So I paid for Falou (pronounced like Baloo from Jungle Book, but with an F, apparently) so you don't have to. Here is my review! You can also see a quicker summary on my resources page!
What is Falou?
It's an app that's designed to support your language learning journey through listening and speaking tasks.
Click here to see the app!
Pricing:
Free: one language (extremely obnoxious ads)
$149 / year - no ads, multiple languages, and full courses all levels
(Note: if you deny the subscription 2-3x, they give you a year for $30. This is what I did, but ended up refunding it)
My Review / TLDR Version:
I would not recommend this app for anyone, especially not for Chinese. I might recommend it for HSK2 learners who are past the pinyin-memorizing stage and can read pinyin and basic characters without difficulty, but only for muscle memory practice. The voices are bot-like (Duolingo style), the sentences can be awkward, some of the audios were wrong, it grades you harshly forcing 100% accuracy to move on, then gives you no way to review the words you miss, and there is a massive jump from HSK2 vocab to HSK5 vocab, with no transition.
For full rant, see below:
I was going to split this into a pros/cons list, but honestly, I couldn't think of any pros. So here are the issues I have with it, broken down.
1. The Entire Learning Method
It is solely speech-based and takes points off for missed tones and makes you redo it over and over until you get 100% accuracy on each sentence. At intermediate level, it is totally normal to miss 1-2 tones per sentence, and even more at beginner level. Also, sometimes it doesn't recognize tones well and will count off for the simplest words like 了，好， etc. and so it tells you to review the easiest words in the sentence, while ignoring the new vocab.
Basically this is each "course":
"Conversation" - a bot talks to you and you respond, mimicking what you hear with reading both characters & pinyin. You must achieve 100% accuracy on all of it to move on to the next sentence.
"Writing" - you listen and build the sentence fill-in-the-blank style (or from Chinese keyboard with typing). You must achieve 100% accuracy on each one before moving on to the next sentence.
"Challenge" - you must verbally say what you hear from memory and you have one try before losing hearts (you have plenty of hearts to finish, but you must achieve a perfect score to get gold). If you mess up, it gives you the pinyin, and if you mess up again it gives you the characters too.
For beginner sentences like "I like tea" this might be fine. But once you you get into the "intermediate" section, sometimes you would have to say 2-3 sentences without a break. Especially with the challenge section, this is a near-impossible task even in one's native language unless you have genius-level working memory and attention.
Also, you can click on the words in your dialogue to see definitions, however you can't do that with the other person's dialogue. So if the person you're talking to uses a new word and you can't tell what the pinyin is?? You're shit outta luck.
2. There is no true intermediate.
At the beginning, it asks you you're level. You can chose nothing, understanding basic sentences, understanding basic conversation, and being comfortable speaking. I chose "basic conversation" and it started me with HSK5 level vocab, with 4+ new words per sentence. This was obviously frustrating. I had to delete the app and re-download it to choose "understand sentences" but then it was HSK 1-2 and so simple like "what do you like to eat?"
I even went to the highest level right before "intermediate" started, and it was painfully easy. It literally jumps from "would you like brown shoes?" (hardest beginner level) to "you have to press the blue button on the screen in order to download the regulatory file into the database" (first intermediate level).
That's absolutely preposterous.
3. There is no way to review words from the lessons
They do have a vocab section, however it is simply flashcards with audio and they only teach you 4 words per section. Also, I could not find any HSK5 level words in the vocabulary section that corresponded with the level that I struggled with that was supposedly intermediate. The vocab sets seem completely separate from the lessons.
At the end of each lesson, it tells you which words you struggled the most with (which, again, might not be any new vocab at all and for me was often the easiest words like 好) but then... there is no way to review these words in the app? Especially if you're paying money, they should be able to make personalized flashcards for you with new words per level. Really, each level should have a set of vocab to learn before you go in trying to use them in conversation. But no, the only way to review the vocab is to do the lesson over again.
4. The goal isn't functionality, it's to perfectly mimic a bot
This is the main reason I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. The goal is to sound exactly like the bot does. This means perfect tones, no tone reductions/neutral tones, and awkward sentences structures. Using this app will not make you fluent in any way that's functional, in my opinion. It might be an okay supplement to practice speaking if you are already familiar with pinyin and tones well enough that you can tell if the bot is wrong. Because sometimes pronunciation and tones were wrong.
Functionally, there is nothing wrong with missing 1-2 tones in a long sentence, especially for beginner/intermediate learners. Functionally, it is not realistic for most learners to build or produce sentences that have 4+ HSK5 level words in them without first breaking down those new words. Functionally, a conversation where you are pretending to be a retail worker or gas station employee isn't really relevant—most learners are not learning the language so they can go work at a Chinese gas station. There are way more functional conversations that could include vocab about cars and clothing.
Basically, run for the hills with this one. If you're a high level but want to review easy sentences to practice pronunciation and muscle memory, maybe this might benefit you. Other than that, avoid like the plague.
How are you studying cantonese? do you have any resource recommendations etc?
Most of it is with the free lessons on CantoneseClass101 and vocabulary from the linked website.
Study the Cantonese language, with excellent info on tones, pronunciation, common phrases and thematic vocabulary
Sadly there isn't enough resources even online but it looks like if you already know Mandarin there might be more. I also tend to go from Mando to Canto myself since there isn't a lot of (written) difference, the only thing you would need to learn is traditional characters and new tones/pronunciation.
There is also a Chinese to Chinese(Cantonese) course on Duolingo. I haven't tried it myself yet since its new, but it's the third most popular for Chinese speakers so hopefully the popularity will motivate some people to make an English to Cantonese course at some point.
Did anyone ever find anything like Duo TinyCards? I liked how it was laid out (I love Duolingo too but the courses are lacking sadly;;;;) and I want something similar. I tried Anki almost 10(??) years ago and it just seemed like a pain to use but if it's changed I might try it again.
I'm on Quizlet for now but I just don't learn stuff the way I did with TinyCards and it seems a waste to spend my time using stuff that isn't helping me learn/review and is just going to slow me down
hey. don’t cry. crush four cloves of garlic into a pot with a dollop of olive oil and stir until golden then add one can of crushed tomatoes a bit of balsamic vinegar half a tablespoon of brown sugar half a cup of grated parmesan cheese and stir for a few minutes adding a handful of fresh spinach until wilted and mix in pasta of your choice ok?
These are some of the activities I do. Maybe you'll find them helpful:
Write a mock dating profile for yourself. Describe yourself, list your hobbies and interests, hopes for the future, likes and dislikes, and the qualities you're looking for in a partner. Enjoyed it? Write one for your favourite character/OC.
Try to find a Youtuber who plays your favourite game and does commentary in your target language. I watch this guy a lot.
Describe locations in your favourite books, games, movies, TV shows etc. I like to wander the Hitman maps and write about the different areas, NPCs, and situations I observe.
Write a mock interview with your character/influential figure of choice.
Choose a fairy tale and write your interpretation of it in your target language.
When you're cooking, say what you're doing out loud as if you were talking to a studio audience.
Imagine your mutuals are coming to your city for a visit. Write up a lil guidebook for them describing places of interest. Write an itinerary to practice using the future tense and "first", "then", "after that", etc statements.
A chalk marker might be useful to you. I write important words and phrases that I'm having trouble remembering on my bathroom mirror. I just wipe them away with a damp cloth later.
Review books, albums, movies etc in your target language. Either write down your review or record yourself talking about it.
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