Sunday, December 10, 2017

Language Learning Apps I've Been Using

Over the last two or three years I have tried out three different sites that help with my foreign language study: Quizlet, DuoLingo, and Memrise. I’ve opted for the free versions as opposed to the premium editions that offer extra features. Of the three I like Memrise the most, but with some criticism. Quizlet is a do-it-yourself way of studying all sorts of subjects, not just languages, which accepts “lessons” from its members and has a “student beware” policy where the learner is on his own and has to make his own judgments as to the accuracy of the material being taught. Still, it’s a good way to build up vocabulary...I use their "match game" feature that pairs up foreign language vocabulary with their English translations.  DuoLingo, which I only used on my laptop, has better lessons but also one gigantic flaw: it does not supply the script for the language being presented...the student must add whatever foreign fonts are necessary in order to complete the lessons. I’ve stopped using DuoLingo for this one reason, but have a replacement for it in Memrise, which I have on my cellphone as an app. I am currently using it to take basic courses in Turkish, Hungarian, Hindi, Polish, Vietnamese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic. Of these Korean and Arabic are by far the most challenging, but running through the gamut of daily lessons just takes a few minutes for all of them combined. I do have a problem with the Hindi lessons, which do not provide me a way to enter ligatures (two letters combined as one), which many words in this language contain. Also, they used to allow me to have access to many different languages, but recently have cut off that option...meaning that I am blocked from continuing to the next level in Hungarian (I’ve completed two so far)...

Although I appreciate Memrise and still use Quizlet from time to time, I'm thinking of exploring some of the other language learning apps out there to see if there isn't something better.  I probably wouldn't be looking elsewhere, though, had Memrise continued to give me access to what they apparently consider to be "minor" languages.  But who knows, maybe there's an app out there that's better than anything I've seen yet...I'll let you know if I find it...

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