Salut! Mon nom est John Roo!

I studied French with these two wonderful language apps and I wanted to share my experiences for others who are trying to learn a language.

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I did 20-30 mins per day for 3 months on EACH app so that I could have a clear understanding of each. They both have pros and cons but are a great tools in your language learning process. There are many other tools worth mentioning as well. I have learned you should do between 20 mins and 2 hours of studying per day. Anything less and you wont really grasp the language, anything more and your brain turns to oatmeal from being overloaded. Lets take a quick look at each of these apps and see whats up!

Rosetta Stone.

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Rosetta stone is a classic program that was first released as CD roms that were for purchase on infomercials. It later became a free app with unlockables(which I did not purchase). It has a really clean interface and the voices are very clear.

Pros/Cons

It does a really good job at teaching you how to speak the language with proper pronunciation. It really roots its self on learning to listen and speak the language rather that working on proper grammar and how to properly write the language. It pushed me to actually speak the language or choose from a series of pictures. It rarely required me to actually type out sentences. This made it hard to understand proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation for truly learning a second language. It never shows the English translations of whats being show, so it makes it hard to understand what you are doing sometimes. Great app though.

Duolingo.

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Duolingo is an app I came across after Rosetta stone. I was searching for something free and efficient and I found it. Duolingo turns language learning into almost a game. You can earn coins and spend them on certain things that will help you on your language learning journey. You can also play mini games and trivia to help further learn the language. The interface makes it really fun to knock out some of those goals of keeping on track.

Pros/Cons

This is almost the opposite of Rosetta stone. It did not require me to EVER speak the language. I was basically learning how to write and read the language. It always has you matching English words with French words or completely translating sentences by writing them. It had me learning proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation, but no profound effects on teaching me how to speak properly.

The outcome

I honestly have to say that you will not entirely learn a new language quickly by any means, nor should you expect to. The best way to learn a language is to full immerse yourself in that language. Move to Japan for 6 months if you want to learn Japanese. This is the true way to learn, but you can make some really awesome moves on these apps. They will teach you the basics and if you stick with it, they will teach you how to speak a second language to an extent. They are great fun and you will be better off IF YOU USE BOTH APPS. Both apps are basically the balancing act of learning a language. They both have cons where the latter makes up for it. So I would suggest doing both apps if you are truely dedicated. 6 months to a year for the very basics. Keep studying and learn those languages. I hope this helps you decide on what you want to do as far as learning a language... Follow my bullshit @johnroomusic and Ill be blogging more snazzy crap like this soon! Stay awesome!