Spanish programs: Review of 3 oldies, 3 new, 1 ancient

Greetings, Fellow Zihua Lovers! Here is a review of three programs that I have used for many years now in my continuing quest to improve my horrible Spanish. Also included is a quick review of three new programs that may merit your consideration. Duolingo, Drops, and SpanishDict have been my go-to programs for some time. All three use the freemium model where they give you some time or some features for free and then do their best to upsell you.

Of the three, Duolingo has become something of a cultural phenom and they are very good at generating free publicity by various means up to and including kill off their mascot. They still want you to sign up for US$13 per month. In the past, if you just kept saying no, they would eventually offer you the annual plan for US$60. It is my understanding that now the annual plan is available for US$60 without having to refuse their monthly plan. Recently, they started hawking an AI system for quite a sum. So far, I have not tried it. More on possible AI systems later.

Drops, many years ago, offered a lifetime subscription for US$70 or US$80. (I don't remember how much.) The lifetime plan is up to $150. Drops is good for vocabulary but not much else.

SpanishDict is a great dictionary. They also have a paid prescription but the quick lessons that I reviewed did not seem to be useful enough to plunk down some hard-earned cash.

Recently, I have stumbled upon a couple of programs that are actually somewhat useful and did cause this Official Tightwad to part with hard currency. They are Airlearn and Lingo Legend. Again, both use the freemium model. This past December, after a bit of exploring, Airlearn offered their annual subscription for $25 and I grabbed it. Although it is mostly review for me so far, it's actually been quite useful as a tool to solidify grammar and vocabulary. The graphics grate on me somewhat as all the characters look straight out of Vogue, GQ, and Vanity unFair and the AI narration is sometimes comical. However, the review of the material has been quite useful.

At first glance, the application Lingo Legend looked as if it would be just another program teaching you, "Hola. Como estas?" However, I was happily mistaken. I have learned many new words. It is a combination video game and learning language program. There are actually two video games. One is a farming simulation similar to Stardew Valley where you grow crops, produce foodstuffs to sell and trade, and build a small community of characters. This is one that I have been playing. The other is a RPG fighting game which I am not familiar with yet. As you progress through the farming game, you are required to practice Spanish to create the products to sell. In the free version, you get about 15 to 20 minutes of play time every day before you can no longer practice Spanish. The lifetime subscription as of this writing is US$80 and yo' boy was having so much fun that I laid my money down. (Several years ago, I started Stardew Valley and was enjoying it but I just couldn't justify the time spent. This game allows me to rationalize my time investment because it is furthering my Spanish abilities.)

Here's where you all come in. In Lingo Legends, you can create and join guilds, essentially a group of like-minded players who work together. I want to create a guild named "Viva Zihua" or "Me Encanta Zihuatanejo" or "Zihua Zankas" in the Spanish group of guilds. Forever thanks to Rob for creating this forum about my favorite location in the Universe. It is the only online forum that I partake of. (Don't do Faceplant, Titter, Instascam, or SikTok.) Viva Zihuatanejo would be my second. Anyone interested?

Last, there is another new program that I plan to explore when I have some serious free time to explore their free trial period. It is called Lingo Looper. There seems to be currently only one pricing plan of US$9 per month. Lingo Looper is AI-based and you converse with avatars. This is what Duolingo is offering for US$168 per year or US$30 per month. Duolingo's AI system is offering a free trial but I am not even thinking about it at this point as the character you interact with is an obnoxious, unpleasant teenage girl. Obviously, someone important at Duolingo is enamored with this anti-social misanthrope. I am not.

Of course, one would be remiss if he or she did not mention the absolute best Spanish language learning program ever devised, especially for new language learners. That is the Pimsluer Method developed by the French-American Linguistic Professor Paul Pimsluer. Professor Pimsluer was very disappointed that after two years of college-level language learning, while students may have fairly accurate knowledge of the grammar of a language and be able to read and write in the language, their speaking and audio comprehension skills were absolute abysmal. (After two years of high school German and then two years of college German, ich habe alles mein Deutschsprechen vergessen!) He created an audio-only system that relies on listening and speaking, listening and speaking. It is quite remarkable.

Pimsluer has been around for decades and the 30-minute, audio-only lessons are second to none, even though they have been copied by many other systems. With Spanish, there are 5 levels, each has thirty 30-minutes lessons for a total of 150 lessons. These are golden, especially the first three levels. In three- to four-months, if you do a lesson or two each day, you will be speaking Spanish. You won't be fluent but you will be able to say and understand many useful phrases. If you can, run down to your local library and check them out. If not, they are available online for US$15 per month or US$150 per year. There is also a lifetime subscription but is very pricey at US$575. (Watch for specials.) Because of the current competition, Pimsleur now added Duolingo-style online instruction but the reviews have not been positive. I have not tried them as I burned through the five levels twice almost twenty years ago.

Some may say that I have omitted some other heavy hitters such as Babbel or Rosetta Stone. I have tried these but personally, I did not find either that useful. Your mileage may vary. And it seems that every day, there are more and more new applications that tempt us with the siren song of being fluent in 30 days. If anyone finds this elusive Golden Fleece of language learning, you be sure to let us all know, okay?

Yours in Learning the Language of Love and Honor,

Padrino