I’ve used FluentU for over six years to study Mandarin and can say the structure of the flashcard system is unique and in many ways better than other systems out there (and I have used many of the most popular alternatives). I really want to love this app, but sadly can confirm there are tons of quality issues that regularly show up with the app (often it seems little to no testing must have been done since some bugs are completely blocking anyone from using the functionality). These are not small nit picky issues, they are major functional issues that should not have been allowed to be released in the first place. This has been a trend for the last few years and is getting worse. It feels like the app started with a different engineering team and handed over to a much less experienced one. Very sad,

When playing the video clips on an iPad Air the clips fire off one after another so quickly that there is no time to process the info. The clips are moving so quickly that the beginning of each clip is truncated. Additionally like all language learning programs they expect you to be literate right away. The western alphabet is used differently from language to language. Teaching people to read and write before they can understand leads to poor pronunciation. Stop doing this very few 6 year olds can read and write but most of can speak their native language pretty well.

I began my journey with learning German about 4 years ago, and I have to say from the outset that this program was not there at the beginning. I worked with several different do-it-yourself language tutoring programs; one of them I am still with (Babbel), one I really didn’t care for (Duolingo), and one I found helpful but no longer actively use (Lingvist). This program, I think (and this is just from my own personal experience), is better suited to those who already have a basic, fundamental understanding of their foreign language of choice. It is definitely helpful, before you engage with FluentU, to know some vocabulary and have some familiarity with how the grammar works. If you are at that stage in your language learning development, then this program can be an excellent tool in helping you further develop your vocabulary and overall comprehension.Don‘t look for them to coddle you - the words come at you fast, and it is your responsibility to learn them and follow along. I chose the intermediate level here (a little above what I can handle), and it‘s hard but I like being challenged. So, bottom line: If you are serious about learning a new language, and you already have some prior knowledge of the basics, I highly recommend FluentU to keep you moving forward!

I realize all language learning apps/programs have their flaws. My problem with FluentU is I’m paying $20 to be an app tester. I’ve been using this program for several years, I’ve completed Beginner 1&2, Intermediate 1, and am nearly finished with Intermediate 2. I’m not exaggerating when I say that every time there is an update, there are issues. I’ve emailed customer service so many times, I’m absolutely certain they ignore my complaints at this point. Sometimes the issues are fixed just to return at the next update. For example, the sentence translations will repeat themselves within a lesson. The lessons don’t go to the review or completed queue after you’ve completed them so it’s difficult to tell which lessons you’re done with and which are new. There are also the complaints of other users regarding the portrait mode and interface issues. I live with a native speaker and there are translation issues in a number of lessons. The app only runs well on a current Apple device, it’s slow otherwise. Don’t expect any kind of refund when you have issues, they are however, quick to offer an apology and reassurance that “they’ll pass it along to the devs.” I do feel I’ve learned a good amount and appreciate that the videos are mostly current. This year, I had enough and bought a different language learning program and am finally saying au revoir to FluentU.

So it turns out that the free 15 day trial is for new users. I had made a free account about a month ago and putzed around on it for a bit. Then last week I decided to give the full service a go with the free trial. It was awesome, but a little overwhelming for me at my current stage of learning. When I checked my email, I saw that I had been charged already for the full amount of the monthly plan. Thinking this was a mistake, I contacted support and asked for a refund and to drop me back down to free. A couple days later, they responded, did so and explained what the issue was. Sweet!Overall, the 30 dollar plan is the most immersive learning experience I can think of. You watch videos people of that language might actually watch as opposed to boring stuff made by an educational tool. And said videos have every word spoken captioned and clickable for the definition. That is freaking awesome. It a vey straightforward and intuitive process. Once I'm more acclimated to this language I'll definitely sign up for the full plan.

I've only just started this app, so I can't guarantee anything, but from what I've experienced so far, I can say this is a good app to try out. I'm learning some Japanese from this app and I love how it teaches you. It makes you use and get acquainted to the keyboard to type your answers. One flaw I must say I have with this app-and this could just be me- is that I'm having a hard time remembering what it teaches me sometimes, but that flaw can easily be fixed. Another thing that's great about this app is that it has a listening tool to tell you what you're going to learn. It says all the phrases slowly. So why the four star rating? Another problem I have with this app is the bugs it can have. I was learning how to say different types of people in Japanese ( American, Chinese etc...) I typed in one of the answers and it said I got it wrong. It showed my answer and the correct one, and they were the same... Maybe something was wrong with my eyes, but this happened twice. Either way, I can't say you should avoid the app for that reason. It's not bad in any way, and I highly recommend it.