Mishka: Russian Intermediate

This app does an amazing job at meeting the needs of intermediate Russian language learners. The user interface is beautiful and a pleasure to use, but below the surface it is paired with thoughtful and intelligent pedagogical design. Mishka combines a number of existing kinds of apps in one. It has spaced repetition of flashcard apps like Anki. One feature that I love it that you card click on any word practical anywhere (e.g., from stories) and easily add it to you deck of to-be-learned words. The stories are great - both as a listening and reading exercise. There are followed by questions that test comprehension AND GRAMMAR. The grammar lessons and quizzes are particularly well done. There is actual explicit grammatical instruction and the questions focus on applying these idea. In Russian, the case declension system is very challenging to learn. Having completed the entire DuoLingo Russian course, I have never once experienced targeted testing of word endings. Mishka does exactly this. The app focuses on these important and difficult grammatical concepts, giving learners the practice they need, but does so in an intelligent and supportive way, with explanations about what is happening in the language. I cannot recommend this app more highly. It’s clear to me that it was created by people who genuinely know what they are doing in terms of both software/app development and importantly language instruction.

I’ve been chipping away at Russian on and off for years, and made some progress, but Mishka is a next-level tool for learning! The perfect balance of focusing on reading and listening to native speakers, customized spaced-repetition flash cards, fill-in-the-blank, matching, and a little bit of gamification, all in a super slick and professional technical package. One suggestion for future updates: I’d love to see an easy way to listen to a playlist of audio while doing chores, commuting, etc. maximum audio input is key to language learning, so I’d love to listen to all the lessons I’ve already completed, for example, in a loop. Congrats on an amazing app!

This app is totally revolutionary! It took the ideas of many other well-known language apps and then added necessary grammar and curriculum guides. It’s totally adorable, user friendly, and seriously well-thought out. I love the stories section; how it’s narrated and can be paused, that words can be pressed on for definition and pronunciation. I love that the tests at the end of each story have 3 parts; comprehensive, grammar, and recall. This is a mega combo for fast learning. This is the kind of learning that sticks with you. Meaningful learning. I also love there there are so many sections to work on so you never feel bogged down by repeating the same tasks over and over. This app is going to take the Russian language community by storm!