It’s a 5 star product but I gave it 3 for this reason
It lost a star because I’m always having to repeat myself. It also has the technical issues. Like almost every time I use it. You can’t use it freely, it has usage limits which is annoying. Even more annoying that half the time it’s saying something sarcastic or unproductive. It sometimes has a condescending approach and when it has a big mouth like that is using your credits. I should give it a two star.
But the actual learning material is legit. It’s 5 stars.
But the actual learning material is legit. It’s 5 stars.
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Lots of potential
Updated review: I’ve been using this app every day for a couple of weeks for European Portuguese. Pros: it offers nice bite-sized learning opportunities, structured course progression, and I really appreciate the interactions with the tutors (with feedback and sometimes cultural commentary!). Cons: there is little in the way of pronunciation feedback (it translates what you said and gives you grammatical feedback mainly, but other apps do a much better job of helping you pronounce words correctly), the AI tutor voice sounds like…. an AI tutor, and most of the lessons are slow to load and sometimes slow to transcribe my speech. Also, specifically for European Portuguese, the “tutor” and “practice” sections (where you spend 90% of your time in the app) are great for European Portuguese, but if you go straight to the “lessons” tab, those seem to have some Brazilian Portuguese.
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Not for European Portuguese
While the app lets you select European Portuguese as a target language, most of the pronunciation and grammar in lessons is Brazilian. The functionality of the app is great, but when lesson one of European Portuguese has me incorrectly pronouncing “bom dia” as “bomb gia”, that’s a problem.
What the…
I bought the lifetime subscription for $99 (turned in to $160) but whatever. I had a long drive ahead of me so I thought I’d spend it learning only to have it shut down after 20 minutes because I am out of daily tokens? What nonsense is this?
When an upgrade feels like a downgrade
I really like the concept of Langotalk, but unfortunately the app has become increasingly frustrating to use. There are still a lot of bugs, and many of them seem to have been around for quite a long time.
The recent language model upgrade hasn’t helped either. The new voice KI sounds very robotic, noticeably slower, and just less natural overall. The updated graphics/UI also feel like a downgrade to me, especially the dark mode, which is honestly quite hard on the eyes.
I’m saying this because I’d genuinely like to see Langotalk succeed. Right now, though, it feels like the product is moving in the wrong direction.
The recent language model upgrade hasn’t helped either. The new voice KI sounds very robotic, noticeably slower, and just less natural overall. The updated graphics/UI also feel like a downgrade to me, especially the dark mode, which is honestly quite hard on the eyes.
I’m saying this because I’d genuinely like to see Langotalk succeed. Right now, though, it feels like the product is moving in the wrong direction.
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