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JapanesePod101 Coupon Code

Michael — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 09:37:45 +0000

These JapanesePod101 coupon codes have been tested and confirmed to work as of Feb 12th, 2023.

Japanese is a dynamic language spoken by about 128 million people, mostly in Japan. It is also a challenging language, especially if you’re learning on your own!

Fortunately, with an abundance of great Japanese courses available, there has never been a better time to learn Japanese than now. In our opinion, JapanesePod101 is the most well thought out and fun language learning program out there (Read our full JapanesePod101 review to find out why!).

Plus you can now get an excellent rate why you buy with JapanesePod101 promo codes when you enter the JapanesePod101 coupons at checkout.

Both new and existing customers can take advantage of these 77%, 60% and 30% promo codes for JapanesePod101.

77% or 60% Off Promo Codes for JapanesePod101 (Premium Membership Only)

Click the blue button below to access the secret sales page and read more about the 60% or 77% lifetime discount offer and japanesepod101 promo codes (the best discount available). This unadvertised promotion might not be for everyone, as the up-front subscription cost is high, but if you plan on studying long-term then it’s a great way to save a good bundle when you buy through the sales page (with promo codes already entered).

77% Off JapanesePod101Lifetime Membership Promotion

30% Off (Any Membership) JapanesePod101 Coupon Code for 2022

Here is the discount code to activate your JapanesePod101 lifetime account and get up to $165 off JapanesePod101.com (based on a 24-month PremiumPlus subscription – both the premium subscription & basic subscriptions are cheaper). Your 30% discount code is automatically applied to your subscription plans at checkout when you sign up using the link below:

JapanesePod101 CouponGet Up To $165 Off

Existing JapanesePod101 users can also receive the discount by using the promo code. Read on for more information on using it with your account.

How to use the JapanesePod101 Coupon Code

First-Time Users

Snagging your discount for JapanesePod101 is as easy as 1-2-3. Even so, we have listed the steps and included pictures, so you can easily follow along and get the best deals for all subscription plans.

1. Click here for your JapanesePod101 Discount Code

You will be directed to JapanesePod101 site. Please note that the discount coupon has already been applied to the listed prices.

2. Choose your Subscription Plan

Here, you will be asked to choose from a JapanesePod101 Basic, Premium or Premium PLUS subscription plans. Each monthly subscription plan will be covered in more detail later in this article.

3. Enter Payment Info

Next, you will enter your payment information including your verified billing address. Accepted forms of payments include Visa, MasterCard, American Express and PayPal.

4. Choose a Subscription Term

Then, you will choose the length of your subscription from one to 24 months at checkout. The monthly charge for JapanesePod101 drops significantly the longer your subscription length. Coupled with your 30% discount code, you can save loads of money by opting for a longer membership for JapanesePod101.

5. Verify Your Account

Finally, you will be directed to enter your email address and verify your account. You can now begin one of the most in-depth programs for learning how to speak Japanese and master the language online.

Existing JapanesePod101 Users

If you are already enjoying learning the Japanese language and culture online with the JapanesePod101 content, you are eligible to save, using codes, coupons, promotions, and offers. Follow the steps below to take advantage of this offer.

1. First, you must log in to your JapanesePod101 account.

2. After you’re logged in, come back to this page and click on our discount code link:

JapanesePod101 CouponGet Up To $165 Off

3. You will then be asked to choose your subscription plan. This is an excellent time to upgrade to Premium or Premium PLUS if you have been using the Basic monthly subscription plan.

4. Next, you will be asked to update or verify your payment information and choose the length of your subscription. As mentioned, the monthly cost for JapanesePod101 is cheaper when you sign up for a longer period of time (in addition to when you apply the JapanesePod101 promo code).

5. Once you click “Complete” at the bottom of your screen, you will be able to continue enjoying JapanesePod101 as you were or with your upgraded features (with coupons now applied).

Does the JapanesePod101 Coupon Code Work Everywhere?

Yes! You can use these promo codes for JapanesePod101 from anywhere you have access to the internet.

JapanesePod101 by Innovative Language is the leading language learning program in many areas around the globe. This truly exemplifies the phrase learning-on-the-go.

Should I Choose Basic, Premium or Premium PLUS Subscription?

Basic

The Basic monthly subscription grants you access to the extensive video and audio lesson library. Download and print PDFs of your lessons to study over later. You will be able to access JapanesePod101 basic on desktop, laptop, Android, iPhone or iPad and you will have access to hundreds of core words and phrases every month.

Opt for the Basic monthly subscription if you:

have limited funds to spend
would like to “test the waters” to see if you want to learn Japanese more in-depth
would like to learn key phrases and terms to get along while traveling to Japan

Premium

The Premium monthly subscription includes all the same features in the Basic subscription plus interactive lesson quizzes & interactive learning tools. You’ll receive full access to flashcards, HD video, thousands of core words and phrases, daily Japanese lessons, voice-recording tools, audio dictionary and grammar bank.

Opt for the most popular Premium monthly subscription if you:

have tried the Basic subscription and would like more in-depth study materials
want to be quizzed on what you have learned
want to work toward becoming fluent in Japanese
want to understand Japanese movies or music or converse with Japanese-speaking friends
enjoy daily lessons and tips to keep new material fresh in your mind

Premium PLUS

The Premium PLUS subscription is the best way to immerse yourself in all things Japanese. You will have complete access to video and audio lesson libraries, as well as one-on-one access to a native Japanese speaking teacher.

Other features included with the Premium PLUS subscription include everything included with the Premium subscription plus ongoing professional assessments, personalized learning plans and personal assignments.

Consider opting for the Premium PLUS monthly subscription if you:

plan to become a fluent Japanese speaker for business or personal reasons
enjoy the convenience of one-on-on instruction
would like to know where you stand with professional assessments
want a learning plan designed especially for you (not limited to a set syllabus)

Tips for Getting the Most out of Your Subscription

We are so glad you have signed up with JapanesePod101 to begin your journey to Japanese fluency. Whether you are just starting out or continuing on your adventure (with a better rate using our coupons, of course,) the following tips can help you make the most out of your subscription and study time.

Carve out daily time to study. Even 30 minutes a day is helpful when learning a language.
Opt-in on Word of the Day and Daily Lesson emails for daily refreshers.
Use downtime driving in traffic or riding the subway to listen to Japanese Podcasts.
Print lessons and read over them when you cannot watch or listen to them.
Use all learning tools in your subscription for different approaches to learning.
Ask your teacher questions – Premium PLUS subscribers.
Keep track of your progress on your dashboard, and earn points.
Seek out groups, watch movies, and listen to music or podcasts in Japanese to enhance understanding.
Invite your friends to use this discount code offer, too, so you can learn Japanese together.

JapanesePod101 CouponGet Up To $165 Off

JapanesePod101 Review

Michael — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 09:10:43 +0000

Thanks for checking out our JapanesePod101 Review! Information on this page was last checked and updated on Feb 12th, 2023.

When I started out on my path to Japanese fluency, resources such as textbooks and audio courses on CD were the only realistic way to make progress with this challenging language. Thankfully, there’s now a lot more options and learning tools when it comes to studying Japanese online.

The problem that students of Japanese now face is one of quality rather than quantity. So which solutions give you the best bang for your buck?

In my humble opinion, JapanesePod101 is one of the better online courses out there for people who are serious about making significant progress in the language. As promised, I’ve finally got around to writing a complete JapanesePod101 Review, so here goes!

Already made up your mind and looking for our promo code?

JapanesePod101 Review: Summary

JapanesePod101 uses a combination of video and audio lessons to teach you everything you need to improve your Japanese. The course provides supplementary written materials & listening comprehension exercises that go into more detail for each lesson. This audio + video + written immersive technique has a proven track record of success for students of many languages, and that’s why it’s used by JapanesePod.

Name: JapanesePod101

URL: www.japanesepod101.com

Price: From $4 to $23 per month

Currency: USD

Operating System: Web Browser and Mobile App

Application Category: Language Learning Software

Description: JapanesePod101 is a real world language learning software that teaches Japanese language mainly through video and audio lessons.

In a Nutshell: I’ve been a JapanesePod101 user for a few years now, and overall it’s been extremely helpful for learning Japanese. No product is perfect, but the JapanesePod team is continually producing high quality new content and lessons that are easy to understand, making this an exceptional resource. Highly recommended. Read our full review below.

Quality of Learning Materials:

Quantity of Lessons:

Effective and Efficient:

Teaches Useful Japanese:

Price:

 4/5

 5/5

 4/5

Overall Score: 4.4

 4.4/5

The Goods

The Bads

❝ Now I communicate with Japanese people on a daily basis, and I am positive it all has been possible thanks to JapanesePod101.❞ ― Victor Trejo

Why Learn Japanese in the First Place?

Learning a new language is one of the most rewarding skills a person can acquire throughout the course of their life. It enriches the soul, unlocks new ways of understanding, and helps understand a different culture. It even deepens your understanding of your own language and culture.

Research has been done by universities around the world about the benefit that learning languages brings; and the results are immensely positive. A variety of University studies have even gone as far to suggest that learning new languages increases cognitive abilities in many other areas. The research is there, and a whole new world awaits for anybody looking to expand their horizons with new language skills.

Japanese is spoken by about 128 million people throughout the entirety of Japan and the Japanese diaspora. Japanese learners can benefit in their Japanese learning by understanding a language that can be valuable in business; or if you’re just looking to understand your favorite anime or Japanese drama.

The problem is: Japanese is also one of the hardest asian languages to learn, and it has a reputation for being challenging amongst first time language learners and polyglots alike.

Let’s take a look at how well JapanesePod101 performs as an effective Japanese learning program and set of learning tools to help you learn new words, grammar and vocabulary.

The Pros: What We Like Most About JapanesePod101

Pro #1: Structured Lessons for Optimal Learning

When it comes to learning a new language, there are two things that are of great importance:

QUANTITY – That is, listening to and reading a LOT of content.
QUALITY – Choosing content that is not only interesting and engaging, but suitable for your current level of knowledge, challenging you just the right amount.

So how does JapanesePod101 shape up on the basis of quantity and quality? Well, first off, an incredible amount of content is on offer. At the time of writing, a JapanesePod101 membership includes 6935 video & audio lessons. Pretty incredible, as the staff continues to add high quality audio and video content regularly. The breakdown by learner level was as follows:

Absolute Beginner: 1,629 audio and video Lessons and 445 assignments spread over 67 lesson pathways
Beginner: 1,641 audio and video lessons and 320 assignments spread over 58 modules
Intermediate: 894 audio and video lessons and 199 assignments spread over 27 modules
Upper Intermediate: 584 audio and video lessons and 203 assignments spread over 17 modules
Advanced: 632 audio and video lessons and 124 assignments spread over 17 modules
Bonus: 1555 audio and video lessons and zero assignments spread over 10 modules

That’s literally 10’s of thousands of hours of content which, if tackled systematically and mastered, would provide a solid base of Japanese proficiency. So it’s double thumbs up on the quantity front for japanesepod101 com.

How about quality? The lessons are professionally recorded and engaging. Certainly above and beyond your average Japanese audio course. There was clearly a lot of love and effort put into the content creation. The tutors go out of their way to explain any cultural information and to keep the lessons light hearted and fun.

Pro #2: Gradually Phasing Out English

I do like how English is used for the early lessons, but then gradually lessened and then later removed entirely. This is a nice way to wean you off English over time, until you’re learning 100% in Japanese.

Pro #3: Extremely Thorough Lesson Materials

Another cool aspect of the JapanesePod101 library is the level of detail they have put into the formats and resources provided. With each lesson, you get:

The complete lesson (audio or video)
Line-by-line transcript (with recording feature)
The Japanese dialogue only (no English)
Lesson notes
Kanji close-up
Lesson checklists
Downloadable MP3 file & PDFs

In short, the resources provided are very thorough. With so many incomplete courses out there, it’s nice to see a provider that cares about its audience and covers all the possible bases.

The Cons: Things We Didn't Like About JapanesePod101

Assuming that you steadily learn the content and put in the necessary time, JapanesePod will give you a solid foundation in spoken Japanese. Period. However, no one language course can be 100% exhaustive. As I’ve written before, you should always use multiple resources to make progress in any language. With that said, here are some of the things that you won’t find included with this course:

Con #1: Lack of Speaking Practice

JapanesePod101 is great for building up your passive vocabulary and getting used to hearing the language spoken naturally. What it won’t give you is improved speaking proficiency. At least not immediately. For that you need to actually speak the language with friends or, better, a private tutor. JapanesePod doesn’t provide this with the Basic or Premium subscriptions, but the PremiumPlus membership does include 1-1 teaching time.

I’m of the opinion that learning to speak Japanese doesn’t need to be rushed. This goes for double if you’re a beginner-intermediate learner and don’t live in Japan yet. Focus on building up your passive knowledge first, which will give you a wider vocabulary and overall grasp of the language. Once you are understanding a fair amount of the dialogues, you can upgrade your membership or jump online and hire a private tutor to get some practice hours in. But only when you are ready. Far too many people go too quickly, perhaps feeling obligated to start speaking immediately.

Con #2: The Kanji Basics

Although JapanesePod provides extremely thorough lesson notes and introduces new kanji systematically, you’ll still need a grounding in the kanji to get the basics down before these notes are useful. There are a number of ways to achieve this, but studying on your own will produce faster results than any offline Japanese class.

I personally recommend the Heisig Approach (previously covered in this article) to get to grips with the kanji. Even if you don’t fully master all 2000 of the commonly used characters, the Heisig course will get you comfortable with the radicals and general concept of kanji.

Con #3: Information Overload

Whilst the quantity of lessons is amazing, it can also leave you feeling overwhelmed and lost for direction. For those who like to be hand-held through a language course and follow a strict curriculum, the JapanesePod101 methodology might be a bit of a struggle.

It’s unsurprising that the syllabus is a bit messy given that JapanesePod101 is the flagship program of Innovative Language with the largest library of lessons, and is getting constantly added to. They did try to counter this problem by grouping lessons into pathways, and believe it or not, there is actually a natural progression to the lessons. That being said, however, without a decent amount of independence and self-assessment, you can easily be left with gaps in your knowledge and a lack of motivation. For this reason, some learners may benefit from using JapanesePod101 as a supplementary tool alongside a more structured textbook.

Top Tip: The Premium+ membership will provide you with a fully personalized learning program with professional assessment and 1-on-1 language instruction. We highly recommend this option for those who like to have more structure and guidance in their learning progression.

Useful Extra Features & Tools

To aid you in mastering Japanese, there’s a bunch of extra tools that are available to use within the platform. It’s very nice to have these options for whenever you get bored during the lessons or just want to take a break. Browsing around these extra features was quite enjoyable – for example, we loved building up our own flash card decks, and categorising them all into interesting topics.

Flashcards

Similar to Anki or Quizlet, the flashcard feature within JapanesePod101 allows you to create your own flashcard decks, or choose a premade deck from a list of over 100 possible decks. You can go through and study each word in isolation and then test yourself when you’re ready, based on the audio, Kanji, transliteration or an image (your choice). It’s also very encouraging to see that the comments section is super active, with some decks having hundreds of comments from other learners just like yourself.

Word Bank

Ever learnt a new word only to forget it again the next day? The word bank ensures you never lose a word. At any point during a lesson or when learning new vocabulary, you can hit the plus icon and add a word (or phrase) to your word bank for you to review later. You can even categorise them into groups and export your entire list as an excel file. A great way to keep track of all your new vocabulary.

Most Common Words List

A comprehensive list of the 2541 most common words in the Japanese language. You can filter by category and by ranking (the most common 100 words, 200 words etc.) – very useful for selecting which vocab terms to learn, ensuring you don’t go off track by learning outdated or obsolete vocabulary.

Topical Vocab Lists

100s of lists based on fun & interesting categories such as ‘Top Anime Words & Phrases’, ‘Inspirational Quotes’ and ‘Gossiping Phrases’.

Japanese Dictionary

Quite useful to have. Also includes expletives!

‘Word of the Day’ Emails

An added optional bonus. You’ll receive a new word to your inbox every day.

Japanese Grammar Bank (Love This!)

Got a niggling question about a specific grammar point? Can’t quite remember how to conjugate a verb? The grammar bank is really something unique that we haven’t seen in other programs by Innovative Language. You can search and filter by level, spelling and category, and get a detailed breakdown of the grammar with examples. The grammar bank is always being updated and added to – there’s over 400 articles at the time of writing this.

Japanese Key Phrase List

A list of useful phrases to get you started. Things like ‘good morning’ and ‘what’s your name?’.

Top tip: Click slideshow, toggle off the English, and select loop. You’ll then get a full hands-free audio rundown of all the phrases. Allow your brain to absorb the phrases as listen to the phrases whilst cleaning your room, doing some exercise or stretching. Perfect for beginners.

Mobile App

The mobile app acts as a mirror-image of the browser based application, providing all of the same content. Having it all accessible from your mobile device is a huge selling point as it means you can practice lessons and review flashcards from anywhere.

JLPT Practice Tests

One great addition is the JLPT practice tests, so you can test your knowledge before the actual exam. Our only complaint is that they are only for N4 and N5.

What are the Lessons like?

Audio Lessons

The audio-only lessons are informative, usually engaging, and are presented with an easy to use media player with pause & play functions. There are sometimes additional tools to maximize the value of each lesson.

Video Lessons

The video lessons are well-produced with nice graphics. The speakers are professional and concise in their dictation.

PDFs

Sometimes watching videos or listening to audio files doesn’t give someone all the tools they need to learn. Many people (like myself) need to read and study written material with structured lesson notes in order to best commit it to long term memory. Each and every lesson has an accompanying set of lesson notes that can be downloaded as an easy-to-read PDF.

A Sneak Peek Into Some of the Lessons

To give you a better idea of what to expect from the lessons we thought it’d be a good idea to actually show you 3 sample topics from the beginner, intermediate and upper intermediate levels:

Level 2 Lesson Pathway (Beginner)

Level 3 Lesson Pathway (Intermediate)

Level 4 Lesson Pathway (Upper Intermediate)

Level 2 Lesson Pathway (Beginner)

Level 3 Lesson Pathway (Intermediate)

Level 4 Lesson Pathway (Upper Intermediate)

Who Should Buy JapanesePod101?

Japanese is an excellent learning resource that will be incredibly useful if you are someone who:

Has plans to live & work in Japan, and is looking to learn functional everyday language
Wants to start a business in Japan and is looking to understand the business culture
Is looking to take the JLPT exams to qualify for a university in Japan
Has a keen interest in Japanese culture, food and traditions
Enjoys the freedom of independent learning, from anywhere, at your own pace

Who Should NOT Buy JapanesePod101?

JapanesePod101 is not for everyone. The methodology goes against the norm of the traditional textbook approach, and so it’s not exactly everyone’s cup of tea. You might want to look elsewhere if you are someone who:

JapanesePod101 vs. Competitors

When it comes to learning Japanese, there seems to be no shortage of content out there in the world to help you achieve this (admittedly challenging!) feat. Whether you are a casual learner seeking to expand your horizons, a businessperson with connections in Japan with a need to learn, or an avid language expert, there are lots of options out there. How does JapanesePod101 stack up to its competition?

JapanesePod101 vs Rocket Japanese

Rocket Languages is a language learning company that has made it their mission to use technology to its fullest extent to help people learn languages. Their Japanese language program is very immersive and is offered at a competitive price to that of JapanesePod101. Their key selling point is that their content is offered at one price for life (They also offer a tiered membership level similar to JapanesePod101). The structure of the lessons is also similar to JapanesePod101 in that there is heavy emphasis placed on audio content.

Read our Review of Rocket Japanese here.

JapanesePod101 Vs. FluentU

FluentU is a language immersion company that has placed a big emphasis on video content to engage learners and teach 12 different languages. Their approach is unique in that they take videos from Youtube and add interactive captions. The concept is unique and interesting but one of the main complaints about FluentU’s platform is that they lack in content, and some of the content is from advertising/commercials. In a world where we are constantly inundated with advertising, the last thing we need is commercials in our language learning.

Read our full review of FluentU here.

JapanesePod101 Vs Duolingo

Duolingo is great because it’s free! While they do offer a paid version that adds a few features and removes advertising from the site, the free version is great as is. From short lessons that focus on teaching Japanese from the ground-up, to gamifying your language learning effort to have you collect virtual currency; DuoLingo is a fun and interactive way to learn Japanese at your own pace. Whatever your current level, if you’re serious about learning Japanese you might want to look elsewhere, and use Duolingo as a sort of secondary service to reinforce the lessons learned in a more comprehensive program to learn Japanese.

Read our in-depth review of Duolingo Japanese here.

How Much Does JapanesePod101 Cost? Is it Worth The Money?

JapanesePod101.com offers three levels of membership at different price points to help accommodate people of varying budgets. Anyone looking to sign up for a membership with JapanesePod101 should consider how serious they are about learning Japanese and also their budget.

The three tiers are branded as Basic, Premium, and Premium plus and the price points run at $4, $10, & $23 respectively. The basic membership offers the bare minimum of access to the site’s extensive list of features such as Japanese audio podcasts and lots of regular new lesons, while the Premium Plus membership offers everything you would ever need to have to learn japanese plus the kitchen sink! The $10 version offers a healthy medium of value and affordability, and would be our suggestion for anybody serious about using JapanesePod101 as a way to learn Japanese.

JapanesePod101 Basic vs Premium vs Premium Plus: What’s the Difference?

The three tiers of membership are curated towards the interest and seriousness one has in learning Japanese. While the Basic Plan for $4 includes access to the thousands of lessons and their corresponding notes, there is plenty more content and features that are under ‘lockdown’ for premium memberships only.

The Premium membership, which starts at $10 per month, includes a wealth of features including, but certainly not limited to; HD video lessons, 1900 more core words and phrases, word banks, vocabulary slideshows, voice recording tools, and interactive lesson quizzes.

There is also a Premium Plus membership, and for $23 per month you can have a teacher assigned to you from JapanesePod101 that will custom tailor you a lesson plan and give you ongoing professional assessment, assignments, and curriculum for as long as you pay the monthly recurring fee. If you’re serious about learning Japanese, the PremiumPlus membership is for you.

Use Our Promo Code To Get 30% Off

We have a special deal going with JapanesePod101. If you sign up through our link, you’ll get 30% off the regular price. For this value, I can wholeheartedly recommend getting a membership.

Here’s the link:

We’re not sure how long this one will last, so take advantage while you can!

The Secret Lifetime Membership Option (Up To 77% Off!)

For those that don’t like monthly payments, JapanesePod101 has a special secret lifetime membership package designed for those who want to make learning Japanese, and other languages, a lifetime pursuit.

They don’t really like to advertise it, but for a one-time payment of $599, you can purchase lifetime access to the ever-expanding JapanesePod101 content of materials at the Premium level. That means if you use the program for 5 years, you’ll be saving 60% off the regular price.

There are other deals too: an additional 2 languages for $999, and even the option to purchase the entire Language Pod curriculum spanning 34 languages and hundreds of thousands of lessons, all at a premium membership level.

This deal might be a head-scratcher for some. I mean: who really needs access to learn 34 languages? That said, there are people this might appeal to. For example if you are an avid world traveler and want to learn a bit of the language from every new country you visit, you could have one purchase to take care of all of your language needs forever.

JapanesePod101 Review Conclusion: One of The Best Options For Self Study of Japanese

So, is JapanesePod101 worth it? As someone who’s tried countless Japanese courses, I think JapanesePod101 is an excellent resource for learning Japanese, from beginners to advanced. For beginner to intermediate there are tons of lessons that cover a wide range of useful vocabulary, topics and cultural learning.

In the past, high intermediate and advanced learners may have complained that there was not quite enough material at their level to be worthwhile, but that has been addressed in recent years.

The teachers are — for the most part — entertaining and fun, which makes it feel less like a classroom, and the language used is both authentic and natural. JapanesePod101.com is a great way to learn Japanese and get some exposure to Japanese culture.

The course creators are constantly creating new and interesting lessons that are actually useful if you live (or want to live) in Japan. I certainly would have made even faster progress as an absolute beginner with my studies if I’d had this course back when I started learning Japanese!

Rosetta Stone Japanese Review

Editorial Team — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 07:29:18 +0000

Editor’s Note: This Rosetta Stone Japanese Review has been updated on Feb 15th, 2022.

With around 127 million speakers, and Japan having the second largest economy in the world, being able to speak Japanese would be a huge personal asset for business, work or travel.

The language provides a gateway to understanding Asia’s great civilizations and cultural treasures. Plus, it’s not as hard as you think!

Did you know that Japanese has no articles or plurals? And apart from sharing the writing system with Chinese it’s considered one of the most unique languages in the world, with no direct derivative language that came before it.

So, you’re wondering what’s the best way to learn Japanese. The internet is jam-packed with all sorts of online language programs and various courses, which can be an absolute minefield to navigate and a nightmare to determine which one is deserving of your time and money.

Rosetta Stone is one of the most popular options available, boasting millions of students and used by over 1500 corporations – one that you might be considering. But is it really the best way to learn Japanese? Find out in our in-depth Rosetta Stone Japanese review.

Rosetta Stone Japanese Review: Summary

Name: Rosetta Stone Japanese

URL: rosettastone.com/languages/learn-japanese

Operating System: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Currency: USD, GBP, Euro, Yen, Won

Price: A 3 month-subscription of $35.97 for one language, 6 month subscription of $95.88 for one language, or a lifetime membership of $179 for all 25 languages. Additional 12 months of weekly 25 minute group coaching calls for an extra $100 (Lifetime Plus membership).

Application Category: Language Learning Software
Description: Taking its name from quite possibly the most famous rock in existence, Rosetta Stone has grown to become one of the most recognizable names in the language learning industry. It is currently the only language learning software company that is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange (Code: RST). They are the undisputed heavyweight champion of the language learning world, and have an undeniable influence on the entire industry.

In a Nutshell: Like the rest of Rosetta Stone’s courses, Rosetta Stone Japanese uses a series of quizzes to expose you to the target language, repeatedly testing you through a variety of different questions, all based upon isolated images and voice clips. Unfortunately we felt that the program was very overpriced and inefficient for learning Japanese alone, without using any supplementary textbooks or resources.

Quality:

Quantity:

Effectiveness:

Practicality:

Price:

 2/5

 3/5

 2/5

 3/5

 2/5

Overall Score: 2.4 / 5.0

 2.4/5

The Goods

Built-in speech recognition software
Lots of content
Can toggle on/off the Kanji, Hirogana, Katakana & Romanji
Professionally recorded audio (both male & female native voice)
Variety of gamified exercises
Diversity of pictures
Automatically reviews what you’ve learnt
Structured syllabus
Sleek website design & integrated app

The Bads

Expensive
Voice recognition software doesn’t always work properly
No placement test
Often teaches outdated/inauthentic language
Slow paced, time consuming and repetitive
No focus on pronunciation, grammar or writing
Not enough context or authentic dialogue

Rosetta Stone Japanese Review: Overview

At the core of the program is the multiple-choice style questions which systematically introduces new vocabulary and verbs, and then proceeds to test you on different combinations of these through a variety of different questions.

You are shown a series of photos and then asked to select the right answer based upon what you hear or read. The course is designed to be cumulative so that the learner is exposed to the new concepts progressively as they learn the language. The latest version now incorporates an online classroom with group tutoring, though it costs an extra fee.

A Rosetta Stone Japanese membership includes:

12 modules of lessons (each module had 4 lessons, each lesson has one hour of learning)
Live scheduled lessons (a few lectures per month)
On-demand videos (currently only four 1-minute videos, given in English)
Stories, read by a native speaker (typically two per module)
Audio companion – downloadable audio files to review what you’ve learnt
Alphabet – a table of Hiragana and Katakana with accompanying voice clip and Romanji
Group coaching classes (for Premium members only)

Rosetta Stone was one of the first language programs to incorporate a voice recognition software that prompts you to repeat the audio clips and will give you instant feedback by filling up a circle (green if correct, red if not). They advertise this element of their program as ‘the most advanced speech technology’, which perhaps was true in its prime, but we found that it had some issues (as we’ll see a bit later on).

Most voice recognition technology just isn’t there yet and most programs who have incorporated this software suffer the same problems. Therefore, Rosetta Stone might indeed have ‘the most advanced’ voice-recognition software, but that doesn’t mean that it works properly or is a valuable asset to your language learning.

So how useful is the course for learning Japanese? Let’s take a look at the Pros & Cons.

The Pros: What We Liked About Rosetta Stone Japanese

Pro #1: Original Innovator

Rosetta Stone has led innovation in the language learning space for nearly three decades now. Their positive contributions have helped millions of people learn more than two dozen languages and they have helped pave the way for innovation in the language learning sector. For this reason, they deserve some respect even if they are now a bit outdated.

Pro #2: Embraces Simplicity

When it comes to software applications, Rosetta Stone seems to have embraced the idea of creating simple and easy-to-use applications. Rosetta Stone is quite possibly the easiest language learning program out there. The interface is simple, easy to navigate and user friendly. Their website, billing system and the software itself are also well-designed with rich colors and beautiful typography. Aesthetically, the service is great.

Pro #3: Includes All The Japanese Writing Systems

We loved to see that you can easily switch between the Kanji, Romanji, and Katakana & Hiragana. Provided you already know the basics of the writing system, Rosetta Stone could be a great help for reading and learning the Kanji because you can test yourself by switched between the two writing systems.

Pro #4: Professionally Recorded Audio

We liked that you can hear the pronunciation very clearly and fluidly. A lot of competitor programs have a robotic-sounding voice with choppy clips that have been automatically stitched together (which is very off putting, let alone it’s obvious inauthenticity). Both a male and female voice are used interchangeably which is nice.

Pro #5: Flexible Learning

The app is well developed and is automatically synced with the desktop version, allowing you a lot of flexibility to learn from wherever. Furthermore, you can continue learning offline, and the downloadable audio files are great for listening to the language when you are on-the-go or out and about. Since it’s an online course and not a fixed classroom setting, you can easily fit your studies around your busy lifestyle. You can even turn off the speaking function if your out in public.

The Cons: The Things We Didn’t Like About Rosetta Stone Japanese

Con #1: Outdated Methods

Sometimes the traditional methods are traditional for a reason, because they’ve stood the test of time and they work. In the language learning world, however, a lot of research has been done to suggest that we need a lot more variety and stimulus to emulate an immersive learning environment, rather than just images and isolated audio clips. We also learn much more effectively when we are motivated to learn and enjoy the process, receiving a sense of satisfaction and progress.

Rosetta Stone would do well to consider using more motivational strategies to motivate learners, for example by earning points, maintaining learning streaks and unlocking bonus levels, like the more popular Duolingo. It’d also be more effective if they added more variety to the way they conduct the lessons. Every lesson is identical in its format, with the same style of questions. This can get very tedious and boring after a while, and can have a negative effect on our ability to memorise the information.

Con #2: Generic Syllabus

It was a big disappointment to see that the syllabus was identical to all the other languages that Rosetta Stone offers, which suggests the lack of thought that went into designing the course. Japanese is a very unique language and deserves a tailor-made program to get a proper understanding of the intricate grammar and unique characteristics. It seems they’ve started with English and then simply translated to all the languages that they offer. It’s really a terrible idea that can lead to confusion and inaccuracies.

For example, in English there aren’t too many differences between formal and informal language, however Japanese has an entire complex system of respect, known as ‘Keigo’. In the Japanese course this language point is crudely oversimplified and taught as if it were a direct translation to the English system.

Con #3: No Grammar Explanations

It’d be nice even to have a line or two in places just to clarify to much-needed grammar points that you inevitably encounter throughout the course. Japanese has a specific word order and a system of complex verb conjugations. Without any explanations, it’s incredibly difficult to get a proper understanding of how the language works and how to form your own sentences correctly, from just context alone.

Con #4: No Pronunciation Lessons

The voice-recognition software alone is not enough to teach you how to speak properly in Japanese. What you need is an in-depth explanation of all the pitch accent patterns and how to actually make the sounds with your mouth. This is very difficult from just an online language course but some competitor programs do it very well (see competitors). Unfortunately Rosetta Stone provides no instruction whatsoever so you’ll need to look elsewhere to learn the proper pronunciation in Japanese.

Con #5: Voice-Recognition Software Doesn’t Work Properly

For a feature that’s so widely advertised in the course we were surprised to find out that it didn’t work so well. It often marked us as correct even when we made deliberate errors to test it out (and vice versa). To be honest, we weren’t expecting it to be perfect (none of these built-in systems are) but we at least expected it to pick up on the right sounds. On a positive note, it does at least get you speaking, which is an essential component of language learning that is so often left by the wayside.

What Other Reviewers Had To Say…

Don’t just take our word for it, we encourage you to try the program out for yourself. When reading reviews of a language learning tool, it’s important to understand that everyone has different learning styles. And while the language learning community tends to review Rosetta Stone’s Japanese edition unfavorably, it’s not a uniform consensus.

However, some people have some pretty extreme views about the program, and things can get a little controversial at times. One staff writer at language101.com even offered to eat his Rosetta Stone discs if someone could carry a conversation in Japanese after practicing solely with Rosetta Stone for 45 minutes a day. He also expressed his frustration with their customer service department after not receiving answers to questions about the program:

Who Is Rosetta Stone Japanese For?

Those who might find the program useful are those who:

Are looking for a tailor-made program that can teach them some basic phrases and vocabulary
Are planning a trip to Japan and want to get used to the language before going
Prefer to learn through immersion rather than understand how the language works
Have a lot of motivation, time and dedication to finish the course

Who Is Rosetta Stone Japanese NOT For?

The program is probably not a best fit for you if:

You get bored easily and require some variety in your learning
You prefer to have real conversations and connect with real Japanese people
You want to learn about Japanese culture and traditions
You are looking to learn real-use language through dialogues and authentic material

Rosetta Stone Japanese Alternatives

While Rosetta Stone might be the global leader in language learning software products, that by no definition of the word means that it is the best and most comprehensive product out there. Thankfully there are many other innovative language learning programs that are worth your money and your time.

The two we are most willing to recommend today are JapanesePod101 and Rocket Japanese.

JapanesePod101: Tons of High Quality Material

JapanesePod101 is quite possibly the most well put together language learning product we’ve tested. It has literally thousands of audio and video lessons, and detailed pdf’s with useful cultural context, and intuitively designed lesson plans to help teach Japanese efficiently. In our opinion, JapanesePod101 is the clear and definitive winner in Japanese language instruction.

Read our review of JapanesePod101 here.

Rocket Japanese: A Well-Designed Course

Rocket Japanese is a close second, and provides a quality product that is well researched, logical, and provides tangible results. One of its main selling points is that it provides many useful lessons in the complex world of Japanese grammar. Japanese grammar and sentence structure bear almost no similarities to English, and Rocket Japanese teaches that system efficiently. This is completely devoid in the Rosetta Stone Japanese program.

Read our review of Rocket Japanese here.

Rosetta Stone Japanese Pricing

Rosetta Stone is definitely not cheap – most of the online criticisms are about the price. However, they have lowered the price in recent years and there’s now a few different options to choose from:

3 month-subscription -> $35.97 (Japanese only)
6 month subscription -> $95.88 (Japanese only)
Lifetime Membership -> $179 (for all 25 languages)
The group coaching calls vary in price from around $14-$19 for two 25 minute sessions.

They also offer a 30-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied with the program.

Is It Worth The Money?

When you compare the price to a traditional university course then it seems much more affordable. However, there’s many other programs that exist at a far lower price that will teach you Japanese more comprehensively than Rosetta Stone. In our opinion it’s simply not worth the hefty price tag.

Rosetta Stone Japanese Review: Conclusion

For such a large financial investment, shouldn’t a language learning program provide more than just word association and clunky software? The consensus in the language learning community is a definitive yes. You can get the same amount of practice for vocabulary far more efficiently by just using any standard space repetition system such as Anki.

We can see how the program could be useful for practicing reading Kana and Kanji since there’s a lot of written material included, such as the books. However, this is providing you know some of them already since they don’t teach you and it doesn’t really allow you to pick it up. For this reason we don’t recommend it for complete beginners since they don’t teach you the script.

Overall, the general concept is very good, it’s just executed poorly with not enough immersion in real-use language with proper context. Other language programs do a much better job at a fraction of the price.

You could learn exponentially faster by learning from a set of materials that you actually enjoy. In this day and age, you no need to learn through brute force, there’s loads of great authentic materials and modern courses to teach you Japanese, such as manga & anime, videos, music etc. for you to keep yourself interested and engaged on a daily basis. Self-study requires a knowledge of effective learning methods but allows you to tailor a much more effective program, plus you have the option to use a structured language course in tandem.

An effective Japanese program should provide ample context, examples, and explanation. which is why we believe JapanesePod101 is the best choice for learning Japanese. It has thousands of hours of video and audio content, and is as close as one can get to learning Japanese from a real teacher without the high price tag of taking classes.

JapanesePod101 has options for different budgets, and there really is no substitute that we’ve found that compares. With all of these options considered, we highly recommend JapanesePod101 for all of your language learning endeavors.

You can read our full review of JapanesePod101 by clicking the image below, or use our special discount link to get 65% off.

Yoyo Chinese Review

Michael — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 05:41:49 +0000

Editor’s Note: This Yoyo Chinese Review has been checked for accuracy and updated as of Aug 10th, 2022.

What’s the best way to learn Chinese? Over the past year, our editors have tested and compared the most popular Chinese language learning resources available. Read on to find out what we thought of Yoyo Chinese, one of the more popular language programs, in our Yoyo Chinese review!

Already made up your mind and looking to start your free trial?

Yoyo Chinese Review: Summary

Name: Yoyo Chinese

URL: www.yoyochinese.com

Operating System: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Currency: USD

Price: Subscription (to all courses) is $29/month, $149/6 months or $249/year. Lifetime access to everything is $399.

Application Category: Language Learning Software

Description: An online Chinese language learning company that focuses on quality video production to teach Chinese to students around the world.

In A Nutshell: As a program that began as the result of a Youtube video gone viral in 2007, founder Yangyang Chen has been passionately pursuing her goal of making the Chinese language accessible for people around the world. With over 8 million lessons delivered to over 120,000 students worldwide, the consensus is clear that Yoyo Chinese is making good on Chen’s goal to teach Chinese to the world in a structured and effective manner.

Quality:

Quantity:

Effectiveness:

Practicality:

Price:

 5/5

 4/5

 5/5

 4/5

 3/5

Overall Score: 4.2

 4.2/5

The Goods

High quality professional video lessons
Teaches Chinese Characters effectively
Very engaging and likable host
Brilliant grammar explanations
Courses are logical and structured very well
Integrated spaced-repetition flashcards, review quizzes and lesson tracking
The first 45 lessons are free!

The Bads

Uses more English instruction than competitor programs
Limited to beginner & advanced learners
Somewhat expensive
No mobile app for on-the-go lessons
The Chinese character courses only focus on simplified Chinese
Better programs exist for Chinese writing (like Scritter, for example)

Yoyo Chinese Review: Overview

Yoyo Chinese is always being updated and improved, and it’s gone through some pretty major changes since when we first wrote this review over a year ago, however the essence of the program is still the same – high quality video lessons delivered by the very likable host (and founder) Yangyang Cheng.

The program actually consists of 6 unique courses, focusing on both conversational Chinese and the Chinese writing system. These courses are:

Beginner Conversational (60 units, roughly equivalent to HSK L1-2)
Intermediate Conversational (60 units, roughly equivalent to HSK L3-4)
Upper Intermediate Conversational (48 units, roughly equivalent to HSK L4-5)
Chinese Characters (300 commonly-used characters spread over 24 units, roughly equivalent to HSK L2)
Chinese Characters 2 (300 commonly-used characters spread over 24 units, roughly equivalent to HSK L3)
Chinese Character Reader (6 books over 30 units, roughly equivalent to HSK L3)

Each unit contains between 2 and 5 lessons and focuses on a single topic or aspect of the Chinese language (for example, ‘Talking About Hobbies’ or ‘Measure Words’). Some units are also there to review what you’ve learnt so far in the course.

The Pros: Here’s What We Liked Most About Yoyo Chinese

Pro #1: Makes a ‘Difficult’ Language Easy

The Yoyo Chinese curriculum and language is broken down for complete beginners, using concepts that are easy for English speakers to understand. The lessons often utilize mnemonic devices, songs and even some rather comical raps to help you remember what you’ve learnt! Within a few lessons you’re already learning usable vocabulary and building basic sentences in Chinese.

Pro #2: Consistently Good Quality Lessons

One of the things we loved most about Yoyo Chinese was the fact that the program gives off the appearance that the founder, YangYang Cheng is our personal Chinese instructor. You’ll find that every lesson is delivered by her and she maintains the level of engagement and professionalism throughout the entire course (something that can’t be said for some more botched-up curriculums like ChineseClass101).

This sort of personal dedication to the quality of the content by the founder of the company is something that is almost devoid amongst competing Chinese language learning programs and was something we thought makes Yoyo Chinese really stand out amongst the competition.

Pro #3: It’s Very Motivating

Yangyang is very upbeat and positive, always saying ‘good job’ and praising you at the end of each lesson. Now that they’ve introduced the progress tracker into the platform, there’s an extra motivation to maintain your study streak and see your progress bars fill up. The study schedule is also a great help. Knowing exactly what to study on each day, right down to a checklist, really helps you to see the end goal and stay motivated.

Pro #4: Downloadable Resources

Yes, everything can be downloaded (apart from the videos). This allows you to study completely on your own time and fit your learning around your busy schedule. You can listen to the audios whilst driving to work, at the gym or on a lunch break. The Chinese books can be uploaded onto your kindle to read before bed, and you can browse through vocab lists when sitting on the toilet.

Pro #5: Active FAQs & Social Media Channels

In case you didn’t know already, Yoyo Chinese has a BIG YouTube presence – over 300,000 subscribers! They give a lot of their content away for free and are constantly uploading new videos. But it’s not just their social media that’s growing but the course itself. They are always coming out with new updates and adding more content to the blog.

Similarly, the FAQ section for each lesson is always brimming with comments from other students and is definitely worth browsing through. It’s encouraging to see that the support team responds to almost every message, clarifying any confusion and providing further explanations.

Pro #6: Focus on People and Culture

You’ll often get a lesson which is slightly different from the usual ‘stand in front of a digital whiteboard and talk’ kind of lesson and instead takes you out into the streets of China, into a restaurant, or supermarket. These interviews provide you with an insight into how the language is used in context and how people actually speak. Most of the time people don’t use complete sentences or correct grammar, so it’s really useful to get this kind of exposure to the language. It’s also a great way to test your listening skills.

The Cons: Yoyo Chinese Is Very Good, But Not Perfect

So what’s the catch? It’s true, Yoyo Chinese is a brilliant resource for learning Chinese but it’s not perfect. Here’s a few of the things we didn’t like as much.

Con #1: Simplified Chinese Only

Yoyo Chinese only teaches Simplified Chinese characters and completely ignores the traditional characters that are widely used in places like Hong Kong and Taiwan. So if you are looking to base your travels or the majority of your Chinese speaking in either of those places, then Yoyo Chinese might not be the language learning program for you.

Con #2: No Mobile Application

Yoyo Chinese is a great program on a desktop computer, and even works well on a mobile browser. but in the age of the mobile application, we see that as a significant downside, especially given the fact that the majority of Yoyo Chinese’s competitors offer great mobile apps that can be easily used on the go.

Note: They have promised that the new app will be coming out soon, but when exactly is anyone’s guess.

Con #3: Too Much English!

To learn a language you really need to get as much exposure as possible, seeing it being used in different contexts over and over again. Unfortunately, the video lessons contain more English explanations than spoken Chinese which can be quite limiting and even time consuming when you just want to hear the language being used. The street interviews are great, but there’s not many of them. So you may want to supplement the course with outside material if you want to progress faster.

Con #4: The Writing Lessons Could Be Better

There’s better options out there for learning how to write in Chinese, for example Scritter. Yoyo Chinese simply shows you the stroke order and lets you get on with it, but Scritter actually provides real-time grading and stroke-level feedback which is really important for any pictorial language, especially Chinese.

Con 5: Limited To Beginner/Intermediate Learners

While the quality of content contained within Yoyo Chinese is very high, there is a limited amount of content. Each module contains between 100-200 lessons and those lessons tend to be on the short side.

Learning Chinese is no casual affair, and while we believe Yoyo Chinese is great for beginner and intermediate learners of the language, the program does not contain materials that will help someone become completely fluent in the language. You’ll need to supplement the course with extra materials and look elsewhere for an advanced course.

The Main Dashboard & Course Layout

The new update brought about a new sleek facelift to the main dashboard and how everything is laid out. In the top left you have 3 options: Me, Learn, & Mastery.

‘Me’ is where you can see your own personal profile and your learning stats; your current learning streak, number of completed lessons etc. You can change your name and enter your details here, and your profile picture will get changed to your Zodiac animal – pretty cool!

Clicking on ‘Learn’ will take you straight to the meat of the course – the lessons. You can toggle between the 6 courses and move between all the levels. Completed lessons will be shown with a green ring around them.

Finally, the ‘Mastery’ option gives you access to further learning through additional learning resources, namely the integrated spaced-repetition flashcards, a pinyin chart, and access to the download center.

The interactive pinyin chart is super useful for drilling your pronunciation. It’s a chart showing all the possible sounds in the Chinese language, including the tones. Yangyang even has videos demonstrating how to create each sound correctly, and you can listen to each sound by hovering your mouse over it. It’s something that we found ourselves returning to time and time again.

The download center is an absolute treasure trove of content! Here you’ll find all the lesson notes (for every course), complete study schedules, vocab glossaries, all the audio files, quiz worksheets, ebooks, HSK word lists, Chinese resume templates, infographics… the list goes on.

So, what are the lessons like?

Every lesson follows the same basic format. First, you have the video, where Yangyang usually reviews what you’ve previously learnt and then builds upon it by introducing new vocabulary, explaining the grammar, and providing many examples. These videos are very engaging, and you can easily find yourself binge watching your way through them with all the interesting examples and cultural cues.

Yangyang giving a lesson on Chinese Characters.

A typical anime-style reading lesson.

Yangyang giving a pronunciation lesson.

Underneath the video there’ll automatically be a full list of all the vocabulary and phrases from the lesson. You can click on each one independently to listen to the audio again. You can also toggle on/off the English, Chinese characters or pinyin. Plus, you can select either a fast or slow pronunciation.

There are 3 ways to practice what you’ve learnt in the lesson. First, you can click ‘Practice’, which brings up the flashcards onto the screen for you to test yourself and record your own pronunciation. Second, you can listen to the audio which prompts you to repeat the words and phrases in the lesson.

And finally, there’s the FAQ section which is sometimes very useful since you’ll often find other students have exactly the same questions as you, and the support team are very quick to clarify them. Plus you can ask you’re own.

Once you feel you are ready, you can take the lesson quiz. You’ll be guided through 10 questions, asking you to translate specific phrases/words, write down what you hear, put the words into the correct order etc. It’s not necessary to get 10/10 to continue; however if you get anything below around 7 they’ll recommend you review the materials and try again.

The lesson quiz has a variety of diffent question styles.

Who Is Yoyo Chinese For?

Those who’ll benefit the most from Yoyo Chinese are those who:

are serious about learning Chinese and can dedicate time each day to completing the lessons
are independent learners who can study in their own time
plan to travel or work/study in China
are looking for an all-in-one structured beginners course for learning the Chinese language

Who Is Yoyo Chinese NOT For?

Those who might not find Yoyo Chinese as helpful and may want to look elsewhere are those who:

Yoyo Chinese Alternatives

Chinese is indeed a challenging language, and it’s not something you can pick up just by passively watching Chinese TV. It requires dedication, commitment, and a lot of memorization.

Thankfully, there are many different options out there. When compared to competitors such as Rocket Chinese and FluentU, we believe Yoyo Chinese stands as the strongest competitor for self-study of Chinese.

ChineseClass101 Is Our Favorite Alternative

The one program we’ve tried that really competes is ChineseClass101. That said, which one you choose will really depend on your learning style preferences, and which personality you want teaching you Chinese. We’d recommend reading our review of ChineseClass101 and signing up for both free trials to see which one you like more.

Free trial of ChineseClass101

Free trial of Yoyo Chinese

Yoyo Chinese Pricing

Yoyo Chinese used to be only available for a one time fee which restricted you to a specific course (unless you bought them all). However, you’ll be glad to know that they now offer a subscription plan so you don’t have to make that big commitment from the very start. There are 3 subscription options:

Monthly -> $19.99 (full access to all 6 courses, over 1000 video lessons and all the downloadable resources)
Every 6 months -> $89.94 (25% off)

Personally, we recommend the 6 month subscription since it’s unlikely you’ll still be at a beginner/intermediate level after a year of regular study. YoyoChinese do still offer the lifetime option, which gives you full lifetime access to everything and all their future additions/updates:

Lifetime access (pay once) -> $299

Click here to see the current discounts available for Yoyo Chinese.

You can use the Coupon Code PERAPERA10 to get 10% off now.

Yoyo Chinese Review: Conclusion

We loved reviewing this product and are more than confident that Yoyo Chinese will help make you a better Chinese speaker from day one. YangYang’s expertise being a Chinese language instructor for the past 15 years is well-reflected in this product. We believe that the combination of lessons focusing on both Chinese grammar and Simplified Chinese characters will make you a very capable and adept Chinese speaker in a short period of time!

VietnamesePod101 Review

Michael — Mon, 14 Feb 2022 16:45:24 +0000

Note: This VietnamesePod101 Review is our honest opinion after spending hours testing out the program. There are affiliate links in this post — if you use them, it helps support our site. This review has been checked for accuracy on Feb. 13th, 2023.

There are plenty of reasons to learn some of the more romanticized and popular languages out there, like Japanese or Spanish or even French. But what happens when you want to study a language that most people overlook?

Vietnamese is one of those languages that is often forgotten by the language-learning crowd, despite being spoken by more than 75 million people. In the past, if you wanted to learn the Vietnamese alphabet or learn how to speak Vietnamese, you may have had some trouble getting the help you needed.

Fortunately, you don’t have to worry any more. The same people that brought us JapanesePod101 and ThaiPod101 have developed one of the most extensive and thorough online Vietnamese courses available on the internet right now.

VietnamesePod101 can help you master the language faster than you thought possible. Here is everything you need to know about the program to help you decide whether it’s right for you!

Already made up your mind and looking for our unique discount code?

VietnamesePod101 Review: Summary

Name: VietnamesePod101

URL: www.vietnamesepod101.com

Operating System: Windows, Mac, Android, iOS

Currency: Depends on region.

Price: 7-Day Free Trial; Free content is also available, whereas subscriptions run from US$8.00 for a 1-month Basic subscription to US$47.00 a month for Premium+ subscriptions. Price depends on subscription period and type.

Application Category: Language Learning Software

Description: VietnamesePod101 is a language program that’s created for beginners, and right through to advanced learners of the Vietnamese language. The extensive library of podcasts, videos, grammar lessons, interactive quizzes, authentic dialogues and additional learning features that can be bought on a subscription model gives the learner tons of information & resources to effectively learn the Vietnamese language, in a way that is both structured and complete. The breadth and overall quality of the material is excellent and even advanced learners get great value for money.

In a nutshell: Learn the Vietnamese alphabet, phrases, expressions, and more with VietnamesePod101, a platform developed by the popular Innovative Language Learning company that gives you video, audio, and other resources to learn Vietnamese quickly and efficiently.

Quality of Learning Materials:

Quantity of Lessons:

Effective and Efficient:

Teaches Useful Vietnamese:

Price:

 5/5

 4/5

 5/5

Overall Score: 4.1

 4.1/5

The Goods

A Well established suite of grammar notes and vocabulary tools (such as flash cards, vocab lists and word banks)
Distinguishes between northern & southern Vietnamese dialects
Over 1300 audio & video lessons, taught by knowledgeable and energetic native speakers
Convenient mobile app for on-the-go learning

The Bads

VietnamesePod101 Review: Overview

The lessons are arranged neatly into five levels of difficulty, absolute beginner to advanced. Those who are just beginning their studies can start with a placement test to see what they already know, or just jump right into the level 1 beginners course. Each level corresponds roughly with the standard CEFR framework with level 1 equating to A1, level 2 to A2, and so on – right up to level 5 (C1).

Every lesson introduces real-use language that is relevant to daily life, whether that’s going to the grocery store, introducing yourself or asking for directions. The lessons are not repetitive at all, and you can select from a diverse range of topics from the lesson library. Regardless of what you choose to learn first, every video or podcast is packed full of new language. The lessons are well thought-out and are delivered by a variety of very enthusiastic and engaging language tutors from Vietnam.

VietnamesePod101 Features

Aside from the free subscription, every membership option (discussed later) gives you access to the following features:

Extensive library of video and audio lessons
Downloadable lesson notes, transcript & checklist
Responsive flashcard app for on-the-go studying
English to Vietnamese dictionary
Interactive quizzes
Grammar and word banks
Printable worksheets
Pronunciation reviews via an interactive voice recorder

The Pros: What We Liked About VietnamesePod101

Pro #1: Hundreds of Videos and Audio Files

VietnamesePod101 is an excellent place to learn Vietnamese, because you get access to more than 800 videos that range from a basic level all the way to advanced. You can find topics on almost anything, so whatever your goals for learning Vietnamese, you can achieve them easily.

Not only that, but the videos are designed to be interesting and refreshing. You never feel like you are being forced to memorize words or follow a boring textbook. The main idea and methodology behind VietnamesePod101 is one of independent learning, meaning the syllabus is completely down to you.

Maybe you just want to be able to introduce yourself in Vietnamese? Then the basic boot camp pathway will be the one for you. Or maybe you want to learn more about Vietnamese food and culture? There’s another learning pathway dedicated specifically for that. You can pick and choose any learning pathways that pique your interest and add them to your main dashboard, where you’ll be able to track your progress and get recommendations for what to study next.

Pro #2: Easy To Use

What is easier than listening and repeating after a native speaker? VietnamesePod101 immerses you first in the language and then dives deep into the nuts and bolts of how the grammar works with the new vocab. The interface for both the computer-oriented program and the mobile app is clean, crisp, and intuitive. You will find everything arranged by level, category, media type, and so on.

Best of all, you can take the downloadable resources with you wherever you go. Gone are the days of worrying about whether the language app will work on airport WiFi – everything (including the mp3s) can be downloaded for offline learning.

Pro #3: Excellent Features

If you are willing to pay for a subscription (which you should), you’ll unlock hundreds of additional goodies that help keep you motivated. The basic account alone gives you access to full transcripts of the podcasts and flashcards. Premium accounts provide more customized study plans, and if you opt for Premium+ you’ll receive full access to one-on-one tutoring with a native Vietnamese speaker.

Pro #4: Skill-based Learning

When learning a new language, it’s important to focus on all four language skills – reading, writing, listening & speaking. Listening is usually the bottle neck for most people since authentic audio content at the right level can be very hard to come by. This is why VietnamesePod101 is our language program of choice. For listening specifically, it’s second to none.

Research has long been shown that listening to the language whilst reading along with the transcript repeatedly and breaking down the meaning of what you’ve just heard is a very effective way of learning a language. Thankfully, every lesson on VietnamesePod101 is structured exactly this way, usually with some kind of dialogue with the option to listen again to each line in isolation whilst reading along with the transcript.

But what about the other 3 skills? Although the program doesn’t give you direct speaking practice with a native speaker, there is the option to record yourself and compare your pronunciation alongside a native speaker. Not quite as good as a real life dialogue but still a brilliant way to really nail those difficult tones and get you sounding like a local.

For reading and writing, there’s many lesson pathways that are dedicated specifically to improving these skills. In fact, you can filter all the lessons by specific skill type and you’ll quickly discover lessons that cover such things as miniature books and writing exercises.

Pro #5: Cultural Exposure

What’s better than learning Vietnamese? Soaking one of the oldest and most fascinating cultures in the world, of course! As you might expect from a comprehensive language program like VietnamesePod101, there’s a huge cultural emphasis integrated into all the lessons.

You’ll discover the best of Vietnam’s mouth-watering foods like Phờ (rice noodle soup) & Xôi (steamed sticky rice), the most popular festivals and holidays, influential Vietnamese writers, musicians and leaders. The tutors go well out their way to explain the cultural significance of the language and to share their traditions and how society functions. Learning this way keeps the lessons fresh and interesting, and the language becomes far more memorable and fun.

The Cons: What We Didn’t Like About VietnamesePod101

There’s no language program that’s perfect, and VietnamesePod101 is no exception. Here’s a few things we didn’t like.

Con #1: Lack of Community

Since Vietnamese is not widely spoken or learned, the community is not as active as other forums on the same site. This makes finding learning partners difficult, especially if you are looking for someone to practice conversations with. While this is not entirely the fault of the program itself, it can be a bummer for more extroverted learners.

Con #2: Lack of Speaking Practice

Although, like we already mentioned, VietnamesePod101 does allow you to take oral quizzes and practice your pronunciation, it can get repetitive, because you are simply saying phrases over and over again. You are not getting real speaking practice, unless you purchase the most expensive subscription plan—an option not financially viable for everyone.

Con #3: Geared Towards Beginners and Low Intermediate

The content, while broad and interesting, can also be too basic for some learners. If you are someone who has lived in Vietnam for a while or is wanting to brush up on the language after taking a break from it, you will not find a lot of content that will challenge you. Granted, it is good for review, but you probably won’t learn anything new, even in the advanced section of the video and audio.

What Does A Lesson Look Like?

Every lesson first starts with the video or podcast. It’s recommended to listen to the dialogue several times to listen for language you may already know before studying the transcript. You can then listen again, line-by-line and record your own voice. The vocab section gives you a full list of the new words you encountered, and the option to listen again, record yourself, or add a word to a flash card deck or into your word bank. This ensures you never lose a word, saving it to review later.

The lesson content is then summarised concisely into the lesson notes, which includes a grammar section and cultural insights. Finally, you can test yourself by taking a multiple choice quiz before marking the lesson complete and moving on. This process is summarised in a downloadable checklist should you wish to structure your lessons this way – otherwise you’re free to use the platform as you like (for example, just listen to the dialogue, or focus on a specific grammar point).

Find yourself still struggling? You can go to the dictionary that provides hundreds of words with example sentences, sound clips, and pictures to help with recognition. You will also see the Vietnamese written out a couple of ways to aid in pronunciation, as well.

In short, you will never be at a loss about what to learn or how to study. The courses are structured to build upon one another. You can then supplement your studies with vocab lists, customizable flashcard decks, your personal word bank, most common words list, ‘word of the day’ emails, the mobile app, and so much more.

Who Should Buy VietnamesePod101?

VietnamesePod101 is ideal for the following people:

Who Shouldn’t Buy VietnamesePod101?

VietnamesePod101 is not recommended for the following people:

VietnamesePod101 vs. The Competition

Because Vietnamese is a lesser known language that is rarely studied in learning institutions or by travelers, the amount of resources available, including competition for programs like VietnamesePod101, pale in comparison to the competitors for, let’s say, JapanesePod101, which is made by the same company.

That said, there are a couple of language learning platforms that offer similar programs, such as Loecsen, Duolingo, Babbel, and Memrise. Since the last three mentioned are severely limited in their Vietnamese lessons, we can’t truly call them competitors, can we?

That leaves Loecsen. Like VietnamesePod101, you can find the course by simply searching “learn Vietnamese audio” into google, since it utilizes podcasts, free grammar and essential phrases downloads, and video to teach you common phrases. The speakers are native, too. Loecsen’s Vietnamese program is entirely free of charge, including all the resources. The downside, however, is the quantity of study material.

While VietnamesePod101 has over 800 audio and video files at your disposal, Loecsen’s resources will only give you a general understanding of Vietnamese. It’s great for a passing traveler but not for someone who wants to get fluent in the language.

Is It Worth The Money?

The free membership, as mentioned earlier, can be limited, so it is highly recommended that you make the commitment and choose a subscription if you are serious. Otherwise, free access gives you content such as pronunciation practice, grammar practice, information about verbs, the Innovative Language 101 app, and access to the “Daily Dose of Vietnamese.” This might be enough for you right now, especially if you are looking for a taster.

However, if you know that you want to learn Vietnamese, this language learning platform is one of the best on the market and worthy of your money. With a Basic subscription, you can access the language and culture collection, print out notes, and get complete access to archived audio.

Premium and Premium+, which are $120 and $220 for 6-months, respectively, offer up one-click downloads, lesson specific tools like grammar checkers, interactive voice recording, review quizzes, flashcards, transcription translation, and so much more. When you consider other language learning software, like Rosetta Stone, the price on 6-months or even 24-months (at $240-$549) is honestly a bargain that is too good to pass up.

In short, is it worth the money? We think so.

How To Get 30% Off VietnamesePod101

It’s no secret that we’re big fans of the Pod101 language programs. So we’ve asked the Innovative Language team for the biggest discount they offer — 30% off!

Check this page for the latest VietnamesePod101 discounts.

The Lifetime Membership Option

This option is not well-advertised (in fact, it was difficult for us to get access to), but if you don’t like subscription payments, you can get a lifetime membership to VietnamesePod101 as a one-time payment of $599. Here’s the link in case you’re interested:

On the same page they even offer a lifetime access to ALL their language programs.

If you’re really serious about becoming a polyglot in multiple languages, the lifetime access to all languages option could be worth checking out:

I think this is actually an amazing deal, despite seeming expensive at first glance. The Pod101/Class101 programs are often the best language courses available for Asian languages (we haven’t tried their others yet!). They’ve got some really smart people on staff building their curriculums, and it shows.

VietnamesePod101 $1 Offer

As soon as you sign up for VietnamesePod101 you’ll get offered a 30-day trial of the Premium membership for only $1. We’re telling you this now because once you click off the page you won’t be offered this again. It’s excellent value, and highly worth it if you want to try out the platform for a longer period of time before buying. Do bear in mind though that after your 30 days are up you’ll be automatically rolled onto the monthly $25 payment plan.

VietnamesePod101 Review: Final Thoughts

Our Verdict: VietnamesePod101 is a Superior Learning Tool For Learning Vietnamese Quickly and Efficiently.

As with many offerings from Innovative Language, VietnamesePod101 is an undisputed champion for studying and gaining fluency in Vietnamese. The course provides you with everything you need to gain confidence with learning this beautiful language. Whatever your goals may be, VietnamesePod101 can elevate your listening, speaking, and reading abilities much higher than the competitors or traditional classrooms.

If you are determined to learn Vietnamese, you have nothing to lose with this program and everything to gain!

The 5 Best Apps for Learning Filipino

Josiah — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 23:33:27 +0000

FlipinoPod101 boasts an enormous selection of video/audio lessons and a fully customizable syllabus.

100% audio based, Pimsleur helps you to achieve an intermediate conversational level very quickly.

Highly gamified & fun to use, Ling is packed with dozens of short ‘mini-lessons’ with interactive dialogues

For many, the Philippines is a place of paradise. Friendly locals, dreamy beaches and exquisite cuisine makes this unique country an ideal destination for travelling, with over 7000 islands to explore boasting some of the best natural beauty on Earth. But how important is it for you to learn the Filipino language?

Whilst it’s true that English is widely spoken in the cities, once you get outside the urban areas and really start to explore the country you’ll quickly discover that everyone speaks Tagalog, the official language of the Philippines.

Tagalog is a fascinating language, with a complex grammar system that’s vastly different to English. And yet, those who take the plunge and commit to studying it soon discover that it’s well worth the journey.

So, what’s the best way to learn Tagalog without actually being in the country? Which apps & language programs are the most effective and affordable to quickly get up to speed with Tagalog? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back. Read on to discover our list of top five apps for learning Tagalog (and a few more runners up at the end).

Are you ready to check out the best apps for learning Filipino?

‘Tara na!’ (it means ‘Let’s go!)

1. Filipinopod101

Best Overall – Most Comprehensive

Overall, the best app by far is FilipinoPod101. A subscription to the app grants access to an enormous library of video and podcast lessons, ranging in topic from travel to dating. The company behind FilipinoPod101, Innovative Language, has been around for a long time and it shows. Not only do you get high quality video lessons with full dialogues & transcripts, but a myriad of extra learning tools all tied up nicely into an intuitive and easy-to-use app.

FilipinoPod101 gives you the ability to fully customize your own learning by selecting specific learning ‘pathways’ from their vast lesson library. The pathway guides you through each lesson, completing exercises & focusing on specialised topics. Alongside the lessons you’ll find frequency word lists, flashcards, topical vocab lists, a word bank, and more. Plus, you can sign up today using our unique coupon code and get up to 77% off.

Click here to read our full FilipinoPod101 review.

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Effectiveness:

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

2. Pimsleur

Most Effective Conversational App

The Pimsleur app isn’t for everyone. It’s a rather heavy & intensive course that gets you up to a basic conversational level of Tagalog in a very short space of time. Each 30-60 minute lesson first introduces you to an authentic dialogue and then proceeds to deconstruct it into it’s basic phrases, words and sounds, whilst testing you throughout with a spaced repetition system of learning. It’s not cheap either, but it’s backed by decades of research and is a very effective tool for developing a fluent conversational level very quickly.

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 2/5

 5/5

 4/5

3. Ling

Most Fun & Interactive

Ling is a highly gamified app for learning over 50 different languages (including Tagalog). It motivates you with the possibility to earn bananas, compete with friends and unlock new levels to complete, similar to how Duolingo operates. The basic version is free, and beyond that you’ll need a monthly subscription granting access to a whole library of lessons, games, activites and reading/writing exercises.

The lessons all incorporate high quality audio files, which includes the interactive chatbot that allows you to ‘talk’ with the app by selected pre-programmed responses. Overall, the effectiveness of the app is up for question since it’s mostly just passive learning (without any actual speaking or writing practice) however it certainly is very engaging & motivating, which is an essential ingredient to long term language success.

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

4. Learn Tagalog by Dalubhasa

Most Cost Effective

Sometimes the best apps are those that are developed by native speakers, and certainly ‘Learn Tagalog by Dalubhasa‘ is well worth checking out. The app teaches basic vocabulary, phrases and grammar. It’s split into 5 levels, from beginner to expert, with the first two levels being completely free (after this you’ll need to buy a subscription). Whilst it starts off with very basic topics like colors, numbers, pronouns and conjunctions, the content quickly transitions into more colloquial Tagalog which is far more useful for everyday life & speaking like a local.

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 4/5

 3/5

5. Italki

Best for Conversational Practice

Italki is an absolute godsend when it comes to developing natural, conversational Filipino language skills. Students who use italki regularly find that their speaking confidence skyrockets and they end up enjoying the learning process much more, and therefore keeping up their motivation to maintain a study habit.

You can browse through the many hundreds of available tutors, book a trial class and get speaking right away. Don’t worry if you are just a beginner, the tutor will adjust their level to cater to your experience. Lessons are affordable and can be carried out on zoom, google or using their own built-in learning platform.

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Effectiveness:

User Experience:

 4/5

Runners-up for Best Filipino App:

Maybe these top five apps didn’t quite satisfy your tastebuds? Here’s some additional runners up that you might find more useful.

Memrise

Memrise is a very popular option for learners of all sorts of languages, from Chinese to Hungarian. They’ve recently widened their market to loads of new langauges – including Tagalog. You can expect videos of native speakers, natural dialogues, gamified quizes & a nice user interface.

However, the app now allows you to choose from several difference courses that are created by independent course creators. This means that whilst the amount of content & variety is awesome, the quality does vary somewhat. So be a bit careful with this one. It’s also a bit pricer than the other apps we’ve mentioned so far.

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

Tandem

If you like the idea of practice with native speakers then you’ll love Tandem. Along with other similar apps (like Hellotalk), Tandem creates a digital space for language exchange students to connect. Rather like a social media site, you can fill in your own profile about your own interests and learning goals and then start messaging other students who share your same interests. The app will automatically pair you with someone looking to learn a language you already possess (English or maybe Russian, for example).

The app makes it easy to spend equal amounts of time speaking each others target language and even suggests conversational promts and questions to ask. It has a built in error corection feature to allow you to correct mistakes, plus a translate button – very handy! It can get quite addictive, I often have many language partners all on the go at the same time, but it’s a great way to get real exposure to the native language and make meaningful cultural exchanges.

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 5/5

 3/5

 5/5

Language Drops Tagalog (Filipino)

Drops is a fun app for learning new vocabulary through games & activities. It follows a predominantly visually-based method of learning by assosiating words with images. Whilst there’s not much in the way of grammar, the short puzzles & word games can be a great way to build up your Filipino vocabulary.

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Price:

Effectiveness:

User Experience:

 4/5

Conclusion: The 5 Best Apps For Learning Filipino

If you’ve get anything out of this article I hope that it’s the fact that there’s loads of really cool apps out there for learning Tagalog. Now you have literally no excuse to get out there and start learning this beautiful language.

To recap, overall we recommend checking out FilipinoPod101 as our choice for the best app for learning Filipino. It’s both entertaining & very effective for learning Tagalog, providing you are disciplined enough to follow the learning paths through to their end. Couple this with an app for speaking like italki and your all good to go!

But most of all, try to find out which method works best for you, and have fun!

The 5 Best Apps for Learning Vietnamese

Josiah — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 23:26:33 +0000

The most comprehensive app on the market. Highly engaging & varied content.

A great option for beginners to learn basic vocab & phrases. Gamified & fun.

Practice with native speakers with this affordable & flexible tutoring service.

Vietnamese is a notoriously difficult language to learn, with a complex system of grammar and 6 different tones to master, but don’t let that get you down. In this day and age there’s a myriad of research-based language learning tools that are structured to your needs, using modern techniques to break down the Vietnamese language in a way that’s easily digestible and fun!

There’s apps for learning daily conversation & dialogues, for memorizing the most common vocabulary, for intuitively learning how the grammar works, and to even to converse with real life native speakers! All this through the convenience of your smartphone or tablet.

In this article we’ve done the hard work for you and tested out all the most popular apps on the market (that we could find) and provided you with a condensed list of only the very best apps for learning Vietnamese. With the right tools and some time & effort, anything is possible.

So, without further ado, let’s dive right into the 5 best apps for learning Vietnamese.

Đi thôi! (‘Lets go!’)

1. VietnamesePod101

Best Overall – Most Comprehensive

The winning app on our list is VietnamesePod101, a well established language program with it’s own dedicated app for learning Vietnamese. The lessons are predominantly video & audio lessons delivered by a variety of native tutors. They cover all sorts of topics from ordering food at a restaurant to Vietnamese customs and traditions. Many students love the cultural emphasis of this language app, with lots of cultural nuances being dropped in throughout the lessons, keeping it interesting and engaging throughout.

Alongside the lessons, you’ll be granted access to a whole range of extra learning tools that really help to supplement your learning. You can look things up in the grammar bank, save new vocabulary in your personal word bank or create a flashcard set. Plus, there’s frequency word lists and topical vocab lists to broaden your Vietnamese vocabulary.

Overall, there’s enough material to keep you engaged and progressing in the language for years to come, plus you can also snap up a nice discount by using one of our unique coupon codes (get up to 77% off).

Click here to read our full VietnamesePod101 review.

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Effectiveness:

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

2. Memrise

Most Engaging & Fun

Compared with other apps on this list, Memrise is like the new kid on the block. They use a similar teaching method to the more popular Duolingo, only far better. Firstly, with each lesson you’ll get an immersive experience into a real world dialogue with native speakers. The lessons then revolve around these short video clips, testing you on the meaning and pronunciation.

The only thing to bear in mind is that Memrise has now created a platform where other users can now create their own language courses. In many ways this is an awesome thing, allowing for much more varied topics such as ‘cool expressions’ and ‘basic pronunciation’, all included within the subscription. However, the quality does vary, and it’s not uncommon for errors and typos to creep into the lessons.

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 3/5

 4/5

3. Italki

Best Conversational App

One of the very best ways to learn any language is to get talking with locals as soon as possible, even if you can barely string together a sentence. Italki has revolutionised the way we now learn languages, granting us access to hundreds of professional native language tutors at an affordable price, from anywhere in the world. You can practice everything you’ve learnt and get instant corrections and speaking practice from your own smartphone.

The process is simple, you find a tutor you like, book a trial lesson and get talking! Don’t worry if, like me, your an introvert who shivers at the thought of making idle conversation in broken Vietnamese. The tutors are always lovely people who have lots of conversational topics that are catered to your level. I recommend making best use of the learning program by making lots of notes, and expect lots of corrections!

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 4/5

4. Pimsleur

Most Effective App

Perhaps learning how to read and write in Vietnamese is not so important to you, and what you are looking for is only a basic conversation level of the language. For this, Pimsleur is your best bet. It uses modern & research based techniques to teach you how to speak Vietnamese with a native accent and understand what you hear.

The lessons are comprised of 30-60 minute audio podcasts that prompt you to repeat and respond to the native dialogue. It’s an immersive and thorough technique that systematically deconstructs each individual phrase, word & sound, and then reconstructs its all again, all whilst testing you on your understanding and fluency.

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 2/5

 5/5

 4/5

5. Lingodeer

Best Option for Beginners

Lingodeer is a great option that doesn’t seem to get the same amount of attention as the other more popular apps. It’s quite inexpensive, yet packs a punch. Starting with the Vietnamese alphabet the course will get you learning from a series of ‘mini-lessons’, each focused on a specific topic like ‘animals’ or ‘food’.

Generally, it’s not bad in it’s approach – it teaches full sentences and places appropriate focus on the pronunciation and grammar, but there’s not enough emphasis on speaking & listening (unlike Memrise, for example).

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Effectiveness:

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 4/5

 3/5

 4/5

Runners-up for Best Vietnamese App:

Here’s a few more apps for those looking for more options to study Vietnamese.

Simply Learn Vietnamese

On a budget? Simply Learn Vietnamese might be your best bet. It contains thousands of useful phrases and vocabulary, grouped by topic and tested methodically through their spaced repetition system. Believe it or not, the app is actually free, funded only by advertising. Though it’s quite limited in terms of actual lessons, the vocab is very useful, and the audio is high quality which is definitely a plus.

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 5/5

 3/5

Ling

Do you struggle to keep up the motivation for learning? Whilst it’s true there’s a lot of very effective apps that work effectively like Pimsleur & VietnamesePod101, sometimes it can be hard to keep up the daily study habit. This is where Ling excels.

Their app is packed full of fun & interesting features that are specifically designed to keep you hooked on learning more. You earn virtual bananas as you navigate each level, completing quizzes, games & even communicating with chatbots! (You can select pre-set phrases for a dialogue to review what you’ve learnt).

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Effectiveness:

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 3/5

 4/5

Glossika

Ever thought about programming your brain to be in tune with the Vietnamese language by ‘working out’ your brain in the same way you would do at the gym? No? Just me then… Glossika is based upon this exact concept – by completing daily ‘reps’ and teaching your brain to intuit the Vietnamese grammar and to daily train your vocal muscles to sound like a native speaker.

After completing a short placement test the app will feed you a series of sentences that systematically expose you to new words, sentence structures & sounds. It then proceeds to test you on them with a spaced repetition system & feed the results into the AI algorithm.

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Effectiveness:

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 3/5

 5/5

 3/5

Conclusion: The 5 Best Apps For Learning Vietnamese

Which ones do you think are the best apps for learning Vietnamese? Let us know in the comments below!

At the end of the day, everyone has their own learning preferences and study techniques. You can’t really go wrong with our list of best Vietnamese apps. To recap:

For affordable speaking practice with native speakers we recommend italki. For those who prefer a more gamified style of learning we recommend Memrise or Ling.

And finally, our best overall app for it’s quality of content & range of learning tools and video/podcast lessons, has to be VietnamesePod101.

Have fun learning and good luck!

The 5 Best Apps for Learning Cantonese

Josiah — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 23:17:37 +0000

A comprehensive language app with an enormous library of practical & trendy topics.

Excellent for focused conversational practice with a wide range of native speakers.

A free app that is packed with thousands of useful phrases with accompanying audio.

So, you’ve decided to brush up on your Cantonese language skills, and you’re looking for the best apps to learn Cantonese. Firstly, congratulations! Cantonese is a beautiful language spoken by over 80 million people – that’s more than Korean or even Persian. It’s practically the main language spoken in Chinatowns across the world and is a hugely advantageous language for both business & commerce. So, you’re definitely onto a winner!

But how exactly can you manage your time and study most effectively? Which programs will get you to fluency the fastest? Luckily for you, there’s a whole host of mobile apps that’ll boost your Cantonese language skills, your range of vocabulary, and even your confidence in speaking. But finding the right ones can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack.

That’s why we’ve done that hard work for you and curated a list of only the very best language apps for learning Cantonese, based on their effectiveness, affordability & how comprehensive they are as an established language learning program.

So, without further ado, here are the 5 best apps for learning Cantonese!

1. CantoneseClass101

Best Overall – Most Comprehensive

Coming in at number one on our list of best apps is CantoneseClass101, one of the most established language courses on the market, boasting a vast library of short video & podcast lessons, all bundled up into a well built app.

Unlike other courses, CantonesePod101 gives you, the user, full control over what you learn. You can search through the entire lesson library and filter based upon your level, skill type and interests. The lessons are then packaged up into learning ‘pathways’, guiding you through each lesson and learning exercise.

The lessons are fun and engaging, delivered by young and lively native speakers. They are constantly dropping in interesting cultural notes throughout each lesson and explaining the nuances behind each dialogue. Alongside the core syllabus you get a bunch of extra learning tools, from flashcards to grammar banks.

Overall, there’s really everything you need to progress in the Cantonese language. Plus, right now you can use our unique coupon code at checkout to get up to 77% off your subscription fee.

Read our full CantonesePod101 review.

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

2. Italki

Best App for Conversational Speaking Practice & Cultural Exchange

Where would we be without italki? The number one go-to app for communicating with real native speakers. Oftentimes when we first start learning a language we quickly absorb new vocabulary & basic phrases very fast but soon forget them without having the opportunity to practice and thus engrain them into our long term memory.

This is mostly the case when learning a new language without living in the native country. Italki gives you the chance to practice everything you’ve learnt in a natural setting with a real native speaker, for a very affordable price – awesome!

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 4/5

3. Simply Learn Cantonese

Most Affordable Option

Believe it or not this app is completely free, paid for only by the ads that occasionally pop up which you are using it (which can be disabled by buying the pro version). The app is essentially a glorified phrasebook with thousands of phrases and vocabulary, each with their own audio files, recorded by native speakers in Hong Kong. You can split the learning down into manageable chunks by taking their quizzes & tests, or by using their premade flashcards.

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 5/5

 3/5

4. Pimsleur

Most Effective (for Conversational Cantonese)

Pimsleur has become something of a household name in the language learning industry, well-known for it’s research-based memory techniques and unique learning style. Whilst the enjoyability of the course is up for dispute, the method certainly works – many can testify. The method is purely audio based, broken down into 30-60 minute lessons that each use authentic dialogues and spaced repetition to get you recalling and producing language on demand.

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 2/5

 5/5

 4/5

5. Skritter

Best App for Learning the Cantonese Writing System

Of course, for complete fluency in Cantonese you’ll need to get familiar with reading and writing the Cantonese script. Cantonese uses largely the same characters as Mandarin Chinese, however Cantonese mostly uses the traditional characters over simplified. For studying these characters, we reccomend the app Skritter. It’s generally everyone’s go-to app for learning Chinese and Japanese characters, with a very clever system of studying them.

First it’ll teach you the meaning, then it’ll sound it out with the correct tones, then it’ll teach you the stroke order and how to draw it. You’ll be identifying and writing thousands of new characters in no time!

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 3/5

 4/5

Runners-up for Best Cantonese App:

Looking for more? Well you’re in luck. Check out these apps that didn’t quite make it onto our top 5 list but still deserve a mention.

Ling

‘Learn Vietnamese in only 10 minutes per day with Master Ling’ the app website proudly proclaims… So is Ling a good option for learning Vietnamese? Well, it’s definitely got a lot going for it. The app, which can be downloaded for free, revolves around a set of dialogues grouped by topic. You can interactively select the correct answers and hear the audio played to you. Each lesson then concludes with a short quiz and the awarding of bonus points (or bananas).

Overall, it’s not a bad option as a free resource, but to unlock more than just a few lessons you’ll need to sign up for the pro version which is quite costly and the content doesn’t go much further than a basic beginner’s phrasebook.

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Effectiveness:

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 3/5

 4/5

Pleco

A solid dictionary app is essential when learning a new language, so you can quickly look up new words, save them & remember them for next time. For Cantonese, google translate just doesn’t cut it. Instead we recommend the app Pleco, an app that is predominantly focused on Mandarin but has awesome Cantonese capability too.

The app allows to you quickly look unknown words or phrases by using the live camera, importing documents, or even writing the characters with your finger. You’ll get an audio recording from two voices, pronunciation & grammar guide, and you can even save the new words to a flashcard deck of your choice.

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 2/5

 4/5

 5/5

Memrise

Memrise is a very popular app for learning a whole range of languages, and they’ve now added Cantonese to the mix. The lessons are short and varied, with lots of real-use dialogues with videos of native speakers. It’ll then test you on the words and phrases in a duolingo-like fashion. However, unlike Duolingo, Memrise teaches you useful phrases from the get-go, and is far more engaging.

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 3/5

 4/5

Conclusion: The 5 Best Apps For Learning Cantonese

So there you have it. We hope this list has been of some use to you. Do bear in mind that there are many ways to learn a language, and no real ‘correct’ way to do so. For this reason, it’s important to try out lots of new apps and techniques and see what works best for you.

For studying Cantonese, we personally found that CantoneseClass101 was the best option for studying the language due to its sheer volume of high quality lessons and wide range of extra learning tools that are available. However, you may also want to supplement your learning with speaking practice on Italki, and develop your knowledge of the Cantonese writing system with Skritter.

And finally, we wish you the best of luck on your journey to Cantonese fluency. 你得嘅！(nei5 dak1 ge3, you can do it!)

The 5 Best Apps for Learning Thai

Josiah — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 11:32:21 +0000

A sleek, well-designed app that features a massive library of video/audio lessons.

Highly gamified and fun, Ling teaches the basics using native dialogues and quizzes.

The best option for learning how to read and write all 72 letters of the Thai alphabet.

Learning a new language can be an exciting endeavor, and learning Thai is absolutely no exception. It can open doors to wonderful new travel experiences – whether it’s navigating the depths of Bangkok’s exotic food markets, or getting local recommendations for the most off-the-beaten-track island beaches, the Thai language is a powerful entry point to experiencing Thailand’s wonderful culture and friendly people on a whole new level.

But it’s not easy. And without the right tools it can feel like hitting your head against a brick wall, with all it’s complex tones and confusing characters. But here’s the good news – there’s a TON of amazing apps out there to get you up to speed quickly, reading street signs and conversing with locals. Whether you’re a seasoned polyglot or just looking to know a few phrases to avoid being ripped off, there’s an app for everyone.

But which apps are actually worth your time? In this article, we’ve created our top 5 list of apps for learning Thai. We’ve taken into account everything from effectiveness, user experience and price. Furthermore, we know how important it is to develop all your language skills simultaneously so we’ve included the best resources to improve speaking, listening, reading and writing skills. With this list you can’t go wrong. Let’s dive right in!

1. ThaiPod101

Best Overall – Most Comprehensive

Coming in at number one on our list is ThaiPod101, one of the most comprehensive and regularly updated language courses on the market. And, they have an awesome app. The lessons are mostly based around short podcasts (hence the ‘pod’) however there’s loads of video lessons too, all delivered by native speakers in a relaxed and engaging tone.

The unique thing about ThaiPod101 is the ability to completely customise your own learning by selecting your own ‘pathways’. You can filter by level, category, skill type etc. and add pathways to your dashboard to track your own learning. There’s a ton of interesting content, from food to dating. Plus, the app includes flashcards, word lists, a dictionary, and all sorts of bonus features. The only thing lacking is the speaking element of Thai, and the writing lessons could be better.

Click here to read our full ThaiPod101 review.

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

2. Ling

Most Engaging & Fun

Ling is a highly gamified app (much like Duolingo) that offers short themed lessons for over 50 languages, including Thai. It’s not the most comprehensive app out there but it does offer a great entry point into the language and it’s very engaging for new learners to use. Unlike duolingo the activities don’t feel overly repetitive and are generally very varied with everything from dialogues to vocab-matching. We love that they’ve incorporated native voice clips into the activities and best of all it’s free! Note, we did find some mistakes in the material and there’s not much in terms of grammar explanations

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 5/5

 3/5

 5/5

3. Write Me

Best App for Learning the Thai Alphabet

To learn any language, it’s a good idea to start with the alphabet. Once you can read, every street sign, menu or newspaper becomes a language lesson. Plus, you can get locals to write words down for you that you don’t understand, making translation much easier. Write Me does an excellent job at teaching you the Thai alphabet in a pain-free way. This is quite a task given that there’s over 70 letters!

Similar to Ling, it incorporates quizzes and games to keep you motivated to continue – you’ll grow virtual flowers as you progress through the levels. But not only is it fun but seems to be very effective. They’ve incorporated a spaced recognition system to gradually up the ante, until you’re eventually identifying each letter and writing it with precision. The writing software is similar to skritter, giving you real time feedback with handy arrows & animations. It also has voice clips so you can start learning the pronunciation alongside the writing.

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 5/5

 4/5

 5/5

4. Simply Learn

Most Useful for Travel

Planning a trip to Thailand? This app isn’t really a comprehensive course but more of a travel phrasebook that conveniently has all the key phrases you’ll need to get around in Thailand. The app is laid out nicely to make navigation quick and easy, with intuitive categories and search functions. Every phrase has a voice clip by a native speaker and a transliteration to help you. We love that you can favorite specific phrases if you know you are going to use them often.

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 4/5

 3/5

 4/5

5. You too can learn Thai (podcast)

Best for Listening Practice

You too can learn Thai is an absolute gem for Thai language students. It’s designed specifically for learners of Thai by linguist Dr Khru Nan. Every week she releases a new episode on interesting and relevant topics, often with special guests, all in Thai! But don’t fear, she always guides you along with short interjections of English to avoid confusion, and she’ll repeat everything at both slow and natural speeds. It might be a little too much for complete beginners, but it never hurts to listen anyway to get used to the language and pick out the words that you do know.

The podcasts are available on Apple, Spotify or Youtube, and they are free – supported only by amazon affiliate links.

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 5/5

 3/5

 4/5

Runners-up for Best Thai App:

Here’s our list of apps that didn’t make it into our top five but are still worth checking out.

Glossika Thai

This app is best for only upper-beginner to intermediate learners. It’s audio based and focuses on learning key phrases through their spaced-repetition system. It works very efficiently and is easy to use, however you are expected to already have a good grasp of the Thai alphabet since you’ll be expected to write in Thai. It’s very clever how it adjusts to your level, however for beginners we recommend avoiding Glossika and sticking with ThaiPod101.

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 3/5

 4/5

 3/5

Pimsleur

Pimsleur is a well known name in the language learning space, and for good reason! They are awesome at getting you up to a basic conversational level fast. Again, it’s purely audio based which is very handy for when travelling or out and about, and the 1 hour lessons each focus on an authentic dialogue and then breaks it down, prompting you to repeat and ‘participate’ in the dialogue. Many students find it very effective for boosting their speaking and listening skills however it does nothing for reading and writing. Furthermore, their Thai course only has one level, so it’s very limited in scope.

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 3/5

 5/5

 4/5

italki

FInally, this article wouln’t be complete without mentioning italki. It’s always a great go-to resource for getting real conversation practice woth native speakers. The tutors are affordable and lessons can be scheduled to fit around your lifestyle. The only con is that you can’t expect the tutors to do all the work for you – to get the most out of each lesson you should keep it focused and structured.

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 4/5

Conclusion: The 5 Best Apps For Learning Thai

I hope you’ve found this list useful – now you have no excuse to get out there and start practicing your Thai! And most of, have a lot of fun whilst doing so.

To recap, serious Thai learners should consider a ThaiPod101 subscription, the number one app for learning Thai. For those just looking to wet their feet we reccomend having a play around with Ling or Simply Learn. For writing, we strongly reccomend the Write Me app, and for listening you should check out the ‘You too can learn Thai‘ podcast.

The 5 Best Apps for Learning Chinese

Josiah — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 10:54:24 +0000

A fully comprehensive course with a well developed app. Lessons are taught by a range of engaging native speakers.

Olly’s course is based upon his unique ‘storylearning’ methodology. His method is fun and effective.

A well-structured course with a linear syllabus, perfect for beginners due to it’s thorough explanations and detailed notes.

Learning Chinese is no easy task, and with an endless choice of apps on the market it’s hard to know where to start. Luckily for you, we’ve compiled this list of our 5 best apps for learning Chinese, based on our experience personally using them and testing them all out.

Each app has its own unique style – some are best for just learning the Chinese characters whilst others are just great all-round courses. Whichever app you choose to go for, bear in mind that everyone has their own preferences and specific learning styles when learning a language, so what works for us might not be your best fit.

So without further ado, let’s jump right into it! Coming in at number one on our list is our personal favorite – ChineseClass101.

1. ChineseClass101

Best Overall

ChineseClass101 is technically an online course, but their mobile app has everything you need to access their comprehensive library of lessons, and more! The instructors at ChineseClass101 teach you Chinese through a series of professionally-made video and audio lessons. What’s unique about ChineseClass101 is the fact that you are not limited to a set syllabus but can actually pick and choose your lesson ‘pathways, as they call them, to fully customise your own syllabus based upon your goals and interests.

It comfortably hits the number 1 spot on our list for one main reason – it covers everything. For a beginner or intermediate in Chinese, we feel it is the best option to keep you engaged and learning, providing you with an enormous array of useful content – up to date cultural information, a focus on listening skills (in addition to reading, writing etc.), and the use of authentic dialogues and videos from real native speakers.

Click here to read our in-depth review of ChineseClass101.

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 4/5

2. Olly Richards’ Chinese Conversations (Intermediate)

Most Effective

This one’s really only useful if you’re already at an intermediate level of Chinese, so if you’re just starting out it’s best to skip this one for the time being (but keep it in mind for later). We kept this option on our list because we just love the teaching methodology, making it one of the most effective techniques for rapidly improving your Chinese language skills.

Olly Richards is a well-acclaimed polyglot, having taught himself over 8 languages and developed a massive range of language courses, each one modelled on his own method he developed for learning languages – through stories. His intermediate conversation courses are a little different, and instead focus on authentic dialogues covering loads of useful topics.

However, the central methodology is the same – to immerse you in as much new language as possible. Only after spending plenty of time with the audio does he then give a comprehensive, line-by-line breakdown of the entire audio clip. You are sure to learn loads from this course, plus everything can be accessed on mobile or downloaded offline.

Note: 'Chinese Uncovered' for beginners will be released this year (2021) and will follow the popular story format as all the other 'uncovered' language courses.

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 3/5

 5/5

 4/5

3. Yoyo Chinese

Most Comprehensive

Coming in at number 3 is Yoyo Chinese, a comprehensive video course that takes complete beginners right through to an intermediate level using a very effective and highly engaging teaching style, delivered by the founder (and course designer), Yangyang Chen.

The course is broken down into multiple sub-courses that each focus on a different skill – reading, writing and conversational skills. It’s ideal for anyone who easily gets overwhelmed since everything is explained in very easy to understand terms, using clever analogies and memory techniques that are suited to the native English speaker. In the custom-built app you’ll find flashcards, downloadable lesson notes, review quizzes and more – and better still, the first 45 lessons are free!

Click here to read our in-depth review of Yoyo Chinese.

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

4. Duolingo

Best Budget Option

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, it’s unlikely you haven’t heard of duolingo, everyone’s favorite go-to option for language learning. Despite having it’s flaws, it’s still a great entry-level option for anyone starting Chinese, especially if you’re on a budget. The course is logically structured and gets harder as you progress through all the levels, covering everything from family to eating out.

The main benefit with duolingo is its ability to keep you engaged and motivated – it’s highly gamified. You’ll earn ingots and be able to spend them on bonus levels and all sorts of goodies, and the friendly old owl will be your personal cheerleader throughout every lesson.

Click here to read our in-depth review of Duolingo Chinese.

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 5/5

 3/5

 5/5

5. FluentU

Most Immersive

We LOVE FluentU, it just had to make it onto our top 5 list. Whilst it’s not strictly a language course, there’s a ton of value to be had from it as a supplementary learning tool. You can think of FLuentU as youtube for language learning. You can binge watch your way through thousands of level-appropriate video clips that are nicely categorised into such things as movie trailers, music videos, vloggers, instructional videos, interviews etc. The interactive platform then gives you an instant translation when you hover your mouse over a word in the subtitles, and even tests you on your newly learnt vocabulary.

As mentioned, it shouldn’t be used as a primary learning source, but rather an additional extra to improve your listening skills and to boost your vocabulary. We love how the app automatically logs all the words you know or don’t know, and then gives you a nice indicator for each video to tell you how many words you already know and how difficult it’s likely to be, before you even begin the video.

Click here to read our in-depth review of FluentU.

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 3/5

 4/5

 5/5

Runners-up for Best Chinese App:

Our list wouldn’t be complete without at least giving these runners up a mention, which are still 100% worth checking out.

Rocket Chinese

Rocket Chinese is a very comprehensive language course which covers everything from writing to speaking. They’ve incorporated a handy voice-recognition software into the lesson dialogues which is a nice touch since many language programs are lacking when it comes to speaking. The lessons are primarily audio-based but come with plenty of supplementary notes and loads of memory based games and quizzes.

Rocket Chinese is a very comprehensive language course which covers everything from writing to speaking. They’ve incorporated a voice-recognition software into the lesson dialogues which is a nice touch since many language programs are lacking when it comes to speaking. The lessons are primarily audio-based but come with plenty of supplementary notes and loads of memory based games and quizzes.

Click here to read our in-depth review of Rocket Chinese.

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 3/5

Skritter

All the other apps we’ve mentioned so far use quite generic methods for learning the Chinese characters. They work, but it’s certainly not the best way to learn. Chinese has thousands of characters, and memorising them all can be quite a challenge. This is where Skritter comes in. It’s a brilliant tailor-made tool for learning Chinese characters that utilises research-based methods such as active recall and spaced repetition to create a very effective learning tool.

There’s no other app that has such a smooth on-screen handwriting tool, and the way it curates purpose-made example sentences for each character is a huge bonus – one that really enhances your ability to retain the new information. Skritter is for learning characters only and doesn’t provide anything on grammar, conversation or reading.

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 3/5

 5/5

Pimsleur Chinese

Pimsleur has been around for a long time, but it’s effectiveness still endures. It gets you using useful phrases from the very beginning through a structured syllabus of 30 minute audio lessons. It’s immersive so don’t expect to see any grammar explanations or much English being spoken. Instead, you are first introduced to a native speed conversation and then prompted to repeat each phrase, each sound being meticulously broken down to get you speaking with the right pronunciation. You can then participate in the dialogue when prompted.

Many students feel that their speaking and listening skills have massively improved since taking the Pimsleur Chinese course. It’s a great option for those looking to quickly get conversational before a trip to China, but not if you are looking to get a high level understanding of how the language actually works, or are looking to be able to read and write Chinese.

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 2/5

 4/5

italki

Last on our list is italki, an app we always recommend to students who need extra speaking practice. It’s perfect for connecting you with an affordable native tutor who can work around your schedule and adapt to your needs. It’s the perfect complementary app to use alongside a structured course or textbook.

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 4/5

Conclusion: The 5 Best Apps For Learning Chinese

So, there you have it. Overall, it really depends on what you are looking to improve to be honest. For a complete beginner looking for an all-encompassing course that’ll keep you engaged and progressing, we recommend checking out ChineseClass101. Likewise, Yoyo Chinese will give you everything you need, but with a more structured approach.

For those already with an upper-beginner/intermediate level of Chinese, check out Olly’s conversational course, and for a quick and easy way to achieve a basic conversational level, we recommend Pimsleur. Unsure which to start with? Give Duolingo a try. Bonus points go to FluentU (awesome for vocab) and Skritter (for learning Characters).

We hope this list helps you decide which Chinese-learning apps are right for you, and we wish you the best of luck along your language learning journey! 再见! (zài jiàn)!