Innovative Language Learning

This app works OK the first time you open it after downloading. The next time you use it, it either freezes as soon as you click on a lesson or works for a minute or so and then crashes. The only solution is to delete it, then download it again and start all over. It has been like this for many months now, through multiple updates, and the developer is evidently unable or unwilling to correct the problem(s). A further issue may be that ILL is now attempting to cover too many languages. They have assured me that they release new lessons weekly, yet the upper intermediate and advanced Japanese content seems not to have been augmented or updated in any meaningful way for years. What's there is not terrible, but it isn't great, either – and there's very little of it. In any case, if you're interested in learning a language, rather than wasting your time downloading the same app over and over, you should look elsewhere! (If you're wondering, the only reason I'm still attempting to use this terrible product is that I stupidly purchased a two-year membership, and the app stopped working about nine months in.)

I was skeptical at first trying to learn Japanese this way- when I hear the audio and it's so fast it is overwhelming! But I find the different ways they teach you and reinforce the material to be super helpful. I can go over the lessons again and again, as well as individual portions. I love the app, it's a lot more user friendly then the website. I was ready to quit even my "free" premium trial of the website when I found the app, and it changed my mind. I put it on Bluetooth in my car and practice on my way to work. The video lessons cover different things and I find the detailed tips and visuals on pronunciation particularly helpful. Certain sounds are just not done in English, and it really is a struggle. I had a particular breakthrough today with one of the video lessons explaining the cadence of Japanese and showing how to pronounce it. Really great! I recommend learning hiragana and not relying on romanii, as it does actually make pronouncing it easier. I will be continuing with this for sure.

I was looking forward to using the audio lessons in conversation format to supplement another very successful program that has improved my speech of Spanish to a point where I am comfortable expressing (although at a low level)my thoughts in speech. I was very disappointed. In my opinion, the format to the audio conversation lessons is backwards. It is very difficult to listen to a foreign language sentence and then keep that in mind and remember it while your listening to the translation in your home language. It should be your home-spoken language first, then a several seconds pause while you try to speak it in the new language, then the translation in the new language to verify or tweak what you just spoke. That's another thing, it does no good to listen only, with no time during the lesson to repeat and practice immediately after the prompt. If you think about it, it only makes sense that a person first has a thought, then, even in our home language, we put the words together to express that thought. So that cannot happen if we first must listen without really knowing the "thought" and then have to take the subsequent translation and then try to remember how it was said in the new language. Also I tried to slow down the speech but found it was echoing so badly it did not work. I wasn't sure if that was my phone problem or your app. If I have missed any options or settings that would fix my concerns, I apologize in advance.