As yet, I’ve only worked with Lingopie briefly, but I really like it so far!
The best part is that you’re watching movies, TV shows, etc., so it’s very engaging and entertaining! However, Lingopie gives you a lot of further resources to help you understand and review what you’re watching.
This is probably not the best course for complete beginners in your target language. That, since it’s not a strategically-defined curriculum as such: It doesn’t systematically teach you the most-basic words first, then build out from that core. It jumps in right away with fully-formed, often non-trivial sentences.
However, if you’re already at least somewhat familiar with your target language, or with a related language, you could probably learn a lot pretty quickly.
I see this — again, so far at least — as more about learning new vocabulary, and practicing the vocabulary you already know, in real-world contexts, and doing so in a lively, practical, and fun way!
I think a big problem is its a new app.
It has a lot of tech issues. The controls freeze and if you switch to landscape or back to portrait it is very glitchy.
It has a lot of very literal translations. I wish it had translations of phrases then a breakdown of word for word from that. (Hopefully this happens in the future). I wish you could add the words manually after seeing the translation, it is too often that you click a word you know by accident or the translation is either bad or non existent leaving you with a useless listing in your vocabulary lists (maybe you can remove them later but this whole thing should be avoidable).
There is a glitch in the vocabulary video playback that cuts off the audio and video at the end often cutting of the word you are studying.
An option to report or suggest features in the app would be great. As of now its on discord which is very complicated to use.
The continue watching should be pinned to the top in the app. It is always way down the list and takes a second to find.
The content is good and hopefully getting better. I hope it is just in the growing pains stage and will improve in the future. With that i would definitely change my rating to 5 star. The app has a lot of potential and a bright future if the work gets put in.
I was very excited when I discovered this app. However, I was disappointed very soon. It’s very odd. I joined and everything seemed very cool. $200 for a lifetime subscription sounded like a great deal. Long story short, there was a billing glitch and every time I went to retry my card or update my info. Of course it would not let me. It just freezes so I ended up having to make another account. The same thing happened. eventually my third or fourth account worked. I’ll start off by saying the Netflix portion is very limited and you do need a Netflix account. A lot of the time the grammar index will not show up, glitches, translates improperly and advertises that they have more episodes of series that they do not. The biggest thing of all is that each time I tried to get help with my accounts support will send you an automatic message, saying they are working to help but you never hear from them again, there is no tech support system. Be careful for what membership you do because when I logged in on Google they wanted to charge me $200 for an annual membership. When I login on the app it’s 200 for life. That is very odd and overall, I am disappointed that’s funny.
Developer Response
Hi rich977865, we're so sorry to hear about this... can you please email support@lingopie.com with your account information so we can help you ASAP?Lingopie allowed my child to enter his kid’s debit card and will not allow to cancel. We’ve tried the fake “help” section on multiple web browsers and from the app. The help says simply go to your “account page” under “plan” click on “update membership” and you will see all of the plan and canceling options. LIES! LIES! LIES! None of that exists! From the website the only thing you can click on is 1. Absolutely nothing because after you login there is literally no “Account page” anywhere 2. If it logs into the original web browser he used to sign up for the account the only option is to UPDATE HIS PAYMENT CARD! Sorry my kid only has 1 card and it only has his hard earned allowance money on it, which isn’t the $36 they’ve repeatedly tried to charge-thank goodness or they would’ve stolen more money from him! Of course in the “help” section none of the “options” they give are actual links-like a legitimate website would have. We tried to use the chat function but guess what… “cancel subscription” yielded zero results!
Developer Response
Hi RWGS1980, we're so sorry to hear about this... can you please email support@lingopie.com with your account information so we can help you ASAP?Lingopie allowed my child to enter his kid’s debit card and will not allow to cancel. We’ve tried the fake “help” section on multiple web browsers and from the app. The help says simply go to your “account page” under “plan” click on “update membership” and you will see all of the plan and canceling options. LIES! LIES! LIES! None of that exists! From the website the only thing you can click on is 1. Absolutely nothing because after you login there is literally no “Account page” anywhere 2. If it logs into the original web browser he used to sign up for the account the only option is to UPDATE HIS PAYMENT CARD! Sorry my kid only has 1 card and it only has his hard earned allowance money on it, which isn’t the $36 they’ve repeatedly tried to charge-thank goodness or they would’ve stolen more money from him! Of course in the “help” section none of the “options” they give are actual links-like a legitimate website would have. We tried to use the chat function but guess what… “cancel subscription” yielded zero results!
This app is so great! I waited to get it because I didn’t have the money at the time for the yearly subscription but once I got it, it is so cool !!!! You can pause, click the words you don’t know and save them and they createflash cards for you. You can slow down the audio and more. There is content for all ages pretty much. The only thing I wish they had more was content that is more mainstream. However, I know that could probably be expensive. Although, I’ve only been using the app a couple of days; so, I might come across more mainstream content. But overall, great app! Highly recommended!
I love this app. It does need more content though. I have had for a bit now and finds that there is just not enough content in Italian. I am trying to go really slowly through the shows because there aren’t very many. But I love that it has real time translations. Please make more. It would be great to have audiobooks that you could follow along to as well. I really like the “fit” shows that have the Italian recipes and exercise routines but only a few episodes available. Please make more of those! More of everything please!
I grew up speaking Spanish but I have lost it over the years. This app is really good at giving lots of content from both beginner and high level so it gives me a good idea of how much I can understand. It gives good direct translations but it doesn’t necessarily give much context with certain phrase. Some are idioms or just figure of speeches and the app translates them literally so I just have to look up the phrase externally to make sure I understand what is being said. So if this app better context explanation and some better quizzes, 5/5 for sure.
Developer Response
Hi Hans, thank you very much for your comments. We hope we can schedule your private lessons with us soon. I liked this application when I first discovered it for Spanish, and I used it for a while. There are a lot of technical issues (e.g., buffering, freezing, etc.), but it’s not terrible. The focal point, however, is. I didn’t realize it until I watched “La Bruja,” a Colombian series on there. The translations are incredibly horrible (and discriminatory). I’m convinced there’s no professional observation because why am I on S1:EP5-6 of “La Bruja,” and there are MULTIPLE prejudiced translations? In Spanish, the word for “black” (the color) is “negro.” If you know your U.S. History, you know English borrowed this word and started using it to describe a Black person. It was discriminatory, but this never occurred in Spanish. It was the opposite. Many Spanish-speaking countries use “negro” and “negra” as a term of endearment. It could mean “darling,” but it’s not translatable sometimes. The problem isn’t the Spanish translations but the English. Each translation for “negro” and “negra” was “black,” “blackie,” “nigg*r,” etc. Do those seem like appropriate translations in English? These are rarely terms of endearment IN ENGLISH. I’m sure some scenes may have intended to use “negro” and “negra” as an insult, but most of the scenes on the show were not giving that context. It’s disgusting, and I’m disappointed in this app.
I signed up for a free TRIAL. I then CANCELED the account BEFORE the trial end date. This company has been attempting to charge me 4X a week for over a month. Thankfully since the first attempted charge my credit card has marked it as fraudulent. Yet, this company continues to attempt to charge. When I attempted to sign in to contact support I got an error message that said my account does not exist. If I don’t have an active account how and why are you attempting to charge so aggressively?
Do not sign up, and do not begin a “free” trial.
Mr. 88CET
could try harderer
rich977865
RWGS1980
tymoney$123
AngelCySec
Hans Bothe
iRevvy
T.aylor. D
