uTalk - 150가지가 넘는 언어를 배워보세‪요‬ 4+

Maybe it is missing in the free version but I haven’t found any sort of translation of the words in the game. I didn’t want to use my microphone so that automatically cuts out two games which isn’t a big deal. The games just start speaking the other language and use images and you’re supposed to figure it out I guess. One game assumes you’ve already heard the words and so you know which image to select… which if you’re a beginner literally does nothing to help you learn the word, you probably get frustrated and forget what the word was originally because the app yells NO at you in the language you’re learning.

i get what they’re going for and in theory it seems like a good idea. But here is the huge issue with these language apps that do “immersion learning” : How am I supposed to know a word based on an image? If I see a picture of a man giving me the thumbs up how do I know if the word means man, or yes, or agree, or something else similar? There’s no way to look. Up the words after so I have no idea. I think maybe one game actually spelled it out so you could maybe write that down and look it up but that’s so much extra work that other apps already do for you so you can actually focus on learning instead of working.

We would like to reassure that this app does come with translations, it’s just that you need to give permission for the app to use your microphone to be able to access them. All the words and phrases are translated in the Phrase Practice section where you can also listen to audio by male and female native speakers. In the same section, each word and phrase you hear is linked to a specific picture because research shows this helps boost recall – it’s called dual coding. (Helpfully, the translations are given in the free content as well as in the paid for content.) We hope you’ll give our app another go with the microphone enabled and, if we can be of any further help to you, please contact the friendly guys at support@utalk.com. Finally, we are grateful that you gave us 3 stars even though you weren’t able to access all the app’s features. 🙏 Best wishes, Sarah 🌼

I am enjoying using your app to learn Amharic prior to a work trip to Ethiopia in May and June( voluntary surgery group). I really like the ability tomhear the vocabulary spoken by two native speakers who it seems have slightly different accents. Very helpful. The multiple areas of interest for vocabulary is also great. A major problem with the site is there is no basic grammar to help to construct what might be useful sentences. When there are phrases the user has no idea what each word means and can only parrot the sounds. I understand you don’t want to focus on grammar but without the basic structures of using simple verbs in conjugations, the student only has the ability to throw out single words which is extremely limiting. I have to use other sources(YouTube FSI material etc) to get this. Having a basic grammar module would really be an upgrade

Sarah,
Thank you very much for your thoughtful response to my review. I now understand the scope of your app more clearly, specifically that it is meant to be used by speaker of over 150 languages.

I very much appreciate your service for reasons previously mentioned. It was difficult finding a source like yours for learning a language that is not frequently taught.
Thank you once again
Gerry Dunphy

We are glad that our app has helped you get started in Amharic and wish you every success with your work trip to Ethiopia which sounds extremely valuable. We also appreciate your suggestion for developing a basic grammar module. We are starting to include some grammar tips on our blog site for our more committed learners but have not touched on Amharic yet. (We cover more than 150 languages so it’s a tall order.) Grammar is also not a part of part of the app itself for two reasons. Firstly, our app is aimed at making it quick and fun for beginners to get started in a new language and we believe learning grammar should come later in the language learning journey. Secondly, our app can be used by speakers of more than 100 languages, not just English, so any explanation of grammar within the app would need to be repeated in all our 150-odd languages. We hope your work goes well. Best wishes, Sarah PS In case it’s useful to know our app works by automatically defaulting to the language of your device but you can see translations in another language by going to Settings and selecting Application Language.

I love being able to explore so many languages. And in the school where I teach the main languages are spanish, vietnamese, somali, oromo, amheric, tagalog, punjabi, samoan and more. This is the only app I could find which gives access to learn basic phrases in all of them (add quiche and kosrae please). You won’t learn a language on this app, there’s no development or explanation, it is a phrasebook only. But to that end it’s great. I used it traveling in Albania and Bosnia and it really helped. The native voices differentiating for male and female is nice, The games are good practice without being boring, though the memory game is unnecessarily hard. There’s speaking practice too. My frustration is that I only really want to learn a few phrases in a topic. I do want to ask how they are and say happy birthday, etc, but I don’t have interest in asking them where the atm is or whether I should boil the water. But to do the practice games I have to learn all. With a subscription you can make your own phrasebook, but you can’t test yourself on it. And if you don’t buy the subscription you won’t know which phrases are in a topic so you can only guess if they’re useful. But overall I’ve really loved it for what it is and it will continue to be a go-to app for me.

Thanks for saying you love our app and for giving such thoughtful and useful feedback. We also hear your request about adding more features eg games for Phrasebook words and it’s definitely on our wish-list! In fact we face a continual tug of love between putting our resources into adding new languages or putting them into further app developments and we try to juggle them both. We are glad that our language range has come in useful on your travels and with your multi-lingual students. Incidentally, did you know our app works for english and non-english speakers alike? See the cog on the top right hand corner for the range of languages that it gives instruction in - and there’s also a special Classroom edition which is useful for groups of language learners. For any details, drop a line to support@utalk.com Happy language learning! 😊Best wishes, Sarah