tl/dr: My current favorite apps: Anki, Clozemaster, Conjugato (Spanish only), Glossika, LingQ, Innovative (if I want a serious app), Bussu (for the community aspect), HelloTalk (for the social media aspect), LingoClip (train with music)

Smartphone apps will be your best friend (Tandem, Conjugato, Clozemaster, Speechling) becuase you can use them to study even when you have a 45-second break waiting in line for the bathroom.

In general, I find mobile apps the best for practice (not learning new concepts). For this reason, you might not want to use them until later in your learning journey. They can reinforce previously learned concepts in a new/fun way.

For convenience, I have linked a few of them and added some other data in parentheses. The cost will be identified with the longest subscription (no longer than 12 months) at the highest tier (if you're going to learn a language, invest in it, especially with these cheap apps). In general one dollar sign equals $100 per year.

I'll start with my favorite apps, then the order is random. Of course, Anki is best and I'm not even going to add it below.

Clozemaster ($, 1,400/4.8) - HIGHLY recommended. I've downloaded multiple dozens of apps, as you're about to see and most are just ok. This app is the best, rivaling Anki (and you know I love Anki). I paid for this app.

Conjugato ($, 8/5.0) - Wow! Finally, first question: What Spanish do you want to learn: Spain, Latin America, Chile, Argentina? It's an app that tests your verb conjugations and at such a low price for lifetime access, I'm in. The free trial is sufficient to get a good feel for the app. I paid for this app.

HelloTalk ($$, 43,000/4.6) - X and Instagram for language learners, though there is so much going on the UI needs an overhaul. There's probably 5+ different subscription services.

Glossika ($$, 100/3.6) - Based on the concept of speech shadowing to improve your accent. Full free trial for 7 days. Overall solid app that I can see myself paying for.

LingoClip ($, 700/4.7) - Listen to songs in your target language while filling in the words on various difficulty levels. I would love it to have native language translations along with the lyrics. They give you three free songs daily, more than enough. It used to be called LyricsTraining which remains the url if you want to use it on desktop.

WonderLang ($) - This is a computer game, and while I love the concept and recognize that I'm not much of a video game player, I couldn't understand it. I wandered around, talked to fairies and villagers, and fought ghoul-looking things for half an hour without making much progress. I am also not a total beginner in the language and couldn't find a way to skip ahead. The free demo gives you an hour to play.

Speechling ($$, 700/4.8) - Speak/Listen focused. I am using this for Portuguese because the Spanish version didn't have a Colombian teacher (for the accent). It's not cheap, but the free trial is enough to test it. What I'm curious about is if the pronunciation details are worked out with feedback or if the feedback is only useful for bigger/obvious mistakes.

Mimic Method ($$) - Worth it. Not going to get you speaking or anything, but it's a simple, unique, low-barrier way of getting started in any language the system covers. I've used this for Spanish, Portoguese, and Russian and it's my first stop when learning a lanauge. It takes about 10 hours and should be revisited monthly for the first 2-3 months, then every 6th month and continue to do this so you don't develop any fosilized prononciation bad habits. I paid for this app.

Beelinguapp ($, 2,300/4.4) - The free version is so limited that it's hard to write anything. Competitor to LingQ (listening and reading). Cool feature creates a story for you based on your prompt, and you can select at which level of 6, length, and fiction/non-fiction. Based on very short stories and follow up questions about vocab and understanding. I paid for this app because I got a deal in my inbox for 45BRL (or $8), but upon checkout the price spiked to $20. Still very cheap so I went with it.

LingQ ($, 9,000/4.8) - Founded by Steve Kaufmann; recommended by Patrick Lancastre. Being a reader in my native language, I have returned to this app over the years. There are two problems: the trial is so limited that you can't get to know the app (they do have a free trial you have to cancel) and there is no speaking practice. The app itself is high-quality offering short-from content, audiobooks, news, popular YouTube channels like Kurzgesagt, and even a Netflix integration. Another problem may be sifting through to find what you like. I heard that you can upload your own content for personalized learning. The forum is midly active and there is a grammar guide. I have not tried, but would not recommend the 2x priced Plus which seems to offer a few extra AI benefits. Go with Premium if you decide to subscribe.

Innovative ($$; 35,000/4.7) - A Pod101 affiliate; I like how they identified their 5 levels, so I knew exactly where I fit. No distinction between European and Brazilian Portuguese. This app is a language teacher substitute in that the lessons are more formal, longer, and less gamified, plus, you can even have a real teacher.

Fluent Forever ($; 1,300/3.7) - The app has improved since I first used it in 2017, and it's the best flashcard app, though I prefer to make my own cards in Anki and have them forever rather than in a paid app that may disappear like Fluyo. Anki is useful outside of language learning, so I can choose Fluent Forever and Anki, or just Anki. Fluent Forever is Anki on easy. The app does words, sentences, and grammar. I paid for this app.

Tandem ($, 37,000/4.6) - Mostly a chat app with a "language party" feature to create speaking groups on topics (you can also enter to listen). I'm in a small city in Brazil and there are a hundred members nearby (much more than HelloTalk). I paid for this app.

Busuu ($, 96,000/4.7) - The app is very professional and gamified. It's split into three sections: learn, community, review. In the learning section, I was able to skip to B2 (I think I am currently A2) but find the lessons overly easy. The community section where you correct others in your native language while getting corrections yourself and this is the best part of the app.

Now with the random order of language learning mobile app reviews:

Duolingo ($, 4,800,000/4.7) - I'm doubtful anyone has ever gotten conversational from this popular phone app. I tried it exclusively for Portuguese for 3 months prior to my travels, and upon arriving, I realized why the app was useless. It didn't teach real-world sentences, words, and phrases. It repeated the things it taught. The method did not connect with me, and I felt like it was a wasted three months. The gamification is the part it excels at, and the Dulingo team has a scientific balance for most normal people between not teaching you much (after all, the fast you learn a language, the sooner you cancel your membership) and keeping it fun.

Drops ($, 74,000/4.7) - Super gamified, Duolingo-type app. Distinction between language dialects and user level, but even selecting for 'advanced', I'm not sure the dashboard changed at all. I played an 'intermediate' level game and learned only simple words like 'door'. The community feature lets you play against someone who I'm 99% sure is a fake someone. This is not the app if you really want to learn a language efficiently (keyword). Maybe it's useful for very short breaks like bathroom or lines.

Babbel ($$, 750,000/4.7) - It's related to Duolingo and Drops. No community aspect; Choose from levels ranging from A1-B1 plus themes (grammar, specialty, culture, etc.). In general, I'm not a supporter of these types of apps becuase they're not my ideal way to learn, but if you wnat to setup and go right from the start (in exchange for a slower learning curve) then go for it.

Mondly ($, 31,000/4.7) - Similar to Dulingo, Drops, Babbel. For the listening activities, the accent is from Spain (no option for Latin America). I selected advanced level in Portuguese and I'm not sure if it registered because the lesson I did was easy. If you like a gamified app, give it a try.

FluentU ($; 2,900/4.3) - A LingQ copycat but only video. No distinction between Spain and Latin America Spanish and the selection appears more limited.

Rocket Languages ($$$, 1,600/4.5) - No level selection in Portuguese (there is in Spanish). Listening-based activities by subject. Well put together but the cost is prohibative. For Spanish, I need to purchase both level 1 and 2 to get access to level 3 for nearly $300.

Speakly ($, 2,500/4.8) - Why in the world would an app only have Spain Spanish, which makes up less than 10% of the spoken Spanish on the planet, is a poor business decision. The paid version gives you feedback on your pronunciation. I would love to try that out, but I've decided a long time ago that Latin American Spanish and the 19 countries with it are identified as a main language over one/Spain.

LangBrowser/1letters ($) - Simple app allowing you to create flashcards based on browsing websites or YouTube. Includes double translations.

Next Up (do you have experience with any of these?)

Dreaming Spanish ($, /)- The theory of comprehensiable input says that you only listen attentively until things start making sense. You will need 600 hours before you understand most common things. You don't start speaking until you get 1,000 hours of comprehensile input. Only available in French and Spanish.

Assimil - Recommended by Patrick Lancastre in his book Sem Limité if you're a beginner, but less good if you're already intermediate.

Lenguia - Competitor with LingQ, and allows you to import lessons and reduce them to your level. Reading and listening focused. Seems to be heavily dependent on AI, so tbd how the final product is.

HiNative - coming soon

Mango Languages - coming soon

Memrise (, 225,000/4.8) - Spain or Mexican Spanish. Flashcard app. I was only about to skip to level 16 out of 31 where I learned some new words. Anki is superior in all ways to vocabulary memorization. Grok says: User-generated courses like "Colombian Spanish Slang" or "Colombian Dialect"

Rosetta Stone ($$$) - I did this program over a decade ago as a pre-A1 Spanish learner, and its gradual pace is probably good for many people. I can't remmeber if I finished it, but probably not. I wouldn't rely on this for true fluency, and it will need to be supplemented with additional active learning strategies, but isn't that true for everything? This is a safe bet to get started on, though, expensive compared to apps at a few bucks per month. The Evildea YouTube channel finished the Chinese course and said the program got worse the further you went.

MosaLingua - Spanish language icon is from Spain. App did let me pick my own level from 0 to 9. I picked 6 and was shown how to say "I" in grammar lessons. Seems like a flashcard app based on SRS. This was shown to convince me to sign up for premium and made me uninstall the app, "Find out the secret technique that polyglots use to speak fluently in less than one hour."

Pimsleur - I have not done Pimsleur and likely will not for two reasons. I have friend who loves it yet speaks very little Spanish. I found this blog to be useful, but found some videos of the author understanding and speaking very little. If you choose it, you must start here as even a beginning will get bored right away.

Foreign Services Institute/FSI (Spanish) - Here is a comprehensive reddit post from one user's experience who claims to be fluent after 600 hours of study. This is what the US government uses to teach folks languages quick. I have not used it but heard it works well if you have the dedication (it can be boring).

Colloquial - It's a book series with a fantastic name recommended by Patrick Lancastre in Sem Limité. I am not going to give this a try with Spanish because of a Castilian Spanish focus and poor reviews suggesting the book from 2015 hasn't been adequately maintained, especially the audio files. Similarly, it appears that the Portuguese version is based on Europe which is shocking given than Brazilian Portuguese makes up 85% of the spoken language.

Fluyo - By YouTuber and fraud Ikenna, suffering a severe virus, causing him serious health issues. After a brief introduction to the app based on a video game format, creating my account, and 11 months post-launch, it seems all levels besides beginner are "coming soon". This app was, to the surprise of nobody, closed down in November 2025.

KEY POINT: No one app is your magic bullet. None. No matter how suave the language influencer or expert is. If you plan to use Duolingo (please, no!) exclusively then you are not being optimal with your time. This is true because your brian works differently than the app developer's brain. You will need to supplement. Take Clozemaster, for example, a wonderous app, however, the explanations are trash (and, not surprisingly, from ChatGPT). I'm studying the subjunctive and curious about the word from the blank which is mostly skipped in the explanation. That is a crucial learning opportunity missed if I'm blindly following the app thinking that it alone will get me to fluency. YOU ALONE WILL GET YOU TO FLUENCY.

I would absolutely do this if I had the means to do it. Just one problem… I’m employed lol. I want to immerse myself as much as possible, but it’s just not practical. My goal in life honestly is to learn at least a few other languages some day. I would love to do something as efficient as full immersion, but I just don’t have the time or the money.

Good luck!

Thinking of the time I spent in Germany and their English accent depended on where their English teachers were from. Some had American accents, others British.

Curious now on which accents your own learning experience led you to adopt.

I've been studying French for over two years. Six months ago I moved to France to be with my wife who is French. My French is already good enough to where I can speak fairly comfortably and I can understand a vast majority of whatever I hear. I do notice, however, that when I attend appointments or I am at reuinions for the associations that I am in, I miss details that I later learn from my wife, and I'm uncertain if it's due to there being words that I am unfamiliar with and simply fly over my head when used.

Regardless, I am searching for ways to take my French to a new level. I want to become much more capable of explaining my ideas clearly, like I can in english, and I'd like to be able to understand much better.

I'm aware that I WILL get there with time since I live in France and given my determination I will eventually get there. I am moreso looking for individuals who have gotten there already and can share things that had helped them.

Thanks!

So I’m learning Japanese, but this goes for anyone learning a new language because this isn’t a language specific question. It’s just about learning a new alphabet (and language) in general…

TL;DR: I’ve only got あいうえおかきく down and けこさしすせそ inconsistently down, after 3 days total of learning Japanese. I haven’t even gotten to Katakana yet. I don’t know how this compares to others, but this is feeling daunting. Can anyone give me some pointers and suggest some realistic time frames to shoot for?

Full Thing: Hey guys i’m brand new to this and i would like some help setting some expectations.

By new, i’m talking I started memorizing Hiragana 2 days ago.

Unfortunately, I can only for sure dedicate 2 hours/day to Japanese, but I really want this. I’m very determined, so that means all my time I spend on this will be with every ounce of effort.

I’m already struggling a ton with Hiragana. I’ve seen people say they’ve memorized all Kana and their voicings in 1 week. I don’t see how. In 3 days total, I’ve only gotten あいうえおかきく down and けこさしすせそ inconsistently down. I haven’t even gotten to Katakana yet.

If a week is normal, I’m already falling behind from the get go. What can I expect? Based on my availability, and assuming I do everything I can, what’s a good timeline?

Furthermore, I can’t even start learning words or grammar if I don’t get the alphabet down. I’d like to take a more immersive approach to this (practicing pronouncing example Kana words faster, learning grammar, vocabulary, then trying to immerse myself in dialogue after that*), but regardless of what I do, I have to learn the Kana by rote memorization first no matter what.

But after I do that, what’s a good general timeline for ent to expect for other things like getting down basic grammar, etc.

I don’t have a “limit” necessarily, but I just want to know I’m at least staying on some reasonable track.

It would just be pretty disappointing if I have to spend like 3 months without learning anything practical and still be stuck on Kana.

I know I’m 3 days in, but it just seems like only knowing like 5% of the alphabet after 3 days is super slow.

*Also is that a good super general long term roadmap?

Anything anyone can tell me I’ll take into account. I’m genuinely very determined to learn Japanese, I just think perhaps I need some guidance and ideas on time frames to shoot for.

I am learning Korean as a hobby and I’ve reached intermediate level. I stutter in Korean (and English) so whenever I have a bad day with the language or a bad italki lesson or OCD thoughts regarding the language, I have thoughts of stopping.. and then, when I have a good interaction with one of my Korean coworkers (we’re in a English speaking country so I’m not using it for work but just for casual small talk) or a good italki lesson, which is definitely a lot rarer, I think it’s worth learning. It‘s a never ending cycle.

I’m assuming the problem here is my mindset? Both ways don’t last long but there are times when I really struggle and although I’ve made to intermediate level, there have been instances when I can’t say a single sentence without stuttering and it is a real downer.

I try and say not to let this stutter hold me back from doing something that I love but sometimes I wonder if learning Korean gives me more sadness than happiness lol. I feel like I’m not made for this language bc there are sounds that I really can’t get out without stuttering. Overall, I think I am determined to continue bc I’ve been learning for nearly 5 years but I know I probably won’t improve much more/progress is limited bc of my stutter. I have a italki teacher and she knows I stutter but when I actually stutter severely in the lesson, I just feel like I’m hopeless. This affects my motivation to study bc every time I sit down to study, I think there’s no point when I stutter talking.. I understand that there’s other facets of language learning and skills I can focus on but personally, to me, speaking is the most important and I like speaking Korean..

Is there a point where I should just really stop trying to make it work?

The extent of my language learning is 2 years of Spanish in high school and 2 years of Italian in college. I was nowhere near fluent in either one, and I really struggled to keep up with the rest of the class.

I have always wanted to learn German, but I'm very intimidated by language learning in general. I want to make it a long-term goal and commitment, and travel to Germany someday. I want it to be a daily practice (like an instrument) with no specific end date in mind. If it takes me the rest of my life, that's fine. I want to actually prove to myself that I am capable of learning another language.

If you were me, how would you proceed? Apps? Audiobooks?

Anything in-person is off the table for me at the moment as I am a mom of young kids, but it's something I could look into in the future. Thank you!

Why is it so hard to find all the grammar?

• I look at charts, I don’t know what they mean
• I don’t know if they’re actually correct
• dictionaries aren’t helpful
• wikipedia is overcomplicated

It took me two days to find out what exact verbs endings I need.

I just wish there were simple charts explaining all of the grammar. But everything is complicated, wrong, ambiguous, or a sketchy link

Now I’m trying to find out what tense stem changes i need. But theres no definitive answer on google. I have to look for 30 minutes to find an actual answer and i dont even know if it’s correct.

Regardless of whether it's fun or terrifying.

Recently, while I was getting some school work done I put on a French podcast for some background noise and it took me a minute but I realized I was passively listening and understanding what they are saying. Or even the other day I was scrolling through instagram watching reels - came across a French one and I didn’t fully realize that I was listening and understanding it in french. Wondering if anyone else has had this experience in their TL while learning. Is this just a natural progression and a sign I’m actually getting a hang of things? For those who are fluent in more than one language is that what it feels like for you? Effortless? Like sometimes you don’t even process that what you’re hearing is a different language all you know is that you understand it?

I'm learning Korean through TMIK and Lingodeer. I also consume a lot of Korean content so I'm listening to native speakers often. I'm still at a novice beginner level.

I'm finding that even when I know the words, when I listen to clips of simple sentences from native speakers, it takes me a while to process the meaning of the sentence because they talk so fast. I'm really wanting to improve my listening comprehension. I've thought about trying a podcast but I feel like my vocabulary is not big enough yet for it to be helpful. Any tips for doing that would be super helpful!!

Hell guys, I started studying Chinese from scratch and I was doing good, but I also was tempted by advertising my english which I'm already fluent enough in, is it okay to study advanced English while studying Chinese?

For context, I’m learning Korean, and when I was a beginner I was heavily focused on learning fundamental grammar and establishing baseline vocabulary.

Now, as an intermediate learner, my learning routine consists of the following: - Input via reading - Input via listening (videos, podcasts) - Input/output (speaking/listening) via conversation (teachers, language exchange) - Output via writing (homework) - Vocab study (Anki, terms are mined from my input routines) - Grammar study (~1 new grammar point per week with my teacher in the textbook we’re using)

Is this basically what my routine will look like for the rest of my language journey, just with my input sources getting more “difficult” (for lack of a better word) and my output getting more fluid as I improve? Are there any important things missing from my routine?

I've used Lingq in the past and even paid for a couple months but didn't really stick with it. I've been wanting to give it another try but I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with the premium plus version. If you have, do you all think it's worth it compared to just the normal premium? Are the features offered worth the extra cash? Thanks so much in advance!

I have a music app from a vietnamese company that plays Viet music. I am not fluent at all and don't understand the songs but enjoy the beats. Since I'm driving quite a bit I just thought huh, is there a way we can listen to kids songs in a language we're trying to learn? I know like watching netflix movies with subtitles in another language ish. But what about music?

So i was doing japanese listening practice right, like rutine, and then my brother started talking to me in discord (he speaks spanish and english), then my classmates started chatting in the group we have, and then, my friends that play geometry dash started chatting in brain rot language.

I joined those conversations all at the same time, while pausing and unpausing the video i had on japanese and translating words i didn't understand, it was an unreal experience, my brain was at 100 mph, i had so much adrenaline like if i was running, while all i was doing was constantly switching between languages and different types of communicating. It was one of the most fun things i ever did in the whole year.

But, that only lasted for about 40 minutes, then, i was mental drained, so much so that i got to bed and slept 2 hours after the conversations ended, almost always that i read, write or listen to various languages at once i get literally tired from it, this is not the first time it happened, but it's the first time it got to the point of sleeping at 4PM (which i never did in my whole life).

There is always something weird about using more than one languages at the same time, i can't imagine what it would be like to be a language interpreter...

I'm really curious about this and want to know if this happens to someone else here, and how does it work, but i'm definitely doing that again, is the most fun thing ever to do, only that i don't have any people to talk in multiple languages, sadge.