention spent on the details.

Recordings are done by native Spanish speakers with various accents.

I Don’t Like…

You’ll want to get more speaking practice by working with a tutor.

You may also want to supplement your learning by listening to Spanish podcasts.

Price:
1 month costs $14.95
12 months costs $95.40
24 months costs $166.80

Visit Fluencia

Alternatives:

Pimsleur is a different style course which focuses more on listening and speaking and is a good alternative for those looking for a course more focused on the oral language and a subscription costs about the same as Fluencia.

Baselang offers unlimited 1-1 online Spanish classes for $129 per month and has a solid curriculum to go with it. If you have the free time to take a lot of classes, you could make progress very quickly.

Complementary Resources:

You’ll definitely want to get more practice speaking with a tutor. italki and Verbling are two options for this that are very affordable and convenient, though I prefer italki.

Speechling is really helpful for improving pronunciation. You can record yourself speaking Spanish and submit recordings to be corrected by a teacher.

For those who are very serious about mastering pronunciation and have some extra money, The Mimic Method is worth considering.

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