I like how it works I like how it works, it actually teaches me the words included in the videos, and I can learn with this app in a playful way. I can recommend it to anyone from the younger generation, who wants to study while having fun. One disadvantage I have experienced so far, that the underlined words (they teach after the videos) are commonly known ones on some occasions.

Essential app in a language learning toolkit! Great videos and listening practice. FluentU is one of the best apps for learning new languages out there. It is all about the format. They have a huge library of videos containing movie clips, songs, little lessons, cartoons, and so on. Before you watch the video you are given a list of words that you can review a few times to get them into short term memory - so when you are watching the video you can actually understand the gist of what they are saying. It is a more natural way than just doing word lists or DuoLingo style lessons because you are actually learning to listen rather than recognize. On top of that they also have a more traditional DuoLingo style course with word and grammar lessons, but the power is in those videos. My current setup is using Human Japanese to get more in depth lessons on different words and grammar, as it has much deeper in a textbook style approach, with FluentU for listening practice and drills to memorize the material.

The best thing about this app is the…great videos The best thing about this app is the content. It’s all real, native speaker content, including extracts from the news, interviews, tv shows, documentaries, adverts etc. And there is a lot of it so you can pick and choose the content that interests you. The subtitles and translations for each video are useful and enable you to follow and interact with content that might normally be beyond your level. I also very much like the way it’s learning is structured - you watch a video, then complete exercises on the vocabulary you’ve learned which then pop up as refreshers / revision after a certain number of days so you can revisit them to reinforce what you’ve learned. One small gripe with this is that, as you watch more videos the number of daily revision exercises you get seems to constantly increase. When I first started, I was getting 10-15 revision exercises a day, but after a few months it’s up to 120-150 a day which is incredibly challenging to keep up with. I haven’t found a way of slowing down this avalanche, short of just removing videos once I’m bored of them, which I don’t really want to do. I like the fact that it keeps a clear record of what I have done and been working on. I’m not sure if it would work for teaching you a language from scratch - the videos seem a bit too random / scattergun to provide the structured learning / progression you would need. I do also find the speech recognition a bit buggy - it seems to have odd moments where it repeatedly tells me “You said XXXXXXXX. That’s not quite right,” where XXXXXXXX is just a load of gibberish that I obviously didn’t say. Sometimes I have to just press continue to accept its version of events and move on. But all that considered, it’s still a good app, and I’ve broadened my vocabulary considerably by using it every day (ish) for 2-3 months. As I said, it isn’t really a standalone language learning app. Accept it for what it is - useful vocab, reading and listening practice - and use it alongside a structured classroom / learning course for the best results. And it’s way, way better than Duolingo.

Do not trust this company with your bank details! I signed up for a free trial, and cancelled 3 days before its expiry (much earlier than the required 24 hours), following the cancellation instructions provided by FluentU. I then received an email saying my trial was about to expire and my card would be charged for a year subscription (nearly $100). I emailed them to say I’d cancelled and so I shouldn’t be charged any further. They confirmed that I had indeed cancelled and that they wouldn’t be taking any money from me. Then yesterday evening, they proceeded to charge my card for the year. This is an unauthorised transaction. They clearly cannot be trusted with the bank card details they request for a free trial. DO NOT GIVE THEM YOUR BANK DETAILS!!

Incredible App - 3 years and still incredible happy Incredible App. Never thought I would happily pay that much for an app. Been using it for the last 3 years and even though I am consider myself fluent in Chinese by now, I am still continuously learning new words, phrases or ways of describing situations or things. For me the perfect app for everybody who is past the basics and really wants to take their language skills to the next level - with around 10 minutes per day.