I’ve love learning languages. It is very interesting and enriching. I remember enrolling in different classes to learn French and Indonesian. Unfortunately, it is a skill that requires you to live and breathe it and makes learning it very challenging. Thankfully, digital technology today makes it easier to immerse ourselves into it.
J’aime apprendre des langues! C’est tres interessant et enrichment
I am currently learning french and if you thinking or currently learning it too, here are my thoughts and experiences on how I go about learning it and the best apps for learning French on iPhone, iPad or online. “Allons y”
Learn French Apps for iPhone / Learn French Apps for iPad
Paid Apps
While there are free apps, like Duolingo (see below), I must say that the paid apps provide more functionality and in some cases a more complete learning experience. Many of the Paid Apps do offer a free version with limited functionality.
Some of the paid apps provide either one-to-one tutoring, social learning and ability to get the learning community within your app to correct your pronunciation or sentence writing.
LingQ’s method of teaching French is through first immersing yourself with content. They have a massive library of content that revolves around news, entertainment, sports, etc and through your browser or smartphone, you will be able to listen and read the text in French. You can select the text and look up their translations and store it for future review. There are also regular quizzes and you can import your own text to be translated in french.
Rocket French by Rocket Languages 
Rocket French by Rocket Languages offers a number of interesting features on their language learning app. You can access the app via your smartphone or computer. Its lessons are split into 3 parts:
- Interactive Audio Lessons
Conversation based where you practice speaking French. You will learn how to speak in full sentences, identify and learn new vocabulary and phrases. The app is also able to record your pronunciation and measure how accurate it is.
- Language and Culture Lessons
Get a better understanding of French grammar and how french works with native speakers
- Survival Kit Lessons
Important tips for using French in your daily activities and things to take note of
Busuu is one of my favourite apps. It provides a guided course for French. It provides sections that explain French Grammar and has quiz elements to help you practice. What I like about Busuu is it’s social learning feature. With this feature, you can get other Busuu learners to help correct your writing or recorded French sentences.
As part of the guided course, you are encouraged to submit written French paragraphs about various topics or submit a voice recording of you speaking in French. This will be posted online and either your network of Busuu friends or those in the community can chip in and correct your work.
Duo-Lingo
Duo-Lingo is a free language learning app. It is pretty popular and well-known. It is very focused on quizzes on vocabulary and grammar. While I’ve found it to be useful at the beginning stages of learning, it is not comprehensive enough for me. There aren’t many lessons based on conversational french and you’re also not given much background to understand how French sentences are formed.
The gamification element is pretty engaging. It encourages you to regularly engage in the quizzes and exercises to unlock the various badges.
Online Tutors
Online tutors are a good way to advance quickly with language learning. Through video chat, you will be able to engage in conversation which is essential in mastering a language.
iTalki
You can view video introductions and their hourly rates on the web site.