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In-Depth Reviews And Recommendations - Without The BS

Memrise Review – Useful But Don’t Overuse It

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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

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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.

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

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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 $12.99/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.

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How To Learn Mandarin Online – My Advice For Getting Started

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Start learning Chinese with this resource guide.

How should I start learning Chinese?

Most people start studying Chinese with whatever resource they happen to stumble upon. It’s hard to know what you should focus on and where to find quality materials. This post will help give you a clearer path forward.

The beginning may feel like a daunting, exciting and confusing place to be. But don’t worry, everybody started where you are now. There are tons of courses, apps, and websites out there that will make learning Chinese much easier.

This isn’t a long-term study plan. It’s a guide to take you from knowing absolutely nothing or very little and get you up to the lower intermediate level.

For some, this may only take a couple of months. Others will lose motivation and never get beyond this stage. Before we begin, you’ll need to think about a few questions.

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Yoyo Chinese Review – The Best Online Courses?

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Yoyo Chinese

Quick Review
Summary: Yoyo Chinese is probably the most established and popular website for finding online Chinese courses. This website offers video based lessons with interactive quizzes. This review will focus on three of their courses – Beginner Conversational Course, Intermediate Conversational Course, and Chinese Characters Course.

Quality
Video lessons and interactive quizzes will help you learn Chinese.
Thoroughness
The content is explained very clearly and covers a wide range of topics.
Value
Courses are more expensive than most online Chinese courses, but the price is justified.
I Like
The lessons explain the topic very clearly with plenty of explanations and quizzes provide opportunities to practice.
Yoyo Chinese provides structure needed for people learning Chinese independently that is hard to find elsewhere.
The lessons are short and can be entertaining. The host will often interview random people and includes lots of interesting cultural information.
I Don’t Like
There is too much English used in the lessons. You may have to rely on other resources like ChinesePod to get enough listening practice.
The Chinese Characters Course isn’t as good of value as the other courses. I’d prefer to use Zizzle and Du Chinese or The Chairman’s Bao as a means of learning Chinese characters.

Price: The Beginner Conversational Course costs $129. The Intermediate Conversational Course and Chinese Characters Course cost $149 each. You can also buy individual levels of a course but the overall price ends up being higher in the end.

You can save 15% on any course at Yoyo Chinese by using the promo code “10NRES”.

Visit Yoyo Chinese

Alternatives:

ChineseFor.Us has exceptionally thorough online courses, but don’t go past the beginner level yet.

This post outlines many different online Chinese courses.

Since writing this review, Yoyo Chinese have released two new courses – Upper Intermediate and Chinese Characters 2.

If you’re looking for an online Chinese course, you’ll eventually come across Yoyo Chinese. It’s one of the few established courses where you can independently study Mandarin online.

It’s quite possibly the best course as well. That’s not to say it’s perfect or that it’s the only tool you’ll need to learn Chinese.

Yoyo Chinese is actually comprised of a few different courses. The three main courses are Beginner Conversational, Chinese Characters, and Intermediate Conversational. There are also two smaller and cheaper courses – Chinese Grammar and Chinese Learning Tips.

This review will focus on the three main courses.

All of these courses are comprised of short videos, audio reviews, flashcards, and quizzes. The host, Yangyang, does an excellent job of explaining the material in an easy to understand way but also with depth.

First, I’ll discuss the Beginner Conversational Course and Intermediate Conversational Course together because they’re very similar to each other.

Afterward, I’ll talk about the Chinese Character Course.

I’ll let you know what I think Yoyo Chinese does well and where it falls short. I’ll give you all the information so that you can decide for yourself if it’s worth purchasing.

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