Mondly.com

Hello, everybody! I know it's been a while since I blogged. I thought I'd run out of language courses. But today I came across one that is definitely worth talking about. It's called Mondly and it uses the "gamification" method of learning.

I like to pick a language I don't know well to review the course in. So for Mondly, I picked Chinese.

You start here with what looks like a travel map.

And once you pick your destination you will have a set of lessons. See the stars? They reflect how well you did the lesson.

Mondly feels a lot like a crossover between Duolingo and the old LiveMocha. You start off seeing pictures and hearing names. Basically, this is a total immersion course.

For each wrong answer you lose a heart.

Mondly's method is even more "sink or swim" than Duolingo as you don't get translations of the words and they will throw you expressions you haven't heard yet. I highly recommend combining it with a vocabulary course such as Memrise.

So why bother with Mondly when there's Duolingo? Well, here's one good reason. They have quite a few languages that Duolingo hasn't even begun to hatch yet such as Mandarin and Afrikaans.

Overall, I really like Mondly and I think you should give it a try.

Languages Available: English, German, French, Spanish, Romanian, Hungarian, Czech, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Korean, Swedish, Finnish, Chinese, Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Greek, Indonesian, Turkish, Vietnamese, Afrikaans

Quizlet

Quizlet is another vocabulary site. And it's one worth mentioning in my opinion. 

When I signed up I noticed that Quizlet has a premium option. I almost never bother with premium options (how is an eight-year-old supposed to pay a hundred or more dollars a year?) but I do check to see how much they cost.

I was shocked because Quizlet only charges $15 for a year of premium service. I could pay for that with my allowance! Keep in mind, though, this review is for the FREE version of Quizlet because right now that's what I am trying.

On Quizlet you can create sets of flashcards or browse sets made by others in the languages mentioned below or for other things such as State Flags, Body Parts, and oddly enough Thanksgiving Dinner?

You can browse by category. 

I chose Languages And Vocabulary, of course.

Then I selected Spanish so I could check this place out.

I browsed through the pre-made sets of Spanish flashcards and settled on Spanish 2.

Each of the words is shown to you as a flashcard. Then you can practice, play a game, or take a test.

I decided to try out their games.

Scatter

In this game they throw all the words on the floor, in Spanish and English, and you have to pick up the Spanish word and put it on top of the English word or vice versa. This game was actually fun while it made me pay attention to the vocabulary.

Space Race

This is a game that requires some typing skill. The words fly by on the screen and you have to type them in as they are flying. I really like this game even though I can't seem to win it!

Languages

English and European

English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Finnish, Danish, Greek, Norwegian, Swedish, Irish-Gaelic, Welsh/Cymraeg, Latin

Asian and Pacific

Indonesian, Korean, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese, Mongolian, 

Chinese

Chinese, Cantonese, Mandarin

Japanese

Hiragana, Katakana, Kanji (writing)

Indian

Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Telugu, Urdu, 

Middle Eastern

Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Pashto, Turkish

Slavic

Russian, Bosnian, Croatian, Czech, Polish, Serbian

Easy Japanese

When Faith and I started attending Twincentric Academy we met another set of twins named Aiko Hope and Akiko Grace who have Japanese parents. They grew up here but speak Japanese at home with their parents. Meeting Hope and Grace inspired me to learn some Japanese, too.

This is one of the best sites I found!

Easy Japanese is a site created for people who want to learn Japanese anyway. It is very kid friendly, I think with it's cute interface. Anybody of any age should enjoy it.

On the front page they have a word of the day.

Today's word of the day is Watashi.

There are a bunch of fun games to learn your Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji. All of the games are fun and easy.

In the first picture above is the Kana quiz where you can see how much Kana you can recognize. This is for people who have been studying the writing.

The second picture shows a memory game which is better for beginners who are stilling getting confused.

The third picture is a game where you click on a piece of Hiragana and it shows you how to write it.

The fourth picture is Kana invaders. You can use the game to practice your Kana recognition.

They have a new area called Lessons which teaches you Japanese in lessons. It is not a game. It just shows you the words but it is interesting and if you are very interested in Japanese I think you will enjoy spending time in this area.

Personally, I think the best thing about the site is the writing games and the games that show you how to write. So, go check it out.

Have fun.

Memrise

Haven't you always wanted a garden? To learn a language in that garden. I offer you Memrise. Memrise is a garden where you plant the seeds of foreign words and water them each day to help them grow.

On Memrise each word you learn in your new language is a seed. You plant the seed in your garden and harvest it to learn it. Then you water it or practice it until it grows into a beautiful, healthy flower. Once it is a flower you must keep watering it to stay alive. This is how the words stay in your long term memory.

Memrise is like a set of flashcards. You can choose a premade set or you can create your own set. Being able to create your own set of words is great because you can practice the exact words you want to learn.  Faith likes learning the names of instruments. Olive likes learning the names of animals. I like learning learning words about art and other languages.

Users make Mnemonics with pictures and funny sentences and share them with the community!

It's great to give back, isn't it? You can create mnemonics with funny words and pictures on them to help you learn the language. Maybe you are wondering what the word "mnemonic" means. I wondered that, too. You see it a lot on language learning sites, though. I looked it up in the dictionary. To put it simply it's a device that you helps you remember something. It's a learning tool! 

Enough about mnemonics. You will love Memrise because you will love planting seeds in the courses you like and the ones you got to create yourself. You will love it because it is free and you don't have to pay any money. You will love it because it has lots of funny mnemonics and is a lot more fun than flashcards.

So, go check it out. Have fun!

There were too many languages on Memrise to actually mention them all (Good job on that note, Memrise!) so I have listed the language groups that are offered on Memrise.

Languages: European, Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Asian and Pacific, Middle Eastern, Slavic, African, Native American, Classics, Constructed Languages, Sign Languages, Other