I've been trying to learn Nihongo for years but I always end up quitting then I just go through the process of relearning everything I've learned previously whenever I decided to pick it up again (an endless cycle, really).
I read somewhere that it is beneficial to try learning more than one language because it keeps you from getting bored by constantly challenging yourself. It seems to be effective as I have learned so much more in two months than all the times I've tried learning Japanese since I was in 5th Grade.
As a supplement, I've been using Duolingo and Memrise to learn French, German, Spanish, Esperanto and Mandarin (previously Cantonese but I dropped it) on the side. It may seem excessive but I am just casually learning these languages. It doesn't take more than 30 minutes a day to go through it using the apps I've mentioned above, but if you are serious at language learning you would need other materials to immerse yourself into it in other ways.
Enter Lingvist.
I was introduced to this app recently and they claim to help you learn French (and reach B2 level) in 200 hours. B2 level is upper intermediate, meaning you can understand complex text and can communicate somewhat fluently with a native speaker.
At first I thought it was going to be just another spaced repetition software. It doesn't have multiple choice questions like on Duolingo and Memrise, you have to type out the missing word although there are hints sometimes (and when you press the right arrow on the keyboard it will show the full word).
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| Lingvist Learn section on desktop |
On Duolingo, you don't really get an explanation behind the grammar unless you use the desktop version and join the discussion/forum section. On Memrise, depending on which course you've chosen there are sometimes helpful Mems but more often than not I resort to Googling answers myself every damn time. It's nice that they dedicated a section for that much needed grammar tips. Just choose a topic to help shed more light on grammar and pronunciation.
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| Lingvist Grammar Tips section on desktop |
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| Lingvist Grammar Tips section on Android |
You see which ones has the highest percentage of words that you know, and you can also filter the reading list in other ways.
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| Lingvist Read section on desktop |
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| Lingvist sample text from their Read section (Android) |
Another favorite of mine next to the grammar section is their Listen section. It is helpful hearing French in a normal pace. In other learning apps, they tend to pronounce the words slow but actual spoken French (and other languages really) is quite fast. Not only you get an idea on how to pronounce something you'd also get to practice listening skills. Same as the Read section, you can choose to hear audio based on the percentage of words that you know. You can also see the text transcript of the audio. It just popped in my mind maybe it would be a good feature to also have the option to hear the audio on a slower pace especially for beginners.
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| Lingvist Listen section on Desktop |
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| Lingvist Listen section on Android |
I have only used it for a few hours in two weeks, but I was surprised at the amount of French that I've managed to pick up. As previously mentioned I initially just learned French casually but I may have to take it seriously as this app is too good - it's a shame if I won't continue using it. I really hope they will have other languages available soon (they may release Spanish and Russian in a few weeks).
The good news is Lingvist is fully free while they are still in beta, so if you are learning French I highly recommend to take advantage of this and give it a try.
Lingvist - https://lingvist.com/
Their app is also available on the iOS App Store and Google Play
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