Posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2015 by Will Hagle
Lingvist is a new language-learning platform that aims to help you learn faster and more effectively.
At one point in recent history, spending hundreds of dollars on a Rosetta Stone subscription was the only option for people that wanted to quickly acquire language skills from the comfort of their home. Duolingo changed the game by essentially replicating Rosetta Stone’s platform and making it accessible to the masses, and there are many other comparable options for those looking to learn a new language online. Lingvist is another option, and it claims to be the fastest. The site currently only offers instruction in two languages — English and French. It’s working, however, on Spanish, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese and Swedish.
Lingvist’s platform is rooted in linguistic and technological theories. The site claims that it takes a minimum of 200 hours for a person to reach a B2 level proficiency in a foreign language, which (in English) means you can understand texts and movies and have limited conversation. Lingvist helps you reach this threshold more quickly by teaching words based on how often they’re actually used in a language. The site uses a combination of memorization quizzes, listening drills and reading lists that set it apart from Duolingo or Rosetta Stone. All of your progress is reported in helpful analytical data, so you can know how to best keep improving. The service is currently free while it’s in public beta, so it’s a highly effective tool if you speak English and want to learn French (or vice versa).
