Posting about this because anything that lets people dependent on the green owl know about better options is good, right? So many people seem convinced the only free way to study as a novice is Duolingo, and I'll get into other options later maybe, but if you like apps then Akelius is a really solid option.
I wish I'd known about it earlier.
Target Languages: English, Greek, European Portuguese, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Arabic, Polish, Spanish (voices sound Latin to me but it teaches "vosotros" so possibly trying to cover all bases), French, German, Italian, Swedish.
The quick selling points:
it's on Google Play, the App store or their own PC
it's entirely free with no ads (donate to a refugee charity instead if you have the means) or "energy system"
you can download lessons for offline use
it goes all the way to B2, and they seem to mean it, instead of lying about it like my (admittedly beloved) Assimil
it's designed to be used flexibly
it covers grammar and culture
it has tons of comprehensible input
it uses natural voices
it uses a combination of modalities (games, lectures, flashcards, reading, listening, writing, videos, maths... songs!)
it is developed by a charity that helps educate refugees in partnership with UNHCR
It can be used to develop all four pillars of language learning (reading, writing, listening, speaking)
it shows in every way that it is developed by people who really care, rather than tech bros who rode off volunteer labour and then tried to make a fortune off it while abandoning all their claimed principles and specialising in memes
except for the (optional, everything is optional) AI coach lessons, it teaches purely in target language (this is a plus or a minus depending on how you feel about acquisition vs base language instruction, personally it is a neutral for me)
it introduces things slowly and builds on knowledge
I feel like at this point it should be more than enough, if you are learning or interested in learning one of the offered languages, to be worth giving a shot. But some of my experiences:
I'm currently using it in Swedish (A0) and Spanish (I'm A2 but I started midway through the A2 content to familiarise myself with it rather than going to the B1 lectures.) I also did a few Arabic lessons. For Spanish I'm combining it with... all the other shit I do. in Swedish I am using it alone because I am really interested if I can actually hit B2 in it without outside work.
There are 90 lessons. At the moment, I spend over two hours (not all at once) on each lesson. You could probably go much faster, but unlike something like Duo, I find it feels natural to slow down and really assimilate it, to repeat audio, to echo, to shadow, to hand write new sentence structures by memory in my prettiest handwriting and read them back from my own writing (after verifying them oc) to reflect on about why I am being presented with input in a particular way and what they want me to learn from it.
In short, I enjoy every moment I spend with Akelius, and it just seems really, really good, at least on a par with expensive online course. I think more people should give it a shot instead of defaulting to the owl.
Totalt blev det en plusdag för mina portföljer trots att börserna, utom Helsingfors, stängde på minus. Liksom igår hamnade 15 innehav och hedgefonderna på plus. Utländska valutor stärktes gentemot kronan och gav utlandsportföljen en extra puff uppåt. Dagens dippköp på en omvänd stoploss blev Volvo Cars som backade ned till önskad ingångsnivå, men vi får se om den överlever i portföljen, det är…
Tre av mina innehav har hittills rapporterat i veckan. I måndags rapporterade Akelius med en stabil rapport som bekräftar en stark finansiell ställning. Igårkväll kom Microsoft med sin Q1 som var över förväntan. Nu på morgonen är rubriken att SEB krosssar förväntningarna. Microsoft vinst per aktie uppgick till 2:35 dollar, att jämföra med analytikernas förväntningar på 2:30 dollar per aktie,…
Min aktievecka 31 - förnyelsebar energi, rapporter och macro
Min aktievecka 31 - förnyelsebar energi, rapporter och macro #Akelius #Sampo #NovoNordisk #OrrönEnergy
Keep Calm It´s my name day. Vi är 163674 män som har Per som förnamn. Snittåldern på oss är 59,1 år. Sorry, nu lämnade jag ämnet. Den här veckan ser jag fram emot rapporter från Akelius, finska Sampo, danska Novo Nordisk och Orrön Energy. Tre defensiva bolag och ett bolag inom förnyelsebar energi. Jag håller på att köpa in mig i Orrön successivt och hittills har det gått uppåt. Idag öppnar…
Last April, my sister called me with an exciting offer. Her work was flying all their employees to Warsaw for a biennial conference and they were allowed to bring one guest. It would be all expenses paid.
I was already in Europe, studying Italian in Rome, so my sister figured it would be easy for me to get there. I had big travel dreams, but Warsaw was never on my list. But my life changed…
Sparkonto med förtur på lägenehter, inte för bra för att vara sant. Klicka här för att läsa mer.
Högsta sparräntan i Sverige Sparkonto med förtur på lägenheter. Sedan nästan hela 30 år tillbaka i tiden så har Akelius erbjudat allmänheten fördelaktiga sparformer. Akelius Spar AB är registrerat hos Finansinspektionen enligt Lag (2004:299) om Inlåningsverksamhet. Deras utbud av enkla sparkonton är attraktiva alternativ till annat sparande. Det är mestadels på grund an den höga räntan som…
