Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

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Expugnator
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Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

Postby Expugnator » Tue Jul 19, 2016 4:16 pm

I couldn't find a previous thread so i'm opening this one. Feel free to merge it.

I've considered buying the premium access to Mond.ly, and I have some questions in mind:

How compreensive are the courses, when compared to Duolingo?
If I buy the premium iOs device, that means I won't be able to access the app on my Android phone?

I'm thinking of Mond.ly as a 'second' Duolingo wave and as the only wave for some Duolingoless languages, like Greek and Finnish, but I'd really like to reflect a bit before installing yet another app. Is it worth the money? The reviews I've found from reddit are from last year, so I hope the content has been expanded within each language? Do I expect this app to add new languages faster than Duolingo?
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Re: Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

Postby Sol » Tue Jul 19, 2016 5:40 pm

I don't have too much experience with Mondly myself, but it's been recommended quite a lot to me. It looks quite good, but I wouldn't use it as your only resource, which is a mistake some Duolingo users make with Duolingo. The voice recordings are very good compared to Duolingo. One criticism I have is it moves really quick, imo you need a slower start in a language. Personally, I'd just combine Duolingo & Memrise and work off a free online or real textbook.

You can get it free in some libraries, so check if your library has it free first before paying if you choose to get it.
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Re: Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

Postby Cainntear » Tue Jul 19, 2016 7:12 pm

I paid for it, but I'm not a fan. It's very limited (I got through the whole Romanian basic material in about two weeks) and there's never really any challenge -- for example, when asking you to "translate from (native language) to (target language)", you always hear the target language phrase in the background, so you have basically no unsupported recall.

I don't regret my purchase, as I got the all languages bundle at the new user discount price, and I think I'll get my money's worth from it over time (unless they go bust and the site disappears!). Buying on iOS from the app store gives you the full subscription on the site as far as I can see, even including additional material not available in the iOS app.
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Re: Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

Postby Mista » Sun Jul 24, 2016 5:39 am

I'm using it for Russian and enjoying it. The price I paid for premium access to all languages is about the same as a movie ticket, so I figured it doesn't have to be perfect - as long as it's worth the time, it's worth the money as well.

Out of the two apps, I think Duolingo is considerably better. But for some reason, Duolingo doesn't have speaking exercises for the incubator languages - and that's the main reason I like to use Mondly. And of course, it has some languages that Duolingo doesn't, like Japanese and Arabic.

I would recommend using the app, but only for beginners. A1, or maybe A2 if no Duolingo is available. Or if you are behind on speaking/pronunciation.
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Re: Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

Postby Poincare » Sun May 21, 2017 4:39 am

Hello,

Just thought I would add my two cents re: Mondly Languages review.

I have been using the premium version for part-time study and practice of German for 2 years and French for 6 months. I have no experience with French and officially I have taken the A2 for German.

I feel the audio for both languages is good, especially compared to Duolingo. However, at least on the French side, many of the dialogues are spoken extremely fast. For example in the parts where you type what they say in French or translate from English to French, or vice versa. It is very hard in this respect for beginners.

Sadly, There is no option to slow down the speaker or the dialogue like there is on Duolingo. Also I have found the "conversation" part of each lesson/topic to be extremely long. Both in French and German they use extremely long sentences with vocabulary that has not been introduced, ever!

Mondly has "voice recognition" across all languages (I believe) but in my experience about 9 times out of 10, especially on the French side, it does not recognize what I say. I have to repeat it 3 times then it just says "Let's move on".

i found the format to get tiring and bored after 2 years with the German side. On the web site there is a way to change the difficulty from beginner to intermediate to advanced but even changing that setting, the format stays the same and frankly has become boring.

A nice thing about Mondly is it provides access to language learning for a much more wider net of languages than Duolingo does.
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Re: Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

Postby PeterMollenburg » Sun May 21, 2017 11:11 am

Expugnator wrote: Duolingoless languages, like Greek and Finnish


I do believe Greek has been recently added to the Duolingo lineup.

Mista wrote:some languages that Duolingo doesn't, like Japanese and Arabic.


Japanese for English speakers is the most recent addition.
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Re: Mond.ly (Mondly) - is it worth it?

Postby Smara » Fri Sep 29, 2017 9:28 am

Hi Expungator. Sebastian from Mondly here. Just found your questions and would love to answer them.

Even though I'm biased, let me give you my 2 cents on Duolingo vs Mondly. I’ll give you just a few examples why Mondly can be the best choice for you:

More languages to choose from
A lot of people have a hard time finding an app to help them learn a specific language. I don’t know what’s your native language and what language are you planning to learn, but Mondly has one of the widest language selection you can choose from. We offer 33 different languages: from the popular ones such as Spanish, French, Arabic and German to more the exotic ones such as Mandarin Chinese, Afrikaans and Indonesian.

Some more inside info: a lot of people start learning one language then go on learning more. So, make sure you choose an app that has more options.

Better speech recognition
Practicing what you learn is crucial when learning a language. That’s why the best apps have tried to integrate speech recognition into their apps. Few succeeded. We’ve actually done a head-to-head experiment to see how Mondly’s speech recognition compares to Duolingo’s. Spoiler alert: Mondly won hands down.

Innovative features and products you won’t find anywhere else
In the past months, Mondly has taken a considerable lead in language learning innovation. Inside the Mondly apps (iOS, Android, Web) you’ll find the Voice-Chatbot to help you chat in a foreign language. Also, if you’re a fan of the future, you can also try the first Virtual Reality app with speech recognition we recently launched. It's called MondlyVR and it'available on the Oculus Store for GearVR and on GooglePlay for Daydream and Cardboard.

Now to answer your specific questions:
Expugnator wrote: If I buy the premium iOs device, that means I won't be able to access the app on my Android phone?


If you create an account on Mondly, you can access it on any device: your iPhone, iPad, Android device or even the website. So, we got you covered.

Expugnator wrote:How comprehensive are the courses, when compared to Duolingo?

While Duolingo definitely has some interesting lessons, they don't always relate to real life situation. On the other hand, Mondly lessons are specially designed to get you ready for real-life conversations. All our lessons are packed in different themes like going to the restaurant, booking a hotel room, having an emergency, having a meeting, shopping, at the airport and may more. We recently had a major update and doubled the number of lessons so you can learn even more.

Expugnator wrote:I'm thinking of Mond.ly as a 'second' Duolingo wave and as the only wave for some Duolingoless languages, like Greek and Finnish, but I'd really like to reflect a bit before installing yet another app. Is it worth the money? The reviews I've found from reddit are from last year, so I hope the content has been expanded within each language? Do I expect this app to add new languages faster than Duolingo?


As I was writing in the intro, we have one of the widest selections of languages and yes, we are planning to add even more in the near future.

Would love to answer any other questions you or other members of the community might have.

In the end, I believe it's better you test more language apps and see which one best fits your individual needs. We are all unique :geek:
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