Activity Guide

Apps For Learning Languages

Published by SchoolAdvisor | Nov 27, 2018

Everything is at the tip of your fingers lately, picking up a new language does not always have to take place in a classroom. You can learn anything, anywhere these days. With these language-learning apps, you get progress at your own pace!

Apps with language courses

1. Duolingo

There are many reasons as to why Duolingo is mentioned in every list of best apps. With over 28 languages to choose from, it is really easy to get started on learning a new language with this app. The language course is divided into various topics ranging from food to clothing to business. As you progress, adverbs, pronunciations and other grammatical subjects will be tested too. You never have to feel pressured to keep up with the lessons as the app lets you progress at your own pace. 

It begins with learning how to associate the sound of the translation with the visuals of the texts and pictures provided. If you have trouble understanding the audio, there is a feature that allows you to slow down the audio so it would be easier for you to interpret it.

The answering structure is made up of three methods, you will switch between typing out the answers, speaking them aloud to test out your pronunciation and choosing from multiple choice answers. As you start with simple phrases and gradually move to more complex sentences, there is help every step of the was as the app points out your mistakes and compliments your efforts.You can always revisit your lessons in case you want to work on your weaknesses, a feature that is favoured by many.

Languages offered: Spanish, French, German, Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Irish, Danish, Swedish, Turkish, Esperanto, Norwegian, Ukrainian, Hawaiian, Russian, Polish, Hindi, Welsh, Hebrew, Vietnamese, Hungarian, Swahili, Swedish, Romanian, Indonesian, Czech, Navajo, Klingon, and High Valyrian

2. Busuu

Busuu teaches you words and phrases whether isolated or in sentences, then quizzes are curated as you progress to test out your knowledge and understanding. The best feature of this app is that you get to start at the right level. This would be convenient for those that may not be complete beginners and need a little polishing on their language skills they have learned before.

With 12 languages, full courses, exercise reviews from native speakers, and accent training, you get a complete experience with Busuu. It is no secret as to why Busuu has over 80 million users worldwide.

Languages offered: German, Spanish, Portuguese, French, English, Italian, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Japanese, Chinese, and Polish

 

3. Babbel

Good thing about the app is that, it is customized to both beginners and advanced learners. The lessons are comprises of grammar rules and conversational learning as you move forward. So it will challenge you to spell out a range of words, speak them aloud and sentence structuring. The lessons will progress traditionally in which you will start with basic conversational phrases to more complex ones. The app also allows you to use it while offline, an advantage many enjoy.

Languages offered: Dutch, Danish, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Spanish, Turkish

Apps with flashcards and series

1. Memrise

Another app that supports offline courses is Memrise, the friendly simplistic interface makes it is easy to work with. Plus, it uses flashcard as an approach to teach which many students have used throughout their examinations. Videos of native speakers pronouncing the words you are learning is Memrise’s best feature as it helps users to understand the precise pronunciation. With 35 million users worldwide and 25 languages to choose from, the app has never been more profitable since 2016.

Languages offered: English, Korean, Spanish, Japanese, French, German, Russian, Chinese, Vietnamese, Portuguese, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Arabic, Dutch, Indonesian, Italian, Polish, Turkish, Slavic and many others.

Apps with Q&A / Chat

1. HelloTalk

HelloTalk aimed to make speaking practice and real-life conversing easier. A chatbot that functions similarly the same way as Whatsapp, one would never have a problem not knowing how to navigate the app. The chatbot that includes an in-built correction tool helps learners to find native speakers to converse with and correct each other’s messages. The conversations shared between you and the native will easily turn into a mini tutoring sessions. Translation system is also incorporated to help you figure out the suitable words you could be looking when typing out a sentence. 

HelloTalk has an extra perk that most language-learning apps do not have and that is unleashing your inner artist by doodling. This will come in handy when you run out of words to use.  When looking for potential tutors, you get to filter your choices by age and country. The app gets you to exchange languages which breaks down the barriers between countries.

Languages offered: English, Japanese, Korean, Spanish, French, Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese, Portuguese, German, Italian, Russian, Arabic and 100 more.

2. Tandem

Tandem is quite similar to HelloTalk as it allows you to converse with native speakers and exchange languages via text, audio and video chat. Once you find a partner that shares your interests, you get to pick a topic to start your conversation. This way, you can eliminate any potential awkward conversations with a stranger.

Languages offered: Spanish, English, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Chinese, Portuguese, French.