Language learning app review : SPEAKLY

[@jillianbennis1693]

I have tried this app. I agree, it is a great app

[@Frenchramble]

It really is !! :) I wish they had all the languages in the world so I could only use this one for ever ;)

[@vivianpaganuzzi3125]

I've been using Speakly for a few weeks. I find it helpful but have noticed weird mistakes in the German version, e.g. möchte pronounced möchtle. I reported this and they said yeah it's cos the German voice is a robot! They say they are planning to change it to human speech but clearly it is a major weakness in the current version. I don't know how many of the other languages use robot speech. Another issue concerns grammar: they claim to teach the most frequent words, but what about the most important grammatical features - does Speakly focus on those for each language? For example in Russian, aspects and verbs of motion cause problems, but in Finnish the problems are different. Many courses use a 'cookie cutter' method where every language is presented based on the grammar of English so those problems are not focused on.

[@Frenchramble]

That's very interesting ! I had no idea about any of this !!! Thanks for sharing your feedback ! :)

[@JonathanOlelo]

Speakly is a good app. As you just said, not many languages are available there. Languages like Japanese or Mandarin would be appreciated.

[@Frenchramble]

Definitely ! I would actually pay a lot of money to be able to learn Japanese on an app like this. But I do think there are some apps designed specifically for languages like Korean, Japanese or Mandarin... maybe they're worth trying as well :) Are you learning these languages ?

[@JonathanOlelo]

@@Frenchramble I'm learning Japanese

[@Frenchramble]

That's awesome ! I'll be starting Japanese later this year. Any tips to get a good start ?? :)

[@JonathanOlelo]

@@Frenchramble Well, it depends on your goals. First, it's easier for people who only want to understand or speak Japanese and aren't interested in the written language. If your goal is to do everything in Japanese, I would start with studying the written systems, starting from Katakana and Hiragana. After feeling comfortable with Katakana and Hiragana, I would start learning some popular and useful Kanji + start consuming content in Japanese (written + audio/video). The next step will be to keep practicing what you know, learn more Kanji, and start working on your speaking abilities with a tutor/Japanese language exchange partner.

[@Frenchramble]

I did have the approach of learning only "spoken" arabic, but I realized it made things reaaaaally difficult long term :( So I guess I'd rather learn written japanese as well :)

[@faridahmadfarid1989]

Hi julie

[@Frenchramble]

Hi :)