Speak languages: Banter AI

I’ve tried a lot of language apps, but this is honestly the best way to practice speaking without feeling awkward. The conversations feel genuinely conversational instead of scripted and it talks about current trending topics and I love that it has memory it actually remembers what we talked about before and builds on that. As an intermediate learner, it’s hard to find tools that aren’t too basic or overwhelming but this app perfectly fits that.

It absolutely does charge you after the first exercise. It doesn’t even let you complete an entire lesson so you can determine whether or not you like this. Lesson 1 starts with basic introduction about 7 minutes of speaking practice. Second, it’s review and refine pronunciation. Third, it appears to be a chat option to use the new phrases in context. These three things make up every lesson. I was able to do the first option of lesson one, but locked right away saying I need to upgrade. Again, I don’t know if I like the app yet. You could’ve let me finish the entire first lesson before trying to force me to pay $119 for the annual fee or $17 a month. Crazy expensive for such a short trial. Could at least offer a 7-14 day free trial for those high prices—then I would consider paying.

I feel like each lesson really helps me solidify the new vocabulary and grammar in a way that seems to stick with me as time goes by after the lesson. The ability to have the lesson topics genuinely feel related to things I care about and useful in my immediate life make them super engaging too. Each lesson takes around 5 min and the time truly flies when I do them. 5 min on some other apps can feel like a long time, but I feel like it just whizzes by in these lessons. Love doing it on my walks to or from work/errands!