Magic Lingua Mini-Review: Pricey But Potentially Worth It

magic lingua

Rating 3.1

★★★

★

★★

Price:

Courses cost between $31.99 and $499.99

Summary

Magic Lingua provides a series of individual courses for language learning. They advertise that you will gain enough confidence in speaking that you will be able to not only start a conversation with anyone, but do so without thinking about grammar and vocabulary. The full courses are offered for beginner, intermediate, and advanced speakers depending on the language (advanced is considered the B1 level). The voice-recognition software seems to do an adequate job of recognizing which words you are pronouncing correctly, and it does appear to help improve speaking abilities by actively reenacting dialogues with you. Therefore, the app alone may help develop your confidence to start conversations in your target language. Although not subscription based, each full course must be purchased individually. The 2-3 week crash courses seem more reasonable for the price, but the full 10 week courses are a hefty $200+. They consist of 10 modules plus hundreds of video lessons and speaking exercises. There is the option to complete the modules with live tutor sessions, or alone. Magic Lingua is probably worth your time if you don’t mind spending a lot on one app, but with the current price it might be better to look for alternatives. There are some free lessons available on their website for you to test out, but check back for more languages and levels in the future.

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Lingoni Mini-Review: Comprehensive German Lessons

Lingoni

Rating 4.3

★★★★

★

Price:

Quarterly memberships start at 49€, 299€ for lifetime access

Summary

Lingoni evolved from YouTube’s popular channel, German with Jenny. This web application provides video lessons, vocabulary training, and podcasts for A1-B2 German and French learners. Each lesson and vocabulary training is accompanied by a series of exercises, including but not limited to: translation practice, sentence building, listening practice, and correcting mistakes in pre-written sentences. The podcast also includes a worksheet where you can fill in the blanks while listening to improve your listening comprehension. Lingoni encourages 70% comprehension before allowing you move on to the next lesson. Overall, it seems to provide effective support for both beginner and intermediate learners to advance their skills. If you’re interested in checking out Jenny’s teaching style, there are lots of free videos available on her YouTube channel.

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Assimil Review — A Fresh Look at a Longstanding Resource

Assimil

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Summary

Assimil is a French company that has been selling language-learning resources since 1929. Assimil materials are available as books, CDs, and downloadable e-courses; there are a variety of available course types, and instruction is based on interacting with phrases in the target language. The popular Sans Peine or, With Ease, courses are for absolute or false beginners that would like to reach the B2 level, but we think you’ll need to incorporate some other study materials to make this happen.

Quality 4.0

★★★★★

The language materials are reliable, the audio is high quality, and the program is fairly easy to use after a bit of practice.

Thoroughness 4.0

★★★★★

Assimil is chock-full of explanations and thorough translations for all material, but you might need more to reach the advertised B2 level.

Value 4.0

★★★★★

There are cheaper resources out there, but Assimil provides super solid instruction for the price.

I Like

The audio quality is great.
The culture notes add a lot of value.
There are plenty of grammar explanations, but they aren’t a focus.

I Don’t Like

The mobile app isn’t super intuitive.
The pronunciation feedback method could be better.
The exercises aren’t especially engaging.

Price

Prices vary by course. The Spanish e-course is €49.90, the Spanish With Ease book (no audio) is €26.90, and the Spanish With Ease Superpack is €74.90

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…

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Wunderbla Mini Review: German Algorithm-Based Assessment

Wunderbla

Rating 3.0

★★★★★

Price:

$ 65.00

Summary

Wunderbla provides immersion-style German education. Unlike most apps, which offer unlimited learning upon purchase, Wunderbla delivers 15 minute lessons to your email, 4 times per week. During each lesson, the AI will assess and adjust your skill level based on your responses to the last 150 questions. The lessons are designed for individuals who have a basic grasp of the language, and can understand grammar explanations in German without translation. The daily lessons follow a humorous storyline, in addition to providing iconic songs or movie clips relevant to German culture; they emphasize listening comprehension, grammar drills, new vocabulary, comics, and culturally-relevant videos. Unfortunately, with an exorbitant price tag and limited lessons per month, it’s more economical to experience the free trial and then look for an alternative resource.

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LyricsTraining Mini-Review: Listening Practice Through Songs

LyricsTraining

Rating 3.3

★★★

★

★★

Price:

Free

Summary

Lyrics training is a free app that claims to improve your ability to recognize the different sounds in your target language. Through listening to different songs, you can reinforce vocabulary, expressions, and grammar concepts. Although it does not provide any translations or explanations for these skills, it does seem to train listening comprehension and memorization. While listening to your chosen song, you will be provided with a choice of 4 words to help fill in an increasing percentage of lyrics; by the advanced level, you will be responsible for filling in 100% of the lyrics. Each of the 14 languages available seem to have a wide variety of song choices, and even if you don’t understand what the lyrics mean, you will probably be able to sing along. If you would prefer an app that focuses more on comprehension, vocabulary, and grammar, check out Lirica.

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LangCorrect: Unlimited, Free Writing Practice With Feedback

LangCorrect

Rating 5.0

★★★★★

Price:

Free

Summary

LangCorrect is a free community-driven writing site where users can both contribute to editing others’ work and receive feedback on their own writing. After writing your piece, you may submit it to receive feedback from other site users. In order to ensure accurate feedback, multiple users can cross-check the corrections that were made and add comments. Volunteers and Patrons have access to writing in up to 10 languages, but typical users can write in a maximum of two languages at a time. Everyone is encouraged to both write and correct others’ work on the site. If you are looking to improve your writing skills in one of the over 100 languages available, trying out this resource is a must! However, if you’re studying a less common language and not finding many users to give you corrections, consider trying the exercise section in italki’s community features.

The rating is our best guess, but we haven’t yet had the opportunity to fully test and review this resource.

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Conjuguemos Mini-Review: Effective Language Drilling

Conjuguemos

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Price:

Free

Summary

Conjugemos is a website that drills verb conjugations, vocabulary, and grammar. You can choose to either drill different skills through typing the answers in a flashcard-like system, or through various games such as crosswords, memory, word search, and multiplayer games. While it is free for anyone to use, additional resources are available to teachers through a paid plan. It should be noted that although the site technically supports Korean learners, the Korean section only has one activity in the present tense.

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Wordbit Mini-Review: Innovative Flashcards for Short Term Use

WordBit

Rating 3.0

★★★★★

Price:

Free

Summary

WordBit is a free app that minimizes the effort and thought that goes into deliberate practice by presenting you with the opportunity to practice each time you open your lock screen. Each time you open your phone, the app will overlay the lock screen and present you with either multiple choice translations for a given word, or a flashcard. You can choose to close the app to access the lock screen, or respond to the prompt. Although this app interferes with tasks on your phone that require immediate attention, it is no doubt effective at consistently exposing you to new vocabulary. It is available in multiple languages, for both target and source languages, and there is a large vocabulary category bank to choose from, including vocabulary from each of the levels A1-C2. There are some bugs in its programming, such as restarting your progress through each deck if you add or remove a category, and the ads at the bottom of the screen are easily tapped by accident.

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Interlinear Books Mini-Review: Literal Translations Between The Lines

Interlinear Books

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Price:

$9.99

Summary

Interlinear Books is a project for intermediate language learners from the creators of Cooljugator. They sell individual e-books in their original language, but with English translations between each line of text. Instead of translating full sentences that capture the spirit of the language, professional translators use literal (but understandable) translations to support you in understanding the original language’s sentence structure. Another technique that the authors use to support your learning is to highlight cognates between languages. You may find translations for words whose English counterpart looks almost identical to that of the target language, even when those English translations are not the most commonly used. The authors suggest that you don’t read the translations as full sentences, but rather that you refer to them only when you encounter words or expressions that you don’t understand. Each purchase also comes with a unilingual version for you to try out for extra practice (and sometimes they even come with an audiobook!). For intermediate learners who are tired of looking back and forth between a dictionary and their book, Interlinear may be a good intermediary to support you in the transition to unilingual books. Chinese is not supported yet, but check out Du Chinese or the Chairman’s Bao for graded reading material.

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Beelinguapp Mini-Review: Reading & Listening Practice

Beelinguapp

Rating 4.3

★★★★

★

Price:

Freemium, $29.99/year

Summary

Beelinguapp makes it easier to read and listen to interesting content in a number of languages. You’ll find short stories, news, fairy tales, music, and more. Their side-by-side reading functionality highlights the sentence in the language you’re learning, as well as in a language you’re familiar with. The karaoke feature makes it easy to follow the audio with the written text. Some of the content and features are available for free, but there are also premium plans to unlock more.

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