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Unlike popular languages like English, Mandarin and Spanish, Dutch may not have as many online courses. However, there are still some good options out there that can help you learn Dutch.
HelloTalk is a mobile app for language learners interested in language exchange. It facilitates communication between native speakers and those learning their language with the use of built-in language tools. It also offers audio lessons in 10 languages as part of a separate subscription.
Quality 5.0
★★★★★
There’s an active community of dedicated learners, but you’ll have to do some searching.
Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★
The app is easy to use and the language tools are helpful, but you could end up relying on google translate.
Value 4.5
★★★★
★
★
Both the basic and VIP membership provide great value. The paid audio lessons probably aren’t worth it however.
I Like
It’s exciting to practice communicating with real people
The built-in language tools are helpful
It’s easy to pick up and put down whenever you like
I Don’t Like
It’s too easy to rely on google translate
It can be hard to find good partners
The paid audio lessons probably aren’t worth it
Price
The basic features of HelloTalk are free. Audio lessons require a separate subscription after a short trial period.
HelloTalk VIP is available for:
$6.99/month and $45.99/year or $175.00 for lifetime access
Learning a new language when you’re nowhere near other speakers of that language can be tricky. For example, I’m currently in Nepal and trying to learn Italian. I don’t exactly get a lot of opportunities to practice Italian here.
Preply is an online educational platform that matches tutors with students. There are tutors on Preply offering instruction in a wide range of languages and other subjects. As a learner, you can find a tutor that works best for you by browsing their demo videos and filtering by price and rating. Each tutor’s teaching style is their own, but they all receive teacher trainings and resources to improve their style.
Quality 4.5
★★★★
★
★
A little bit of everything. There are trained professionals with years of experience and tutors trying it out for the first time.
Thoroughness 4.5
★★★★
★
★
The platform is easy to use, and tutors who specialize in subjects beyond languages, such as math and music are available. Lots of supplementary resources help reinforcement of lessons.
Value 4.5
★★★★
★
★
There’s a huge range of prices and scheduling options, and tutors offer tailored lesson plans adapted to each student’s objectives and preferences.
I Like
The number of available tutors is massive
Searching for a tutor is easy
Many tutors are very inexpensive
Finding a tutor with a schedule that works is easy
I Don’t Like
You have to purchase a package of hours ahead of time
Teachers aren’t paid for trial lessons
Price
Each tutor sets their own price, but for most popular languages the average hourly price is around $15.
Exclusive 50% discount for ALR readers! Make sure to use our link to receive it.
With nearly every language-learning resource I’ve used, I run into the same problem. I don’t feel like I’m getting adequate speaking practice. I know from experience that learning a language academically and using it in the wild are two very different beasts.
Memrise is a super popular language-learning app available online and on mobile. It functions much like a gamified flashcard app, and it offers a lot of content for free. A lot of the content is user-created, and there is a premium subscription that provides access to additional features. Memrise can be a great tool in your arsenal, but you’ll need more to learn a language seriously.
Quality 4.0
★★★★★
The mobile app looks great and is easy to use, but the website is clunky. Works very well for memorization.
Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★
There are quite a few official Memrise courses, and the number of user-created courses is massive, but you’ll benefit from using additional resources.
Value 4.0
★★★★★
The free version of the app provides a lot of value, but the paid version doesn’t offer much more.
I Like
The spaced repetition software is effective for memorization
The huge range of available content
It’s more interactive than other flashcard apps
I Don’t Like
It’s not enough for continued language learning
Website navigation is clunky
Premium version isn’t much more valuable than the free version
Price
For the full version of Memrise, the subscription prices are:
uTalk is a software program and mobile app offering learning material in over 140 languages. Its approach is based on learning keywords and phrases through gameplay. It covers a wide range of phrases, each spoken by a female and male native speaker, consequently offering listening and pronunciation practice.
uTalk is most useful for beginners who want to get started in a language by learning key phrases. It could also be useful for intermediates looking to fill gaps in their vocabulary and pronunciation, but it does not offer any in-depth language instruction or grammar explanations.
It’s also worth mentioning that for some languages, such as Basque, the occasional overly literal translation leads to small errors and unnatural phrasing creeping in. However, we haven’t seen instances in which this would result in you being misunderstood, and there’s no denying uTalk’s value for languages with fewer learning resources.
Quality 3.5
★★★
★
★★
The app is very user-friendly, and the content is mostly useful, but little variation in practice activities can become repetitive.
Thoroughness 3.5
★★★
★
★★
The app does a good job of teaching key words and phrases, but review opportunities aren’t as transparent or comprehensive as they could be.
Value 4.0
★★★★★
The price is very low, there’s a lot of content, and the right learner could get some serious practical use out of the resource.
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.
Price
$11.99 a month that can be cancelled anytime. 6 months costs $59.99 and for one year it is $99.99.
This was my first encounter with uTalk, so I didn’t know what to expect before trying it out. A quick search on the internet showed third-party reviews saying everything from “It’s just ok” to “Become fluent in another language with uTalk.” My experience was something much closer to the former.
DutchPod101 offers audio and video lessons (though they’re mostly audio) for learning Dutch. They’re similar to a podcast with two hosts teaching the language with the help of natural dialogues. They take the time to explain key grammar points, vocabulary, interesting cultural information, and so on. Their tends to be more content for beginners and the lesson structure could be improved. As such, it’s better as a supplementary tool for improving your Dutch, rather than a standalone course.
Quality 4.0
★★★★★
The lessons are generally well-made, though quality can vary depending on when it was added.
Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★
Although there’s a lot of content, it’s not structured particularly well.
Value 4.0
★★★★★
Good value for a low cost.
I Like
It’s extremely useful for getting extra listening practice.
They teach using natural dialogues, while explaining important grammar, vocabulary, and interesting cultural information.
As you move up levels, English is used less.
I Don’t Like
Too much English is used in the lessons.
The platform can be confusing to navigate and the recommended lesson pathways aren’t always the best.
Although there are lots of extra features, only a few of them are actually useful.
Price
There are many subscription lengths available which lower the cost. But, a one-month subscription costs:
Basic: $4/mo Premium: $10/mo Premium Plus: $23/mo
Use the promo code “ALLLANGUAGERESOURCES” to save 25% on a subscription to DutchPod101 .
UPDATE – it appears that the online course Living Language no longer exists. This review covers the old course when it did exist. You can however find a series of books with this name available on amazon.
Quality 3.0
★★★★★
Though the information itself is useful, Living Language’s presentation reads more like a database than an educational/interactive tool.
Thoroughness 3.0
★★★★★
Again, a lot of the information is there, but it’s scattered. Additionally, some of that information appears incorrect.
Value 2.0
★★★★★
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.
Living Language offers you the opportunity to choose between over 20 languages. Once you pick your language, you’re taken to the home screen which has options for Essential, Intermediate, and Advanced categories. You can start with any of these options and jump back and forth between them.
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 4.0
★★★★★
Though cute and easy to use, some visuals are hard to distinguish.
Thoroughness 3.0
★★★★★
Drops will teach you thousands of words and phrases, from transport and hobbies to astronomy and spices. Some languages, such as Japanese, have extra modules for culturally specific vocabulary.
Value 3.0
★★★★★
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.
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.
In languages where a noun’s grammatical gender or case isn’t obvious from the article, you won’t learn that information.
Drops only teaches you vocabulary, not grammar.
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.
Transparent Language markets itself as “the most complete language-learning system for independent learners.” While there are lots of different exercises for you to work through in their Essentials Course, I thought that the material wasn’t all that helpful and that it got very repetitive. Although the courses might not be 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.
Quality 2.5
★★
★
★★★
While the exercises are for the most part well-designed, diverse and easy to use, it is the core material itself that I found lacking.
Thoroughness 2.0
★★★★★
I hardly came across any explanations at all; practice was almost exclusively memorizing words and phrases.
Value 2.5
★★
★
★★★
I would only consider using if 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 in my opinion; it’s hard for me to imagine you’ll 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 was the biggest issue for me, 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.
One of the most famous language teaching courses out there, Michel Thomas is a household name. The platform advertises itself as “The method that works with your brain” and boasts a teaching method “with no books, exercises, memorizing or homework” in several of its course descriptions. It’s available in 18 languages with courses that have material suitable for absolute beginners. I tried out the French foundation course and found it to be severely lacking and as such cannot recommend it at all. You may, however, have more luck with the other language courses that they offer.
Quality 2.0
★★★★★
Very easy to use, and the audios are decent quality, but I found that Michel Thomas’ discouraging manner flustered students, which detracted from the content’s quality in my experience.
Thoroughness 2.0
★★★★★
In my opinion, Michel Thomas doesn’t go into much depth and any explanations he offers up are just at a surface level.
Value 1.0
★★★★★
I wouldn’t use these even if they were free due to Michel Thomas’ teaching style which ruined the material for me.
I Like
Um…in all honesty I’m not sure if I enjoyed any of it!
I Don’t Like
Michel Thomas never praises the students, often interrupts them and creates a negative learning environment.
The pacing of the lessons often seems off to me and in certain places they feel very hurried.
I thought all of the lessons were almost identical and so it got quite monotonous working through them.
Price
There are several different courses available with prices ranging from $11.99 to $100.