8 best alternatives to Learn 50 Languages as of 2018 - Slant

HelloTalk

Top Pro

Very large, active community

The community is very large, meaning you'll never have a problem finding someone to chat with. See More

Top Con

The number of messages can get overwhelming

Because it is such an active community, you may find yourself getting 20+ messages an hour when you are online. It can quickly get overwhelming. However, there is a setting that allows you to hide your profile from search. See More

Top Pro

The interface is very intuitive/easy to use

Despite being feature-rich, the app is very easy to use. It provides a tutorial which you can revisit at any time if you can't remember what certain icons are. It has a very clean, uncluttered design. See More

Top Con

Keyboard can't be used in landscape

The app doesn't let you rotate to landscape, instead you're stuck with portrait. Using the condensed keyboard when writing long messages can be a pain for some. See More

Top Pro

Allows you to share "memories" with the whole community

"Memories" act similar to a Twitter feed. You can post pictures, ask questions, or let the community know what kind of chat partner you are looking for (for example: maybe you want to discuss a specific topic with someone). You can "love", and comment on memories. See More

Top Con

Free version has restricted search

On the free version, it won't let you change the language of the people you can search, though you can still access the profiles of other language speakers. For example, if they comment on a memory you made a comment on, you can access their profile through that. Even if you can still send them friend requests and chat with them, being able to just search for them would've been so much easier. See More

Top Pro

Free

The app is free to use. There are some in-app purchases, but the app is very helpful without them. See More

Top Pro

Grammar correction

It allows users and native speakers to correct each other's grammar mistakes. See More

Top Pro

Text, Voice, and Video

Chat with language partners via text, voice recordings, voice calls, video calls, and even doodles. See More

Specs

Platforms:iOS, Android

Number of languages:150+

In app purchases:Yes

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45 0

Duolingo

Top Pro

Motivates through creative gamification

Progress is measured gaming-like by gaining XP, and leveling up. They use other creative gamification techniques to keep you motivated such as making wagers and improving your position on the leaderboard. See More

Top Con

Mobile app is less beneficial because it's too easy

Some of the games available on the mobile app are different from that on the desktop version, and are oversimplified/make it very easy to guess. See More

Top Pro

Generous free plan

Duolingo is completely free to use, with no features limited to upgraded accounts. If you want to go ad-free, the cost is $12.99/month. See More

Top Con

The hype in the community creates false ideas about what level Duolingo gets you to

Duolingo is a good tool for a beginner, and a good supplement to other resources. But it cannot get you from zero to understanding natives, tv, and books; and their "do the reverse tree and just speak" is usually not the correct answer to "what should I do after finishing the tree". See More

Top Pro

Engaging learning method

Each lesson uses a variety of different learning methods to keep it interesting and fun. The lessons are short so you aren't forced to focus for long periods of time. See More

Top Con

Little production of target language

Duolingo focuses heavily on reading comprehension and translation into one's own language rather than encouraging production of text/speech in the target language. See More

Top Pro

Has a mobile app

Top Con

The health system on the IOS app disrupts learning

5 mistakes and you're out, unless you pay, wait several hours, or use a special review that currently doesn't let you choose what to review. Especially terrible if you're learning multiple or more difficult languages. See More

Top Pro

Friendly, active community

There is a discussion board available on the site, and a really active community on reddit in r/duolingo (30k + members). Everyone is friendly and happy to help or offer support. See More

Top Con

Available languages are predominately European

Duolingo teaches 23 languages from English at the moment: Latin American Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Irish, Turkish, Danish, Russian, Norwegian, Esperanto, Ukrainian, Polish, Welsh, Greek, Romanian, Hungarian, Hebrew, Swahili, Vietnamese and Japanese (the last currently only on the app). Popular non-European languages such as Mandarin and Arabic are not currently available (although Korean and Indonesian are in development). See More

Top Pro

Extensive

Duolingo is exceptionally thorough when it comes to teaching the nuances of language. It has plenty of audio material, articles to translate, and a cooperative development made by users. See More

Top Con

Doesn't take you to an advanced level

Top Pro

Frequently adding new languages

You can check out the courses page to see what languages are "hatching" (being developed) and what languages are in beta. See More

Top Con

Counting only on Duolingo is a waste of time

Top Con

Dangerously addictive

Specs

Platforms:iOS, Android, Windows phone, Web

Number of languages:~30 from English

In-app purchases:Yes

User generated:Partially (incubator)

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115 11

Busuu

Top Pro

Teaches realistic conversation behavior

Since Busuu puts learners in direct contact with natives, the learning is done in a realistic way - not an idealistic textbook way. See More

Top Con

Ineffective "review" section

When a section is over, there is a multiple review session. Many of the questions are totally irrelevant and are not useful for learners. See More

Top Pro

Fast response time

For popular languages, translations can be received very quickly from real people. See More

Top Con

Chat system doesn't support letters with accents

Busuu only accepts regular characters in the text fields, so non-native languages may be limited. See More

Top Pro

Teaches by theme

Instead of teaching words by most used, they are taught by case. This way, users can prepare for specific situations. See More

Specs

Platforms:iOS, Android, Web

Number of languages:12

User generated?:No

11 1

Memrise

Top Pro

Helps grow your vocabulary quickly

Memrise uses "mems" to increase your vocabulary, which are a way to connect a word to its meaning. A common example is associating a word with an image. Mnemonics are another one they use to help you remember new words. For example, "le parcours" (route or course) could be remembered with the mem "People who do parkour pick their own route". See More

Top Con

Doesn't teach much grammar

Memrise is more focused on increasing your vocabulary, so has very little on grammar and sentence structure. See More

Top Pro

Free account without a time limit

The Basic account is totally free (has no time limit) and is very generous. An upgrade (with more features) is available for 9 USD / month. See More

Top Con

Typos and other mistakes in target languages

There is no guarantee that the word you just learned is the correct spelling, because there are so many errors throughout many of the user-made courses. See More

Top Pro

Huge vocabulary

The courses can teach you a very large vocabulary (for example, the first level Spanish course has 1705 words). See More

Top Con

No context

Top Pro

Easy to use

You will understand quickly what you should do, and you will begin to learn in less than a minute. See More

Top Con

Lack of uniformity

It is driven by community, that can be good, but quality isn't always the same and it misses some uniformity. See More

Top Pro

Foreign keyboard on screen when necessary

This saves you from having to copy/paste characters or worry about your keyboard settings. See More

Top Con

No grammar

Top Pro

Android app can be used offline

You can download courses to use offline with the Android app. Great for when you're traveling. See More

Top Con

Not really effective

Top Pro

It makes you write the words

If you choose this option, writing is a very efficient way of memorization. See More

Top Con

Some useful functions like pinning your active courses were removed

It is hard to have an organized dashboard if you have more courses, which is most likely to happen, as starting them is the only way to bookmark them for later. See More

Top Pro

Learn from natives

Official courses have videos of natives, recorded recently, to help you along. See More

Top Con

Lack of diversity in some courses

Some courses will have a very poor diversity for vocabulary lessons. For example, a Russian reading lesson, will repeat the 5 same people names for 8 to 10 minutes. It can be annoying, or demotivating. See More

Top Pro

Awesome community made courses

Top Con

Low level and mistakes in the official courses

Memorization of a phrasebook is not a good system for many learners. See More

Top Pro

Courses available using Tim Ferriss' method

Top Con

The search function is broken

It is very hard to find most courses, many user-made jewels are hidden at the bottom of the pile and are quite impossible to find without knowing precise details. See More

Top Con

No way to rate courses in the official or the community made ones

Top Con

Not funny

Top Con

The staff doesn't communicate well with the userbase

Explanations of changes, responses to feedback by large groups of users, implementation of new stuff based on user's needs and not against them, all that could use improvement. See More

Top Con

The app is too easy

Top Con

Rhythm is too slow

Specs

Platforms:iOS, Android, Web

Number of languages:~50

User generated?:Yes

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88 9

AnkiDroid Flashcards

Top Pro

Sync with other computers and devices

Synchronize data with Windows/Mac/Linux/iOS and other Android devices. See More

Top Con

User-generated decks vary widely in quality and accuracy

Top Pro

Displays flash cards based on need

Each time a card is remembered, the user rates how well they remembered it on a scale of 1-3. Tougher words will be shown more frequently, and easier words will be showed less frequently. See More

Top Con

Dated interface

Top Pro

Huge selection

AnkiDroid offers more than 6000 topics to learn from (not all are languages). See More

Top Con

Syncing style takes getting used to

Top Pro

Unmatched customizability

You can design your own cards and adjust the spaced repetition algorithm to match your learning preferences. See More

Top Con

Wonky audio performance

With certain decks, the audio feature in this app won't work. See More

Top Pro

Free

Top Pro

Access to dialogues

Each language offers access to more than 150 dialogues between native speakers. These can help build a more natural understanding for the learner. See More

Specs

Number of languages:Unknown

User generated?:Yes

In app purchases:No

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22 4

Rosetta Stone

Top Pro

Speech recognition technology

Instead of teaching word recognition, Rosetta Stone uses speech recognition technology to make sure that students are learning to pronounce the words correctly. See More

Top Con

Makes no use of native language

While Rosetta Stone tries to emulate "learning by immersion," many people find the inability to find direct translations of words to be an unnecessary an ineffective part of the program. See More

Top Pro

Provides immersive learning without uncomfortable experiences

While trying to cary a conversation in a foreign language can be an effective way to learn, sometimes it causes a lot of stress. Rosetta Stone takes this concept and applies it to a stress free environment. See More

Top Con

Uses the same course for learners of different nationalities

For a user learning English, the course will be the same whether they are Chinese, Russian, Italian, etc.. While this is a good way for the company to remain efficient, many cultural differences are overlooked. See More

Top Pro

Real human contact

At the end of each lesson, students are able to review live with real teachers. See More

Top Con

Inconvenient meeting times for teachers

For users in the US, it can be easy to find a teacher to work with. In any other country, it can be extremely difficult to find an available teacher because of the differences in timezones. See More

Top Pro

Games with other students

When learning another language, a learner from that language can be invited to play a game for mutual learning purposes. Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone hasn't spread very much to countries outside of the US, so this game system isn't very developed yet. See More

Specs

Platforms:iOS, Android, Web

Number of languages:24

User generated?:No

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5 7

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