Category: Language Learning

A neon lock with a glowing owl motif, reminiscent of Duolingo

Multi-Language Alternatives to Duolingo

In the vast landscape of language learning platforms, Duolingo often takes centre-stage. And deservedly so in many respects – the Duolingo project has made language learning accessible to the masses.

However, a bit of healthy competition never hurt anyone, and at Polyglossic.com, we’re all for choice! Here are four platforms that can give you an alternative to the owl when you need it.

Lingvist

Estonian platform Lingvist takes a personalised approach to vocabulary acquisition, employing adaptive algorithms to tailor learning experiences based on individual progress. By focusing on high-frequency words, it aims to accelerate language acquisition efficiently. While premium features are available, the free version provides a great array of tools for tailoring and tracking your language journey.

50Languages

For those eager to explore a multitude of languages, Germany-based 50Languages is a treasure trove, offering materials for over 50 tongues. On the surface, the platform is a bit of a glorified phrasebook, but organised thematically and very useful for a mass-sentence learning technique. It focuses on practical vocabulary and phrases, facilitating real-life communication. All resources are freely accessible, supporting self-paced learning without financial barriers.

The downside? It’s pretty heavily ad-supported, so you’ll have to navigate some intrusive screen content. That said, I did give it a run in the Brave browser, which suppresses most of them (although bear in mind you’ll be starving a small site of its income by using ad-blockers).

Duostories – Community-Sourced Duolingo Clone

A bit of a cheat, this one, as it is Duolingo… Well, almost. Duostories is a community-sourced website that has licensed much of the story content of Duolingo proper. The twist? Community members have translated them into a good many more languages than the original site offers. You can enjoy the cheesy story content in Catalan, Icelandic, Telugu and more, all in the familiar Duolingo layout. A great alternative to the site that spawned it, at least while users wait for official ports for each of those languages.

Busuu

Busuu, a former UK startup before it was acquired by educational giant Chegg.com, provides courses in 14 languages, and while that’s fewer than Duolingo, it nonetheless covers a great range of ‘mainstream’ ones. Its strength is in its lesson format, which is a bit like a supercharged Rosetta Stone  – interactive exercise units combine with community-based learning for a double whammy. The standout feature is the opportunity to practice with native speakers, supporting authentic conversational skills. While it’s a freemium model, the free version offers substantial resources.

Each of these platforms proves that there are options beyond Duolingo. Some are much simpler, like 50Languages, and others are more fully-developed – Lingvist has features to rival the biggest platforms. But all offer diverse methodologies and features that can complement your language learning journey. If you’re tiring of the owl, why not give them a try? We won’t tell.

Darren Paffey MP giving the keynote speech at ALL Language World 2025

ALL Language World 2025

I was out waving the yellow flag for Linguascope, working the stands at the ALL Language World conference this weekend. Now, it’s not often I’ll rave about attending conferences. After all, they can be pretty dry affairs, especially as an exhibitor, where your main job is to smile and hand out goodie bags.

But there was something so positive about the vibe with this one. Perhaps it was the smaller scale and more intimate setting in rural Warwickshire. Maybe it was professional solidarity, after some tough years for secondary language pedagogy. Whatever the reason, it was a lovely opportunity to mix with other language professionals, faces both familiar and new.

One of the highlights was the keynote speech by Darren Paffey MP. Darren is one of the new 2024 intake of British MPs (and, we are told, one of only three Darrens to be elected to parliament!). Before being swiped by politics, Darren was a professor of sociolinguistics at the University of Southampton, and a long-time language learning enthusiast. The ideal guest, then, to reassure an anxious crowd, worn down by years of official neglect of languages on the curriculum, that he will be fighting our corner in the new government.

It’s not often we get one on the inside!

Darren Paffey MP with Didi, the Linguascope Dog at ALL Language World 2025.

Darren Paffey MP with Didi, the Linguascope Dog at ALL Language World 2025.

Perhaps it was the encouraging tone of that keynote that helped buoy the mood. In any case, it was one of the nicest events, in terms of camaraderie, mutual support and optimism that I’ve attended in recent years. Props to the ALL for organising it, and for bagging such a thoroughly decent keynote speaker.

An Anki card with a note image and a template image.

Top Three Gamification Plugins for Anki

If you’re committed to mastering a new language, you already know the power of Anki’s spaced repetition system and its range of fantastic, functional add-ons like Review Heatmap.

But let’s face it—purely functional flashcards can sometimes feel monotonous. That’s where gamification plugins come in, introducing arcade-style elements into your study sessions to transform them into engaging, motivating experiences.

Below, I’ve pulled together three perhaps lesser-proselytised entries from the plug-in cache that introduce a, well, off-the-wall element to your card reviews. Think kawaii rather than cahier. Yes, they are a little whacky. But there’s often method in language learning madness, and these are all great fun as well as being squarely aimed at increasing your motivation.

Let the fun begin!

1. POKEMANKI – Strategic Learning Meets Fun

Pokemanki ingeniously blends language learning with the mechanics of Pokémon, turning your Anki reviews into a game where you hatch eggs, train Pokémon, and climb leaderboards. With over 30,000 downloads, it’s a clear favorite among learners who appreciate its strategic depth and nostalgic appeal.  If you’re looking for a plugin that combines fun with serious progress, this is an excellent choice.

Download Pokemanki here.

2. ANKIMON – Catch ‘Em All, Pokémon-Style

OK, there’s a theme emerging here… and it’s perhaps not surprising, judging by how many of my polyglot pals are also into Pokémon. Ankimon takes gamification to the next level by turning your Anki reviews into a full Pokémon adventure. As you review cards, you catch, train, and trade Pokémon, competing with others online. With over 15,000 downloads, it’s a hit among learners who thrive on immersive gameplay. If you’re a Pokémon fan looking to inject excitement into your language learning, this plugin is a must-try.

Download Ankimon here.

3. ANKITTY – Simple, Effective Motivation

Sometimes, the simplest incentives are the most motivating and fun. Kitten Rewards displays charming kitten images on your “congrats” screen after completing a deck, offering a small but effective boost. With over 10,000 downloads, it’s a popular choice for learners seeking a low-pressure, low-key way to stay engaged. If you appreciate subtle, positive reinforcement (and love kittens), this plugin is worth exploring.

Download Ankitty here. Alternatively, for doggie fans, there’s this puppy alternative!

Final Thoughts

Gamification isn’t just about enjoyment—it’s about leveraging psychology to sustain your language-learning momentum. Whether you’re strategising with Pokemanki, tracking progress and hatching eggs with Ankimon, or enjoying the small joys of Kitten Rewards, these plugins can transform your Anki experience into something quite unique.

Choose the one that best aligns with your learning style, and take your language skills to the next level. Happy studying, polyglots!

The flag of Ukraine - Learn Ukrainian

Ukraine and Cultural Resistance

Some truly awful things are happening in the world right now. The sudden and shocking turn against Ukraine in some quarters has left many of us reeling. And it’s natural to feel quite helpless in the face of that, as a plain old everyday person.

But I’m reminded of a post I wrote around this time, three years ago, during perhaps the starkest, most shocking episode of this whole saga. During the all-out invasion of Ukraine, it’s cultural resistance that is one of our great powers as language lovers. In face of a monolithic dictatorship that seeks to deny the existence of a separate Ukrainian identity, support its language, music, literature – celebrate it to the hilt.

General disquiet comes not only from the Ukraine issue, of course; many are concerned about the more general political winds that are blowing the same way. How do we distance ourselves from regimes that go against our values – especially in a world that seems dominated by its products and services?

To that end, there are switches we can make that show our resistance against a new order that feels so at odds with our own values. For instance, sites like European Alternatives give us plenty of options. Enjoying ChatGPT for language practice? Give Mistral’s Le Chat a go instead, and support European AI research. Looking for a more federated community platform that hasn’t been X-ified? Mastodon is still out there, as promising as ever.

They give us a way to state our disquiet, well, quietly. And they’re little things that become big things, the more of us that do them. 

Switching Costs

Switching sounds easy, of course, but we should also acknowledge that it’s not zero effort. In many cases, switching costs are high – technically, socially, in terms of convenience. In Cory Doctorow’s terms, services like Duolingo are walled gardens that offer us a place to stay, often for free, but at the cost of trapping our progress, social links and learning data, and feeding us to advertising algorithms.

There are ways, however, to limit the ad revenue you generate for economies you want to take a stand against. Use ad-blocking, privacy-boosting browsers like Norway-based Opera as your portal to services, and you’ve at least untangled yourself financially.

More little acts, of course – but little acts multiplied can make themselves felt.

Progressive Gaelic by Moray Watson

Progressive Gaelic

I sometimes think I should write a “gems from my bookshelf” series on this blog. I’ve collected language learning books for years, including the hardy stalwarts like the Teach Yourself and Colloquial series, as well as more off-the-beaten-track, lesser known courses. The latter type often deserve so much more recognition than the mainstream ones, and so it is with the excellent Progressive Gaelic series.

The author, Moray Watson, is a prominent figure in the field of Gaelic studies, serving as a Professor of Gaelic and Translation at the University of Aberdeen for over two decades. That shows in Progressive Gaelic – it comes across as a really comprehensive course that’s been designed to take students from zero to a high degree of competency. Spread across four books, it’s very well graded, too, with a real sense of progression.

One of the best touches is that Scottish history and culture is woven into the material throughout, in the vocabulary and reading passages. It’s certainly not a course that treats language in isolation, but uses a cross-disciplinary approach to set it in context. To back it all up, there’s also a nice set of workbooks to go alongside the course material.

Best of all, they’re really affordable, compared with other courses – you can pick up most of them for around a tenner brand new. And other learners have given their seal of approval – each of the volumes has almost five stars on Amazon. Give them a go – jump in at book 2 if you’re already on your Gaelic journey. They really do deserve some more attention and praise!

Sounding Too Correct : Lessons from Norwegian and Swedish

There are some useful crossovers between language learning and ‘full on’ linguistics, as I think of it, where the one helps your knowledge of the other. I’ve been looking at language change recently, digging into a few papers on a Norwegian and Swedish trend that can add a really authentic-sounding twist to your speech.

The phenomenon is called ha-dropping. No, not h-dropping, which might ‘elp your English sound more colloquial, but ha, or have, in both Norwegian and Swedish – specifically, the have of the perfect tense.

If you’ve spent some time reading and listening to these languages, it’s something that can throw you off the first time you hear it. In short, ha can simply go missing where you’d expect to hear it in English:

De burde solgt det (they should have sold it – Norwegian)

The variant with ha still exists, of course – de burde ha solgt det – and it’s still considered correct. These days, however, it tends to sound a little bookish or formal.

Sounding too correct

It looks like a classic case of redundancy leading to loss. The context is obvious from the use of the past participle, so why bother with ha? It reduces a three-verb construction to just two verbs, and the meaning is still completely recoverable.

But what surprised me most was that it’s not a recent trend (as if young speakers needed any further blame shame for language-changing innovations). One paper traces ha-dropping in Swedish right back to the 17th Century, although the circumstances it occurs in may be extending. In Norwegian, it’s restricted on the whole to ha after modal verbs, and seems pretty stable where it is.

Apart from the fact that it’s a fascinating change in itself, it also highlights one of those cases where you can sound too correct as a non-native speaker. Ha-dropping is intuitively odd for first-language speakers of English, but working it into your Scandi convo might make you sound that little bit more fluent.

Multiple language decks in Anki

Top Anki Plug-Ins, 2025 Edition

I recently sang the praises of the Anki Heat Map plug-in, which has been a great motivator and accountability pal for me. It’s one amongst many Anki add-ons, and one that’s been around at least as long as I’ve been using the app (and that’s a long time!).

The beauty of Anki is its extensibility, of course. And while we’re revisiting some trusty old plug-ins like Heat Map, it’s worth surveying the current field again.

Here are five standout plug-ins for language learners still going strong in 2025.

HYPERTTS – Add Speech to Your Flashcards

Enhance your pronunciation and listening skills by integrating native speaker audio into your flashcards.

HyperTTS allows users to add high-quality text-to-speech audio to their cards, covering a wide range of languages. This is particularly beneficial for practicing pronunciation and improving listening comprehension.

IMAGE OCCLUSION ENHANCED

Transform complex images into interactive flashcards.

Ideal for visual learners, this plug-in lets you hide parts of an image to test your recall. Whether it’s vocabulary lists, grammar structures, or cultural visuals, Image Occlusion Enhanced makes memorisation engaging.

LANGUAGE TOOLS

Automate translations and transliterations within your flashcards.

Language Tools brings automated translation support for 133 languages and transliteration in 33 languages directly into Anki. This is particularly useful for learners dealing with multiple languages or scripts, streamlining the creation of comprehensive flashcards. 

ADVANCED BROWSER

Streamline your card management with enhanced search and organization features.

The Advanced Browser plug-in offers additional search parameters and sorting options, making it easier to manage large decks. You can filter cards by various criteria, ensuring efficient study sessions. Definitely one of those ‘I never knew I needed it until I had it!’ plug-ins.

ANKICOLLAB – The Free Collaboration Platform

Collaborate with fellow learners to create and share decks.

AnkiCollab enables users to work together on deck creation, allowing for shared insights and resources. It’s a valuable tool for community-driven learning and expanding your study materials.

All these plug-ins come with some prestige and history, having been around for a while. In other words, they’ve proven their worth to countless users already. Incorporating any of them can transform your Anki experience, making language learning more interactive, efficient, enjoyable, and even more sociable.

Happy studying!

A robot reading a script. The text-to-speech voices at ElevenLabs certainly sound intelligent as well as natural!

ElevenLabs : 5-Star Tool for Language Work and Study

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know how impressed I’ve been at ElevenLabs, the text-to-speech creator that stunned the industry when its super-realistic voices were unleashed on the world. Since then, it’s made itself irreplaceable in both my work and study, and it bears spreading the word again: ElevenLabs is a blow-your-socks-off kind of tool for creating spoken audio content.

Professional Projects

In my work developing language learning materials for schools, arranging quality narration used to involve coordinating with agencies and studios — a process that was both time-consuming and costly. We’ve had issues with errors, too, which cost a project time with re-recordings. And that’s not to mention the hassle keeping sections up-to-date. Removing ‘stereo’ from an old vocab section (who has those now?) would usually trigger a complete re-record.

With ElevenLabs, I can now produce new sections promptly, utilising its impressive array of voices across multiple languages. The authenticity and clarity of these voices are fantastic – I really can’t understate it – and it’s made maintaining the biggest language learning site for schools so much easier.

Supporting Individual Learning

As a language learner, ElevenLabs is more than worth its salt, too. It’s particularly good for assembling short listening passages – about a minute long – to practise ‘conversation islands’—a well-regarded polyglot technique for achieving conversational fluency.

Beyond language learning, the tool can be a great support to other academic projects. I’ve created concise narrations of complex topics, converting excerpts from scholarly papers into audio format. Listening to these clips in spare moments (or even in the background while washing up) has helped cement some key concepts, and prime my mind for conventional close study.

Flexible and Affordable Plans

ElevenLabs offers a range of pricing options to suit different needs:

• Free Plan: Ideal for those starting out, this plan provides 10,000 characters per month, roughly equating to 10 minutes of audio.

• Starter Plan: At £5 per month, you receive 30,000 characters (about 30 minutes of audio), along with features like voice cloning and commercial use rights.

• Creator Plan: For £22 per month, this plan offers 100,000 characters (around 100 minutes of audio), plus professional voice cloning and higher-quality outputs.

For messing around, that free plan is not too stingy at all – you can really get a feel for the tool from it. Personally, I’ve not needed to move beyond the starter plan yet, which is pretty much a bargain at around a fiver a month.

Introducing ElevenReader

And there’s more! Complementing the TTS service, ElevenLabs has introduced ElevenReader, a free tool that narrates PDFs, ePubs, articles, and newsletters in realistic AI voices. Available on both iOS and Android platforms, the app doesn’t even consume credits from your ElevenLabs subscription plan.

Seriously, I can’t even believe this is still free – go and try it!

Final Thoughts

ElevenLabs has truly transformed the way I create and consume spoken content. It truly is my star tool from the current crop of AI-powered utilities.

The ElevenLabs free tier is enough for most casual users to have a dabble – go and try it today!

Irish countryside (photo by Brian Lary, freeimages.com)

Pop Music for Gaeilgeoirs: Learning Irish Through Song

If you’ve ever tried learning a new language, you’ll know the importance of immersion—hearing, reading, and speaking the language in real-life contexts. For learners of Irish, pop music offers an engaging and foot-tapping way to deepen your skills.

With a new generation of gaeilgeoirs, Irish-language pop music is flourishing, providing a soundtrack for learners that’s not only catchy but also incredibly useful for building vocabulary, understanding grammar, and developing a natural rhythm for the language.

The TG Lurgan Phenomenon

One of the most exciting movements in this fledgling Irish-language pop music comes from TG Lurgan, a YouTube channel that has captured the imagination of language learners and music lovers alike. TG Lurgan is part of Coláiste Lurgan, a summer school in Connemara that has taken an innovative approach to promoting Irish through music.

The channel is famous for its Irish-language covers of popular English songs, ranging from Ed Sheeran to Billie Eilish. By translating global hits into Irish, TG Lurgan creates an accessible bridge for learners familiar with the original versions. This familiarity helps you focus on understanding the Irish lyrics and comparing them to the English equivalents.

Take their rendition of “Someone You Loved” (“Duine ar Strae”) or their vibrant cover of Avicii’s “Wake Me Up” (which, dare I say, sounds even better than the original). These tracks are expertly produced and often come with subtitles (or, at the very least, lyrics in the description), making it easier to follow along and grasp the language. The benefit here is twofold: you’re improving your listening skills while enjoying the process of learning.

Beyond YouTube, many of their tracks are also on Spotify, so you can playlistify your favourites to work with (and to).

Other Artists to Explore

Beyond TG Lurgan, there’s a growing pool of talented Irish-language artists creating original music across various genres. Here are a few worth adding to your playlist:

– Seo Linn: Known for their collaborations with TG Lurgan, Seo Linn also release their own upbeat, original tracks in Irish. Songs like “Ár nAmhrán” (Our Song) and “Tú” are great for learners seeking modern and melodic material.

– KNEECAP: If you’re looking for something edgier, this Belfast-based hip-hop group combines Irish with English in a bold and irreverent way. Their music introduces slang and colloquial expressions that you won’t find in traditional textbooks. They’re likely already on your radar thanks to the eponymous drama which proved a recent hit!

– Clare Sands: Mixing traditional Irish elements with contemporary sounds, Clare Sands’ music is both atmospheric and accessible. Her bilingual tracks are particularly good for learners who are easing into Irish.

Why Pop As Gaeilge Matters

Pop music is a fantastic way to bring Irish out of the classroom and into your daily life. It reminds learners that Irish isn’t just a language of the past but a vibrant, living tongue with relevance in the modern world. By engaging with Irish-language pop, you’re not only improving your skills but also supporting a thriving cultural movement.

So plug in, sing out, and let Irish music bring your learning journey to life!

Old English : Texts for Newbies and Brushers-Up

It’s not foreign languages, but a variety of my first language that has been central lately. Old English keeps cropping up – in my research, in the classroom, and as a general object of geeky interest – so I’ve been digging out all the old texts for reference.

I’ve used a right mix of them over the years. From traditional grammars and readers, to more modern guides that take the same approach as modern language learning, I’ve got something from each and every one of them.

If you’ve not learnt Old English formally, some of these are texts you wouldn’t necessarily have come across. That said, they’re still great for self-teaching, as well as dipping in and out of. So here you go – my go-to bookshelf of Old English primers and reference works.

Learning Old English

First off, two solid texts that have formed the basis of a couple of university courses I’ve followed.

Introduction to Old English by Peter Baker, 2012

In its third edition now, Introduction to Old English by Peter S. Baker is one of the more contemporary primers in Modern English. It has some great material situating the language in its socio-historical place, making it a really comprehensive introduction.

A Guide to Old English by Mitchell, Bruce and Robinson

But if it’s pedigree you’re after, this is the one. Published by Wiley-Blackwell, like the more recent Baker text, this guide – already in its eighth edition! – is a staple of introductory courses. It follows a solid expository-exercises layout but also features a section of elementary readers for practice. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I’ve always had a soft spot for the Teach Yourself series. It’s probably not the first place you’d think of when it comes to ancient languages, though – until you look at their back catalogue and see that Latin and Ancient Greek have featured there for decades. Old English is a slightly more recent edition, and it’s recently been given the Complete range makeover you see in this edition.

Some might class it as a bit of a hobbyist guide, and for sure, it does take an approach that is closer to a modern language course. But that’s precisely what’s so good about it – and so appropriate if you’re coming to it as a learner of other languages. Accessible and chunked up into very digestible portions. A winner.

Finally, if you’re hankering to see it all in action, give this a go. It’s a bilingual edition of the Old English classic Beowulf. Each page spread features the original, and a side-by-side modern translation by Seamus Heaney. Read it from cover to cover, or dip in and out when the mood takes you. A brilliant first text once you’ve covered the basics.

Whether you’re diving into Old English for academic purposes, out of linguistic curiosity, or simply to connect with the roots of Modern English, these resources offer a fantastic starting point. Happy reading and learning!