

The social feature offers a much more enjoyable alternative to speech recognition for getting feedback on language pronunciation.Reading, writing, and listening practice with native-speaker audio will get you a bunch of exposure to the language. The things that Rocket Languages do well are developing a logical and thorough curriculum and providing ample practice opportunity. Check out our full review here! Rocket languages There are over 50 language courses available with Pimsleur, and the bulk of the material is taught with audio lessons. Its courses place a strong emphasis on aural and verbal communication skills, paying less attention to grammar explanations and reading or writing skills. Pimsleur is one of the most popular and longest-standing resources out there for learning a foreign language. In the short story lessons, the plot follows the same characters and adventures, with some adjustments for cultural differences. Most of the languages use the most common words in your target language, with natural phrases that you would overhear locals using while conversing amongst each other. Olly Richards, the creator of I Will Teach You A Language, has written a series of books for beginner and intermediate learners to improve their conversation skills in several languages. Some other programs we like are: olly (I will teach you a language)

There are plenty of other resources to consider as well and you can find our favorites for popular languages from the table below. Neither would really be my top choice, but both are fine options. However, they both have a few weaknesses to be aware of as well. They’re lacking in quite a few areas.īusuu does take things a step further, with more grammar explanations, better audio, and all-around more comprehensive courses, though there are still some weaknesses.īoth platforms are well-designed and make learning a bit more fun and accessible to the masses. Duolingo is available for free and Busuu requires a subscription.ĭuolingo is a solid option for those that are just curious about language learning, but their courses aren’t suitable for more serious students.Duolingo takes a more gamified approach to lessons and aims to help students “learn a language in just 5 minutes a day”, while Busuu’s exercises have more of a serious approach.

