LingoDeer: A Five Star App for Learning Asian Languages

Hi everybody! It's been a while. Today, I wanted to introduce you to an app I recently discovered. I kept hearing about LingoDeer through the language-learning community grapevine (yes, that is a real thing), and all I heard was good things. I was excited to try it!

LingoDeer is an only an app at this point. But it's definitely one you want to have if you are learning Japanese, Korean, or Mandarin Chinese.

I got under a cozy blanket and spent at least twenty minutes working on this cool app. I might have actually spent more time as I lost track of it.

The app is very fun and game-like. When you get an answer correct, you hear a Ka-Ching! sound with is a positive sound, in my opinion.

The game will have you drag and drop characters onto the board to construct a sentence. It will also have you practice writing the characters. Every feature of the game was fun. There was no part I didn't like.

The voice was good and clear, too!

Ready for the best part? I found myself remembering the words that I had learned. Sometimes, I try out a course for Mandarin Chinese, and I forget the vocabulary immediately. (Mandarin is one of the tougher languages for me to learn.) But with LingoDeer that didn't happen! Now, I want to shout about it from the rooftops.

If you're leaning any of the three languages they offer,

GO. GET. LINGODEER. RIGHT. NOW.

(Can you tell I'm excited about this app? Lol)

Some Windows 8 Apps for Language Learning

If you have a Windows 8 computer you might want to get some apps that you can use on your new computer. Here are some apps that might help you with the language you are learning.

Chinese

Little Prince Series

Animals 101

Transport 101

This is a cute game which has two modes, a learning mode and a game mode.

In the learning mode you can click on flashcards and hear the Chinese name for animals. 

In the game mode they give you the name for an animal and ask you which one it is.

Transportation 101 is the same way.

Japanese

Learn Japanese Romaji

This is a game for people who know a little bit of Japanese vocabulary. If you don't know all the words you will by the time you've played the game ten or twenty times. The game is easy and if you are competitive, it can be addictive. Drag the words to their matching picture.

Spanish/English

Vocabuland HD

This last one doesn't have a game mode which is actually pretty disappointing considering it would have great potential in that area. It has quite a few vocabulary words in Spanish or English. You can listen to a man or woman say them. I felt like with a name like Vocabuland, I would at least get a game so I felt let down. Maybe in the future they will have a game mode where they say a word and you have to click on the picture of the word. That would be great!

If you are the type of person who likes picture dictionaries and just sit and browse them for hours then this is a good app for you.

So, if you have a Windows 8 computer go ahead and check these out in the app store. You can find most of them by doing a quick search for "Learn Spanish", "Learn Chinese" or "Learn Japanese"

Learn A Language

You can Learn A Language! There are eight to choose from.

Sign up and choose which course you are going to learn. For this example, I chose Italian.

An overview of what you will learn from the course.

Once I signed up I was introduced to Einstein. Or at least a 3D guy who looks an awful lot like Einstein. He gave me a tour of Learn A Language.

Einstein teaches you how to use the site.

Yep, that's right. Einstein gives you the grand tour of Learn A Language. There is a lot to do on this site as you can see in the picture above.

First you learn the your new words or phrases in the Learning Lounge.

3D Animals!

They show you the word in English and then in your target language. They even show you a picture of each of the words you learn. Olive loves this site because she loves learning the animals with their 3D moving pictures. It's her favourite!

After you learn the words you are going to have to prove you know them!

The first game is multiple choice to make it easy for you and help you learn the words a little better before you test them. It is called Memory Machine.

Once you have used the memory machine you should know most of the words well enough to  play a game that requires you to type in the words. This next game is called Soccer Game.

The idea is that you are playing soccer but the concept is the same as Hangman. It just has a prettier picture. You hit letters that you think are in the word. If they are in the word they appear in the "Letters Correct" area. If they are not correct, then you don't block the soccer ball and your team loses.

So, there you go. Choose a course, practice the words, play the games, and Learn A Language with Learn A Language.

Have fun.

Oh, but don't cut out of class early. Einstein hates that and won't give you any points for the lesson you quit!

Languages: Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Spanish

Languages Online: Destiny's Review

Languages Online is a fun language course that makes learning a language a lot like playing a video game. The lessons start out really simple. 

You click the button to hear the words. 

Then you listen and repeat. Once you have done this you can play the game and see how will you remember the words. You will be surprised!

There are plenty of games and music and surprises to help you learn a language.

Below I have found a Youtube video that gives you an example of one of the games in German. 

Languages available: Chinese, ESL, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Macedonian.