Speakly: Learn Languages Fast

Great resource for language learning which really focuses on conversational proficiency - which is great because I can feel and hear my improvement in French speaking and understanding from using this app. My only issue is sometimes they will ask you to say an English sentence in French without looking at the French translation written out and I will say it perfectly, or at least if my pronunciation isn’t perfect, my French language is and they will repeatedly tell me I am wrong? They give you three tries and I am saying it perfectly but it tells me I am wrong and out of tries even though I know I am not. It is really frustrating and makes me want to delete the app.

I have a lifetime access to speakly and use it to learn Russian. The last update with the AI bot covers what was previously missing in Speakly, which is the full translation and explanation of any new sentence and words. Everything is great: the speaking exercises are short and relevant, the audio is always of good quality. The podcasts are great too.

Speakly is by far the best app I have used for language learning, as long as you take responsibility for your own learning, are seriously about learning a language, and put the time and effort in. This includes learning how to make the most of things like comprehensible input when using the listening exercises. I have been learning Finnish for almost 5 months using the Speakly app alongside a few other apps and learning resources. Speakly is by far the app I use the most, followed by an online course that focuses on comprehensive puhekieli input (Speakly rather focuses on yleiskieli/kirjakieli, at least to the point I’ve reached). I study around 1.5 hours a day, and use Speakly for usually at least 30 minutes of that hour and a half. I feel that Speakly is somehow misunderstood as a language learning app, because it is trying to actually help you achieve something (learning a language), rather than make you feel like you achieved something while actually learning very little (like some language apps associated with owls). To make the most of Speakly you need to hold yourself accountable and learn how to use the tools it provides you with effectively. For example, I would recommend: Using the “Build your vocabulary” exercises each day to meet your daily goal. Switch the questions to all require exact input to be sure that you actually learning the words (less rote reading exercises are also good, but I use Clozemaster for high volume reading comprehension and word recognition where I’m not memorising the words but am just getting used to seeing a lot of different words in context). Speakly only awards points towards your daily progress when you get answers correct on the first attempt. If you get it wrong, you have to then wait until the same word/sentence comes back around and try again. This stops you cheating yourself. Speech recognition will never be perfect, especially in noisy environments, so be a grown up and decide for yourself whether your pronunciation and word choice was correct or not and only say you have learned how to say the prompt when you say it successfully on the first attempt. I recommend setting a daily goal of 20 points (around 30 minutes actual work) to ensure a steady growth in your vocabulary and unlocking of other exercises. Yes, it’s difficult. Learning is difficult. Yes, you will get things wrong. That’s how you learn. If you are just starting your language learning journey, most people recommend exposing yourself to more

Last update killed speaking option. The app doesn’t record the sound. So that makes it pointless.

I used the premium feature for a year to learn Estonian and to refresh my knowledge of Italian. It was a very useful tool though it lacks a few features for Estonian that are present for other languages. The price for one year was a bit expensive (especially for a lazy learner like myself) so I am not renewing for another year just yet. I feel if the price for a year was more reasonable this would be a great option as I tend to avoid apps which require subscription rather than outright purchase (considering the lifetime price though which isn’t bad). Good work.

I like the content, but the voice recognition leaves alot to be desired. I've had simple phrases like A sept heures fail because their voice recognistion thinks that I am mispronouncing the word A. And there are only so many ways you can pronounce a one letter word!! It gets annoying and wrecks an otherwise good learning tool.

Love the way this app teaches users with its methods etc but I only wanted it for learning Turkish for family reasons. When will Turkish be added?

One of the best, if not the best, language- learning app out there. I was amazed at how quickly I could get pretty proficient at my target language just through the app and its method. I find the listening resources incredibly helpful and invaluable. Thank you!

I first downloaded it, thinking it would be great but I couldn’t learn more than house, hello and man, since you can’t earn more than five points without premium. You need premium for this app to basically work. Now, this would be very good if you had premium but I’m looking for a free langauge learning app.

It is a very good app that really challenges you to speak, write and remember the language. The only real criticism that I have is that it takes far too long to scroll through the Word Bank. Old versions of the app allowed you to jump directly to different sections. That was much easier.