Does Glossika Actually Work? (FULL REVIEW)

Can Glossika make you fluent in a foreign language?
In this video I answer whether Glossika can get you speaking a foreign language fluently.
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The native speaker tutoring shown in my videos is through iTalki. You can get $10 credit applied to your account when you make your first purchase, or you can just check it out for free using this link, which also helps me out by allowing me to take more language lessons:
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How many languages are said out loud BY NAME in this video? (My temptress language doesn't count because I do not say its name, and languages on screen don't count because I can't be bothered counting how many that would be.)

[@daysandwords]

If you're looking for something to watch, then this video makes for a sensible follow on: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gpi2eX-Mp5mFers

[@ihatekillerclowns]

Yes, you should have just watched Spider-Man 100 more times to get to fluency

[@Liliquan]

99% sure Glossika would never respond to this. In my experience with Glossika over 5 years as a company, they absolutely can’t stand even the mildest criticism.

[@daysandwords]

Shame. Speakly changed something so fast when I told them about it that I had to take it out of my review.

[@ihatekillerclowns]

Nor can fish lips

[@Boss_Scaggz]

When are we gonna get a Clozemaster review?

[@Stephanie-gv8rh]

Another in-depth review 👏 thank you!

[@TheCudlitz]

Thanks for the video. I was actually planning on trying this service. Your review is gonna help me

[@honka4ever]

Thank you for your pertinent review!!

[@7073cain]

Some major languages do have rather limited language-learning resources - take Hindi, for example. For me, Glossika helped bridge the gap between beginner resources (for which there were many) and advance resources. Hindi simply lacks a lot of good intermediate resources. I suspect this is the case for many other languages, even some major ones, not just obscure dialogues. I hear this is a problem for Arabic learners, for example. Listen and repeat helps both with pronunciation and listening comprehension. Having the written text is also a great help. Hindi uses a phonetic alphabet and the written text helps me "hear" some of the sound distinctions in it, not made in my native language. And I found I need a lot of repetition to "get" it. So yes, I guess this is like the athlete analogy you mentioned. Sure, I could do the same with Netflix or audio books but the available material I found was either too easy or too hard. And if I have the time to sit down and really study, I feel sentence mining and Anki to be poor use of my time. Glossika is good if you need the tool and can't find a good alternative.

[@ozvikings]

Thanks for the review. I'm of the opinion that I'll learn a word list first, around 2000 words. Then look at using something to build sentences later. Tagalog is my focus.

[@objectivistathlete]

I got the year subscription and used it for sometime. As a stand-alone tool it sucks. But I ultimately used it in combination with Tatoeba and Anki - I would look up new/unknown words that I came across in Glossika, and then add sentences with those words (along with the Glossika sentences) into my Anki deck. So I ended up practicing those words and different forms of those words. Done this way, it was an OK study tool. But all said and done, definitely not worth the cost.

[@7073cain]

That's pretty much how I did it too. Adds an "active" component to the program. I found Anki to get too burdensome after awhile, so eventually switched to the Goldlist method, but same idea. I also tend to "weed-out" any sentences that I don't find valuable, both in Glossika using the easy button, and which sentences I select for "active" recall study.

[@morbidsearch]

What language are you doing? I tried using Tatoeba for Irish but half the sentences had grammar errors

[@butchstein9738]

Glossika used to be a great tool in it's old format. When it was a PDF with 3000 sentences. Especially for those doubling up. Like you probably will understand 100 percent of 3000 sentences in Swedish so learning close language like German with the same 3000 sentences would be of great benefit to you.

[@rouskyregny3697]

Indeed. I have French. Can we still get them ?

[@7073cain]

Glossika is just a tool. It is a good tool for doing listen and repeat exercises. The best comparison would be against Pimsleur or Speechling. Pricing is pretty comparable to those, assuming you get a discount to use the program. For me, I like having a tool to use, primarily audio only, to use while multi-tasking (driving to work, doing chores, etc). It is great for that.

[@hansmattss0n709]

Tack för en trevlig hemsida .Du är nummer ett

[@drmartas71]

Glossika really helped me to learn typing Chinese pinyin, otherwise the review is spot on. There are some (free) alternatives such as: Speechling which I've found quite useful especially for practicing pronunciation.

[@asherlbryant]

Thank you for the recommendation!

[@dnsstephan]

As I commented on your other video about this topic, I feel like I threw away my money into the trash. Even using it as a tool in combination with other resources, I got better results using Anki (which I still don’t like) than using this because of all the mistakes it has.

[@sae2705]

After listening to different reviews including this one for mixed reviews, I gave this a go, I wasn't deterred because my target languages don't have many apps, so picking the 'best' and most recommended apps is pointless, as much as I'd love to try some of the recommendations I see given out. So I give a thumbs up to any apps that true to cover more obscure choices and I think the creator's goal is commendable, especially for endangered languages. They have the southern dialect of Vietnamese, which I have been learning for nearly a year and Mongolian, which I am looking to find an app for, as I cannot afford both a Vietnamese tutor and a Mongolian tutor at the same time and want something to get me going. So Glossika definitely appealed for 2 reasons, 1) It has Mongolian and 2) I am trying to improve my conversational level of Vietnamese and need to have more experience listening, because although I can hold a conversation with my tutor, I know that when I speak to somebody else, I'm going to give them a blank stare when they say something in Vietnamese. And after trying Glossika didn't take me long to close it. With Mongolian, it seemed less approachable as a beginner, though I am sure it works if I persevere, which I guess is the point, but I think I'd have found it less frustrating if I could read the on-screen text. I don't know how to read phonetic characters and my Cyrillic is at a level where I can work out what I'm reading, but I can't read it fluidly, so a Latin transliteration would have been helpful just to make it easier to follow along with the sounds I am hearing. But I guess I am used to and prefer being able to understand from early on in the process, so it might not be for me when it comes to learning Mongolian at this stage. With Vietnamese, at my current level I can definitely see the benefit, because I can see it improving my listening & speaking skills and maybe pick up new words along the way, which is what I am working on at this stage, but I don't think I would benefit much from using it as a tool to learn the language, because off the bat - and I've been forewarned about this - is that the translations are a little clumsy. Phrases seem to be pulled out of their context. In context, they're accurate sentences. But if I were to use it as a learning tool, I fear the phrases I learn would not be accurate if I start using them - and Rosetta Stone had a similar drawback (when learning from context of the pictures shown). As with Vietnamese, pronouns are context sensitive, so what other language apps do is to use versions that aren't context sensitive, the downside is that they don't represent how conversations go, BUT, it still makes sense. And without learning how Vietnamese pronouns work, then the ones used by Glossika won't make sense. If for example, I want to say, "I am a fish", which is what I've taught a friend to say in Vietnamese (don't ask, it's my goal to learn that phrase in many languages). Most language apps would say, "Tôi là môt con cà", which is quite a safe way of doing it and how I taught my friend, but my friend is older than me, so in a conversation, I'd actually say, "Em là môt con cà", one example I was given in Glossika used the pronoun 'anh' as 'I', so it might say something like "Anh là môt con cà" and let's assume my friend is male for a moment, and I used that, I'd be saying "you are a fish". Given Glossika isn't out to teach any of these rules, it makes me concerned it's going to have issues. Whilst they can still be used in context, but nothing indicates a relative age or relationship or gender so far to know what the context is to derive meaning as the translation only works if it's in the right context. How much of an impact this has I figure may vary language-to-language. Maybe somebody can work out if the "I" pronoun keeps changing, maybe there's a reason, but I am not sure as an English speaker I'd understand how that works for Vietnamese, which was one of my problems with Rosetta Stone. I feel like some things in language still need to be explained. Maybe I'll keep at it with the trial, despite my immediate concerns and see if anything hooks me more. If not for the price, I'd still probably use it for my Vietnamese because I know enough to not be negatively affected by the above problem, however, the price tag is too steep for what benefit it looks like I'd get from it and Language Reactor looks like it might be useful tool for exposing myself to more Vietnamese.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

I used Glossika extensively (mainly for Italian and French) for several years. Overall, I love the concept of simply repeating tons of sentences over and over--it's a great way to work on the muscles in the mouth to build the automaticity you need for speaking your target language. That said, Glossika's sentences have all been translated from the same databank of sentences in English so you're getting very little culture-specific vocabulary and structures related to your target language. Also, they seem to focus on more formal language, which is something that Speechling does as well. This could be a problem if your focus is more on how natives actually speak it naturally in everyday settings, as opposed to learning a more academic version of the language. A specific example of this is how the ''inversion'' way of asking questions in French is taught (i.e. ''Quelle heure est-il?"), versus the more common ''est-ce que...?" or simply raising the tone of your voice at the end of a sentence.

[@daysandwords]

Haha I always do the last one because it's easier. "Tu es français?" Stuff saying anything else haha.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

@@daysandwords me too and it’s the most common way! I have no idea why Glossika and Speechling even give you sentences using the inversion when they claim their focus is on everyday conversation skills.

[@barrysteven5964]

"it's a great way to work on the muscles in the mouth to build the automaticity you need for speaking your target language." I seriously think this is the only thing Glossika has going for it. Trouble is that you can do that usually for free by 'shadow repeating' podcasts or even just pause and repeat on KZbin or Netflix videos. Your second point is a danger of well meaning translators who are not teachers. They go through some thought process leading them to giving a version for foreign learners which they think is really 'correct'. Imagine teaching English learners that 'don't' is sloppy and you should say 'do not'. It's also the reason for using authentic materials. Things especially written for learners are so often just weird.

[@DecodingWordswithAndrew]

@@barrysteven5964 what I ended up doing for Italian and French was I put together all the things I wanted to be able to say in the languages in a Google Doc, then worked with tutors with high levels of English on Italki to get them translated. I would have several other natives check them for accuracy and to make sure they sounded natural. Then I would have them record the sentences. Basically Glossika 2.0

[@leocomerford]

9:47 My speculative explanation for Glossika's high prices is that while other computer language-learning services make their money largely from consumers' subscriptions or from advertising to consumers, Glossika seems to be making a big chunk of its income from that Enterprise option on the right at 8:51. For many big companies and institutions, $25 US a month per seat is small change, especially compared to what they might typically spend on foreign-language training: I don't think $25 a month would get you in the door at a bricks-and-mortar Berlitz Academy. So I assume that Glossika doesn't want to significantly lower its advertised price to consumers because that would make it harder to charge institutions whatever it's getting for the Enterprise service. (Maybe some Enterprise customers try to take the consumer $25/mo/seat number as a rack rate and ask for a volume discount on that.) _But_ of course Glossika probably sees that $25/mo is putting off lots of prospective individual buyers, and that's likely where the big student discount and the big promo code for trial users 11:37 fits in. Offer a more competitive price to as many individual users as possible without adjusting the _official_ consumer price.

[@daysandwords]

That's probably true but I actually think 85% off for consumers would be more appropriate and in line with the competition.

[@RobertKaucher]

Yeah, I will say it. Irish isn't free, not because of its number of native speakers, but because of the high number of learners.

[@daysandwords]

I also wondered if it was to do with the economic status of the people who tend to learn Irish.

[@RobertKaucher]

@@daysandwords indeed! And learners resources are still scant compared to the number of people willing to buy resources like books and DVDs (in the past). And I say this as someone who has helped gather the largest collection of Irish learners' resources. There are slightly more resources than for Swedish. But that's up to a B1 level. Once you start consuming native media, Swedish just dominates with TV and audio books.

[@tomatrix7525]

Is Éireannach dúchasach mé

[@RobertKaucher]

@@tomatrix7525 Cá bhfuil tú i do chónaí?

[@mbd8531]

In the past, I remember Xiaomanyc recommending Glossika on one of his other channels. But, this was back before it was SaaS.

[@kimberlynorton]

The music in the background with the drums is annoying. But your video itself is very good.

[@jujigatame4800]

Hey man thanks for the video, it was really useful. I am wondering if you can you do a video or comment on comprehensible input method of learning. I'm learning Thai and there is over 1000 hours of graded comprehensible input. I'm wondering if it's worth investing time into it or if my time is better spent elsewhere.

[@francegamble1]

I have been searching for something to help me with my Irish, too. I had hoped this was worth it for the paying. I guess I will stick with my books and KZbin.

[@peterstrianus1790]

We need from you a review of the assimil method.

[@nendoakuma7451]

I did one of the old audio courses. I did about halfway through before my wife gave birth and suddenly around then other much better courses started appearing in the language I was studying so I dropped Glossika. It is a good way to put you to sleep.

[@daysandwords]

Yeah I find dual audio nice for that (legitimately, not even as an insult to the course).

[@kajer9616]

I used glossika for a bit when I started learning Serbian. One of the first sentences in a book was "I'm not interested in politics". Well they certainly know cultural aspects of the region. I'm interested whether other languages there have similar sentences lol

[@user-uj4sc7tg9v]

I used to use the old glossika that came in physical books. My view of that is about the same. It's useful especially for small languages but overall it doesn't provide as much value as other services. I feel like in the half-year I used glossika off and on, struggling to maintain writing for upwards of 3 hours a day was completely blown away with the progress I made in 8 months on LingQ and like 4 months of 24/7 immersion courses. While the latter is obviously more expensive, the former certainly isn't and for all it's done for me so many other programs now feel almost in their infancy in comparison. btw I had thought you were British until now, yeah I cannot tell Australian accents very well.

[@SleazyNice]

I hope you realize that Steve Kaufmann is known as a con man. He, Benny Lewis and a few other fakes came to youtube early on selling snake oil. They sucked at languages, but tried to pass themselves off as experts. Kaufmann may have improved his language abilities over the years, but it doesn't negate the fact that he started out as a liar trying to get people's money.

[@user-uj4sc7tg9v]

@@SleazyNice um, ok. But the site isn't promoting his demagoguery, you use it to read. It's incredibly effective and I have the testing to show it

[@SleazyNice]

@@user-uj4sc7tg9v - If it works for you, great. Rock on.

[@blankb.2277]

Yeah, I agree about using it for minor languages. It would be much cheaper and more effective just to sentence mine. But if they added Hawaiian or Massachusett, I would totally do it. Those languages don’t have a lot of native material to mine from.

[@stevencarr4002]

Surely the speakers of those languages will be putting stuff on KZbin?

[@shutup6137]

I’m just a US English speaker and I watch to learn Dutch, what resource do you suggest I do?

[@naturallanguageacquisition]

I use Glossika for about 15 - 20 minutes per day, just listening and repeating. I just consider it a low effort listening, reading and speaking exercise (I don't type) that's a small part of my overall studying time.

[@heatherhanlon2799]

when you mentioned irish, I was like hey that's where i'm from! by the way, almost none of us can speak irish to any sort of high level

[@daysandwords]

Yeah, whereas lots of people speak Welsh fluently and I think on some of the Scottish Isles, Scottish Gaelic is still the dominant language.

[@stevencarr4002]

@@daysandwords There are thousands of Welsh speakers in Argentina. Welsh is spoken very widely in Wales as a first language, but I've never met a single Irish person who can speak Irish.

[@Yihwa_G]

I use Glossika only for one thing and one thing only, which is shadowing. For more uncommen languages, there is barely any material out there for shadowing and hence, it is hard to get a great pronunciation rather quickly.

[@BangkokZed]

I used the old Glossika for Thai-English listening on the way and back from my office. I doubt that you can learn a language from it however it's very good in repeating sentence structures over and over for statements, questions, classifiers etc. I found that Glossika is way better than Pimsler which is very unrealistic like drinking red wine as a guest in Thai person's house. For some languages such as Thai or Lao there are very few good resources so I value the effort that was put into Glossika. However for me nothing beats classroom learning with native teacher when practically 100% of the lessons are in the target language.

[@barrelrolldog]

i've had the same experience, i got so bored of pimsleur.. and glossika is so much faster.

[@Troejg1]

I'm learning hungarian from scratch and found glossika to be really helpful. I've logged 22 hours so far, and liking it a lot, it really helps with understanding the structure of the sentences. What are the alternatives that you think are better in this case?

[@vishvice12]

yeah glossika worked for me to learn indonesian. Student account is the way to go. It's 13.5$ per month instead of the usual 30$.

[@Sosui2]

assimil or Lingq. then move on to native stuff.

[@vivaobento]

I finished the Hungarian course in Glossika, would totally recommend it. If you have access to the MagyarOK books, I would also recommend them. Unfortunately, they are only in print version.

[@barrysteven5964]

I hope they got round to having the Hungarian re-recorded because when I last heard it the speaker had a speech defect pronouncing the letter R as they do in French. If you imitate this then you'll have a shock when you go to Hungary. Poor quality readers is one of the weaknesses of Glossika. For a course 100% based on repeating what you hear they are sloppy with the quality control of the readings.

[@jsweebles2150]

@@vishvice12 How good would you say it got your Indonesian?

[@Christopher_Stead]

I'd be interested to know to what degree (or even whether) the sentences used on the web app differ from the old PDF courses they used to provide. I did the latter briefly for Korean, and while it was reasonably useful, it was also clear that it was modeled off English grammar patterns, which meant that there was very little obvious structure as the course progressed. From what I've heard, the new AI version is an attempted sprucing up of these older courses - does anyone know this to be the case?

[@daysandwords]

The AI seems to to only be about the SRS timing. The sentences are out of the 90s, like using the word "arbete" for "job" in Swedish. The word "jobb" is WAY more common now.

[@USA2Brazil]

I've been trying to learn Brazilian Portuguese for years and haven't had much success via watching TV and listening to KZbin Videos as something in my brain just isn't computing. So I'm giving Glossika a try for 3 months (Black Friday 1 language $8 per month for a year ) with a minimum 100 reps a day 5 days a week also one pro of Glossika is you can listen while walking. Starting at A2 and going from there.

[@nixworld767]

I used to be married to a Brazilian. We spent a lot of time in Brazil. I learned the most from a clever online course called "Semantica Portuguese". Might want to check it out.

[@Shibby27ify]

I totally would use Glossika but it would be in context of immersion. And there are other ways of going through mass sentence SRS training, such as anki and sentence mining

[@ShakeruShien]

Thanks

[@hillmanntoby]

So I lied in my comment on your last video and got curious and tried Glossika this week. I had been curios about sentence mining and value my time way more than my money. Well long story short even saying that it's just laughably too expensive for me. I have a nextory subscription in 3 different languages for the same price... I'd probably pay for someone that put together a "good" Anki deck though.

[@ronlugbill1400]

I use Glossika for pronunciation practice for 7 languages. I just do about 3 minutes a day of each. For pronunciation if you do multiple languages, it works fine. It does have lots of sentences by native speakers and you mimic them, so it improves pronunciation and fluency. If you do it for very long periods of time, it is boring. Need to keep it short. Like 5 minutes at a time max. Glossika should only be a small part of your language learning, not the main part. Comprehensible input like videos and books are great. Also tutors or language exchange partners are the best. For me, Glossika works as a pronunciation and fluency aid, but I cannot image doing it for over 30 minutes per day. Very boring.

[@ineen2251]

When is the new busuu review coming out

[@justinwr092]

So do you think Lingq is better? I feel like it's the best tool out there.

[@sikamaru666]

At least thanks to Glossika and this series I know that Isle of Man has is own language. I'll probably not use this interesting trivia/their services in any way though (maybe I'll learn it for like a week if I'll ever get to travel there).

[@leocomerford]

It's basically another form of Gaelic alongside Irish and Scottish Gaelic.

[@bigwill1583]

I was using it but I’ve cancelled it as it’s so boring I just wasn’t motivated to use it. Plus there aren’t just a few translation mistakes but loads of small ones I found

[@datcatsavedme7071]

Can you do berlitz?

[@jtrimb59]

Very disappointed in the negativity of the review. Glossika promises “Learn to Speak Better and Faster”. I have been doing 250 reps (voice only with recording) for 25 days and it does what is promised. Is it expensive? Yes and no, I am ready to speak so iTalki would cost about $10 an hour for a community teacher or $20 for a professional. Busuu is $37 for three 45 minute private lessons. Glossika is teaching me the mechanics of speaking, so when I do get a teacher, I will be working on communication not speaking well. Also it improved my listening skills. Also I like how it keeps all recordings, so I can see how much I have improved.

[@stevencarr4002]

Glossika uses full-speed native speech from the start. By contrast, Luca Lamapariello recommends (inter alia) Assimil for beginners, where at least for Spanish the first few dialogues are extremely slow. Full-speed native speech from the start might be a bit sink-or-swim for many people. Although it might be great for others. Also some languages only have voices of one sex. I hope Japanese has both sexes! If a man repeats what a woman on Glossika has said in Polish, he will get strange looks. Men and women can use different verbs. A man can't just repeat what he has repeated in Glossika 1000 times, because it will be wrong for him to say it. Because he is male, not female. Surely you have to listen to native speakers of both sexes. This is a basic requirement of all apps. And Glossika is buggy.....

[@mitchconq]

Definitely agree on your conclusion If it were a third of the price or so I’d probably use it but not at half off and definitely not at full price. I actually did subscribe for a year with a half off discount and didn’t renew. Not having a native mobile app makes it hard to use as well, tbh.

[@mattmoon3865]

Do you think it would be worth it for the Icelandic course?

[@daysandwords]

Maaaybe but Icelandic actually had quite a lot of stuff. If you look on iTalki, there's a Canadian teacher named Robert who learnt Icelandic to a high level and he told me there's actually tons of stuff, plus I know that there's lots of good content like Trapped.

[@frobisher2396]

I remember, that you said you will not change your channel's name, as you wanted to keep the first language in one syllable. Would you consider "Days of Czech and Swedish" :)?

[@daysandwords]

Haha I probably would except that I wouldn't really consider Czech as a language for me to learn. Nothing against them but if I'm going to learn something that hard it'd be something more universally useful or something I really like, like Finnish

[@luiztavaresdelucena5148]

They should go back to the audio-based courses.

[@barrelrolldog]

100%.

[@Tony32]

I expected to see a comment from you on the latest Olly Richards video, since he quoted you. And there's a guy in the comment section saying that you accused him of stealing your method. My work here is done 😁

[@daysandwords]

Olly and I are mates but I actually haven't watched one of his videos in a while because I don't watch much stuff in English. I don't know what that last bit is talking about.

[@daysandwords]

Ah ok I saw it. That was hardly stealing from me. I was adapting something that I heard Roberto Blake say anyway. Olly was giving me a shoutout, if anything.

[@Tony32]

@@daysandwords I don't know what the guy in comment section was referring to, that was a weird comment.

[@MikhaelWebb]

If price weren’t a concern (just quality), what would your top 3-5 options be for mainstream languages?

[@daysandwords]

Oh man, that's pretty tough because honestly nothing is THAT great, like, once price really isn't a concern for real then I assume one wouldn't have to work so then you just spend a year listening to the language for 12 hours a day. But your question obviously didn't mean that, so I would say: 1. Speakly, because it helps you get used to the language and doesn't try to TEACH you it, and encourages you to spend time in the language both on the app and outside it 2. Ouino for being comprehensive and having interesting stories 3. Duolingo Plus because in the VERY mainstream languages (I'm talking like the Big Euro 4) the stories are actually good and the courses and comprehensive (but you have to cheat on the placement test to break everything open) 4. Language Reactor because... if you haven't used it, you'll see what I mean 5. Busuu because it's still pretty good and the recording with native speaker feedback could definitely be put to good use at higher levels I WOULD put Glossika there for the native audio if it did something more interesting than just showing me sentences. Put the sentences in a story and I'd be keen.

[@NGabriel88]

@@daysandwords Hva synes du om Assimil programmet? Have you used it?

[@MikhaelWebb]

@@daysandwords Thank you! Going to research all these today, of the list I only heard of Duolingo and Glossika #ImNewb

[@daysandwords]

Nej det har jag inte. Ärligt talat verkar det lite tråkigt.

[@daysandwords]

Mikhael - sorry I forgot to mention Pod101 (as in ItalianPod101, FrenchPod101 etc etc.) The website allows you access for $1 for a month and it's awesome, or if money is no object you can pay for a year. I think I paid about $100 US for a year of the one that gives you a tutor.

[@freddyx707]

Great in depth review, just think it would have been a bit more informative still if you'd given examples of wrong or unidiomatic sentences.

[@daysandwords]

What annoys me when I do that is that you always get some smartass who is like "That could be right in very specific X situation..." and it just doesn't promote healthy discussion, because then I have to point out that I said unidiomatic and unusual, not literally never ever right.

[@kodysmediaarena8011]

It's just another tool in the tool kit. If you really want to get more bang for your buck, then I'd recommend making flash cards out of their sentences on Anki. I screen shot the target language and have that on the front, and English on the back.

[@richardhartung1576]

Greetings from Germany

[@vakancy]

Hola

[@IdkIJustWatchVideos]

Hi Lamont! My comments keep disappearing, do you see them in your "held for review" section? If they are, you can just respond to them here. Thank you!

[@daysandwords]

I haven't look on the PC where I'll be able to see "held for review". My guess is that they are there. I Will check later.

[@IdkIJustWatchVideos]

@@daysandwords Thanks!

[@daysandwords]

It doesn't seem to be there, sorry. I dunno what happens sometimes, I think the app on the phone or even on the web just never posts it, it's happened to me before. What was it?

[@IdkIJustWatchVideos]

@@daysandwords Thats really weird. Basically, I asked for your opinion on the Toucan web extension. It seems like a tool that has potential to help immerse you in your target language.

[@daysandwords]

@@IdkIJustWatchVideos Oh, I've never heard of it. I'm only guessing here but if there was a lot of discussion of web extensions and various software that modifies a browser function, then the filters might have confused that for some kind of virus or spam bot or something.

[@bunnyteeth365]

It's annoying when non language learners think I take my dabbling languages as seriously as my main language. They'll ask if I'm still learning my main language and assume I've quit and moved on to my dabble language. Even though I said I was just dabbling.

[@tullochgorum6323]

I was a beta tester for them in the early days. I just didn't get it at all. Why work with boring random sentences when you can work with interesting and meaningful native content? And there's no built-in mechanism for learning the content you don't know before you are tested on it. Plus, as you point out, they use the same sentences for each language and some of them are far from idiomatic. As you say - there are surely better ways to invest 300 hours.

[@ihavenoname6724]

Even if you did one thousand reps every day, It wouldn't work because you wouldn't retain anything, you'd forget it all (That's my opinion, and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong). It'd be wiser to spend both the money and the time on a good book. I've completed most of the Lingvist packs (which is a great app btw), and I did it dilligently because I had bought into the whole concept, yet I'm sure, 3 months later, that it wasn't worth it either-----that's just the way our brain works, it tends to erase stuff learnt out of context.

[@daysandwords]

I like Lingvist because you can learn the words from a certain book or article or something by just feeding it in. It's also beautifully designed.

[@7073cain]

No, I guarantee you would retain something if you do lots of reps. It is still comprehensible input. Are you are really learning material out of context? Maybe, but how is that any different from using Anki or most other programs? The sentence IS the context. That is why it is better to study full sentences, rather than isolated words. If you require more context than that, stick with dialogues and complete texts. Nothing wrong with that either.

[@user-xt7el4nm7p]

How does it handle languages that change word endings based on the gender of the speaker?

[@daysandwords]

From what I've heard, poorly. That is, it basically just mixes them up at random so that you may hear all the forms, but a woman's voice might read the masculine sentence, etc.

[@kobikaicalev175]

Sad situation with the distribution of resource availability and speaker-size community, note even your example of Uzbek - an 'obscure' language with between 35 and 45 million speakers, and not so much available media... Some language are even more extreme, Amharic, with 30 Million L1 and 110 Million L1 + L2 speakers... I personally use and like Glossika, but I use the older off-line version, beforehand they were selling a per-language download, and I bought Finnish, Georgian and a few more... It's indeed too expensive now! I think Glossika has its place, I use it for 30 minutes or so while jogging, or doing choirs. It's then useful to review the written forms afterwards

[@barrysteven5964]

The big problem with Glossika, apart from being extremely expensive, is that it is based on an original idea to teach Chinese. Chinese verbs only have one basic form as do nouns. What about a language in which verbs have complex systems of verb tenses and conjugations? And languages with noun declensions? Basic repetition might theoretically work without explanation (in about a hundred years) if the sentences were specifically written to help you learn that specific language. But they're not. They are the identical sentences for every single language. The original ones from the Chinese course. Which is why there are so many weird sentences that are not suitable in whatever language you've chosen, a lack of sentences typically used in that language and a lack of any cultural relevance. Another problem is the quality of the translations. Often what you hear is just not really what the English sentence means when I presume the translator has just misunderstood the English. Sometimes this is not surprising as there are a surprising amount of American slang expressions that only Americans would understand. In some languages the translator or the reader have insisted on using a very bookish version of the language either in form or pronunciation or both. For example, in the Spanish all the pronouns are kept in making it sound really odd. (Where is she? =¿Dónde está ella? )Polish has some very odd pronunciations making it sound like a recording from the 1950s. Some readers, like the Finnish one, are perfect. Others are, to be frank, bloody awful. Some speak incomprehensibly quickly, mumble, have speech defects or just have really irritating habits like saying every single phrase with the same intonation no matter what they're saying. Final moan is this. If you are learning purely from listening and repeating then it is no use having just one reader for all three thousand sentences. If it's a female reader using all feminine endings for example and you're male you're going to end up speaking a very gender fluid version of the language without meaning to.

[@daysandwords]

Totally. There are definitely times when the translator has misunderstood. I even saw one example in Swedish where the English said "I drove 10 miles yesterday." and the Swedish said "I drove 100 kilometres yesterday." 10 miles is 16km, not 100 haha. The reason for this is that they used the Swedish word "mil" which would sound like miles but actually means 10km, so it's what they use when they are talking large distances, like flying or driving a long way. But my point is that it's taking an already confusing difference and making it worse by literally teaching people that the false friend is correct.

[@barrysteven5964]

@@daysandwords The repeated mistake in the Polish was with the construction of the type 'I have been living/working/waiting etc for a month' which was often mistranslated into Polish as "I lived/worked/waited etc for a month."

[@trovaire]

1. It’s a lot of money for a clunky website with tons of mistranslations. Michael from Glossika just took a bunch of random sentences in English without any methodology behind it and hired people to translate them. Every language works in a different way and needs a different approach. Glossika is obviously looking for the maximum benefit and the minimum effort. 2. Sentences and more sentences out of context and not linked to any real situation. Brain doesn’t learn in this way. 3. Boring. Veeeery boring. 4. Don’t waste your time and your money.

[@RobertKaucher]

The sentences were not random. At least some of the sentences from level 1 of the original Glossika can be found nearly verbatim in English Grammar in Use or very similar with minor alterations. I am not claiming copyright infringement or anything, that's not my point. I don't even know if such simple sentences can even count as copyrightable. But there was a clear intention to craft sentences that were grammatically meaningful or illustrative for English. I think it was originally conceived as a tool for teaching English and then someone thought, "If we just flip the language direction can this be used to teach any language?" And boom.

[@DaniLangTalk]

👍

[@consciouscactus]

I use it for korean because other apps either don't have it, are not appropriate for my level or focus too much on grammar. It's a shame, really.

[@sandwichbreath0]

0:45 Yes we do, haha.

[@andrewjgrimm]

Reminds me of people not announcing a pregnancy until a few months in, in case a stillbirth occurs. (Edit: I meant miscarriage, not stillbirth)

[@daysandwords]

I've been there (not stillbirth but miscarriage) and that's kind of difficult either way because if you don't tell anyone then when they ask how you are you have to tell them: My wife WAS pregnant, but not anymore, and it's almost harder than telling them she's pregnant and then later telling them that there was a miscarriage. I'd liken it more to where you don't want to tell people that you're keen on a certain girl/boy in case you end up forgetting it and moving on.

[@remmosparks33]

I was gobsmacked by the omission of the most basic features. ( I'm using Brazilian Portuguese, maybe the other languages are different?) But for example, when I'm in review mode, allow me to see only my native language prompt and actually recall the target language myself. Instead, I'm nearly always force fed the target language text and then the audio in review mode before I can even begin to type my own answer. The only thing I can hide voluntarily is the IPA transcription. Why am I not given the opportunity to think for myself if I wish to? I mean, it doesn't happen often, but at least give me the chance to hold on to some pride! Also, there's no ability to enter equally correct alternative translations/variations, which is problematic given some of the questionable translations on offer. This penalises people with an existing knowledge of the language and discourages your brain from making natural connections itself. The tiniest typo is also mercilessly punished. I can see how this system would be great for people who like to learn endless lines parrot fashion. A robot invasion would no doubt love it. But not so good for folks who actually want to harness and play with a living breathing language in their brains. I mean, if you dare to grow a new neuron that correctly connects target language concepts together, this program will pretty quickly slap it down and use it for novelty underwear if it doesn't fit the rigid, inflexible template on offer. Ohh, you shall conform, my friend, or be doomed to the eternal spaced repetition humiliation of your hubris. The audio quality I must absolutely commend them on. It's superb. Clear. And I'm told by a native speaker 9my other half!) that a lot of the phrases are formed in a way that everyday folks would actually use them. But yes, I agree, I'm not going to pay crazy money for just that one plus point. Sorry, Glossika. You were fun for a brief, wide eyed and crazy moment ..., but I'm swiping left.

[@daysandwords]

About your last point on the audio and idiomatic sayings; this is very much NOT the case in some languages, including Swedish. I forget what some of them were but they were so far off anything that a native speaker has ever said that I can't believe they were able to get a native speaker to record it. And I have checked with native speakers just to make sure that my 2000 hours of Swedish hasn't somehow just missed every single occurrence of that "idiom". Alas, no, it's Glossika's fault.

[@barrelrolldog]

for me glossika has been by far and away the best tool i've used to learn chinese. I think this has been for a couple of reasons. 1. I'm using the old version, its basically just audio files (and a transcribed pdf which is also helpful) . I've been able to do it on my daily dog walk, i've barely missed a day in 9 months. the new version sounds like they took something basic that worked at added a bunch of extra crap to make it 'modern' why mess with what works? the company sounds a bit up their own arse to be honest. 2. i'm using it for Taiwanese Mandarin. Which i believe is what the program was originally developed around. So that could explain how it works better thn other versions. I cannot say i have ran into those problems such as incorrect or un-natural sentences. I've ran into a couple of mixed up phrases (they used the mainland phrases a couple of times most likely in error) and everything has been very natural and at normal speaking speed - which i was not getting from other apps nor the classroom. My biggest complaint about it is all the fucking ridiculous non chinese names you are force to speak in nearly every sentence. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to include all that but they deserve a slap.

[@fsbayer]

7:00 Irish has 5 times as many speakers as Scottish Gaelic, what are you on about?

[@daysandwords]

It's from Unesco, take it up with them. www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/apr/15/language-extinct-endangered Edit: *guy continues the battle with me* Me: Take it up with THEM. All the facts in the world and no brain to read them with.

[@kentlambert4108]

$30 a month? I'm only paying $13 a month for lingq and it's gotten much better over time.

[@vishvice12]

Glossika Student account will cost 13.5$

[@daysandwords]

@@vishvice12 To me that should be full price and student price should be $8. That would still be three times as much as I just paid for Busuu with 60% for the year ($32 US for the year).

[@paulwalther5237]

I got this briefly a couple years ago and it was so buggy I asked for and got a refund. It’s crazy expensive. It’s essentially the same thing as an audio phrase book which are available for very cheap in most languages. And this sentence study method is very boring. I used A huge Anki sentence deck to brute force Japanese and it was painful but not as painful as reading books in real Japanese was. The method has its place for some learners but the price of this… and then all the bugs… run away.

[@KeltischeForschung]

Irish has way way more speakers than Scottish Gaelic and way better resources than Welsh though. Probably more speakers than both combined to be honest

[@teleonomix]

What I absolutely HATE about all the language learning apps is that they are basically teaching you translation. That is the lowest form of language learning and it is actively preventing you from thinking in your target language. On top of that Glossika is annoying because they are so arrogant. If you can watch videos in your target language with closed captions in the same language (not subtitles in another) that is probably the most helpful.

[@alexmill8446]

glossika works, it is the best way to learn. I just use google translate and write down new words and sentences. It is the best and the fastest way 100 percent. It doesnt work like if you just listen, but anyway it is the best way to learn any language

[@daysandwords]

It works but then again raising your children to wrestle without clothing in the snow makes them resistant to the cold. My question isn't whether it works. My question is whether it's worth the hassle and the cost, and the answer for most people to both is: NO.

[@joshnm2]

There were nine languages listed by name in this video: Georgian French Icelandic Wenzhounese Taiwanese Uzbek Irish Scottish Gaelic Welsh Just in case anyone was wondering

[@daysandwords]

You missed Mongolian, Armenian and Kurdish at the end, but so far you're the only person who answered the trivia question so you win by default haha.

[@anthonymhomer]

I tried Glossika, it did not work for me, after a few days it just became so boring...

[@humanman5033]

Check out speechling glosskia but better

[@daysandwords]

Haha well that's like saying "It's like hell but better." Everything is better.

[@dr-ej8vs]

Let's be honest - glossica has no competitors. I don't know how it works, but the structure of sentences really gets imprinted in my head over time. With all its drawbacks, of course, but it is worth admitting that any product has drawbacks and errors. You may not be able to speak the target language, as the authors claim (although I have seen examples, it is enough to use the search), but the process will really go uphill for several reasons: 1. You work with your mouth, train your brain, create neural connections in your brain. 2. You are familiar with the structure and logic of the language. It really became easier for me to read the Japanese textbooks, since I just know how the particles I walked through, agglutinations, conjugations, etc. work. The final reason to use glossica is listening. Not what some are talking about - just turn on the podcasts and eventually you will begin to understand everything. This can only work if you know Russian from birth and decide to learn Ukrainian from radio broadcasts. Now about the price - guys, I'm unemployed from a third world country, believe me, thirty dollars a month is not as scary as you think. Unsubscribe from playstation plus or cut back on Starbucks coffee.

[@daysandwords]

Ok well I've literally never been to Starbucks and I make my own coffee and am subscribed to zero gaming services. Additionally, Glossika doesn't have competitors doing EXACTLY what it does but that's like saying that my KZbin channel has no competition because no one else stands in front of a bluelit bookshelf and speaks in an Australian accent. Glossika has tonnes of products that can do basically what it does but better, and cheaper.

[@akonni2]

Glossika was okay in the first 2 weeks. But overtime, it progressively became dry, boring and felt like a chore . I couldn't sustain it. Speechling and LingQ are better alternatives and waaay cheaper.

[@letusplay2296]

Scots Gaelic definitely doesn't have more speakers than Irish, my friend. Theres at least twice as many speakers of Irish

[@daysandwords]

It's from Unesco, take it up with them. www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2011/apr/15/language-extinct-endangered

[@UIIHIIIH]

Yea Glossika sort of sucks but I use it because if you are trying to learn an obscure language like Uzbek whose sentence structure or vocab use you are not familiar with, it is the only tool out there besides books. If it weren’t, for Uzbek I would have never bought it.

[@jamesward-parrish2309]

Irish has far more speakers (1.2 million) than Scottish Gaelic (57,000) which is why Scottish Gaelic is free and Irish isn't.

[@daysandwords]

No, as stated in the video, UNESCO lists it as being "definitely endangered", and as NOT stated in the video, it has 44,000 speakers. Not sure where you get that 1.2 million number but it's not correct. "44000. In 2007. Department of Community, Rural and Gaeltacht affairs of Ireland: number of people living in primarily Irish-speaking areas; extinct as a first language in Northern Ireland; widely studied as a second language. According to 2011 Irish Census, there are 77,185 daily speakers outside of educational system."

[@dcporlando]

Isn’t it essentially a CI with shorter content? It has the text, native audio, and the ability to see the translation. I am not sure how it is more boring than many of the others.

[@daysandwords]

A lot of content is wrong. "Native audio" is not much good when they are saying things that natives never say. Also, the sentences are completely unrelated to each other. A short page of text can be CI. A random sentence... no. Duolingo is more interesting and mostly free.