Memrise Review – Useful But Don’t Overuse It

September 4, 2018 by Nick 3 Comments

Quick Review

Summary: Memrise is one of the most popular language learning apps around. It’s basically a gamified flashcard app. It’s a good way to help build vocabulary and beginner students would benefit the most from it. While it can be very useful, it’s important to not try to use it as your main tool for learning a new language.

Quality

The app is extremely well designed, but courses are user-made, so quality can vary.

Thoroughness

There are courses covering tons of topics, but you’ll need to use additional resources.

Value

Free and very useful. Awesome!

I Like
It uses spaced-repetition software making it easy to learn new words and review them periodically.
It’s a bit more fun than traditional flashcard apps.
There are tons of different courses to choose from.

I Don’t Like
I personally prefer other flashcard apps that are less gamified (Anki or Pleco for Mandarin).
It should be used with other resources, not in isolation.

Price: It’s free. The Premium Plan costs $9 per month or $59 per year.

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

August 6, 2018 by Nick 1 Comment

Quick Review

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.

Teacher Quality

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

Platform

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

Value

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 like answers, notebook, and language partners makes it easy to ask questions, get your writing checked, and find a free language exchange partner.

I Don’t Like…
You have to load money onto your account before paying for a class. You can’t simply pay one class at a time without buying credits first.

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 $4 and others as high as $60 per hour. Most will fall somewhere near the $10 per hour range.

Visit italki Now

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LingQ Review: It’s Alright – A Detailed And Honest Opinion After Using It For A Month

June 2, 2018 by Nick 2 Comments

Quick Review

Summary: LingQ is a language learning platform that makes it easy to read and listen to interesting content at varying difficulty levels. As you read, words will be marked as known and LingQ tracks the total number of words you “know”. The content comes from lots of different places with very little of it being original. They also make it very easy to upload your own content which has been my favorite feature.

Quality

Reading on LingQ is really easy though there are some features I’d like to see improved or removed

Thoroughness

Although there isn’t much original content, there’s still a lot of material to read regardless of your level

Value

The price is fitting for the value provided

I Like…
It’s easy to add your own content which makes reading more fun.

The content is quite diverse and comes from lots of different places.

Looking up words is quick and easy.

I Don’t Like…
Reviewing words is chaotic. Every word you look up gets added to a huge queue that quickly becomes unmanageable.

The extra features are overpriced and can be found other places for cheaper.

Very little of the content is original. Much of it was uploaded by users from other places.

The free version is extremely limited.

Price: A Premium subscription to LingQ costs $10/month.

Languages: Japanese, Chinese, Spanish, English, Korean, French, Russian, German, Portuguese, Italian, Swedish, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Esperanto, Latin, Ukranian. There are also 11 additional languages in Beta.

Alternatives: If you’re studying Chinese, I’d recommend Du Chinese or The Chairman’s Bao. For most other languages, LingQ seems to be the best option for practicing reading.

Visit LingQ Now

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Five Love Languages – Simplified Summary – Advanced Chinese Reading Practice

July 24, 2017 by Nick 3 Comments

爱之语：持续相爱的秘密

如果问我从这本书中学到了什么？那就是重新关注你与伴侣的沟通方式

世界上有不同语言，例如英文、中文、法文、德文等，如果某人用我们听不懂的语言与我们谈话，我们不会理解他说了什么。在没有共同语言的情况下沟通，可能会导致误解、愤怒和对抗，但是幸好，我们多数人和伴侣说着同样的语言，应该吧？

事实上，伴侣间经常使用不同的语言沟通。表达爱意能用不同的语言和方法，理解你和伴侣的沟通方式，是任何良好关系和婚姻的重要组成。在此摘要中，你会了解人们对爱的需求，爱在人际间的沟通方式，以及如何寻找你可以说出口的爱之语。
你将学会：

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Ninchanese Review – Playing Games to Learn Chinese

July 10, 2017 by Nick 2 Comments

Use the coupon code “ALR15OFF” to get 15% off any plan.

Quick Review

Summary: Ninchanese is one of the most unique resources for learning Chinese. It’s a mixture between a course and a game and manages to do quite well in both regards – being both fun and extensive. You’ll need to use a few other resources to cover a few gaps that Ninchanese has. However, it’s one of the best tools for learning Chinese that I’ve come across.

Quality

Works great as an app or online. I was pleasantly surprised by the speaking practice component.

Thoroughness

Lessons go from absolute beginner all the way to an advanced level.

Value

Extremely good value. $10/month is an absolute steal.

I Like
The lessons are very thorough. You’ll learn new words, grammar, practice speaking, and listening.
The lessons tie together very well based around a story. The vocabulary words you learn will be reinforced in other sections.
It’s one of the most fun ways to study Chinese.

I Don’t Like
The audio is recorded by text-to-speach. This is the biggest issue currently, but there are plans to add human recordings soon.
You’ll want to use other resources for a few gaps like pronunciation and extra reading practice.
Lessons can start slow and you may initially get demotivated in the “Learn Words” section. It’s worth pushing thru though.

Price: You can try Ninchanese for free. A one-month subscription costs $10, a half-year costs $54, and a full year costs $96.

Use the promo code “ALR15OFF” to save 15% on a subscription to Ninchanese.

Try Ninchanese Free

Alternatives:

This post outlines several different Chinese courses.

Don’t judge a book by its cover.

Or, in this case. Don’t judge an app based on the cat in the logo.

I seriously underestimated Ninchanese. I had reviewed around 25 Chinese learning resources before finally getting around to trying it out. I’m honestly not sure what took me so long. I had the app downloaded on my phone for months. I even opened it up and played around for five or ten minutes before getting bored and moving on. I gave up on it far too soon.

It’s much better than I expected. I thought it was a silly game but really it’s so much more than that. It’s one of the best resources for learning Chinese.

Ninchanese is fun. Many apps try to use points and gamification techniques but for the most part, it doesn’t help much with motivation. Ninchanese actually feels like a game. It’s fun and somewhat addicting. I found myself studying more than I otherwise would have in an attempt to climb the leaderboards.

Don’t let the fact that it’s a game lead you to not take Ninchanese seriously. It’s extensive. Seriously, there is an absurd amount of content. Many resources claim they can take you from absolute beginner to fluent. Generally, this is BS. Ninchanese comes as close to following through on that claim as anyone could hope to.

I usually hate it when resources take a broad approach. It almost never works. LingQ, Rocket Chinese, and many others have tried to do too much and they end up doing nothing well.

Ninchanese takes a broad and deep approach and they manage to pull it off quite well. The lessons cover vocab, grammar, speaking, listening and typing characters. They don’t just skim over these topics. Everything is very in-depth. That’s not to say Ninchanese is perfect or that it’s the only resource you should use. There’s quite a bit of room for improvement. But, they do a lot of things well and at a very affordable price.
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