There are plenty of reviews of iTalki, Lingoda, and Babbel Live, but I’ve noticed limitations in many of them. Often, these reviews are paid, and in many cases, the reviewers have had only brief experiences with the platforms.
Personally, I’ve completed more than a hundred iTalki lessons, over 200 Lingoda lessons, and now several dozen Babbel Live lessons. I’ve taken lessons on all three platforms in both French and German, and I’ve also done Japanese lessons on iTalki.
While I am a fan of comprehensible input and the primacy of “acquisition,” I also believe that modern “learning,” including the study of grammar, can be highly efficient when hybridized with these approaches.
iTalki:
iTalki offers both professional and “community” (amateur) teachers, with prices varying widely. I experimented with many teachers. At the lower end of the cost spectrum, I found little difference between the professional and community teachers. Both were excellent for conversation practice and pronunciation correction. The more expensive teachers were a mixed bag—some were worth the cost, others less so. Initially, as a proponent of comprehensible input and immersion methods, I used iTalki to complement LingQ, focusing on active vocabulary development and oral production, as well as free-form oral comprehension. However, I found that this method left me with significant gaps in my grammar, particularly in areas like the subjunctive and more complex tenses (e.g., anteriority in the future: “He will have finished by tomorrow morning”).
Lingoda:
To address these grammar gaps, I decided to take all the Lingoda B1-level lessons focused on grammar. Each lesson covers a different aspect of learning, such as vocabulary, reading, grammar, communication, or review. I was very impressed with Lingoda’s content. Not only did it help improve my grammar, but I also discovered the benefits of “formation”—a concept where the instructional content is curated to ensure well-roundedness, including cultural awareness and appreciation. After successfully completing the B1 grammar lessons, I progressed through all of the B2 lessons and even started another language at the A1 level on Lingoda. The content is top-notch, and the teachers are well-prepared, which fosters an active and engaged learning environment. The student body is diverse, with a good mix of gender, age, nationality, and motivation. Lingoda is more than just a supplementary tool; it can be used as a primary platform for learning a language. The content is well-designed and comprehensive enough that a learner can achieve proficiency with just Lingoda, provided they prepare for each class, participate actively, and engage in self-study afterward. Lingoda’s content has equipped me to discuss a wide range of topics, from the weather and sports to entertainment, the environment, beliefs, history, work, education, technology, and more. However, Lingoda is relatively expensive, and it lacks built-in pronunciation feedback. Additionally, while Lingoda offers several languages, including German and French, it does not support languages like Japanese.
Babbel Live:
Paying for two languages on Lingoda made me curious about Babbel Live’s multi-language unlimited plan, especially since Lingoda doesn’t offer C1 lessons in French. Like Lingoda, Babbel Live is limited in the languages it offers. The lesson content on Babbel Live is a fraction of what Lingoda provides. Where Lingoda has invested heavily in curriculum development and careful curation, Babbel Live appears to have been developed on a much lower budget. It’s not that Babbel Live is bad—it’s just less comprehensive. Unlike Lingoda, where each lesson focuses on a specific theme (vocabulary, grammar, reading, communication, etc.), with content integration, Babbel Live interweaves these themes more lightly across individual lessons. This means there’s less incentive to spend an hour preparing for each lesson, and the lessons themselves are more free-form and casual. Teachers on Babbel Live tend to focus more on conversation rather than strictly adhering to content. The after-lesson review features are decent and somewhat integrated with Babbel’s well-known app capabilities. However, Babbel would benefit from better integration between its Live and app content, as well as more robust curriculum development. As it stands, I’m somewhat skeptical that Babbel Live can be used as a primary instructional platform.
I’m just a few weeks away from completing Lingoda’s B2.3 course in French. After that, I plan to cancel Lingoda and continue with Babbel Live, using iTalki primarily for pronunciation correction and accent neutralization. Cost is a significant factor in choosing Babbel Live over Lingoda for the next phase of my language learning journey. I anticipate I’ll do a number of the lessons a couple times or more but with an take-as-many-classes-as-you-want subscription, why not?
Of course, my approach also includes YouTube and Netflix for oral comprehension, book and online reading for written comprehension, and LingQ for all input comprehension. Then there’s ChatGPT as a constant aid.
In conclusion, it is absolutely possible to learn a language to an advanced level efficiently and entirely online. With the right combination of tools and dedication, nearly anyone can achieve fluency in multiple languages.
Would definitely welcome additional perspectives from people who have explored these tools and how to use them together. I’m always on the look out for improving my online methods.