WordDive: Learn a new language

This is the first language app I’ve used that has kept me engaged. It gives a good range of vocabulary at once and is great for sentence structure. I like to read over the sentences to myself and I’ve been learning so much more this way. The app also gives short grammar lessons as you go through the course. There’s no lives lost or anything too video game-ish, which I tend to find distracting. It still has cute animations, but nothing too in your face. I’m going to subscribe!

I was having the greatest time with this app, it’s been really helping with my learning skills but it’s been 4 days in which I can’t login on my phone so I was going on my computer (which I hate because the whole point was doing it on my phone) now it doesn’t even work on computer either.....

I’m using this application to learn Estonian. It’s gamified enough to keep things interesting, but not so much that I feel inspired to cheat or overly frustrated if I get something wrong. The words in the basic (numbered) lessons seem random, but I was surprised how much I used and recognized when I went to Estonia. The app is aquatic-themed. It works by showing you a picture and a hint in Estonian, which can be tapped to show a direct translation in English. From there, you choose the word that matches the image, then move to spelling it out. Once you do this correctly enough times (and over a sufficient period of time) the app rewards you with a “master” fish rating on that word. Once you’ve mastered enough words, the lesson is considered completed. There is no direct discussion of grammar rules, at least not as of lesson 3. They have to be derived from the examples of the words used in a sentence. This can be confusing at first, with some words changing dramatically in context, but it gets simpler with practice. I wish I could change the name I entered, though. Be aware that you will get emailed certificates for each level you pass, so if you add a tag to your name for filtering purposes, it will show up on the certificates too.