Glisten · Language Podcasts 4+

Hands-free language learning

Drew McCormack

Designed for iPad

    • 4.5 • 8 Ratings
    • Free
    • Offers In-App Purchases

Description

Listen to podcasts in English, French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, German, Italian, Portuguese and Dutch, with more languages coming!

Glisten is the “Good Listen” podcast app for Language Learners. It’s all you need to immerse yourself in a language, on the path to becoming fluent.

Learning a foreign language is difficult, but the ones who achieve fluency all have a secret — they listen a lot!

The key to taking a step beyond the introductory apps is to start listening to real native speakers. Glisten can help immerse you in a foreign language, which is what you need to take your listening comprehension and speaking to the next level. And because you can listen to the same podcasts as native speakers, it’s really fun!

So how does it work? Glisten brings difficult conversations into focus, using repetition. Instead of having you push ahead and lose the thread of what is being said, it repeats each sentence during a listening workout. You get more time to digest phrases, which gives you context for what comes next, and keeps you interested. It is truly exhilarating the first time you listen to native speakers at full speed with Glisten, and realize you can understand them!

Glisten is a podcast player designed purposely for Language Learners. You browse through existing podcasts in your chosen language, and when you have found an interesting episode, you start a listening workout, which is like going to a gym for your ears.

Glisten goes through a series of “reps” in each workout. It might play a sentence a few times, then slow it down, and finally play it back at full speed, before moving on. You choose the workout that is suitable for each episode.

The latest Speech-to-Text technology is used to extract text and understand what is said and when. This is how Glisten knows where the sentences start and finish.

And, of course, it can automatically generate a transcription of what is being said, so you can follow along in the text. There is no need to go searching for transcripts on the web, Glisten produces the transcript for any piece of spoken audio.

The listening workouts in Glisten mean you can move through an episode of a podcast which would normally be well above your level, listening to native speakers speak about interesting topics, and fully enjoy the content because you aren’t being left behind and getting confused. And the repetition of phrases amplifies your ability to remember them later.

FREE FEATURES
• Search for podcasts in your target language
• Follow podcasts to get the latest episodes
• Prepare a listening workout, automatically transcribing the text
• Follow a listening workout, with sentence repeats, pauses, and slow downs
• Translate text into your native language with DeepL using tap-and-hold
• Play straight through simple content just like in other podcast players
• Play through difficult content using a listening workout with many sentence repeats
• Read along with the automatically generated transcription
• Check you daily listening time and other statistics
• Sync podcasts and progress between your iPhone and iPad using iCloud
• Break through the intermediate plateau, exposing yourself to lots of content
• Revise episodes downloaded in the past

PRO FEATURES (SUBSCRIPTION)
• Choose from all listening workouts
• Practice speaking with specialized workouts
• Import and transcribe any audio file
• Follow any podcast via a link
• Follow along with text in the Apple Watch app

GLISTEN PRO
Glisten can be downloaded for free and used for listening to podcasts. The free version includes a few listening workouts to get started.

To unlock all workouts and other PRO features, you can purchase a subscription inside the app. There is a free 7 day trial, so you can try out the PRO Features before you are charged.

GLISTEN TERMS OF USE (EULA)
Please visit: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

What’s New

Version 1.4.1

- Updated requirements for OS
- Added tips for using playback routines
- Changed naming of the tabs
- Simplified explanations of playback routines
- Improved general responsiveness
- Fixed issues with playback jumping between paragraphs
- Text extraction is more stable

Ratings and Reviews

4.5 out of 5
8 Ratings

8 Ratings

lovin the phone ,

Best Language App! Great Features!

I’ve spent years studying a few languages in endless ways. This app provides the best features to develop actual comfort and confidence in a language you are studying. It allows a variety of ways to listen and read at the same time. It has a bunch of different ‘workout’ methods. It’s super convenient, using easily available podcasts right from within the app. You can also set it to Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced, and switch whenever you want.

I love this app! It’s what I’ve been searching for—a way to use “comprehensible input” (the most highly regarded method in language learning today), without any struggle, and for it to be fun—being able to change workout styles whenever you feel like it—keeps the whole process fresh.

I hope more and more people get excited about this app, so that the developer will keep working on it. I’m using it on both iPhone and iPad, so that’s excellent too. Absolutely recommend this if you really want to develop you language ability!

Developer Response ,

Thank you! Glad you are enjoying Glisten. We’ll do our best to keep improving it.

Doc Molly ,

¡Excelente!

I teach/learn Spanish through hosting the Medical Spanish Podcast, and I just tried this application out, and I love it. The transcription is auto generated, so there will be a few errors, but they’re rare. It’s an awesome way to immerse yourself in Spanish, and be able to repeat things and see the transcript when needed. If you hear a phrase or word you want to add to your vocabulary, you can easily go back and find it, listen to it again and you can even copy it and paste it into a note for later reference. Love it! Bravo!

Developer Response ,

Thanks! Glad you like the concept.

App Privacy

The developer, Drew McCormack, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy.

Data Not Linked to You

The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:

  • Usage Data
  • Diagnostics

Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More

Supports

  • Family Sharing

    Some in‑app purchases, including subscriptions, may be shareable with your family group when Family Sharing is enabled.

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