Coffee Break Review: Italian, French, and German Courses

Coffee Break

Rating 4.0

★★★★★

Summary

The Coffee Break Languages series teach languages through podcast-style lessons. The lessons have a casual feel and offer lots of explanations, building on each other nicely. Courses are available for a one-time purchase, but much of the material is also available for free as podcasts or Youtube videos.

Quality 4.0

★★★★★

The audio is of high quality and the instruction is thoughtful.

Thoroughness 4.0

★★★★★

There are lots of explanations, and you can start as an absolute beginner, but practice opportunities are limited.

Value 4.0

★★★★★

There is a lot of high-quality content available for free; the paid courses might not be worth the price for some.

I Like

Explanations are thorough.
Lessons build on each other logically.
The language often feels authentic.
There’s lots of free content.

I Don’t Like

Opportunities to interact with the language are limited.
There isn’t much of a focus on productive skills.
I expected the paid courses to offer more extra materials for the price.

Price

Many audio lessons are free. The premium version of each season includes extra materials and costs $104.

Depending on which season of language you decide to get the pricing ranges from $20-$200.

Check Out CoffeeBreak

Spotify is my platform of choice, and it’s got a ton of Coffee Break lessons.

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Coffee Break Review: Italian, French, and German Courses Read More »

Cudoo Review — I Wouldn’t Even Use it if it Were Free

Cudoo

Rating 0.6

★

★★★★★

Summary

Cudoo is an online learning platform that offers courses in over 160 languages. The platform also offers courses teaching soft skills and other professional development courses. Certificates are available upon course completion, and courses are provided to libraries and non-profits for free. We feel that the quality of the language courses is quite low, and that the prices are relatively high.

Quality 1.0

★★★★★

It’s nice to have native speaker audio, but I personally found the course to offer very little learning potential.

Thoroughness 1.0

★★★★★

The course didn’t cover everything listed under “Course Content” and offers no explanations.

Value 0.0

★★★★★

This course is way overpriced in my opinion. I wouldn’t even use it if it were free.

I Like

Audio by a variety of native speakers.

I Don’t Like

I wanted more explanations
Practice opportunities felt severely limited
I found the material unengaging
Content doesn’t build on itself logically.

Price

Price varies by course, from $4.99 to $24.99, with language bundles costing up to $199.

https://www.alllanguageresources.com/recommends/cudoo/

This seems like a reasonable list of goals, depending on the meaning of “…and more!” even if it is a little bit light for the $25 price tag.

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Cudoo Review — I Wouldn’t Even Use it if it Were Free Read More »

Yabla Review — Affordable and Effective Video-Learning

Yabla

Rating 4.3

★★★★

★

Summary

Yabla is a language-learning platform that uses videos with interactive subtitles and language games to help users learn a language. It’s currently available on the web and for iOS, with an Android app in development. Its videos are of varying difficulty levels and types, and are either sourced from the internet or originally produced, but all videos use native speakers.

Quality 4.5

★★★★

★

It’s very easy and enjoyable to use, but the flashcard feature could be more developed.

Thoroughness 4.5

★★★★

★

While they vary slightly for each language, the video libraries are extensive and full of interesting content.

Value 4.5

★★★★

★

It’s most valuable for learners at the intermediate and advanced levels and is priced very fairly, but you’ll only get access to one language.

I Like

It’s very affordable.
The review activities are enjoyable and varied.
You can filter content by region.
There are plenty of interesting and varied videos.

I Don’t Like

Audio in some review activities is robotic.
No speaking practice.
Translations don’t take context into account.

Price

After a 15-day free trial, users can subscribe to one of the following options:

One month: $12.95 Six months: $54.95 One year: $99.95

Visit Yabla

The best learning resources are the ones you actually enjoy using. This makes video-learning super appealing — who doesn’t enjoy videos?

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Yabla Review — Affordable and Effective Video-Learning Read More »

FluentU Review — More Expensive than the Competition

FluentU

Rating 3.1

★★★

★

★★

Summary

FluentU is a language-learning platform that uses real-world videos and interactive subtitles to create an immersive learning experience. The videos take on a variety of forms, including commercials, music videos, interviews, and more. Accompanying quizzes give users the chance to practice language used in videos. FluentU offers videos in nine different languages and is available for iOS, Android, and on the web. Most of its content is beyond the beginner level, but it has videos for learners at all levels.

Quality 3.5

★★★

★

★★

It’s very straightforward and easy to use, though not especially visually pleasing.

Thoroughness 3.0

★★★★★

There is a wide variety of videos, but they’re short and disconnected. They also aren’t suitable for absolute beginners.

Value 2.5

★★

★

★★★

It is not the most complete way to study a language.

I Like

The site is easy to navigate.
Interacting with subtitles is easy.
The videos are authentic and tied to practice activities.
Exercises recognize Chinese and Japanese characters.

I Don’t Like

Flashcards use robotic text-to-speech audio.
Writing practice is limited, speaking practice is nonexistent.
Practice activities aren’t very interesting.
There’s no easy way to filter content by region.

Price

After a 14-day free trial, users can purchase one of two subscription options. Subscriptions grant access to all FluentU languages.

Monthly Subscription: $30/month

Annual Subscription: $360/year

Visit FluentU

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Yabla vs. FluentU vs. Others: Yabla Barely Takes the Lead

As a teaching medium, video has some serious advantages over text and audio: it’s entertaining, easy to interact with, and can make the digital learning experience more relatable and lifelike.

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Yabla vs. FluentU vs. Others: Yabla Barely Takes the LeadRead More »

Yabla vs. FluentU vs. Others: Yabla Barely Takes the Lead Read More »

17 Minute Languages Review: I Wouldn’t Recommend Using It

17 Minute Languages

Rating 1.5

★

★★★★

Summary

17 Minute Languages is a language-learning program that uses spaced repetition and native-speaker audio to teach a wide variety of languages. In our opinion, the courses aren’t very engaging; the courses we tried included significant errors and didn’t offer any language-specific explanations. There are leaderboards for comparing your progress with other users and a language forum that’s available after four days of use.

Quality 1.5

★

★★★★

Native speaker audio is the only thing that impressed me in the courses I tried; mistakes and glitches were many.

Thoroughness 1.5

★

★★★★

Explanations are lacking, which I found made some material misleading.

Value 1.5

★

★★★★

I think there are far better ways to spend your time and money studying a language.

I Like

It uses native-speaker audio.

I Don’t Like

I came across several bad translations.
I didn’t find any helpful explanations.
Site navigation wasn’t easy or enjoyable for me.
I didn’t find the exercises engaging.

Price

The Beginner’s Course is $59.95 and the Complete Package is $97. For the whole package and all languages it is $197. There is a free 48-hour trial.

https://www.alllanguageresources.com/recommends/17-minute-languages/

Superlearning technology? Fluency in 50 hours? Courses in 80 different languages? This is either the greatest language-learning resource of all time or it’s a painfully overpriced language site making absurd claims. Let’s find out.

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17 Minute Languages Review: I Wouldn’t Recommend Using It Read More »

Kwiziq Review: Learn Grammar From Lots Of Quizzes

Kwiziq

Rating 3.5

★★★

★

★★

Summary

Kwiziq is a language-learning platform offering courses in Spanish and French with a curriculum centered around quiz-like exercises. There are plenty of grammar lessons that accompany these quizzes as well as some writing and listening practice opportunities. It isn’t the most fun resource to use, and it makes the most sense for learners that are especially interested in grammar.

Quality 3.5

★★★

★

★★

The interface is pretty easy to use and the material is high-quality, but the content and exercises aren’t engaging.