How to learn French with Ling app - honest review

The Ling app for language learning is a fun tool to use to learn languages you can’t find in other apps. Croatian? Tagalog? Albanian? Khmer? Ling has you covered.

There are more than 60 languages available on Ling and this is where its strength lies.

Learn languages with games

Once you choose a language, the app divides the lessons into five sections - Beginner, Intermediate, Upper Intermediate, Advanced and Expert.

All of these have themes. Within each there are ten units, and within each unit are four lessons plus a quiz and speaking practice.

The lessons are short so you can easily complete a unit in each study session. Each lesson ends with a dialogue and the next screen is a fill-in-the-blank to test what you remember from the dialogue. The quizzes are made up of ten spelling, sentence ordering, multiple choice, and matching questions, retaking the quiz will present the questions slightly differently. The audio is of native speakers and the lessons are structured a lot like games so you remain engaged.

Practice with Ling’s chatbot

There is a Chatbot feature that allows you to practice speaking by having a directed conversation with the app’s chatbot. It’s as close as it gets to having a conversation with an AI.

Since many learners complain they have no one to practice speaking with, this is a really nice feature.

Ling Cheers You On

As you progress, you are encouraged by Ling the mascot - a cute cartoon monkey reminiscent of Curious George. You earn bananas, which move you up the leaderboard, and coins, which you can spend on hints. It’s entertaining, and is set up in an unusual way - you learn an individual word and then it is used in a complete sentence (which seemed to be a bit advanced for a total beginner).

There is no level placement test but you can try any of the lessons in any of the sections in any order. Checking your profile shows you your fluency percentage, your study streak, and your place on the leaderboard.

Ling offers Two Effective Ways To Review

There are two methods of review: Review All inside each unit, and Review from the main page. Review All allows you to choose either vocabulary or dialogue. You just listen to the vocabulary words you learned or read the dialogues from the unit, neither is interactive. The Review feature pulls ten random questions from whatever you have learned so far, a helpful way to review out of the context of the lessons.

What Ling missed

There are a few drawbacks. There is no direct translation or dictionary, and sometimes the translated sentences are incorrect. For example, in French, we are told that “Nous prenons du riz frit pour le dîner” means “We eat fried rice for dinner”. Nous prenons means “we take”, the words for “we eat” are “Nous mangeons”. There are also no grammar lessons and very few grammar explanations; the grammar is acquired through exposure and repetition. You will not formally learn how to conjugate verbs. The speaking practice uses voice recognition technology that seems geared to native speakers’ pronunciation, and therefore does not take into consideration learners’ accents, nor does it offer detailed feedback on how to improve your pronunciation. The advanced material is not very detailed and advanced learners are better advised to look elsewhere to improve their skills.

Ling Is Your Key To Learning Uncommon Languages

The Ling app is most effective as an introduction to a language, and with more than 60 to choose from including many not easily found elsewhere, it’s a great fun way to learn some of a lot of different languages. Ideal for travelers to pick up some language for their next trip!

*This review was based on the Premium Account option. This article contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase via those links, the author may receive a compensation.

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Your next steps

If you like this way of learning French, you will love to learn with Angel as a student or client. Please check out:

His 1-1 coaching program, The French Transformation, if you need to improve your French fast.
His group program, The French Fluency Accelerator, if you’d like to join a community of students from all over the world. We have weekly practice calls together and the best online video library to learn French.