S - Fluyo, Language Transfer. A - Clozemaster, Pimsleur, Tandem. B - Duolingo, Drop, Busuu, Lingvist, Hellotalk, Memrise. C - Babbel. D - Rosetta Stone
Honestly I've been using Babbel and I think it deserves an A tier. It gives you helpful advice throughout lessons and even little ways of remembering things.
Duolingo gets a harsh wrap but it immensely ignited the flame in me to start my language learning journey and showcased how possible it is to start. It deserves more credit than it's usually given and he makes a great point about it, that it's much more efficient as a supplier than your main source. This whole video was great and very informative, amazing job!
There are definitely some problems with Duolingo, But I will agree it does get somewhat of a bad wrap, It's still a lot better than many competitors, In some ways atleast.
@@lavanyasaxena4326 I hear German is good too, you just have to pick the OG courses that have had a lot of time, a lot of contributors, a lot of community input, and a lot of learners (more incentive to fix/refine things that are the most popular as it keeps more people engaged which means more people viewing ads)
¿Hablas español? ;-) I am a native Spanish speaker, I learned English in school and the internet, mostly the internet. I also learned French at school, which I have 99.99% forgotten from disuse. I have used Duolingo to learn German, and also a bit of Russian. I have tried out a few other languages on there, but only a few lessons. Anything with an alphabet, sillabary etc other than the latin one I feel you are better off learning how to read and type elsewhere.
I understand that for language learning apps that run on desktop as well, the vast majority of users are on mobile so the financial incentive to make a desktop version would be low, but for more serious language learners I hope you consider a desktop version too
It is true that desktop versions aren't very popular, but I find them to be really helpful. It is easy to get stuff done on your computer as compared to your phone. Once you sit infront of your computer, your brain kinda lets you know that it is time to get serious.
You can run android apps on PCs, whether you are running Windows, MacOS or *nix Nowadays it's even built into Windows, but there is plenty of third party software to do so, line Nox Player or Bluestacks
While it definitely varies from language to language, And it seems to be worse now after one of their most recent updates, I'd say they do a decent job of teaching the grammar. If you just memorise every sentence you get, I'd say you're not doing it right, You're meant to come to a point where you can understand the sentences, Tell why they are how they are, And then apply that logic to other sentences you don't know, Or to ones you've forgotten.
@@JoNesBlacKkrafkini it definitely depends on the language french is super easy on Duolingo, Russian how ever is much more difficult due to its grammar
YES! So glad to see Language Transfer on this list. I walked out of that Spanish course genuinely feeling confident in my ability to hold a basic Spanish conversation. If I could go back and do it again, I would've started my journey with Language Transfer from the very beginning. Also, looking forward to your app this year!! It sounds absolutely amazing. Signed up for the mailing list. All the best to you!!
@@magusreborn4684 By the way, Language Transfer is only in the prototype stages for Brazilian Portuguese. That is the next language, that will be released from them. You did not mention the type of Portuguese, to learn.
I’m glad it worked for you. It didn’t work for me since I found it extremely boring, especially in one sit. I quit the app 4 minutes in the second lesson
Ikenna, I recommend you add subtitles of different languages to your videos so more people can come to your channel and so people can use it as an opportunity to use it to learn languages.
We favor different approaches. The dullness that you didn't like about Babbel is the exact reason I like it. It's like a regular, serious course. I concentrate better in that style. But as for the language I'm currently studying (Indonesian) they only have up to "Beginner 2", then comes the vocabulary. I also started Duolingo's Indonesian while I'm at it, the thing is I found the Indonesian lesson of Duolingo surprisingly good. Nonetheless, I'll be waiting for Ikenna's app to launch. Best of luck.
Same for Busuu, better than babbel in a few features, but we were kept away from being A or S tier becauze 'it's dull' and 'a less popular version of Babbel' while personally it looks really modern and pleasing
@@HDTomo Yeah, While it's perhaps not the most engaging, I like Busuu because it feels like I'm making progress (Although I think it believes I've made much more than I have), Definitely helped by how they encourage you to write or speak your own sentences in the language, Which can then be corrected by native speakers to help with things they might not teach themselves.
As someone who just started learning Spanish im going with Language Transfer & Pimsleur. Also using the book, Madrigal's Magic Key to Spanish. Of course every chance listening to people talk in it via podcasts and such.
Thank you so much for this video my husband is Korean American and I really want my son to speak Korean so I’ve been working since before he was born to learn the language but it’s very hard and I’ve been looking for good apps to help teach me so I really appreciate this video ! Can’t wait to try your app! 감사합니다~😊
a b+ for duo is not bad, I love duo and honestly probably though I would leave butthurt after watching the video but I'm quite happy with the results. For a FREE app it does a lot
B2 in French now and I would of likely gave up at the beginning if it wasent for ikennas recommendation of Pimsleur I woulda been so lost without it to help build my foundation from virtually 0
An interesting side to fun apps is that once I start to notice what's missing, I feel the need to get creative with other resources to keep up with the gamification and bait of the fun app. And once I started exploring resources, I started talking to others who love to learn languages, so then you have a community, which has a similar energizing effect.
so excited for ur app you have no idea, i’m studying abroad in spain right now and literally had no idea how to study, let alone a language, you’ve helped me so much!!
I want to learn my boyfriend's native language (Bengali) but all the most popular apps don't have the option to learn Bengali 😞 The only apps that have this option are so lame! Bengali always seem to be a language left behind and forgotten by many learning languages apps 😢
Thanks for the video, it is one of the best I have seen, the information is very well categorized and it helped me a lot to have a comparison of some apps, I went crazy with so much to take on the internet, this is a very good filter and an honest review! Hope to see your app soon, it sounds amazing!
I'd put drops at the bottom, move duolingo up to A or B, and put lingq in s-tier. Speakly I'd put at B if they had a free version or more languages. But books > all on this list.
I mostly agree with this. The tricky thing is judging free versus paid. Personally, if it was rating apps on the free version I'd put Duolingo above Lingq. For paid versions Lingq is better.
Busuu is getting more restrictive for free users as it's going along. Also its Japanese course sucked until a few months ago, and anything above mid A2 still sucks.
Thanks so much for this video. You are very detailed in explaining the good and bad points about all the apps. And you kept it very interesting through the whole video unlike other videos that are completely boring and I skip through. Excited to get your own language app when it comes out
After seeing what the Rosetta Stone app looked like, I remembered that my 6th grade spanish class might have used Rosetta Stone. This is further reinforced by the fact that I stopped remembering what I learned in that class after a few days. Heck, the only reason I remember El Niño and La Niña is because of my 6th grade GEOGRAPHY class, since the teacher put in the effort to be fun and engaging.
Just a comment to this through analysis that I thank you for doing BUT, not all learners are Gen Z so for them stock images and less gamified options are a good way to get acquainted with technology. Just putting that thought out there. Great video. Just adding a perspective on the fact that there are users non native to technology that feel overwhelmed and prefer the Mary Poppins living book and that’s OK
I think it should be normal that language courses/app/website should teach culture with it from the native speaking country/countries. It gives context and understanding on how to use the language and I find it simply weird to learn how to converse with certain people, but don't learn anything about them.
The language learning app does not needs to be fun, it needs to be effortless and frictionless. Babbel currently achives that. I see the trend on many videos coming back to the fun idea, but if the fun that is being implied here is video game fun, then I could easily say, I don't find most of the video games entertaining.
I had to stop using HelloTalk when a guy confessed his love for me after one day of talking and asked to fly me out to his country. There wasn’t any flirting, he was just weird. And then I got floods of messages with a similar tune so I had to delete the app.
WELSH FOR THE NEW APP. If there's something different for Welsh that goes beyond 'le cow f*cked a fish' I would learn it to death. Pleaasse our people will love you. We are the biggest celtic language
Don’t forget to make your app accessible to people like me who are totally blind and ghave to use Voice Over on their iPads. Accessibility is another feature I look at when considering what program to use.
I feel like that’d be a feature they’d have to add later if they haven’t already. That or they’ll try to add too much and will go under cus lack of revenue
@@peroporque7651 Yes. Ever since I was born, my eyes won't stay open for long, and even if they did, all I see is... black, blank space. It's a neurological condition.
One of my students who I teach German to is blind and I was wondering what Apps I could recommend him. Do you have any recommendations of Apps that can easily be used by blind people for language learning?
The biggest issue with Duolingo is everyone treats it like it's an app made to be the ONLY thing you use, even though they have podcasts in the languages you're learning so it's not just the app, short stories involving their characters to help break up the standard learning, and getting past the first "basics" opens up how much better the app and company have gotten over the years. Duolingo as an app is absolutely not meant to be the only thing you use, and when people stop treating it like it is, it really raises it up.
I definitely agree that Duolingo is far more useful when used in combination with something else, But I don't think it's really the users' fault, Atleast not entirely, Duolingo does very little, From what I've seen, To try and get you to use other things for learning the language, Especially when those things aren't directly connected to Duolingo, And I believe they even suggest in some places that you can learn the language pretty well solely through Duolingo.
@@extremejetfiredisagree. I use it for learning grammar, writing, vocab. Use anki for conjugation practice. language drops for vocab. duolingo podcast for comprehension. read lang for reading
This was a very interesting and well thought out tierlist! A lot of times they feel a little bit like they are a tierlist just for the sake of the trend, but this actually provided really great information. Also I'm SO pumped for your app!! So excited for it.
This here exactly is why I'd bump up memrise to an A, it's not the best app itself but you can literally get any language (greenlandic for example) because of the community part
Super excited for your language app, but a bit scared that it's gonna be expensive. How much is it gonna be? Will there be parts of the app that are free to use?
@@newagehero9605 Well, you do not need to study grammar that much imo. I would just gloss through the grammar points and just consume content in my target language to internalize the grammar.
Still undecided, wont be expensive though (goal is under $9 a month) + we may do something where the price scales to the country you are in. So people in lower GDP countries aren't paying a few days salary for an app. Still undecided if there will be a free section of the app either, but either way we'll have a free trial system similar to Netflix. So people will be able to try it out and see if its for them prior to paying anything. :)
@@IkennaLanguages I have an idea. How about you make up a currency for the app and we buy the lessons with that currency? We can get the currency for free by running ads. If you don't want to run ads then you can get the premium trial.
lingo deer is definitely underrated. c: the references you are provided with in each lesson and exercise (which are varied, even giving nod to GRAMMAR, spelling, culture, and historical treats) is so in-depth, especially for east asian languages. they do have english, french, spanish, german, portuguese, russian, italian, and vietnamese available as well. a huge plus: the audio clips, as they're spoken from natives, instead of robots.
You complained about Rosetta Stone charging $500 to teach you a full language, but your course to teach us just how to BEGIN to learn a language is $200? I was super excited too. :(
@@phantasma9391Ouino, not very known but so underrated, i have the lifetime spanish purchase. it teaches verb conjugations, grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation
Unless they've really changed their approach, Rosetta Stone won't teach you a full language. I used Rosetta Stone German back when they were charging $600 for the full course; you can finish all 5 levels and still be a beginner. Depending on the language, you might be able to get pretty far using Duolingo + Tandem/HelloTalk (Duolingo for vocab/grammar, Tandem/HelloTalk for conversation practice), and by Googling any grammatical concepts you don't understand (Duolingo doesn't explain grammar, which can be frustrating). That's one of the most budget-friendly ways of learning. For about $200 you can also get a 1-year subscription to an Innovative Language course, which can get you to B1 (lower intermediate) or B2 (upper intermediate/proficient), depending on how popular the language is. Innovative Language will also teach you grammar and some conversation skills, so it's not frustrating like Duolingo.
Hey Ikenna, I'm really excited for your app to come out, but I do have something to say. It's good to be positive and optimistic about something you're introducing and creating, actually, it's fantastic, but you need to be careful not to overhype it. I feel that you might be getting a bit close to doing that. If you do overhype it, I worry that the app may get a lot of undeserved hate.
I kinda agree with you here. I'm also really excited for the new app, but I feel like he tends to advertise it in a way that almost hurts the video sometimes...
Exactly! I committed this same mistake with a personal project of mine and it FOR SURE backlashed at me... you really gotta be reserved about getting emotionally hyped with this kinda stuff, as the human mind, when online, really expects 100 times what you're promising them.
@@dylanloomis Not even hurt the video - I worry that he's bordering on it being snakeoil for everyone's language learning problems. Learning languages is difficult, there's no magic way to make it easy, but he sure as hell is making me think so with how he advertises the app.
I agree! I am super excited about the app for sure. But I would call myself an experienced language learned so I believe to be able to judge how much even the most amazing app could do for you. Some people could mistakingly expect something like a magic pill thou and then get disappointed when they find out that they still need to put in the work and every app will have flaws when starting. Plus I am kind of starting to worry about how much it will cost to even be able to use it, as since he promotes it to such an insanely high standard, you'd expect it to cost an arm and a leg.
yeah, if youre a girl/woman/female presenting person men tend to use tandem etc as a flirting device. especially like old men will like tell the app theyre 25 when theyre like 50 so they can bypass your age filter
One important question Ikenna, will your app be like.. English -> any chosen language learning app? Will there be learning other languages only through English, or through any other language? What i'm mostly looking to is Polish -> English/Dutch and occasionally French and German
yeah i have the same question i'm pretty good at english (i think) but my native is russian and i feel like learning a new language would be much easier if it is my native -> my goal language, not english -> my goal language
The mystery app sounds like it's getting all the good features from the other apps into 1, which is impressive, but also... I'm hesitant about having 1 app trying to do too many things. We'll have to ultimately see it of course, but looking forward to it.
📩📱 MAILING LIST FOR MY UPCOMING APP ⇢ tinyurl.com/IkennaApp THope you like the video guys, comment in the comments whether you agree or disagree and be sure to sign up to my mailing list for a better chance at alpha / beta access to my app. he Ikenna Method Video Course ⇢ ikenna.com
Hey Ikenna. I want to enroll in your course. What does the Online Tutor Master do? It requires a $30 additional fee. Is it some sort of real online tutor or was it recorded?
@@sasukeuchiha8648 its another course that breaks down how to best use tutors on italki to improve your speaking. Not necessary to get it in order the ikenna method though
as someone who is learning Hungarian with a full time job, I can only really use duolingo, anki and drops. I like duo because it teaches you Hungarian word order which is super difficult and reinforces grammar points that I've already read about in my grammar textbook. anki I use for the 500 most common words in Hungarian and for vocab I've learnt in previous courses and italki lessons. drops is good for seasonal vocab which is good for spontaneous situations
@@Reforming_LL I visited my grandma in Hungary for a month this year to practice and she also came over for Christmas. Also now that I'm changing my career, I'll have more time to do audio courses and invest in an italki teacher. I also listen to a lot of Hungarian indie rock and I aim to learn the lyrics of some of my favourite songs.
Also, just wanna thank you for actually being an honest person about using these apps etc. So many language RU-vidrs will promote app's even if they don't believe in them (e.g. for ad revenue... can't blame them). Just very refreshing to hear your honest brutal thoughts on these apps because for the casual user, who may only speak 2 languages, it can feel quite isolating using an app that doesn't feel good/work for them, but hearing someone who has learnt many languages raise the exact same negatives you found with the app is really encouraging! Love the content bro
The problem on top of all this is, a lot of these are really inconsistent, Duolingo for example is really shit for English to German English to Japanese etc but the German to Spanish, German to French are actually pretty good.
it is, but what i can say for french from portuguese and english has a great content, even thought after being at a2 level you really should move foward from it, their events is deffinetly a plus point, can always find zoom rooms for practicing speaking, this is rally valuable.
Well... that's probably because the app was originally developed for native Spanish speakers only, cus as you probably know, or not, it was created in Guatemala (My country haha!). So I, for example, mostly use the app for French to Spanish and Japanese to Spanish, and the courses are actually really great!
@@LangXplorer Seems I happily stand corrected! After much hunting I found the community courses, bit of a process to get them into the official application but I'm happy I can access these resources now, thank you! Last time I checked I couldn't find it anywhere, they must like to keep it hidden. According to their official statement they were removed to promote the official approved courses. 😊
Whatre your thoughts on lingodeer? I found it extremely good and motivating (only for Asian languages- all the little design choices that help greatly with Korean fall apart when that same format is slapped onto Italian)
Dude...I tried out Language Transfer today after watching this video. On track 4 of German and wow. After 30 minutes of this site I learned sooo much. I've studied German casually off and on for years (very casually). Mostly picking up vocabulary and basic grammar rules but not much in the line of actual conversation. LT gets you going very quickly and makes everything feel so intuitive. Definitely going to finish it out and I expect to be much farther along in my studies in just a few easy days. I'm looking forward to your app too. I'm sure it'll be amazing!
I agree with your comments on Memrise. It doesn't feel as good as it used to be. I'm so excited for all the new videos you've been pumping out, and especially for the app! I hope us as a community are able to help you and your team make it the best it can be! Wish nothing but the best for you!
I like BABBEL but you are right-it's boring but on tech level it teaches well, builds in nice review in various ways! So if you are serious learner which doesn't need "fun" you get your fun elsewhere- then try Babbel.
I think duolingo is very underrated. It won't give you fluency, but it is great for learning basics. I've tried many learning apps before including babbel, busuu and drops, and it is definetely the best one of them
14:08 that’s nice. It also gets rid of initial bias such as racial profiling and other forms of prejudice that could be received from photos (this has actually happened on the hellotalk app, there have been cases of racism on there, which is why I didn’t bother to use the app and now I’m glad I didn’t because everyone is saying that it’s literally just tinder Lmfao 🤣) and as you mentioned it keeps the creeps a w a y (for the most part lol)
Hey, so according to what you said at the beginning of the video, the app's fun and motivation it provides plays a big role in your judgement. But is language transfer at all motivating? I find it extremely difficult to get into, compared to other Apps, because you just listen without any visuals or any idea where you're going with it. Or am I wrong or whatsup Greetings :)
I think he mostly rated the two apps different coz language transfer is supposed to just be audio files and lessons, whereas the beginning app is SUPPOSED to be motivating and fun but he just didn’t find it motivating. So there’s a little bit of a difference in the purposes of the apps that probably made him rate them differently, but I see where you’re coming from
Personally, I find it very motivating because, like he mentioned, it offers so many useful shortcuts!! Ex: shared endings on cognates in Eng/Spanish and Eng/french; consonant shifts between Eng/German, etc. Those feel like little gold nuggets for me, especially when I‘ve only just begun learning. So, he may not consider it to be not motivating! Pimsleur, on the other hand, I find way too slow. To each their own!
I’m so excited for your app can’t waitttt. I signed up for the mailing list. I hope the French courses will be 🔥 because I know that’s one of your strongest languages Wish we would have gotten an release window
I kinda have a gripe with Pimsleur that it’s slow, but I understand why it is because it’s there for people to understand what the speakers are saying. I’m going to be finished Spanish level one this month & I feel it’s redundant a bit.
Too painful, I just want my deck to play automatically with text to speech so I can listen to it but after many days of trying to fix it, i still couldn’t find a solution.
I lost all my motivation to learn languages a while ago, but at least I learned programming and video editing. All of that to say language learning apps as of now seem so bad they motivated me to do other stuff.
Currently learning Japanese, I think duolingo is great for learning hirigana and katakana. Dont really care much about it otherwise but for that it is pretty good.
Agreed. Learning Japanese here too. I've used a bit of Rosetta Stone, Memrise, Duolingo, Michel Thomas, just started Rocket Languages. The one i'm most impressed with and feel that i've learnt the most is with Michel Thomas.
I am familiar with virtually all the apps/programs mentioned. What I learned from this is: do not listen to anybody! They all seem to have their own agenda although this one is fairly open about it ! One thing I can say is: if you can do better than Duolingo I will buy your app. However to compare it with Duolingo I will need to try it for say a week! Is that fair?
I used busuu for ages but I've started to get demotivated from it for my French learning. Really hoping to get your app soon! Plus my company will be introducing classes soon so I cant wait to improve my French
Please add Norwegian! I cannot wait for your new app -- and Norwegian is a good stepping stone toward other languages. If there is Norwegian, than goodbye Duo. :)
I hope your app has Norwegian! I've been trying to learn that language and haven't really been able to find anything good to allow me to progress further
I feel like I’m using different apps to what are shown, on both memrize and clozemaster they just dropped me right in the middle without teaching me anything like vocab or grammar, what am I doing wrong?
actually "droplets" the child version of drops is basically the same exact thing except you can set it to have no time limit for free also pimsleur just wasnt for me, i use rosetta stone and it works for me
What are the suggestions for someone who prefers less gamification? And by that I mean not drilling grammar, but just a more serious approach than doodles of dancing fat boys, or candy rush style swiping and tapping. This Speakly app is great, in that it doesn't bore you with grammar but still doesn't treat you like a child, but their minimalism is too much, I wish they added a "tap to save for later" feature like in LingQ and more extensive grammar reference. I hope that wouldn't be too much against their philosophy.
Hey Ikenna!! Your the reason why I've been really interested in learning languages for the past 2 years. Thankyou so much for continuing to upload~ I really appreciate everything you do and thank you so much for teaching us for free! I intend on buying your book in the future because it looks very promising. I hope you stay safe and have a good day!
What do you think about the audio lessons and short stories in duolingo? Are you considering those features in your ranking or just the main gamifide lessons in the lesson tree?
HAS ANYONE REALLY EVER LEARNED A LANGUAGE WITH DUOLINGO??? Is it even possible? I gave it a try... Terrible! A lot of mistakes in the translation, stupid sentences like "a pink elephant drinks my water", synonyms are automatically mistakes, testing without context... I would like to try something else. But what? If Duolingo is one of the best apps (B+ according to the video) what horrors must be the other ones?
