Getting ready to leave for a foreign vacation?
Want to explore another language from the comfort of your own home?
Then learn a new language with some of the top apps that we love! It is always fun and (usually) useful. Plus, if you’re anything like us on vacation, you don’t want to be caught without knowing how to ask where the bathroom is (yikes!).
So check out our top language learning apps below!
1. Duolingo
Duolingo is an app that allows you to learn 9 different languages for free.
It’s quick and easy to use (*with no ads). You’ll find 30 fun reading, writing, and speaking games that are repetitive in a good way, testing your memory. You strive to achieve high scores, track your progress, and you can share your accomplishments. It’s an awesome app for practicing grammar.
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2. Babbel
Babbel is a subscription language learning app that’s fun for beginner and advance learners.
Babbel gives you 14 languages to pick from and you can decide on your level of proficiency (beginner or advanced). Once you pick the language you want to learn, you will go straight into a “quiz”, which serves as a lesson. There are listening, writing, and speaking exercises that use speech recognition to train pronunciation. This is a great app for more in-depth lessons, even though it only takes about 15 minutes to complete one.
The only downfall is that only the first lesson is free; it is a subscription service. For month-to-month it’s $12.95/month, for every 3 months it’s $8.95/month, for every 6 months it’s $7.45/month, and every 12 months it’s 6.95/month. Your subscription will automatically renew unless it’s cancelled before the end of the current payment period (but there is a 20 day money back guarantee, no questions asked). Although… we would say that this app is better than the free ones!
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3. WordReference.com dictionaries
This free app is great for the dictionaries and conjugations!
There are 19 language dictionaries and 3 conjugators (Spanish, French, and Italian) for you to use. When you search a word it pulls up the definition, synonyms, conjugations (if available), and translations. You can also have it show the word in context, or through images. You also have the ability to save terms and get quick access to them for an on-the-go lookup. It’s not the pretties interface, but it’s a very helpful app!
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4. SayHi
SayHi is a speech translation app for iPhones and iPads that’s great for quick translations.
This app allows you to speak/type to translate. You can choose from multiple languages (43 are free – you have to pay to unlock less common languages), choose the speed of the translation audio, and pick a male or female translator voice. The app is set up so that you can also look up words like a dictionary where it shows the spelling and gives phonetic audio, and you can save the translations to favorites for quick access. You can edit and send/share the translation through the app for email, SMS, Facebook, and Twitter.
There are a few things that may deter you from this app… you can’t get this app outside of the Apple Store, you need internet connection to use it, and it is a subscription service. It costs $4.99 for a 3 month subscription or $2.99 for a 6 month subscription that auto-renews.
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5. Learn Languages: Language Lu
- 7 languages
- You have to download files to your device
- Logging in takes you straight to the home page – you have to go to settings to choose the language you want to learn
- There is a translator within the app that shows the writing and says it out loud for pronunciation
- You choose when you want to take quizzes after studying the language guides
- Con: There are pop-up ads.
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6. Memrise
- There are over 350 languages for you to learn
- The app shows how the word is spelled, gives the translation, has audio for pronounciation, and gives a “mems” for memorization that you can choose to keep as memorable references
- The app teaches you words, quizzes you on matching translations, a few more words are taught, more quizzes, then introduces the words in a sentence, followed by a typing quiz
- You can set reminders for when to study through the app!
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7. Phrasebook
- 13 different languages to choose from
- You can choose from different topics to learn
- The app shows common phrases
- When you choose a phrase it shows it in the language, phonetic pronunciation, it says it out loud, it records you saying it, and you can have the app say it slowly
- There is a dictionary app connected to it – it opens the app in your app store for install
- You can search for phrases/words
HAPPY SHOPPING!
[Check out more “Apps We Love – Editor’s Picks“, “The Best Websites and Apps for Traveling“, and “4 Shopping Apps you just can’t Miss this Holiday Season” (these apps are great for anytime!).]
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