hello and welcome to this lingoda review if you're new here my name is sabina i
do videos about travel and language learning and if you're not new here then welcome back
if you don't recognise this background that's because i'm currently in an airbnb
in cornwall with my boyfriend's family we're on vacation oh look at that view now let's get
straight to it is lingoda the language learning platform for you i'm going to divide this video
into a few different categories talking about different elements of the platform
and you can decide for yourselves whether it is going to suit your learning style
okay i'm ready let's start off by talking about the platform lingoda isn't an app like many others
that i featured on this channel rather it's an online language school now the reason they've set
it up this way is because they believe that live face-to-face classes are the best way to retain
information and to learn effectively in order to learn with lingoda you need three things you
need a laptop or a computer you need a stable internet connection and zoom there's only three
everything else is just about us i want to be very honest very transparent i did
receive the classes from lingoda for free now the good news is that you can get a seven day
free trial from lingoda as well i've left the information in the description box and in the
pinned comment but i will be talking you through more of it later on in this video so stay tuned
now we're gonna talk about our second category i've already touched on the setup you need in
order to access lingoda and if you do have these three factors i would say lingoda is
extremely easy to use because it's a one-stop shop once you have paid for your membership
you log in and everything is available to you on their website so unless your internet connection
is playing up there's really nothing stopping you accessing your materials which is really nice you
can just you know pull up your laptop anywhere in a cafe wherever you are whichever country
and you will have direct access to all the stuff that you need in order to study our next review
category is language selection as of today you can use lingoda to learn four languages well
kind of five you can learn english business english and then spanish french and german
okay so as you can tell the language selection isn't that wide which is a big limiting factor
i am learning spanish at the moment but i'm also attempting to learn arabic and i can't currently
use lingoda for arabic which is disappointing but because they do so few languages it means they do
them really well and really in depth next there's the question of ability how does lingoda cater to
varying levels of skill now this is one of the areas where i feel like lingoda actually really
excels because before you start taking your classes they give you an online placement test
and by the time you're done with that placement test they tell you exactly which level they would
recommend to you as a learner all of these levels are based on the common european framework of
reference for languages or cfr for short and this is an internationally recognized standard that
classifies languages starting from a1 which is complete beginner all the way to c2 which is
native ability and lingoda offers classes in all of them a1 a2 they've got b1 b2 and c1 c2 is made
of proficiency so by the time you've reached that level you don't really need additional
classes i'm about to have my first class with lingoda and this is one of my first times using
my brand new study i just moved to a new house it is an absolute mess mecca and muy bien mis amigos
m
um
next i want to talk about flexibility is lingoda a language learning platform that's really useful
and that can easily slot itself into your busy daily life okay here are my very honest thoughts
on that lingoda does offer classes 24 7 which is incredibly useful regardless of where you are in
the world there will be a class happening at any given point lingoda keeps their class numbers down
to five students maximum which is really handy because you get really personalized feedback
however if you don't book quickly the class might just not be available at the time when you want it
but there's a really handy workaround for that it just took me a while to discover it
if you can't find a listing at the perfect time you can just schedule one all you need to do is
click on the topic you want to study and scroll to the bottom of that page you'll find date and
time selection buttons there just pick your ideal time and you're good to go this isn't a private
class by the way once booked it will appear on the book classes page where other students can join it
you do need to be a little organized and do this two to three days in advance but that's more
than enough for most students i did sometimes book my classes with less than 24 hours notice
i can't be a little disorganized with my kind of ad hoc schedule i did sometimes log in and want
to book a class and it wasn't available so i had to book a different class and that means i wasn't
following the course in the exact order that is laid out by lingoda however when i read the
official guidelines they did say that it doesn't really matter what order you do the classes in
so this is probably just me being a perfectionist but i do want to highlight this sometimes it pays
to be well prepared if you miss out on your class lot you can still log into the platform
and all the other resources are available 24 7 on demand whenever you log in so literally anytime
you can recap all your classes to help test your knowledge you can access annotated pdfs from every
single one of your teachers you have access to the homework materials for every single lesson you've
done and also self-study area and finally there is a blog that they have filled with additional
resources and tips next let's talk about the teachers because lingoda is a language learning
school this is probably their main selling point right if you don't have good teachers you don't
have good education and vice versa if you do have great teachers you will learn a lot now lingoda
has 1500 teachers as of today plus i checked and they are all native speakers and they are all
fully certified so coming into lingoda you can be very confident that your teacher is good at their
job because of the way the platform functions you don't always get the same teacher for every class
because like i discussed previously sometimes the classes book up and sometimes different teachers
will be teaching at different times there are definitely going to be teachers that you enjoy
more than others and the good thing is that you can look at the classes before you sign
up to them and see exactly who's teaching them so you can select the teacher that you love the most
however that can mean that you won't get the exact time slot that suits your schedule so
there is a bit of a trade-off there but i would caution against always using the same teacher and
here's the reason they are all native speakers but they come from different countries i'm currently
learning spanish and as you know spanish is spoken all over the world so if i did limit
myself to my favorite teacher who in my case is from venezuela i would miss out on all the other
colloquialisms and all the other accents and all the other mannerisms of the different countries
that the teachers come from and i think this is a huge benefit of the platform and one really great
thing about lingoda is that at the end of every single class you do your teacher will send you a
short review now again some of the teachers were better at this than others they were a
little more detailed with their feedback um you will you will figure out what works for you but i
really love this like it made me feel so seen and made me feel so understood and i found it
so uplifting when the teachers would give me compliments and i really enjoyed you know
hearing about areas for improvement so i know some people don't really like constructive criticism
but i found it immensely helpful and it was never mean it was never like oh you were terrible today
sabina it was always very empathetic and helpful the next element i want to talk about is class
size as i touched on earlier lingoda limits all of their classes to five students maximum
i personally found that really really helpful i like an intimate class feel so that i get
a lot of attention from the teacher it does mean that the spotlight is on you a lot but
when you're learning languages you really need to set your ego aside and embrace it so initially
when i first started doing the classes i found it a little bit awkward because i thought oh all
these other students are probably judging me until i took my ego out of the equation and i realized
well that's how all of us feel obviously nobody likes making mistakes in front of strangers but
similar to how you see the same teachers cropping up over and over you will see the same students
and that makes it feel like more of a familiar environment as you get into your course and yeah i
found that really gratifying some of the students were very friendly and so i felt like there was
a really warm feel and a bit of banter and it made the whole learning situation for me
personally a lot more fun but if group classes really aren't your thing you can also do
individual classes on lingoda so 101 just you and the teacher this is slightly more expensive but if
that is your learning style then it's definitely worth it and you will be getting the same level
of teaching you'll be getting all the same materials but a little more attention so maybe
if you are really busy that will be worth the extra cost our next category is class materials
every single level that you do based on your placement test is divided into three sections
you get grammar vocabulary and communication chapters these are specifically designed to
complement one another so that means that with every single class you're practicing what you've
learned as i mentioned earlier lingo does have a recommended order in which you might want to take
the classes but the platform itself tells you that you don't have to do that sometimes you will feel
more drawn to a specific topic on any given day so you know sometimes you might want to focus on just
getting loads of new words in and kind of trying to commit them to your memory and sometimes you
might think you know what i'm feeling a bit bookish today i really want to focus on grammar
and you can take one of those classes so it's completely up to you and i actually really enjoyed
the kind of customization aspect of learning with lingoda and finally let's talk certification
perhaps you are learning a foreign language for your job or for your studies and you need a piece
of paper to prove that you have done it lingoda is actually very good at that because it's not an app
but rather an online learning skill they do issue certificates when you finish 90 of your sub level
okay those are my honest thoughts on lingoda now as i mentioned i tried lingoda completely for free
and you can do the same i have a special discount code i have linked it in the description box and
in the pinned comment and that entitles you to seven days of lingoda completely free of charge
and during that time span you can do three small group classes or one one on one class
i would personally really strongly recommend the group classes i feel like i got something extra
out of doing the classes in a group because i kept seeing the same students and all the stuff i've
talked about in this video but it's completely up to you and by the end of those seven days
if you feel like you could benefit from a lingoda membership i can get you 30 off that's either 30
of the first month of your monthly subscription or 30 of the entire upfront payment i will see you
next friday thanks so much for watching the video and adios see my spanish is really good now bye