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

June 2, 2018 by Nick Leave a Comment

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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Du Chinese Review – One of the Best Apps to Practice Reading and Listening

June 15, 2017 by Nick 3 Comments

Quick Review

Summary: Du Chinese is one of the best resources for learning Chinese. This app will help you to improve your Chinese reading skills, as well as listening comprehension. There are articles across six different levels – from beginner to master. The design of this app is absurdly good, making it exceptionally easy to use. The biggest weakness is that new content isn’t added frequently enough.

Quality

Amazingly high-quality with lots of useful features.

Content

New articles are added fairly slowly, but they age well.

Value

You can read some articles for free.

I Like
The design is superb with lots of useful features. I love how the audio is synchronized to the text, with the current word being highlighted.
The articles cover interesting content that remain relevent months after originally added.
Articles can be downloaded to listen to and read offline.

I Don’t Like
Content isn’t added frequently enough. For most levels a new article is only added about once per week.
Content is added even slower for advanced and master levels.

Price: A subscription to Du Chinese costs $11.99/month. A six-month plan costs $54.99. A one-year subscription would cost $89.99/month.

Use the promo code “ALLLANGUAGERESOURCES” to save 10% on a subscription to Du Chinese.

Try Du Chinese For Free

Alternatives:

The Chairman’s Bao is the biggest competitor to Du Chinese. They release far more content, but the design isn’t nearly as good. They also don’t have English translations which are really helpful – especially for beginner level students.

The Du Chinese app is quite possibly the best designed Chinese learning app around. I don’t know if it’s the best app overall to learn Chinese but the developers really did an outstanding job. In this review, I’ll tell you more about Du Chinese and help you decide whether or not it’s worth the subscription cost.

Impressive Design

First off, I just have to reiterate how smooth and well made this app is. It’s about as sexy as a Chinese learning app can be. It packs all of the features I would want into a clean interface that can be customized to fit your preferences.

Across the top of the screen is the English translation of the currently highlighted sentence. I love that you can tap it to show or hide the translation. If it always showed the English, I’d likely feel it was a crutch and use it too much. However, without it, there would be instances where I’m not certain I understood the sentence correctly. I like hiding the English and then using it to check comprehension later if I’m confused about something.
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eChineseLearning Review – 1 on 1 Online Chinese Classes

June 2, 2017 by Nick 5 Comments

Quick Review

Summary: eChineseLearning is one of the oldest and most popular websites for finding an online Chinese tutor. It isn’t my first choice because it’s more expensive and less flexible than competitors, such as italki. It requires a longer-term commitment which for some might provide the motivation needed to stick with learning Chinese.

Teacher Quality

Teachers are professional with most teaching full-time.

Platform

The platform has a very old feel and lessons are taught on Skype.

Value

Fairly expensive while lacking some flexibility of competitors.

I Like
The teachers have a lot of experience and background in teaching.
A commitment to taking weekly classes can prevent some people from abandoning their lessons.
Lots of unique lesson topics.

I Don’t Like
With some plans, if you miss a class one week, you lose it and won’t get a refund.
There are other cheaper options for finding a Chinese tutor.
It may be hard to schedule lessons only a week or less in advance. A popular teacher’s schedule may fill up quite fast.

Price: Lessons cost between $9-$25 per hour – depending on the number of lessons and length of the plan.

Get one week free if you sign up for a 3-month or longer package

Visit eChineseLearning

Alternatives:

italki is the cheapest and most flexible place to find an online Chinese teacher. You can book lessons directly from the teacher. This is my top choice.

Verbling is similar to italki, but a bit more expensive with fewer teachers.

Hanbridge Mandarin is another online Chinese school that may be worth considering. Unfortunately, their working hours are fairly limited.

Finding a Chinese tutor or language exchange partner is essential for learning Mandarin. You need conversation practice and feedback from a Native speaker. A skilled teacher can pinpoint your weak areas and significantly speed-up the learning process.

In this review, I’ll look at eChineseLearning. They’re one of the oldest and most well-known companies for 1-to-1 online Mandarin lessons. I took two hours of trial classes and researched other people’s experiences for writing this review.

I’ve used italki (read my review) rather extensively for help with my Chinese. While this isn’t meant to be a comparison article, there are places where I’ll be comparing my experience with the two services.

Get one week free by mentioning “All Language Resources” when you sign up for a 3 month or longer package.

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