Mobile language training: 2 iApps compared
Learning a language during spare time on a mobile device is nothing new. Mobile devices such as pocket-translators (and let’s not forget the walkman) have been around for decades. Nevertheless, mobile language training is seeing a renaissance. In this post, I took a look at 2 language training iApps: one is free and one costs 15$. It is rare to see such a gap of quality…
Japanese Phrases Free Screenshot
Accelastudy costs around 15$ per app and offers several dozen translations (i.e. versions). According to the text, the translations contains 2100 words in 65 subject areas. Since I am currently living in Switzerland I tried out the German – Greek version. The menus contain a “plan” (which is an overview), a learning area, flash cards and quizzes. My disappointment already started as I noticed that one of these titles was actually spelled wrong (the German “Lernen” was spelled “Kernen”)! For 15$ at least do a spell check please!! I took a look at the flash cards and realized that -although this is a beginners level- the Greek alphabet was nowhere to be found. So if you can’t read Greek, good luck there learning these words. Furthermore there are no sound files, which tell you the correct pronounciation. All in all, this program should have been either free or seriously overhauled.
The second iApp I tested was “Japanese Phrases Free” by TheJapanesePage.com, which is a free small version of “Japanese Phrases”. The program contains 400 phrases and words. The menues are “Home”, “Categories”, “Flash Cards”, “Quiz” and “Upgrade”. Since I tested Accelastudy first I was expecting something even less useable. However, “Japanese Phrases Free” contains sentences and words, written with Japanese letters (I believe it’s Hiragana) AND our Latin alphabet. Thank you. On each flash card I played around with there is a “Speak” button which let’s you hear the correct pronounciation. Thanks again! The quiz is fun as well. To summarize, I would have happily paid a few bucks for this. Saying that, let me point out that the full version costs a third of Accelastudy. I really don’t like to “put down” programs, but this here was too obvious. The freeware wins. And it wasn’t even close.
Link Accelastudy: http://www.accelastudy.com/
Link Japanese Phrases: http://thejapanesepage.com/
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