Your Favourite App to Learn Languages?

What is everyone’s favourite app to learn your target language at the moment?

At LTL we’re all about Langotalk now :laughing: (ok it’s a web app but still counts!)

You can study languages with AI bots on this app, have a look what we think - https://flexiclasses.com/langotalk-review/

Personally one of my favourite is Lingodeer as well!

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I got back into Du Chinese recently to brush up on reading before coming over to Asia again.

Good for switching between 简体字 and 繁体字

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Yes, me too. But I use Du Chinese mainly as a listening app. Love it.
I also use dictionaries more in detail now, Pleco (chars, characters) and MDBG, which has a lot about the components, if you go deeper, click on the three points two levels deep, and find the scissors.

Wow, I’ve never heard of Langotalk, sounds like fun to try!

I use different things for different languages.

For Spanish, it’s also a website, not an app, but I love Dreaming Spanish (comprehensible input). For French, I’m enjoying the InnerFrench podcast on YouTube and Spotify (also comprehensible input). For both I like checking out books in my target languages from my library app!

For Vietnamese and Korean, for which I am still a beginner, I’m just focusing on Flexiclasses :grin:

I love quizlet! I always use their flashcards to review chinese characters and sentences.

I really like the “listening” feature they have. Even if the pronunciation is a bit robotic, I think it can be helpful to improve your listening skills too!

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I’ve never heard of MDBG before and just had a look, that scissors thing is really good! :laughing:

The ways characters are displayed make it easier to understand and the information easier to navigate than on Pleco in my opinion. I bookmarked it!

I really hope that Fluyo will become my favorite app. At the moment the most used one for me is Skritter and Anki for learning vocabulary and LanguagePlayer for watching videos and improving my listening skills.

Langotalk has one big disadvantage. (up to now?)You can hover over new words and get extra information, but there is no pinyin in this dictionary.

yeah that’s a good point, I noticed it when I was reviewing my “saved words”!

Good spot, but I think as it’s such a minor thing, this could be rectified very easily.

I think the greater problems lie in the bots themselves. They ask you multiple questions but if you don’t address the last question they asked you, the conversation breaks down a little.

Also it has a habit of asking you the same questions 你来自哪里 being one of them.

Haha, yes. The Wei bot always goes back to 最喜欢的 destinations and food. I tried to change the theme and then happens this typical small talk thing. Everything is great and wow, and one short deeper question 你最喜欢的。。, and back to 你去过哪些城市旅行呢?or 你最喜欢的旅行目的地是哪里?So what will Jing at the bar and Chen the Traveler like to talk about?
I am absolutely not fond of small talk. So, maybe the grammar drill or the tutor would be what I like. Have you or anybody tested those as well yet?

Yes the grammar tool is my favourite bit about the app. Very smart and super intuitive.

It seems accurate on near all instances which is impressive.

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I tried them too and they’re impressive!
What I liked about the AI Tutor is that you can ask him whatever you don’t understand about Chinese language topics. For example, I tried asking the difference between 两 and 二 to see how accurate it was and the explanation it gave me was pretty good! Simple and clear

I’m constantly using the free Anki flashcard app to study vocabulary.

The HyperTTS and Language Tools addons are very helpful and worth the $5/month cost which covers both of them.

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I am now doing the free trial week at Langotalk. I got over myself and got involved in the small talk. It can definitely help to answer all the usual rather boring questions. I try to answer in different ways, I try to use grammar and words. The good thing about it is that you have time to answer and you can look up things you’ve forgotten but are on the tip of your tongue. The bots’ talking, I can only listen and try to understand, I can read what they say, or I click on “translation”, that’s up to me how much I want to think or guess or learn. Usually I am understood. If I talk nonsense, the bot just ignores it. The grammar drills bot in Chinese is perfect, it corrects in detail. I tried many languages, did a word game in English, and wow, the surprise for me was French. It has “beginner friendly”. (I saw that also in German) Hey, I dared to speak French without any preparation. The bot understood me and went through all basic grammar rules and corrected them. I am curious what else is possible with the bots. It’s like ChatGPT. You have to ask back in the right way.
I think it will be much more fun in real lessons with real teachers when I have gained more confidence and routine in speaking.

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I agree. I love quizlet so much. It helps me memorize characters way easier because it’s like a game play to me. And the listening feature is a plus because I don’t see an app that helps with listening often but it’s such an essential skills. Plus, I love that there are public collections/ compilations on quizlet made by other people. Sometimes when i was learning Japanese with my textbook, I don’t want to compile a new vocab set so I searched for the chapter i’m studying on quizlet and reviewed the vocab with other people’s compilations haha!

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This might sound so basic, but I actually like Duolingo. It can’t really teach you til fluency, but I like the sense of community on its app. My friends and I followed each other on Duolingo, and we have “friendship monthly challenge” and can encourage each other even though we study different languages. Plus, I’m so into “streak” and ranking so I have to log in the app and study everyday to continue my streak. It gives me motivation to do other things too when I see my own commitment to a small thing like that. The Duolingo bird’s sassy nudge probably helps a little bit too, it’s so funny!

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So true! I love that you can share your decks with other people, very very useful

I use Anki and Flashcards Deluxe a lot (they’re very similar apps). I also have a lifetime membership for Korean on LingQ. For Japanese I’ve been using the Midori app for maybe 10+ years now. I’m concerned the author might finally stop supporting it as it’s a bit buggy now with the latest iOS but still works. I hate Duolingo. I can’t understand why people like it. Amazon Kindle and Google Playstore are great for getting e-books.