LingQ: Real Language Learning 12+

Best language learning app

I think most people have come to the realization that just memorizing a bunch of words and grammar does not a fluent person make. Many of us will come to this realization after spending years learning a language in school only to find that in the real world, we can’t understand a native speaker of that language to save our lives. We then fall into that trap of thinking we’re too old to learn or that our brains have already been hardwired and learning a new language is just too difficult as an adult. But if you want to learn the way a baby learns you have to actually think like a baby - immerse yourself and listen before you start talking. What’s great about this app is that with the import feature you can find content that you are actually interested in. If you’re just reading some text book story that mimics but doesn’t quite feel like a real situation you will get bored. But if you find an amazing show on Netflix in Spanish that you can get hooked on then you’ll have fun decoding the words and following along. I started doing exactly that during the pandemic when I had a lot of alone time on my hands and it started a lifelong habit of learning. This app has been my favorite tool for doing so!

Developer Response ,

Dear user, thank you very much for sharing your valuable & useful feedback. We’re glad you’re enjoying LingQ!

Awesome way to practice reading and listening

LingQ is honestly the best resource someone can have learning a language at any level to practice reading from native materials. Where other apps go slow and encourage dominating every aspect of a language before moving on to new content, LingQ pushes you constantly to expand vocabulary and go outside of your comfort zone. To me, this is way more effective. I don’t lose motivation as fast (grinding “el gato” 15 times before being allowed to learn any other words probably robs a lot of other people of their motivation too) and it feels like how I learned my native language. Definitely give it a shot and put it into your rotation of resources (remember, just one app won’t get you fluent).
The only reason I gave 4 out of 5 is that as an advanced learner, I’d like the definitions of new words I come across to be in my target language (Spanish), but despite switching dictionaries in-app and even the translation language, I constantly am getting words translated into English. I think it’s because of the “popular definitions” feature, but they’re marked as Spanish when they’re literally just English definitions. It takes me out of the article and thinking in the language. I have to cover up my screen so I don’t see it, and copy and paste a Spanish definition in instead. That’s my only complaint (also a back button within dictionaries would be really helpful but that’s a tiny issue). Overall great experience it’s just that one thing!

Solid App

I’ve tried a lot of language learning apps and using the mobile LingQ app and/or the website has given me the best language learning results of them all. It does require a paradigm shift because the app will not “teach” you anything but it will give you all the tools to teach yourself. LingQ focuses heavily on reading and listening and you can build a strong linguistic base in your target language.

There are only 3 reasons I give this app 4 st at a instead of 5: first) I don’t like think the LingQ staff is very responsive to flaws with the site/app nor are they very open to constructive criticism. They will write back promptly saying, “thank you for your input” but that is it; second, I’ve needed to downgrade from a premium membership multiple times when I wasn’t going to be using the app for multiple months due to military deployments and they make it a nightmare. You have to delete your LingQs or the entire language. Sometimes they renew your membership when you try to unsubscribe. Finally, when I recommend friends to try the app they obviously don’t want to become premium members right away. However, they only get 20 lingqs and the app defaults to auto LingQ creation and the site essentially becomes useless after you have clicked on 20 words.

Overall, I still love LingQ and if any of these features have changed since the last time I encountered them I will gladly update my review.

Developer Response ,

We're glad you enjoy your experience with LingQ and congratulations on your language learning success!

Regarding the things you pointed out:

1. Please note that there are several things being developed in parallel and some issues may take longer than others to resolve. However, everything is being taken into account and we try to accommodate as best we can.

2. It really works that way. But if you need assistance, just contact support and we will assist you in any changes that are necessary in the account. It is worth saying that subscriptions made through our website are much easier for us to support in cases of cancellation than those made in the Play Store or App Store, in which the user needs to cancel.

3. We're aware the free trial is quite limited and we have plans to expand it. In this case, I'm happy to provide your friends with a longer trial period. They just have to email me at tiagor@lingq.com to get set up.