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The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People (1989) is among the most popular self-help books of the past 25 years. It’ll teach you the principles needed to become an effective person. These habits will help you to become more successful in both your personal and professional life.
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.
Lingodeer may not be as well known as other language learning apps, but it’s actually better and cheaper than most of them. 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, it’s one of the better options for getting started learning a language.
Quality 4.5
★★★★
★
★
It has a great design and everything works well with only a few minor issues.
Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★
Not as thorough as some other courses but it’s good for what it is.
Value 4.5
★★★★
★
★
Quite a bit of content is free and the premium plan is very affordable.
I Like
Lots of different exercise types in the lessons.
Detailed grammar explanations.
Clear audio recordings.
Inexpensive!
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.
Price
$14.99/mo, $39.99 for 3 months, $150.99 for a year. There’s also a lifetime option for $299.99. You may also occasionally find sales, such as the yearly rate dropping by 50% to $79.99.
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.
The Language Transfer’s courses approach language learning with what has been coined as “The Thinking Method’. These audio courses serve as a great introduction to the nine languages currently available. They go into lots of depth on how each language works, teaching you all of the main grammar points and giving you the tools needed to learn independently and intuitively. For beginners looking to learn a language, these free courses are an effective and efficient way to start your journey.
Quality 4.0
★★★★★
Might look a bit basic but the content is very well designed.
Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★
The courses don’t follow the traditional learning path but have a lot of depth.
Value 5.0
★★★★★
It’s completely free and better than most paid resources.
I Like
Lessons are efficient in that they cover a lot of material in a short amount of time.
The lessons teach you a mix of grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation each time and so you really come away understanding how the language is formed.
Mihalis (the founder) presents everything in a very calm and relaxed manner, thoroughly explaining everything as he goes while encouraging the student who answers his questions.
For each language, the course is created independently and follows its own learning path.
I Don’t Like
While the content is very good quality, it could maybe do with varying the presentation a bit as there are no exercises, quizzes or work for you to produce.
The lessons kind of progress in a strange manner as you don’t follow a traditional language learning route, such as starting off with greetings, etc.
You won’t hear any native speakers on most of the courses and you don’t ever actually hear a conversation.
Price
Completely free, but if you find the courses to be useful, consider making a donation.
Now, you can learn about interesting topics at the same time you are practicing French. These Simplified Summaries (SimSums) of popular non-fiction books have been written to be easily understandable for language learners while still retaining the key points. They can act as a bridge between the intermediate and advanced levels of French.
StoryLeaning Spanish Uncovered (and the similar German, French, Italian and Japanese courses) come from Olly Richards, the creator of the super popular blog I Will Teach You A Language. It’s quite a bit different than most courses as it revolves around a story. It can be a bit more challenging than other courses, as you begin reading somewhat long texts right off the bat. Overall, I found it to be a more fun way to approach language learning that will be great for some but not ideal for others.
Quality 4.0
★★★★★
The instruction is clear but can have too much information crammed into a single lesson.
Thoroughness 4.0
★★★★★
You’ll practice every aspect of the language.
Value 4.0
★★★★★
It has a pretty high price, but if you stick with it, you’ll get good value from it.
I Like
Centering the lessons around a story makes learning more fun.
Good clear instruction with lots of opportunities to practive what you’ve learned.
Gets students to actively participate and take control of their own learning.
I Don’t Like
Too many unrelated grammar points are included in the grammar lessons.
The review quiz is too short.
Price
A one-time purchase costs $297, or for Japanese, $397. There’s also a 7-day free trial.
Grammar Hero is a product from Olly Richards, the creator of I Will Teach You A Language. It follows the story-based method of teaching languages, but this time with a focus on the most difficult grammar points. You start out by reading a story and the grammar point is underlined, later you learn the rules, then you re-read the story with explanations, and finally you’ll practice using the grammar point to express your thoughts and opinions. It’s a comprehensive method that’s meant to help you internalize the grammar.
Quality 4.5
★★★★
★
★
The stories are unique and interesting, while highlighting the grammar points.
Thoroughness 4.5
★★★★
★
★
Covers the most challenging grammar in each language.
Value 3.5
★★★
★
★★
I wish it were cheaper so that more learners can take advantage of it.
I Like
The stories are different for every language.
Enjoyable to read, clear audio recordings, and more interesting than other ways to study grammar.
Focuses on only the most challenging grammar points.
I Don’t Like
It’s pretty expensive.
The final “Activate” section is just a worksheet. It’s useful but hardly exciting.
Price
It costs $197 to purchase Grammar Hero in each language. There’s also a 30-day money back guarantee.
Olly Richards is the creator of the very popular blog, I Will Teach You a Language. He speaks 8 languages and provides a ton of good advice to language learners.
We’ve tested tons of resources for learning French to help you figure out which ones are worth using and which ones should be avoided. These are our top choices.
