Ling App Review: A Gamified Tool for Less Common Languages
Dennys Caldera Boka
Published on February 5, 2024
Great starting point, but only as a supplementary resource.
The Ling app stands out as a gamified language learning experience offering short, themed lessons. It creates a convenient and entertaining study experience. While it may not be the most comprehensive resource for widely spoken languages, Ling excels as a starting point for less-studied languages.
PROS
- Short and engaging activities
- Authentic native speaker audio for an immersive learning experience
- Teaches languages that many other apps don’t have
CONS
- The absence of translations for individual words can be challenging
- Certain activities may experience occasional bugs, affecting the overall user experience
- Limited grammar explanations
Languages Available on Ling App
Afrikaans, Croatian, Greek, Korean, Persian, Swahili, Albanian, Czech, Hebrew, Lao, Polish, Swedish, Arabic (MSA), Danish, Hindi, Latvian, Portuguese, Tagalog, Armenian, Dutch, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Estonian, Indonesian, Malayalam, Romanian, Telugu, Bosnian, English, Irish, Malaysian, Russian, Thai, Bulgarian, Finnish, Italian, Marathi, Serbian, Turkish, Burmese, French, Japanese, Mongolian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Cantonese, Georgian, Kannada, Nepali, Slovenian, Urdu, Chinese/Mandarin, German, Khmer, Norwegian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
Table of Contents
Who Should Use Ling App Ling App Overview Ling App Price Ling App Review: Overall Learning Experience Ling App Review: Languages Available Ling App Alternatives and Competitors Ling App Review FAQWho Should Use Ling App
Ling is particularly beneficial if you want to learn less common languages, especially from Asia or Eastern Europe. It’s important to note that Ling may not be the ideal choice for absolute beginners, as it lacks alphabet learning modules. While transliteration is available, having prior knowledge of the script of your target language can enhance your experience with the app. It’s not designed for advanced learners either, but it’s a great supplement for those at the A1-A2 level.
Ling App Overview
Ling App offers a structured and gamified language experience with content organized into five proficiency levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert. Each level has ten modules, and within each module, there are six groups of activities. They include vocabulary and phrase lessons, speaking exercises, exams, and review sections.
With approximately 200 lessons and 50 units, the app covers around 1000 core vocabulary words. The speaking lessons utilize voice recognition, allowing users to record themselves and assess their pronunciation. While the app’s approach is systematic, it’s important to note that some languages may not include a writing section for characters with different writing systems.
Additionally, Ling incorporates a chatbot feature that offers a structured conversation experience, allowing you to choose responses from a set of options. The app’s writing sections cater to languages with distinct writing systems, providing animated demonstrations, directional arrows for stroke order, and practice space for character writing.
Ling App Price
To unlock complete access to Ling lessons, you’ll need to subscribe to the app. Ling offers three subscription plans: $14.99 per month, $39.99 for six months, or $79.99 per year. There’s also a lifetime subscription option priced at $149.51. All subscription plans give you unlimited access to all languages.
This pricing is comparable to what other similar apps charge for their premium services such as Babbel or Rosetta Stone. If you plan to focus on one language, I’d recommend the annual subscription, especially if you’re planning to have a fixed study routine. However, if you have an interest in multiple languages or enjoy exploring various options, the lifetime plan becomes a worthwhile investment. With that plan, you can learn at your own pace without concerns about recurring subscriptions, making it a cost-effective choice, particularly if you’re studying more than two languages.
Ling App Free Trial
If you’re unsure whether Ling is suitable for you, you can use the 7-day free trial. Alternatively, it’s free to try the first two units of every language.
Ling App Review: Overall Learning Experience
I think Ling’s interface is user-friendly, which makes it easy to navigate. The 50 units are categorized into five difficulty levels: Beginner, Intermediate, Upper-Intermediate, Advanced, and Expert. Setting up the app is straightforward, and you can start learning without additional steps. Although there’s no level test, you can choose and complete lessons in any order.
Each unit consists of four language lessons with highlighted target vocabulary. The lessons progress logically, providing three rounds of practice for each vocabulary set. The interactive exercises feel a lot like mini-games and include spelling activities, sentence ordering, multiple-choice questions, and matching tasks. Every lesson ends with a challenging dialogue section that contextualizes the target vocabulary in real conversations. Although translations are available for sentences, individual word explanations still need to be improved.
There’s an exam at the end of every unit, featuring timed questions and a limited number of mistakes that are permitted. Ling offers two review functions: a random question review and a chatbot exercise simulating dialogues with pre-made responses. While I found the chatbot to be entertaining, it doesn’t evaluate your progress well. And the review system could benefit from a spaced repetition system for more focused and efficient practice.
I think Ling is good for starting to learn a language. It helps you learn useful words and understand how the language works. But, as you get into more advanced topics, it could use more detailed explanations.
Ling App Review: Languages Available
Ling currently offers 60 languages, including less-studied languages like Kannada and Malayalam. I tested several languages, and it appears that Ling teaches the same content for all of them. This one-size-fits-all approach may not be ideal for language acquisition because the way people use language is deeply influenced by culture, and Ling App doesn’t take this into account. Effective communication can vary significantly from one language to another. In my opinion, it’s a drawback as you might not be able to learn the language the way it’s used in real life.
Ling App Alternatives and Competitors
If you’d like to take a look at more apps, there are other alternatives to Ling available that might suit your needs and preferences. Mondly is a good alternative for those starting to learn a new language, offering essential vocabulary, and covering key topics. The app has unique features like augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and chatbots. Duolingo, known for the wide range of languages it offers, is another app to explore. It uses a similar gamified approach and language learning tools and offers free courses for beginners and even intermediate learners.
LingQ is another app worth considering. While it primarily focuses on popular languages, there are also options for less common languages, though with limited content. The app allows you to choose specific content for study, listen to lessons, and interact with new words and phrases. Finally, the Glossika app focuses on speaking practice by exposing learners to sentences read aloud by native speakers. Glossika uses a Spaced Repetition System (SRS) for efficient practice. Another notable feature is the ability to learn any of its languages from another language within its offering. Most apps only allow you to learn through English.
Ling App Review FAQ
You cannot access Ling’s content for free. However, if you’re uncertain about Ling App, you can take advantage of its free trial for 7 days. Additionally, you can try the first two units of each language without any cost.
Ling is an easy way to learn less common languages like Afrikaans or Swahili so it’s worth your time. Ling provides a gamified approach to learning, offering short, themed lessons to create a convenient and entertaining study experience.
Ling App can enhance your language skills, especially if you’re a beginner, but it won’t make you fluent on its own. It offers engaging tools for practicing, but achieving fluency requires using more comprehensive resources. To become fluent in any language, you need to be able to read and write in your target language, but Ling doesn’t include writing practice so you’ll need to combine resources.
To figure out how long it will take you to become fluent in your target language, visit our Fluency Calculator.
Ling is a great supplement for language learners at the A1-A2 level. Ling uses different interactive tools to help you learn useful words and understand how a language works. It’s important to note that Ling may not be the ideal choice for absolute beginners, as you can’t learn the non-Latin scripts. For this reason, you might need to use other resources if you want to learn Asian languages. While transliteration is available, having prior knowledge of your target language’s script can enhance your studies.
About This Ling App Review
This is an independent Ling App review, and the company has not sponsored this article. To write this review, I used the 7-day free trial and used the app for a few hours to thoroughly test its content and features. I had previously paid a monthly subscription so I was familiar with the interface and some of its features. I also found additional information on the Ling App website to verify my findings.
