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language learning apps all have a
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problem
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you can now manage situations like this
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in your everyday life
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they don't work i can if my everyday
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life is in english
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allow me to clarify i'm not saying that
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no language learning app is of any use
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whatsoever
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i'm saying that no one has ever started
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as a complete beginner
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at the beginning of a language learning
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app and gone through the thing from
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start to finish
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and finished being completely fluent in
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the language without doing anything
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else it has never ever happened and if
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someone can prove to me that that has
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happened
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i'll eat my hat not that hat it's very
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big get a small hat
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you will hear a sentence that you need
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to type bring it on
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but most apps seem to live in constant
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fear that you'll figure this out
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so instead of doing something to solve
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that problem they spend a ton of energy
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convincing you
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of how great the app is
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uh my name's jimmy and i tried to learn
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french once but
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i couldn't get what was going on with
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having three words for the word
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what you're using an app for six hours a
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day and you're not fluent yet oh you're
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obviously not using the app enough just
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look at jimmy
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he's fluent we better step that up to 10
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hours a day that'll work
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oh i like that one i liked it the hope
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is close
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and after years of searching in a desert
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of apps
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that can't fulfill their grandiose
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claims i may have found it
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the perfect language learning
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gonna need a logo
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[Music]
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in all seriousness i have a lot to say
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about speakly and i know most of you
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won't watch very far through so now is
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the time to tell you that if you like
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the sound of it from my review
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you can get 40 percent off a premium
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subscription by using the link in the
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subscription now yes
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it is an affiliate link but i actually
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contacted speakly about this not the
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other way around
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because these videos take a long time
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and a lot of effort and if i'm going to
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use that time and effort
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on talking about an app affiliate links
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just makes sense it doesn't mean that
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i'm going to sugarcoat my experience
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with the app i've reviewed other apps
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before for which i've had affiliate
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links and i've still said the parts of
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it that i don't like
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and i've never recommended anything that
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i personally don't
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like or use on a regular basis so if you
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want to help out the channel
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and get forty percent off a speakly
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subscription use the link and with that
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out of the way
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no service i eat everything we can
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what's a meat restaurant that's not a
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thing
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so is speakly actually perfect no
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the first thing that people are going to
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complain about is the range of languages
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which is reasonably small it includes
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english estonian finnish french german
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italian
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spanish and russian the last two one in
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alphabetical order but just that
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that that before you go and watch mr
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beast or whatever it is you do
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you should know that the developers at
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speakly are some of the most responsive
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that i've ever come into contact with
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when it comes to
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responding to stuff i mean in terms of
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acting on the feedback they get and
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actually
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doing something about it in fact this
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review was made considerably more
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complicated by the fact that i went uh i
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don't really like this feature of it and
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i emailed them and they were like we'll
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get right on that i was like
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what no i've already written that part
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of the review don't get right on it
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because they're
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clearly not saying which one of these
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means but when
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it means something much longer but
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i still think that when it did that the
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first time it was extremely confusing
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and they just need a little thing to
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explain it so the issue itself
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isn't even that big a deal but the point
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is that as soon as i told them that
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some people might potentially have a
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problem with that they said yes
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okay we'll look at improving that
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meanwhile at a certain free language
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learning app
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thousands of people will make the same
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complaint for like five years straight
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their response it's free
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deal with it in order to avoid legal
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complications you may theorize as to
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what app i'm talking about in the
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comments that's not
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interesting imagine someone walking up
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to you on the street
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so that's not interesting boring over
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the past week i've been using speakly
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mainly for finnish a little bit of
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german and a little bit of french and on
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the first day i must admit i kind of
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didn't get it if you put
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dots where there should be letters it's
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going to look like we have to type that
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i can't be the only person who goes
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like an idiot it seems like a lot of
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other apps it gives you options for
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multiple choice it gives you options to
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write it teaches you one thing at a time
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it's got voice recognition for
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pronunciation practice
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i've seen these things before
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that was a flick but after a while i
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started to get this feeling that it was
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a little bit different it didn't feel
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the same to use as other apps whereas a
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lot of other apps seem to come
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at language learning from a sort of
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modified version of the school approach
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which is to get you to understand
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each little part before they move on to
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the next part
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speakly seems to be different in its
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base approach like it's coming at it
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from a whole different angle
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which is to get you to start immersing
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in authentic content
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as soon as possible so you unlock the
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songs as you go through the lessons
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that's good i like it very nice the
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thing is
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this also requires a change in attitude
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from the learner like the app is very
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different in its approach and i think
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the learner
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needs to be very different in their
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approach because the app seems very
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ready
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to tell you that you're wrong but not in
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a bad way and the learner should
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adopt this thing that it's okay to be
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told you're wrong and it's not the app
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saying you're wrong and you're stupid
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and you should know this by now
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it's saying okay that wasn't the right
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answer
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this is the right answer and we're not
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actually going to tell you why
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because that's not helpful at this point
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we're just going to show you the right
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answer
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and after a while you will start to get
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the feel
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of how all this works as long as you
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actually are
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also immersing in authentic content and
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spending a lot of time
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in the language why not
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pretty much fluent in finnish now i
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think a lot of people might get
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frustrated
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that it doesn't feel like the app wants
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to help you
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improve it feels like it's just
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continually telling you
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the ways in which you're wrong but the
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thing is it wants you to
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absorb the language properly it doesn't
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want you to be able to explain the
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language to someone else like a lot of
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apps want you to do
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it's helping you to get a feel for how
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this language works in a much more
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natural way
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it's literally the difference in that
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one was an umlaut over the o
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but i really like just feeling like no
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it looks wrong with the umlaut it looks
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right without it
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do you want something to eat
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yes
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see now i feel like okay i've actually
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learned something about finnish that i
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didn't know
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you could definitely get more questions
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right in speakly
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if it did more explaining you know in
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finnish there are only 17 letters of the
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alphabet but there are 193 cases and 54
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of those cases are only used when
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talking to people with shoes on and
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another 27 of those cases are only used
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if you've got shoes on but then it
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changes again if you've got shoes on and
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the person you're speaking to doesn't if
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it did more of that kind of explaining
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yes you could definitely get
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more questions right but getting
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questions right
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even if those questions are in finish
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that's not speaking finnish okay so i'm
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gonna
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try one of these listening exercises i
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don't know if it's the same as the other
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one for the first two days of using
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speakly
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i'd only used the study area and that in
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itself was okay i didn't have a problem
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with that
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but when i really got what they were
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doing when i understood
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where they were coming from and how this
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was all supposed to work
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was when i discovered the listening
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exercises and the first thing that
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struck me about the listening
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exercises even the very first one in
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finnish that is the
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beginner beginner one was that it was
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quite hard
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this is so good how many of these are
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there whoa
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beginner two beginner three intermediate
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one two three advanced one to three
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that's a lot
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that is so good i love this so much
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it's not something that a true first day
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beginner will be able to understand it's
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not like most apps
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where they have a listening exercise but
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in it they find an excuse to only use
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words and phrases and grammar that
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you've already come across before
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and therefore they can't say anything of
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any meaning it's actually
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fairly difficult finnish
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instead what speakly does is to give you
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opportunities and in fact encourages you
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to start immersing from day one because
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along with the listening exercises it
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has
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transcripts both in your language and
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the target language
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but these are kind of optional viewing
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it's just saying it's
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actually encourages you to listen to the
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language a lot
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it's not always trying to say ah see you
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remember that word from lesson
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three and that other word from lesson
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four because if you do then great
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but if you don't that's not a reason to
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stop it says just keep listening anyway
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basically
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the impression i'm getting here and i'm
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now starting to understand this
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is that while the study area is
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extremely
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picky and we'll say no if we're going to
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give you four options which are very
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similar and two of them will be so
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similar that you actually have to look
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closely
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to even see the difference let alone
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know what the difference is like know
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which one is correct
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that's the study area all the rest of it
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is saying just go and listen don't worry
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about what's right and wrong don't worry
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about how much you understand
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listen to finnish music listen to this
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guy speak about his life in helsinki
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read these articles in finnish i love
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this so much because it takes
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basically my philosophy of language
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learning is that you're taking the two
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opposite ends of the spectrum
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that that native speakers would do and
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you're taking this base level stuff that
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beginners do
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and you're gradually pushing them
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together until you have this full
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spectrum
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of everything i feel like what it's
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trying to do is give you
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enough encouragement and new words and
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actual
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achievement that you can see that it
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encourages you to keep going
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but also gives you enough time in
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immersion that this will actually
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work and you'll get somewhere love it do
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i genuinely think it's perfect
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no perfect doesn't exist because what
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some people find
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incredibly frustrating others will love
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for me
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speakly is maybe a little bit too
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focused on
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getting you to speak funnily enough and
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it's not that i think that practicing
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pronunciation or even early output
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is necessarily a bad thing i just think
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that speakly could be
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a little bit more bold in sort of owning
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its own turf
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and a little bit more focused on lots of
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listening and
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increasing comprehension and just saying
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this is what we do
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because we know it works and it's going
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to take a little bit longer to get to a
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sort of early output stage but in the
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end it will be worth it i think they
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could own that a little bit more the
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verb for
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we have even that conjugation of have
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changes when you don't i know but it
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does in english too because he has
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but he doesn't have yeah okay
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fair enough finish i'll let you off on
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this one
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you have my permission to go back to
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finland and be happy
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this may be totally wrong i'm very much
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guessing here
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but it feels very much like the
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developers of speakly know
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full well that comprehension is the most
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important thing to develop from an early
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stage
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but they're sort of playing the game as
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much as they have to in terms of
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appealing to beginners
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and making them feel like they're making
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real progress things like
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saying that i understand up to 41
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of the finish used in everyday
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conversation
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i don't like that kind of statistical
00:12:13
manipulation because
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i know full well that that is not true
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but
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someone who doesn't know that might be
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told that they understand 60 or 70
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percent of the spanish or the russian
00:12:23
used in a conversation and then when
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they actually have a real
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interaction they're not going to
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understand anywhere near that much and
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they
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are going to wonder why i feel like it's
00:12:32
all hard but
00:12:34
i mean how hard is it supposed to be
00:12:35
it's a brand new language
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it should be hard well it's going to be
00:12:39
hard or you're doing it wrong one
00:12:41
suggestion that i would make on top of
00:12:43
the one that i've already made that
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they've already responded to
00:12:46
is that you could somehow level up or
00:12:49
score points or have your
00:12:50
progress visually represented in the app
00:12:53
when you do the listening or reading
00:12:55
exercises that are contained within the
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app
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because you can do them and it
00:12:59
encourages you to do them multiple times
00:13:01
which is great
00:13:02
but that doesn't actually change your
00:13:05
representation of progress within the
00:13:07
outlet what do you think what do you
00:13:09
think internet
00:13:11
this is a good time to mention that the
00:13:12
website itself is also very nicely laid
00:13:15
out nice design and completely
00:13:17
integrated with the app that is to say
00:13:19
if you do something on the website
00:13:21
that progress is shown within the app
00:13:23
and vice versa which is just a nice
00:13:25
option to have because some people just
00:13:26
prefer a website for their learning i
00:13:28
can be one of those people but
00:13:30
i'm much more concerned that it is
00:13:31
visually pleasing and just logically
00:13:34
laid out and in that regard both the app
00:13:36
and the website are nice
00:13:38
one thing i would say though is that
00:13:39
from the app
00:13:41
it is very easy to get to the blog you
00:13:42
just click on blog and there it is
00:13:44
and the blog is great i would recommend
00:13:46
that new language
00:13:48
learners check out at least a few
00:13:49
articles on the blog which can be found
00:13:51
in lots of different languages because
00:13:53
that is where the most
00:13:54
sound language learning advance advice
00:13:57
is found things like why you should
00:13:58
listen to things you don't understand
00:14:00
and
00:14:00
why listening is the key and all this
00:14:02
good stuff that i think new language
00:14:04
learners need to hear
00:14:05
what's strange is that the blog is not
00:14:08
easily accessed
00:14:09
from the website in fact it's not
00:14:11
possible to access it at all you need to
00:14:13
go to a different website which is
00:14:14
speakly.blog
00:14:16
is this a huge inconvenience no
00:14:19
but it's weird because as far as i'm
00:14:21
concerned estonia is the world capital
00:14:23
of nice
00:14:24
looking and nicely functioning language
00:14:26
learning
00:14:27
app website program course blog things
00:14:31
linking speakly.blog from the website
00:14:33
speakly.me
00:14:35
can't be that hard like even i could
00:14:37
manage that every time that comes up
00:14:39
i read it like i'm a complete idiot oh
00:14:42
that's interesting
00:14:43
in order to thoroughly test the app i
00:14:44
also did the placement test in german
00:14:46
and french in order to access different
00:14:48
levels of content obviously accessing a
00:14:50
medium level in german
00:14:52
and a more advanced level in french i
00:14:54
found the
00:14:55
placement tests to be quite accurate in
00:14:57
terms of where they place me
00:15:05
easy language this if you've studied
00:15:09
very
00:15:09
two very similar languages i did however
00:15:11
find the content in both those languages
00:15:14
even after the placement test which took
00:15:15
me way further into the courses to be
00:15:18
a fair bit easier than the finished
00:15:19
content but this is probably a
00:15:21
combination
00:15:22
of the fact that if you're an english
00:15:23
and swedish speaker then german and
00:15:25
french are just
00:15:26
very easy languages and finnish is not
00:15:28
on top of the fact that i have actually
00:15:30
studied them in some capacity before
00:15:33
this is so much easier
00:15:37
this is like i feel like this is english
00:15:40
in comparison to that finnish lesson i
00:15:41
can see why people like studying lots of
00:15:43
languages
00:15:44
i i get it guys i do it's fun
00:15:47
it also sucks personally if i were to be
00:15:49
continuing french i wouldn't use speakly
00:15:51
to do so i just don't actually need
00:15:53
guided content i'm fine with native
00:15:55
content
00:15:56
but the ultimate complement that i can
00:15:58
pay to any language learning apple
00:16:00
course entity whatever it is is would i
00:16:04
actually
00:16:05
consider learning a language just
00:16:07
because i have the opportunity to do so
00:16:09
on the app is it that good that i want
00:16:12
to take advantage of the app
00:16:14
just because it's there let's go to the
00:16:16
tape
00:16:17
and then the listening exercises at the
00:16:19
bottom i want to i'm learning finnish
00:16:21
now that's
00:16:22
this is so good i love this i love this
00:16:25
so much
00:16:26
i love that they that they just go
00:16:29
look it's just hard like you don't
00:16:32
you're not gonna understand it and
00:16:33
that's okay
00:16:34
but in reality i've never encountered an
00:16:36
app at least
00:16:37
so good that i would actually upend my
00:16:39
language learning goals
00:16:41
for the year because these days i'm very
00:16:43
very deliberate in
00:16:45
what i choose to learn in languages and
00:16:47
how i choose to do that and for the time
00:16:49
being my focus is still swedish and
00:16:50
really getting to that
00:16:51
very advanced level where i can
00:16:53
comfortably do a load of different
00:16:55
things
00:16:55
so that will be my aim for a little
00:16:57
while to come but i have been
00:16:59
very very mildly dabbling in serbo
00:17:01
croatian
00:17:02
and i do mean very mildly but i've also
00:17:04
been just kind of thinking about turkish
00:17:07
i haven't done
00:17:07
anything in it i haven't started any
00:17:09
kind of anything
00:17:11
in it so i'll probably spend the rest of
00:17:12
this year figuring
00:17:14
out what language i would want to take
00:17:16
seriously
00:17:17
out of finnish croatian or serbian and
00:17:20
turkish
00:17:20
if any of those
00:17:23
[Laughter]
00:17:25
my cat is not fat he's just around
00:17:28
that's great but there's absolutely no
00:17:30
question for me like none at all that if
00:17:33
i were to learn finnish
00:17:34
i would do so using speakly it's just so
00:17:38
well balanced between these really
00:17:40
finicky
00:17:41
small differences that make a meaningful
00:17:44
difference in the structure of the
00:17:45
language
00:17:46
and then this kind of guided immersion
00:17:48
where they just say you're not going to
00:17:49
understand much of this but you should
00:17:50
listen to it anyway
00:17:52
i love it so much and i
00:17:55
i honestly wish that i could just drop
00:17:57
everything and learn finnish
00:17:58
just doesn't fit with my goal of getting
00:18:00
my swedish to a high level but it's so
00:18:02
close to just
00:18:03
tipping me over into learning finnish
00:18:04
it's that close that if it were croatian
00:18:07
if they had croatian
00:18:09
that'd be too much for me i'd just be
00:18:10
like take me now if you did this
00:18:13
and you combined it with the listening
00:18:16
with the transcripts
00:18:17
and everything you're on your way
00:18:21
you're on your way to learning a
00:18:22
language you just do you just do that
00:18:25
until you're just listening to like
00:18:27
finnish audio books and stuff not
00:18:29
understanding 100 of them
00:18:31
that's how you do it that's what i did
00:18:32
in swedish except that i didn't have an
00:18:34
app like this to guide me through
00:18:36
but that's how it works i love this it's
00:18:39
so good
00:18:39
so i'm a very big fan of speakly and i
00:18:42
hope they're able to get some more
00:18:43
languages in the not too distant future
00:18:45
but if you're learning english estonian
00:18:47
finnish french
00:18:48
german italian russian or spanish then
00:18:52
make sure you check it out or if you
00:18:53
just want to have a mosey around and see
00:18:55
what i'm on about
00:18:56
then check it out use the link in the
00:18:58
description use the codes in the
00:19:00
description for the appropriate language
00:19:02
that you're learning
00:19:03
if you want forty percent off a premium
00:19:05
membership if you just wanna check it
00:19:07
out at first
00:19:08
you get seven days of a premium
00:19:10
membership for free
00:19:11
and then if you want to continue after
00:19:13
that you'll still get your 40
00:19:14
off remember using that link using the
00:19:17
code
00:19:17
does help the channel out thank you very
00:19:19
much to speakly for providing me with
00:19:21
the codes
00:19:22
and i also want to reiterate that i
00:19:24
contacted them about it because i liked
00:19:26
the look of speakly
00:19:27
and they've been so responsive in terms
00:19:30
of my feedback about the app
00:19:31
and just in terms of everything i get
00:19:33
the very very strong feeling
00:19:35
that it is an app that is by language
00:19:37
learners for language learners but there
00:19:39
was a lot to cover and i know i didn't
00:19:41
get to all of it in this review but i
00:19:42
did actually just film myself
00:19:44
using it for four hours over four
00:19:46
different days so if you have questions
00:19:48
about it i will probably know the answer
00:19:50
to your question so make sure to leave
00:19:51
them in the comments now i'm turning the
00:19:53
camera off so i can learn more finish
