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LingQ is one of the most cost-effective language learning systems that we have come across in our product reviews thus far. We hadn’t heard of LingQ until doing this product review which is why we were pronouncing it wrong throughout the video (it should be pronounced like “Link”). Our follies aside, read on and watch the review video to learn how LingQ can help you learn Chinese as well as many other languages.
CHINESE LEARNING PRODUCT TYPE: AUDIO AND TEXT LESSONS
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF LINGQ
LingQ’s whole premise is that engaging in compelling content makes it easier to learn a language than from studying stiff dialogues that are often found in language textbooks. In the LingQ platform, you can learn from interesting content in the form of news, articles, podcasts, ebooks, and recipes.
Study your vocabulary in an interactive flashcard study system which gives you multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, audio questions and traditional flashcards. The LingQ study system is like a game. As you learn words, you get coins that can use to buy your avatar some nifty accessories.
Here’s my avatar wearing a traditional Chinese hat. He’s still a baby, which makes me think after I study more with LingQ, he’s going to change. It’s a bit gimmicky, but adds a bit of fun to the whole learning process.
Another one of LingQ’s key features is the ability to import your own content. If there is a book that you want to read in Chinese, you can import the ebook version into the LingQ Reader and read it within the app. This way you can more smoothly look up words and phrases and then study them later in the study system.
Speak live with a tutor or have your writing corrected on the LingQ Exchange. You can even upload an audio clip of yourself practicing a phrase or dialog and a native speaker will review it and give you tips and corrections.
Overall, the design of this platform isn’t as flashy as some of its competitors, but if you look closer, you’ll discover a wealth of lessons and features to help you learn Chinese as well as many other languages.
Here is a sneak peek of what it’s like using the LingQ language learning platform:
OUR FAVORITE FEATURES
- Read & listen to 1000s of hours of podcasts, audiobooks, interviews and more.
- Look up & save new words and phrases for review
- Track vocabulary growth & activity. Measure your improvement.
- Join live conversations with native speakers.
- Make friends in our global community and language exchange.
- Lots of languages to select from (English, French, Russian, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Swedish, Dutch, Greek, Polish, Esperanto, Latin, Ukrainian, Czech, Norwegian, Turkish, Finnish, Hebrew, Arabic, Romanian, Danish, Slovak, Belarusian, Malay)
- Earn coins to create an avatar
- Edit your own dictionary definitions to help you remember a word
- Lots of free stuff, but premium is affordable
- Recent lessons appear at the top, making it easy to sift through all the content and pick up where you left off
- Learn your saved vocabulary in context and using SRS review.
COULD BE BETTER
- There is so much content and features that it’s a bit difficult to navigate at first
- User-interface functional, but the style is outdated
- Audio quality for some lessons is not ideal
PRICING AND PRICE COMPARISON TO OTHER PRODUCTS
You can get thousands of audio and text for free in LingQ, but they also have a Premium service. Click here to see LingQ’s current pricing details.
Here’s a comparison of some other online Chinese learning platforms:
| Product | Price | Content |
| LingQ | $9.08 / $35.25 | 1 month Premium / 1 month Plus |
| Mandarin HQ | $87 | Unlimited / Lifetime |
| Skritter | $14.99 / $59.99 / $99.99 | 1 month / 6 months / 1 year |
| ChinesePod | $14 / $29 | 1 month Basic / 1 month Premium |
DETAILS OF PRODUCT
Company: LingQ
Platform Type: Content-driven text and audio lessons
Free Trial: Try LingQ out here
Cost: free / $9.08 per month Premium / $35.25 per month Plus