Learning a new language takes a lot of time and practice, and usually a lot of money, too. But one service, Duolingo (4 stars), has proved that great language-learning material doesn't have to cost a dime. The Duolingo website has been one of my favorite places to brush up on foreign words and phrases, and the iPhone app, which has offline content so you can keep learning no matter where you go, is equally stellar. Welcome to the circle, Android users: the small company behind this great language program has finally launched a Duolingo app for your mobile devices, too.
I've used Duolingo on the Web and iPhone over many months to brush up on my Spanish, but also to complement some self-learning from scratch that I had been doing in German using the audio-intensive Pimsleur program. The Android version is quite similar to the iPhone app. Overall, Duolingo works best, in my opinion, when you couple it with some other language-learning program or practice, or to refresh a language you've studied before. But it's an excellent app and service, and as far as truly free mobile apps for language-learning go, Duolingo is easily the best. It's even better in my opinion than a few paid language-learning apps, such as Living Language iPad app (requires $19.99 in-app purchase) and the mobile apps for Babbel (requires a membership from $12.95 per month).
From a user's perspective, Duolingo works like most other language-learning programs. You work through exercises or activities to complete lessons, which are part of larger units. The structure is clear, shown on a tree in Duolingo, and the app keeps track of your progress synchronously across both the Android or iPhone app and the Web version. It always remembers where you left off, and on the mobile platforms, it saves locally the most recent lessons you've completed (so you can repeat them if you only barely passed) as well as a few upcoming lessons.
Languages on Duolingo
The most obvious holdback for Duolingo is it doesn't have programs in as many languages as some other companies who have been making language-learning content since the early days of books-on-tape. On Android, the options for English speakers are Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portuguese for now. There are a few other computations if you count speakers of other languages studying English.
If you need to practice a language that may be hard to find, try Rosetta Stone Version 4 TOTALe, which is pricey but very good for beginners, or Pimsleur as a low-cost option (a couple of audio-only units will cost in the neighborhood of $25, depending on the language and delivery method).
Duolingo Exercises on Android
Like the iPhone app, the Duolingo Android app walks you through various exercises to help you practice reading, writing, listening, speaking, and translating your language of choice. You can actually sign up to study as many of the included languages as you want, and a clear menu option lets you toggle between your different courses.
Duolingo's exercises take only a few seconds to complete, which is appropriate for a mobile app. You might, for example, be asked to translate a sentence from English to Spanish or vice versa. Sometimes you'll type the answer long form, and sometimes you'll piece it together from a list of suggested words (compared with the Web app, the Android app swaps out about half the heavy-duty typing with this latter exercise, which is appropriate on the smaller screen). Sometimes the app asks you to speak a phrase or two, and sometimes it asks you to pick the correct translation from a multiple choice list?and there might be more than one correct answer. You can see a few examples of the kinds of exercises included in the app in the slideshow.
Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/-k9p97Py-0E/0,2817,2419582,00.asp
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