10 Great Apps to Help You Learn a Foreign Language Faster

“Language is a process of free creation; its laws and principles are fixed, but the manner in which the principles of generation are used is free and infinitely varied. Even the interpretation and use of words involves a process of free creation.”

– Noam Chomsky

Language is one of our defining traits as a species. A testament to how far we have come since our early days of hiding from everything, in the trees. Plenty of other animals communicate, of course; whales, dolphins, wolves, ravens, apes, these are just a few of the creatures that inhabit the same planet as us, and that communicate, as well.

None of them, however, have what we might understand as being language. Language, as we know it, is not as instinctive as “animal talk”. We go far beyond instinct with languages. We study it, we lay down rules for proper usage, we create works of art with it, and we learn other languages.

We live in a mobile age, and traveling has never been as easy as it is nowadays. You can hop on a plane, and in under 24 hours, you can be on the other side of the planet, and be back in time for work, if you are leaving on Friday evening.

This mobile age of ours does not only mean mobility. As a matter of fact, we would be willing to wager that the first thought that popped into your head was “mobile phones”. Well, in this article, you could say we will be exploring both of the meanings of mobility.

Eddie Izzard has been putting everyone to shame for the past few years, learning lots of new languages, and running marathon after marathon. There is no way that we can make a marathon easy for anybody, but what we can do, is help you learn a new language.

The article’s title is a big give-away, but in case you have not figured it out, we have made a list of a few really cool apps, that should help you teach yourself how to speak a different language. All of the apps are, of course, mobile; some for Android, some for iOS, most for both.

Let’s get started.

1. Duolingo (iOS and Android)

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Learning should be a fun activity, and with all the cool game mechanics we have out there, it would (or more likely, is) be a real shame not to use them to teach.

The Wall Street Journal called this app “the best free language learning app”, and its plain to see why. No adds, no interruptions, no hidden charges. Just a good looking app, that provides a fun and educational experience, using a level-up system to show you how your learning has progressed.

2. Memrise (iOS and Android)

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Memrise’s language courses are made by other member’s of the community, making this a crowd-sourced learning platform. Like a lot of the entries on this (if not all of them), this app also has a gamified learning experience, using a points system to help quantify what and how you have learned.

3. Babbel (iOS and Android)

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Aside from fun, teaching should also be adaptive. You might, for example, already know a few things about the language your are trying to learn. That’s why Babbel detects your level, and suggests what course you should take. Also, according to The Wall Street Journal (again), Angela Merkel also uses this app. Now that’s endorsement.

4. Lingua.ly (iOS and Android)

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Lingua.ly uses your browsing experience to help you learn a language, making the act of learning almost subconscious. We exaggerate, of course, but it does make practicing a lot less of a chore.

You can add new words to your vocabulary, see examples of sentences were the word is used, and mini-games where you use that word properly. Also, the app also recommends articles on subjects you are interested in, in the language you are trying to learn. This means you won’t have to read the bland texts usually used in learning.

5. (How to) Pronounce (iOS)

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Wonder what this app does? If we were to hazard a guess, we would say it proposes to teach you how certain words are pronounced. Upon reading up a little more about the app, you will find out that it does, indeed, that which we said in the previous sentence, for the four major languages in the E.U., namely English, French, German, and Spanish.

6. Busuu (iOS and Android)

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Taking its name from a language spoken by only 8 people in Cameroon (it might be extinct now for all we know), Busuu offers both a free and a premium membership to help you learn a new language.

It is a mix of traditional and crowd-sourced learning, as it provides material to read up on to get to know the grammar and how the language sounds, and it allows you to practice with native speakers, who are also members of the Busuu community, via their integrated video-chat application.

7. LearnEnglish Grammar (UK Edition) (iOS and Android)

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Let’s face it, tenses is hard. We makes mistakes without even realizing it, and no matter how good you thinks you is at English, practice can’t does you any harm. Also, there is a US Edition available.

8. HelloTalk (iOS and Android)

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The blending of social media with education seems natural, when you think about it. Through social media you get to meet lots of new people, and there’s a lot to learn from new people, including languages.

HelloTalk is a self-styled language exchange app, and it really is the best way to describe it. You get to learn someone’s native language, while they get to learn yours.

9. FunEasy Learn English (Android)

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Now, if you are reading this article, this app probably isn’t for you. But if you’ve got a friend trying to learn English, or maybe even a kid, than this is a great app for them. It uses illustrations, recorded pronunciations, and native translations to help improve the vocabulary, and it also includes several games to give the user the chance to practice.

10. Papora (iOS)

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Offering an app for English and one for Spanish, Papora are a cool learning community that is still expanding. For now, they only offer the two apps, both of which are only for the iOS, but plans to release the same for both Android and Windows Phone are announced. Also, they plan on making apps for learning several other languages, including French, German, Russian, and Chinese.

That wraps up our lists of apps to help you learn a foreign language. We hope you found them useful, and that you will be speaking and typing in your chosen language in no-time. If you are looking to build a similar app for your business androidevelopers.co can help you find the best mobile development company. Don’t forget to share your thoughts, in any tongue you like, in the comment section below.