this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
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I'm looking for an alternative to duolingo, the main appeal for me of duolingo is the gamification of the app as this helps me to stay consistent (so just normal flashcards would not be suitable).

Thanks in advance

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[โ€“] superkret@feddit.org 32 points 11 months ago (3 children)

The European alternative is riding your bicycle in one direction for an hour, then talking to the people who live there in their native tongue.

[โ€“] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 10 points 11 months ago

I wish, but an hour by bike wouldn't even get me close to anywhere with a different language, not even another dialect.

According to Google Maps, it'd be 26 hours to get to the closest border by bicycle (500 km).

[โ€“] boonhet@lemm.ee 8 points 11 months ago

I wasn't interested in learning Russian BEFORE the war, what makes you think I want to go to that part of town now?

[โ€“] bloubz@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 months ago

Do you live in like Aix-les-Bains? It's not really possible from most European towns

[โ€“] gramie@lemmy.ca 18 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Not gamified, but the best language-learning system I've ever used (sorry if total immersion) is the donation-supported Language Transfer.

Intuitive and not just bunch of rote memorization. Made up of roughly 10-minutes audio files, available in YouTube, SoundCloud, or the simple but elegant app.

The languages available are French, German, Italian, Spanish, Greek, Turkish, Arabic, Swahili. All taught by one man, who is Greek-British!

[โ€“] albert180@piefed.social 14 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Babbel?

Also there is a leaderboard for Anki which adds Gamification, with Leagues and stuff

[โ€“] emsknock@lemm.ee 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

WordDive is ~~miles~~ kilometres better than Duolingo but (a) doesn't have the same selection of languages and (b) isn't free. But if you're looking to learn one of the languages they do have and are serious enough that you're willing to pay for a good service, then it's a no-brainer.

[โ€“] Zwiebel@feddit.org 1 points 11 months ago

Man WordDive's marketing is myriametres worse than Duolingo though

[โ€“] norppuwamppu@sopuli.xyz 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I would like to direct your attention to Lingonaut, a project that will have its beta released in the near future. (you will also be able to import you streak from duolingo to Lingonaut).

It will be an app like duolingo except without all the greed, i.e. completely free for anyone (funded by donations, like from myself), no subscription tiers or ads, and it will have, among other things, courses made compeltely by (human) volunteers, course structure like duo used to have, sentence discussions and so on. The developer is based in czechia/uk.

I myself am also a volunteer for the finnish course, but the languages will be released according to how many volunteers there are for each language. The first one out will be Czech.

[โ€“] bloubz@lemmygrad.ml 1 points 11 months ago

It seems really cool but at the same time I have a few red flags from realizing that they are on Discord, Reddit and X, rather than Matrix, Lemmy and Mastodon. This doesn't align with the FOSS vibe

[โ€“] Litebit@lemmy.world 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

Speakly (Estonia) not gamified other than stats and streaks but I think its better than duolingo- https://speakly.me/en/about-us
MosaLingua (France) - https://www.mosalingua.com/en/mosalingua-business-solutions/

If you are ok with Canada...
LingQ (Canada) have Challenges you can participate in - https://www.lingq.com/en/about/
Ouinolanguages (Canada) not gamified - https://www.ouinolanguages.com/termsandconditions/

[โ€“] einsfuenfzigbreit@feddit.org 5 points 11 months ago (1 children)
[โ€“] NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (1 children)

I've been using this for a few months, it's very good... or maybe I should say "muy bueno"

[โ€“] bilbaobun@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Is it better than Duolingo

[โ€“] NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If I'm honest I've not used duolingo. I anticipate they've just copied that model so the transition should be painless.

You do have to put up with alot of "subscribe to premium" emails but to be fair, it is a business

[โ€“] bilbaobun@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Iโ€™m sure you can unsubscribe

[โ€“] NotJohnSmith@feddit.uk 1 points 1 week ago

Yeah, it's just me being tight and not wanting to pay/subscribe, but I guess this is the game with most software now

There a few alternatives on Go European

Just type duolingo in the search field.l I did not know, that there are so many language learning apps ๐Ÿค”

I know about Babbel, but there are so many like Aimigo or Mondly

[โ€“] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 3 points 11 months ago

I've been enjoying Drops. Wikipedia says they're currently a Norwegian company.

[โ€“] zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 3 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It's a single language and for English speakers, but Practice Portuguese says it's made in Portugal and run by an LDA there.

It has some gamification elements if you want, but isn't intrusive about it if you don't want that.

[โ€“] gutter564@feddit.uk 3 points 11 months ago

Speakly is my favourite from Estonia.

[โ€“] grysbok@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 11 months ago

I also have Mondly installed, but haven't used it much. It's British.

[โ€“] snuggledick@lemm.ee 2 points 11 months ago

Babbel is pretty good and made in Germany. There's no free/ad-financed version though, only a free trial period before you gotta pay. There's not a whole lot of gamification but it has a streak mechanism like Duolingo which is enough to keep me practicing daily.

[โ€“] judgyweevil@feddit.it 1 points 11 months ago

Can't find one. Busuu and RosettaStone are Americans (Busuu was first developed in Spain), iTalki and Lingodeer are Chinese

[โ€“] haupz@toot.berlin 1 points 11 months ago

@lopar49 @ueeu Let me wholeheartedly recommend Babbel. Not only does it hail from Berlin, but it also has an actual didactic concept.

Full disclosure: I used to work there, but this is an unpaid ad.

[โ€“] aemstuz@pol.social 0 points 11 months ago (1 children)

@lopar49 TBH Iโ€™d consider attending a traditional, offline language course if itโ€™s available in your neighborhood. An additional advantage of that is that you can meet new people.

[โ€“] lopar49@lemm.ee 4 points 11 months ago

๐Ÿ˜‚๐Ÿ˜‚this is supposed to be a thing for commuting rather than scrolling lemmy