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when I graduated from college I could
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not speak a single foreign language I
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mean nothing and now I speak fluent
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French Spanish Arabic and Mandarin prove
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it and in this video talk about what
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those apps are and why you should use
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them the best app for absolute beginners
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maybe you're just starting to learn a
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new language maybe the idea of learning
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a language is sort of daunting maybe
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you're not even sure what language you
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want to learn rest easy my friends
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there's an app for that du lingo you're
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probably already familiar with dual
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lingo it's free and it's very useful
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although not for the reason you might
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expect duolingo's best feature is that
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it will help you answer some very
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important questions about yourself
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number one are you committed to learning
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a language over the long term number two
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can you commit 20 minutes every day to
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studying and number three most
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importantly do you actually enjoy this
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and of course we want the answer to all
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those questions to be a resounding yes
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because if it's not honestly why waste
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your time or your money on a more
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advanced product so give dual lingo two
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weeks to dip your toe in the water with
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Italian or Swahili or Klingon whatever
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you're into and then ask yourself those
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three questions and if the answers are
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yes awesome congratulations let's talk
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about some apps that can can help you
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learn much much faster the best app for
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allaround language learning I've got a
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hot take on this so stay with me almost
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all the bigname language apps pitch
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themselves as a One-Stop shop for
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language learning they cover vocab
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grammar pronunciation Etc and all those
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apps operate in more or less the same
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way they teach you set words and phrases
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that get more and more complex over time
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and then you get little tool tips on
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screen that kind of explain what's going
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on and listen that's not a bad way to
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learn in theory it's how every kid
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learns to speak their native language
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right but here's the problem those apps
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are all visual they require you to stay
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constantly engaged with your screen you
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can't do anything else but sit and tap
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and after 20 or 50 or 100 hours that can
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get pretty boring so what happens
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instead of using your phone to study you
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open up Instagram you check your Tik Tok
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you like comment and subscribe to my
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channel whatever you're going to lose
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focus and get distracted and that is the
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ultimate progress killer so what should
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you do use an audio-based app because if
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you're listening as you learn you can do
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something genuinely enjoyable like going
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for a walk in the park at the same time
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now that may sound quaint but hear me
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out because that little bit of physical
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activity can make a world of difference
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why because it will help you stay
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relaxed in both body and mind and
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research has proven time and again that
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someone who is in a relaxed State as
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they learn will understand New Concepts
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much faster and retain far more
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information over time so there's my hot
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take so which audio-based app is the
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best well you've got two apps to choose
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from and they're a little different
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first is language transfer this series
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is 100% free and you can choose to learn
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nine different languages from the
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absolute beginner level each lesson
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features the voices of a teacher and a
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student so it's a little bit like
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listening in on a private class the only
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drawback to language transfer is that
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there aren't that many lessons even the
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most complete courses have less than 12
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hours of content so unfortunately your
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progress is somewhat limited app number
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two is pimsler which is similar to
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language transfer in some way but it's
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got many more languages to choose from
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far more content and a lot of
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supplemental tools like vocab quizzes
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and flashcards that can help you make
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progress faster pinsler does require a
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monthly subscription I think it's worth
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it but I'll put a link for a 7-Day free
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trial in the description box below check
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it out and let me know what you think
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the best app for building your
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vocabulary sometimes it's just about
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memorizing more words so let's talk
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about an app that can help you do that
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as quickly and effectively as possible
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and again it's free anky is the OG flash
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card apps it's been around for almost 20
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years and it's a Workhorse here's why if
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you choose you can of course use Ane to
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create your own flashcards and that's
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deeply useful in its own right but
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here's the secret sauce anky allows
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users to upload their flashcard decks to
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a portal called anky web and then any
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other user can then download that deck
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onto their own device and because anky
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decks are infinitely customizable there
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are tons of fantastic decks out there
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that you can download without spending a
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dime for example here's a deck that I
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use for studying Japanese it's it's got
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native audio each card has a nice photo
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and there's even a breakdown of the Kani
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for poor souls like me who haven't yet
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memorized all 10,000 of them now again
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there is the issue of can you sustain
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this for the long term because even the
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best flash cards can get tedious after a
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few months but there is actually a
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flashcard listening hybrid platform that
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can help you stay focused for the Long
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Haul the best app for building your
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vocabulary listening mode so we've
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talked about how visual apps are
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inherently challenging to use long term
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but we've also talked about how flash
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cards are the most effective way to
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memorize information I believe the
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Greeks called that a paradox but there
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is one app that offers a solution it's
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called glossa and it's basically an
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audio flashcard system glossa operates
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on a pretty simple concept you hear a
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phrase in English and then 2 seconds
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later you hear a native speaker recite
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that same phrase in your target language
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I'm going to watch it we must the
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phrases are simple in the beginning and
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get more complex over time that's really
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it there are some bells and whistles but
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that's the juice and it's extremely
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useful don't make the mistake of
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thinking that more features means a
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better product it doesn't simple and
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effective that's what we're looking for
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my only caveat with glosa is that it is
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not for absolute beginners because it
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doesn't include explanations and you're
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learning complete sentences right off
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the bat you want to have a basic handle
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on your target language before diving in
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but after that by all means the best app
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for improving your speaking skills a lot
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of language learning apps have a feature
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that lets you record yourself speaking
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and then supposedly the app can analyze
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your speech and tell you if your
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pronunciation is off it doesn't work no
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app can reliably correct your
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pronunciation yet it's probably coming
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soon but we're not there now so if you
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want to improve your speaking skills in
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a new language or simply get better at
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making natural conversation you need to
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talk with another human and the easiest
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way to do that is via a language
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exchange platform what is that it's an
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app or a website that connects you with
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people from other parts of the world who
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can effectively tutor you in their
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native language it's one of the
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internet's great gifts to the modern
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world now there are two ways to go about
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using a language exchange platform the
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free method and the paid method in the
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free method you set up a conversation
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exchange with another person I.E you
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teach them your language they teach you
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their language and if you want to go
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this route your best option is hello
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talk it's got a massive user base and a
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very active community so generally
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speaking it's pretty easy to set up an
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exchange but of course you will need to
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spend half your time teaching your
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partner in the paid method you pay
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someone an hourly rate to speak with you
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and teach you in my opinion it's
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absolutely worth the money because you
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can schedu lessons whenever you want and
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the teachers are usually experienced and
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therefore much better and if you want to
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go this route I would recommend using
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preply in my experience it has better
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teachers than some similar sites and you
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can also sign up for group classes which
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are great if you feel like a one-on-one
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lesson might be a little intense which
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they definitely can be the best app to
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improve your reading skills but maybe
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you're more interested in learning to to
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read a new language versus speaking it
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well thankfully there's a whole subset
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of apps dedicated to developing reading
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skills and the best of these is belinga
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basically it gives you parallel versions
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of a text in English and in whatever
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language you're learning there's a
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massive library of reading material to
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choose from everything from kids stories
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to newspaper articles to classical
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literature and there are some Nifty
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features like being able to listen to
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native speakers read stories out loud
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but on the whole it's all about
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highquality parallel translation the
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best step four becoming fluent so how do
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you become fluent in other words truly
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comfortable in a new language no more
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translating in your head no more I'm
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sorry could you repeat that it just
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flows input input input expose yourself
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to your new language as much as you can
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and in my opinion the easiest way to do
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that is by listening to podcasts but
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here's where most people go wrong you
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can't just passively listen to something
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as you go about your day you need to be
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constantly looking up words and phrases
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that you don't understand understand and
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thankfully that's not hard to do just
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open up Google translate and use the
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voice to text feature that's it the app
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automatically records your search
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history so you can easily review
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everything later on and just to be clear
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Google translate today is hugely
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different from what it was even 5 years
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ago as of this February it started to
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really take advantage of linguistic Ai
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and that's made it much more accurate
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and useful is it perfect no so you
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should still double check your
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definitions with a native speaker by
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using one of the language exchange
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platforms that we talked about earlier
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for more more language learning tips be
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sure to hit that subscribe button and if
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you have any questions or comments about
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language learning apps please let me
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know in the comments I will do my level
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best to respond thanks for watching and
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see you soon
