Number 4 is ”Learn Finnish. Speak Finnish” by Ati Studios. (26Mb).

The subtitle is ”Mondly. play your way to a new language” and at the first glance, it looks nice. It’s another multilingual app which is translated into several languages so that you can choose your native language and what language you want to learn. It promises 2500 words and phrases, which is less than in the earlier apps, but if it’s core vocabulary (and if the phrases contain more than 1 word), then I guess it’s enough.

After I select my native language, it represents a conversation between two individuals (“hello”, “kiitos”, “thanks” and so on). The Lesson continues with images of coffee and tea and my first task is to learn those words. Apparently I need to move some kind of a path to learn the language, so there’s less choice than in the earlier applications.

Build your sentences

The basic concept is ”trial and error”. You are given Finnish words and phrases, and you should try to guess what do they mean in English. Then you have a phrase ”Tässä on äitini.” and English words is + my + This + granddaughter. + mother and you should put the English word in right order.

The images and audio are top quality, but it seems to also eat a lot of resources. The app works quite slowly and when I go to the conversation exercise, tapping the buttons doesn’t seem to work. Apparently the idea is, that you listen to the sample and record your own version of it. The interface looks simple but still doesn’t seem to work.

I installed Romanian for test purposes, and apparently you can take only 1 lesson / day unless you purchase the premium version. Each day it reminds you with an alarm, that you should take your daily lesson. If you skip your lesson, you are not getting an extra lesson next day (unless you buy the premium).

Summary

The full version (premium) costs 14,99€, so it’s more expensive than the other apps. The look and feel are significantly better than in the cheaper applications. The pedagogical approach is also much more ambitious; the lessons are structured so that you can advance from simple constructions to more complex ones. It doesn’t teach you grammar per se, but it gives you samples how to connect words and phrases, not just passively absorb vocabulary.

The trial version is very limited, and it’s necessary to purchase the premium version if you really want to use this application. Since I only tried the free version, it’s difficult to rate this, but I’ll give it 4/5.

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