Learn 33 Languages with Mondly 4+

My trip to Greece years ago was wonderful. My ability to speak Greek even the few phrases I had mastered sounding authentic to the people. They were very surprised and appreciative. (See below for my first use of Mondly.) Now I’m reviewing my German anticipating working again with German speaking business people. The app is helping me to catch up quickly. I’m starting with the intermediate section and finding my memory coming back quickly. Mondly is an excellent tool!

(Learning Greek) I’m really learning how to speak and read Greek. As a former language teacher I’m impressed that in 5 days I have learned lots of basic vocabulary as well as phrases that I will use in my coming travel to Greece. As well, the app is cleverly introducing the Greek alphabet. It combines pictures, audio and print. You are prompted to speak into a mike. Then the app reflects back what you say in writing. Using the color red when you’re wrong and white when you get it right. It works and it’s fun.

An update: I’m on my 58th day now and continuing to learn daily. I still have a long way to go to be fluent, but I’ll be able to speak basic phrases and vocabulary when in Greece. I’ve noted that I’ve covered less than 10% of the app’s content so far. They have just updated the app to include more opportunities to speak and hear yourself converse. Very clever.

I love this app when it comes to learning. The hands free style where I can practice speaking is amazing and I’ve been able to put into practice the kanji, katakana and hiragana I’ve been learning on my own (I recommend this program in addition to a book or another program to practice sentence structure). I love everything about it...except the chat bot sections. The responses I give don’t work with the bot (despite them offering me the sentence) and if I try to do another sentence (which sometimes is an option) it’ll count it all as one sentence. I don’t know how to “speak” a period into a sentence. It’s frustrating. Even more frustrating however are the repetition sections. I repeat the dialogue exactly as they ask me (it even is recorded the same) but they mark me as wrong for using hiragana instead of kanji for some words. How do you “speak” in hiragana vs kanji? The program never says it. They just repeat the same section over and over again and drive me insane. I love this app...except that part. Please adjust the chat bot sections to either teach how to use the dialect they’re asking you to use (slowing down doesn’t help when it’s the same sounds you’re using and you’re still getting it wrong), or make it a bit more lenient with foreign speakers trying to speak a language they are unfamiliar with. Beyond that I love the program and recommend it to everyone...except the chat bot sections.

Grew up with Vietnamese parents who didn’t teach me to read or write in the language but I speak fairly fluently. So I prefer to write responses to the app instead of speaking them to improve in the areas I need. I can spell the letter combinations of most words without a hitch but the Vietnamese tones can be tricky to decipher. My complaint is that the app will give my response as correct even though I’ve used the incorrect intonation mark. Maybe you could possibly fix it so that the correct answer shows up in addition to my “correct” response. This way, I can spot my mistakes. The reason I know that my “correct” responses are not correct is when I’ve typed in the last letter, I still have to tap the “check” button. When I’ve spelled it absolutely correctly, the answer will ding without me doing anything. Otherwise, Mondly is helping me rediscover my native language. App is so much better than when I first paid for it many many years ago and stopped using it shortly thereafter. They’ve greatly improved the listening and speaking functions. It’s so much more immersive and interactive than before. I know that Mondly is making my life better moving forward. I know I can finally visit Vietnam one day without being ashamed that I can’t read or write in my birth language. Shout out to Ioana at Mondly for helping me out with restoring my purchase.