I'm finally 'fluent' in 5 languages, thanks to this underrated smartphone app

01 Jul 2026, 12:15 by Oluwaniyi Raji · Android Police

I kept a Duolingo streak going for almost two years, and by the time I realized what was happening, I had nothing to show for it.

I wasn't getting any better at speaking the languages I was trying to learn. I was, however, getting sick of the constant notifications and activities that kept popping up.

My frustration wasn't like the times I'd hit a rough patch on an academic pursuit. It felt more like the irritation I get from playing a live-service video game for too long after my interest had faded.

It wasn't always like this. When I quit, I realized the app had become progressively worse the whole time I was forcing myself through it.

I'm not alone. Plenty of people have noticed that Duolingo has become worse over time and doesn't seem to be acting on any user feedback. It's also not the only language app with the same problem.

I'm telling all my friends to replace Duolingo with these apps

Forget the owl and start learning for real

Posts 3
By Jon Gilbert

The problem with language apps

It's not just a skill issue

Language apps started with the right idea, but Duolingo and others have become so gamified that I struggle to remember what I'm doing on them.

Streaks, leaderboards, hearts, and every upsell trick in the book have made these apps close to useless for their actual purpose.

They do everything to keep you engaged and subscribed, but almost nothing to keep you learning.

There are some solid Duolingo alternatives like Babbel and Memrise, but they don't fix the thing many people ignore when learning a language on their phone: not everyone learns the same way.

I had to admit that to myself after moving from app to app looking for something that was both focused and effective. It took a while before I landed on what finally worked, which was audio-first language learning.

This is how kids and adults alike picked up languages long before formal schooling and slick apps existed, and it kept me more engaged than any gamified task ever did.

What I needed was an app built entirely around that approach instead of treating audio as a side feature, and that's when I found Pimsleur.

How Pimsleur works

Decades of research, distilled into a daily habit

Pimsleur is built around audio-first learning, and it commits to that idea with a few deliberate design choices.

The method predates the app by decades, starting with Dr. Paul Pimsleur's research in the 1960s, which argued that adults were approaching language the wrong way by leading with reading and grammar drills instead of listening and speaking.

So he built an audio-first method to help older learners pick things up closer to how children do, through hearing, repetition, and recall rather than rote memorization of rules.

In a study led by researcher Roumen Vesselinov, 83% of beginners who completed all 30 lessons of Pimsleur Spanish Level 1 improved their oral proficiency by at least one American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) level after eight weeks, with some climbing three.

Since then, the method has been distilled into an app with 30-minute lessons that fit neatly into a commute or any stretch of busywork.

Pimsleur takes a practical approach and removes anything I wouldn't need in a normal conversation, focusing instead on the core vocabulary of everyday speech.

It also teaches grammar through context, the way a child learns it, so I pick up structure from usage rather than memorizing abstract rules and their exceptions.

The repetition is the clever part. It spaces each word out just far enough that my memory needs to be engaged to maintain the association, which helps with recall.

Lessons pause on purpose to make me try before handing over the answer.

Every time I recall and recite a phrase correctly, the interval before the next prompt gets longer, and every time I miss, it shortens.

That cycle forces me to internalize the pronunciation out loud instead of filing it away in my head and assuming I know it.

I fixed the problem with my language apps, and I should have done so sooner

The problem is subtler than you think

Posts 1
By Jon Gilbert

The Pimsleur experience

Classic feel, tested process

The way Pimsleur feels in daily use is as different from other language learning apps as its teaching method is.

The app isn't flashy and doesn't have the needless design elements. It uses simple tabs for lessons, practice, speech practice, and general enrichment, with no owls, memes, or streaks to distract me.

What stands out the most is the silence before the answer — that moment where the app waits for me to say something out loud before it gives me the correct version.

I usually run through a lesson on the drive to work, or right before my weekend activities on Saturdays and Sundays.

Unlike the apps I used before, I look forward to opening Pimsleur in the mornings because I know it works, I know how long it'll take, and I know there's no pressure waiting for me.

I've been going strong for over a year, and instead of the fatigue I felt with everything else, I find myself looking for extra time to practice more.

That consistency is why I can now hold real conversations in Spanish, French, and Portuguese, and I've had some success with Japanese and even a bit of Mandarin, which anyone will tell you is genuinely challenging for an English speaker.

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That owl is one needy bird of prey

Posts 1
By Chance Kinney

It's the most progress I've ever made on an app

If Pimsleur is this good, you'd expect to see it everywhere, with testimonials and ads as intrusive as Duolingo's.

The problem isn't Pimsleur's quality or effectiveness. It's simply because the app doesn't have Duolingo's enormous marketing budget.

It's not just the Owl, because nearly every prominent app I tried before this one was pushed hard on social media and through traditional ads.

I went through four or five alternatives off the top of my head before even bothering to look for new options.

I know this app won't click for everyone. Analytical learners will miss the school-style grammar breakdowns, and some people won't want to pay for the plan the way I did.

For how I learn, though, nothing else has come close, and I no longer worry about fumbling through a menu or reaching for Google Voice Search's latest update to order dinner abroad.