maribou: (blur)
[personal profile] maribou
 I'm on a discord where we were talking about language learning apps other than Duolingo, and I've used / continue to use a bunch of them, and when I went to make an annotated list it turned into a blog post length, way too long for Discord chatting, and it's been SO long since I posted anything to dreamwidth, and I miss doing it, and well, here:


Memrise - what I love: so much free free free content and some really great course choices (the advanced french is full of wacky vocabulary words, sometimes i have to look up the english version because i don't know what that english word is *either*, which is delightful). the audiovisual stuff is pretty neat when present.  you can turn off goals completely! what i dislike: the phone app is way less good than the browser version so I forget all about it for months at a time. it's very much just an elaborated version of flashcards, no stories or interesting games.  like a wonkier version of duolingo.  there's a bunch of metrics that if you don't turn them off could be kind of annoying (like I have 12hrs and 53 minutes left to complete my daily goals, it is just now telling me). there is a TON of free content such that i've never felt tempted to try the paid version, but they spam you about the joys of upgrading a lot.  Still, if Duolingo weren't so hooky, I would probably spend most of my language learning time here... it's just that it doesn't really do something extra for me.


drops
- what I love: very very tactile and gamelike, recognition rather than typing skills, but still gives you a chance to practice 'spelling' through word games. it's mobile-first and that shows, it's the most pleasant interface on a phone; what i dislike: pretty touristy/learn vocabulary rather than structure.  has streaks (every other day to maintain) but also measures accuracy, new words, makes a word list, etc which i feel like that makes the streaks less front and center - some nagging but can unsubscribe from that - time limit per day for free use, subscription 30 bucks a year, lifetime 65 bucks (i paid lifetime 18 bucks one time forever in beta! dang!!!)

Beelinguapp
- what I love: stories and songs, read aloud in the language of your choice + the language you already know, fairly configurable if you are willing to dig around a bit.  that's it. no goals, no structure, no nagging. what i dislike: the interface is awkward and the translations can be bad which makes me dubious about the quality of the language in the 'original' since content is available in several languages - which one was it originally? are the others all poor? i don't know. but i like being read to in languages other than english and learning new words in context instead of on flashcards.  the free version has limited content and a few ads but was so promising i shelled out the 19 bucks a year for paid.  there's a lot more content in paid!  i would have preferred to be able to check out my multilingual storybooks from the library but COVID (and health stuff) put a big crimp in that and this is an adequate substitute.


Rosetta Stone - this is ye olde language learning software, the grandaddy in the field.  I did all of spanish through work and it was superhelpful, i passed a fluency test that would've let me skip to 400 level university classes (I didn't want to do that, I just needed a metric of 'have i learned things.' yes i did!)  have also done some russian. got bogged down at some point because i had the russian software installed on a desktop that stopped working and then didn't have access to a good mic and blah blah.  a year ago I discovered they were having a FREE LIFETIME ACCESS superdeal (like a hundred bucks or something) and bought it and now i can rosetta stone whenever i want on computer and phone and it's swell.
what i like about it: exercise variety, takes a natural language approach more like being a kid and not *at all* by using translations. lots of visuals and sound.  i like that way of learning much better! you can gradually adjust the pronunciation thinger to be more exacting, which means it can go easier on you when you're brand new at a language, which is super neat. what i don't like:  i don't like the phone app version as much. also it can have steep learning curves from one level to the next that can be daunting (found this more in non-romance languages than in romance languages, may be personal problem). it can feel repetitive because it takes you through the same thing over and over.  also it's friggin expensive. right now lifetime web access is 179, 12 months of one language is 7.99 a month pay up front or 3 months of one language is 12 bucks a month pay up front.  the trial is a 3 day trial so you can test it out but not much more than that for free. however, if I had to choose to only use one language learning app forever, this is the one I'd choose. YMMV depending on how you feel about learning languages through cues other than translations to english.  i don't think it really cares about streaks or goals, though you can set up weekly plans if you want a light, nonpushy version of those things.


Transparent - this is the fanciest and most challenging language software I have ever used.  they measure your speech patterns and show you the sound graph thingers! they have all kinds of weird exercises! they also have boring traditional exercises! their priorities for what you should learn when are set, but you can defy them if you want! the goals are unit-based and not streak/login based! it's great and supernerdy and .... kind of hard, when i mostly like to study language as a relaxation mechanism.  BUTTTTT if I needed to move to another country that doesn't speak English or French, I would get this no matter the cost, and swot on it for like 3 months and it would be so so helpful.  
what I like about it: so nerdy it's cool, and exciting, and feels like I'm really deeply learning the language instead of learning to skate along the surface of a language.
what I dislike about it: can be a bit too tough in languages where i have zero other background. also price!!! i got a bunch of these at once in a humble bundle for a year for like 25 bucks and it was great and like being scrooge mcduck only in a warehouse full of words rather than money. however! it is VERY EXPENSIVE NORMALLY.  150 bucks a year is the *cheapest* version, or 25 bucks a month, or you can get all the languages (more than 100!!!) for 250 a year. either way. it's ridic expensive so i don't have it anymore. but if i were independently wealthy i might be very tempted to get the all languages version and just study languages all day every day.  you might want to try the free trial just for fun! or if you get any weird incredibly cheap offers like that one I had, GO FOR IT.


Mango languages - ehhhh. it's fine I guess. I get it through my library and every so often i think i should try it again so I do but I get bored. there's nothing wrong with it as these things go! i know people who prefer it to any of the options above. but i do not remember to go back to it given all the other options I prefer. what I love: mangoes! enough that the name makes me smile every time :D. also i think this is the one with an option to learn pirate which is just adorable. what i dislike: not interactive enough for my taste, too much 'reading dressed up with clicks and fancy colors' which whatever, I'd rather study from books if that's all I'm doing.
price: very commonly the option your public library has in which case *your* price is free. currently starting at 4 bucks for a month if you have to pay.  In general what I want to say here is, see what your public library is already paying for, first, and try that one!  before we had mango we had a different one (think it was rocket languages but who knows?) and that one was really cool, it had crossword puzzles and all kinds of fun stuff.  and other people are just as happy with mango as I am with duolingo or memrise! libraries are great, you can get free stuff.

Alright, that's my braindump about language learning apps. would love to hear any of y'all's thoughts in the comments, and i hope you are all as well as possible under the ongoing circumstances.

Date: 2021-03-29 11:27 pm (UTC)
sistawendy: me in the Mercury's alley with the wind catching my hair (smoldering windblown Merc alley)
From: [personal profile] sistawendy
Dayumn! That's a lot of language apps. The only one I've ever used is Duolingo. The things I like least about Duolingo are typing on a phone and, sometimes, so much repetition that I tune out. But so far I've stuck with it.

Date: 2021-03-30 03:08 am (UTC)
sistawendy: a head shot of me smiling, taken in front of Canlis for a 2021 KUOW article (Default)
From: [personal profile] sistawendy

EspaƱol, claro.

Date: 2021-03-30 03:49 am (UTC)
threemeninaboat: (Default)
From: [personal profile] threemeninaboat
My problem is typing. 50% of my typing in ENGLISH is errors....

Date: 2021-03-30 04:15 am (UTC)
threemeninaboat: (Default)
From: [personal profile] threemeninaboat
I just uninstalled Zen Koi last week! :) Thank you!

Date: 2021-03-30 01:24 pm (UTC)
eeyorerin: (Default)
From: [personal profile] eeyorerin
This is useful and also it is good to see you on DW!

Date: 2021-04-25 07:41 pm (UTC)
corvi: (Default)
From: [personal profile] corvi
Ooh, transparent actually has Mongolian! Not a lot of apps do. Hmm....

Date: 2023-07-21 03:37 pm (UTC)
hobbitbabe: (Default)
From: [personal profile] hobbitbabe
I was learning Irish about, gosh was it 2008-2010? A while ago. I actually still get Transparent's word of the day emails because I've never bothered to cancel them, and I had been wondering about the repeat cycle. (As a result, I know how to say/write "is this real leather?" in Irish.)

At the time, a polyglot friend recommended a Windows app on which you could add your own flashcards that it would add to the review cycle in one of those scientific patterns of how frequently you'd need to refresh. I entered a lot of words -- and now I forget the name of the program. I feel like it might have started with a J? I should see if my dreamwidth tagging is good enough to find it.

I have duolingo (computer and iPhone), and Memrise (ditto). Memrise has modules for ASL self-study. Mauril (android) is a Canadian-government-sponsored English and French learning app - their "easy" is calibrated vs actual functional use, not the first-baby-steps version of duolingo. Every now and then I look through the available apps (Windows, iPhone, and android phone) for learning Plains Cree and end up a little frustrated because none of the setups look exactly like the big-business gamified apps I'm accustomed to - I think that probably I need to actually pay some money and/or take some classes if I want to put my brain where my intentions are about learning a local language as an act of reconciliation.

I think it's cool that it's easier to type accents and special characters on my phone (or on my android work-phone) than on a laptop keyboard. Lots of times I skip the accents when doing duolingo exercises by computer, since I know it will just warn me and not count them as a fail.

For me, I don't find that running through vocabulary and simple comprehension exercises on an app counts as "really" doing language learning -- but it's a satisfying exercise that fits my need for routine and rewards, and it has a more helpful outcome than getting to level 1700 on my phone game. As you say, a relaxation mechanism. When I want to really do language learning there are a bunch of other things I do as well, starting with reading a grammar text, attempting to read kids' books, watching TV with subtitles, etc.

Anyway, I have no streaks on anything right now. I've been watching some K-dramas on Netflix with subtitles, but I keep looking at my knitting and forgetting that I can't just listen.

Also, nice to finally "meet" you after seeing your comments in friends' journals for ages.

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