Tools: Glossika
Believe it or not, there is life after (or instead of, or in addition to) Duolingo. Actually, there are so many tools out there that it’s hard to know what to choose, what works and what doesn’t, and what’s the perfect tool for you (spoiler: there is no such a thing.)
For that reason, I decided that whenever I encounter a tool worth talking about, I’ll talk about it.
Today I’ll tell you about an app called Glossika that I used for a couple of months back in the spring and am using again now.
I’ve now partnered with Glossika and got us all a 30-day free trial of the app (instead of their usual 7-day trial).1 This is great news because Glossika isn’t exactly cheap (the Basic version costs $13 per month and the PRO version is $25). Hopefully, a longer trial will help you make a better-informed decision about whether or not this app is for you.
How it works
The premise behind Glossika is very simple: it feeds you sentences in your target language gradually increasing the difficulty level.
In the “Learn” mode you listen to new sentences uttered by a native speaker, with each sentence repeated five times per session. In the “Review” mode you listen to sentences you’ve learned in previous sessions. Ideally, you want to hear some new sentences and review some old ones every day.
Why is it a good idea to listen to random sentences on repeat? Three reasons:
Once you learn the (basics of) grammar, you want to increase your vocabulary and get used to hearing the language.
Memorizing words in isolation (flashcards or whatever) is both painful and useless because our brain is designed to remember connections, not isolated bits of information.
To remember something, we have to hear it multiple times.
The idea, of course, is not for you to memorize how to say these specific sentences (some of them are oddly specific…. like the ones below…)
….but simply to get used to hearing the language so that chunks of it would stick in your memory, making it easier to understand and build new sentences.
Why I like it
I know, I go on and on about how language learning should be enjoyable but this sounds boring and repetitive. And still, I used Glossika for two whole months and am using it again now.
In the ideal world, we should be able to find fantastically engaging content to watch and listen to no matter our level, that somehow includes enough repetitions of the most useful words and phrases spaced at exactly the right intervals for us to learn these fast.
But the world is not ideal, and the harsh reality is that if you don’t have enough vocabulary or listening skills, most interesting native content will be too hard for you. And most learners’ content will be too boring.
Glossika sentences aren’t exactly going to enrich your life but they’re also pretty low-effort for what you get in return.
Basically, it fills that gap between “I’ve learned all the grammar and lots of words but I still don’t understand anything” and “I can listen to enjoyable native language content and learn this way.”
Flexibility
I like apps that give me a lot of control over the process and don’t bullshit me with excessive gamification.
You can hide the sentences that are not relevant to your life. (I’ve hidden all the ones about diamonds and kept the ones about Boris, just in case 🙄)
You can create collections and listen to each separately.
You can record yourself saying these and then track your progress over time, or you can type up the sentences. I barely used these options because for me the whole point of Glossika is to be able to use it on the go without interacting with the screen, but it’s good to know they’re there.
You can play around with the speed of the recording, the order of the base and the target language, and the length of the pause between them.
I like to have the longest pause possible because I prefer to try and come up with the answer myself before I hear it and I don’t like to press pause when my hands are covered with dish soap or raw chicken juices.
It saves time
This is probably the biggest reason why I love it. Many days, the only time I have to do any learning is while washing the dishes or walking from point A to point B.
Glossika is the only app I know that allows me to do that.
Yes, there are many language-learning podcasts out there but most of them can spend ten minutes discussing the meaning or use of a certain phrase and I just don’t have time for that. If it’s not something truly engaging, then I’d rather just listen to a random stream of sentences.
You can play around the difficulty level
This is my personal ‘hack’ if you like.
When you first join, you do a short placement test to determine your language level (from A1 to C1, these are European levels that I’m not entirely sure what they mean and they probably don’t mean as much as people think but whatever).
They recommend not trying to guess what each sentence means when you do the test. If you can’t spontaneously produce this sentence, they say, then it’s not your level.
I ignore that. I do guess what the sentence means, but it’s an informed guess: if I understand the meaning of a couple of words I do my best to guess the meaning of the whole sentence. I don’t know if it’s good practice or not, but it works for me.
That’s because my discomfort tolerance level (or frustration threshold) in language learning is pretty high. My brain likes it when things are very challenging.
That way I can be at two different levels. If I have enough energy, I listen to sentences at the highest level that I’m in, and when I’m tired and want to do something more mindless, I stay at the lower (my actual) level.
Includes some lesser-known languages
I was glad to find out that their list of languages includes at least five lesser-known / endangered languages — Wenzhounese, Manx, Welsh, Kurdish, Hakka — which, by the way, are free.
You can bypass your native language
The coolest thing is that in the PRO account (which includes all their 60 languages) you can bypass your native language and mess with your brain in the best possible way:
Things that are less good
No choice of topics
Very often Sometimes it feels like their algorithm has been trained on criminal records or something because a whole lot of their sentences (at a B1 or B2 level if I’m not mistaken) look like this…
Fortunately, you can easily hide these, but I still wish there were a wider range of topics to choose from (their website says they’re working on it so it might come soon.)
On the other hand, sentences like the following made me feel seen back in April, and again now 🙄:
Imprecise translations
This isn’t exactly the problem with the app, but an inherent problem with translations. It’s never a one-for-one thing, so you just have to pay attention to these things.
If you think Glossika might work for you, make sure to take advantage of our exclusive (my new favorite word) 30-day-free trial of the app.2
I hope you’ll give it a try. Do keep in mind that even if it works, nothing works forever, and eventually you grow out of everything.
In my humble opinion, if you’re ready to “move on to the production issues” as is the speaker of the following sentence, then you are long past ready to leave Glossika and try other stuff.
This link takes you to what looks like a 7-day trial page. Sign up anyway and you will see (under “Plans and Billing”) that you have 30 days left, and not 7. If something is not working, please get in touch with me! I want to make sure you all get 30 free glorious days on this lovely app.
Full disclaimer: if you end up signing up for the paid version, I’ll get a small commission.
The link took me to a 7-day trial. Do I need to do something beside click on the link? (I didn't sign up yet)
Any idea how it compares with Babble?