In this modern era, the new technology makes it easy for us to learn almost anything we like at our fingertips, Indonesian language included. Gone are the days when people only had the choice to learn languages by taking language classes. With easily and widely accessible language apps, definitely it removes the barrier for anyone to be able to learn Indonesian.
Nowadays as long as you have smartphones, there are many apps that can help you to learn Indonesian. All you need to do is just to download the apps on Play Store or Apple Store. For that reason, in this article we are going to discuss 3 mobile apps we think is quite amazing to help you supplement your learning. Read our reviews on these apps, with all the pros and cons of each one.
1. Duolingo
With 120 million registered users, no doubt if Duolingo is one of the most well-known mobile apps to learn language. Duolingo happens to also be one of the best way language app to learn Indonesian.
At the first time you have been registered, you have to select a daily goal, your native language and your target language.
Pros
Duolingo is helpful if your objective is to learn new words a ka expand your vocabulary. Learners get to learn vocabulary words through sentences. Learners have to translate sentences from Indonesian to their original language and vise versa (their original language to Indonesian). By making learners to do translation of sentences, in a way it forces and helps learners to practice what they’ve learnt and known. Sometimes the questions are delivered through audio. It allows learners to practice their listening comprehension skill.
Even with its free plan, Duolingo has quite a number of useful topics, such as: jobs, animal names, food, number, etc. This app is suitable for beginner Indonesian learners.
In certain countries or cities like Singapore, Duolingo forms partnership with a language school in that region. Do you know that Think Bahasa is an official partner of Duolingo for Singapore chapter? If you would like to come to our language meetup, click here to join: https://www.meetup.com/Bahasa-Indonesia-Conversation-Club/
Cons
Sometimes the sentences you’d have to translate are ‘funny’ sentences in a sense that nobody would say those sentence in real life. For instance: you have to translate “The girl follows a bear.” For some practical minded people you may find some challenges appreciating this app. Because what’s the practicality of practicing to say those sentences? But again, if the objective is to learn new words and practice your sentence structures, then Duolingo is pretty good in that regards.
With the free plan, ads will pop up here and there as you are using this app, which can be a little distracting. If you want a free ads feature, you will have to pay $9,99/month.
2. Mondly
Mondly is an app that lets you access it through mobile and PC. Learning languages on Mondly can be pretty fun because there are quizzes you can do, and if you pass those quizzes you will get to earn stars. What a way to motivate learners!
Pros
Mondly is good for Indonesian language learners to learn and practice Indonesian phrases. What’s good is that Mondly allows learners to learn phrases based on context that many would find practical to use in daily conversation, for example: how to introduce friends/family, order a cup of coffee, ask direction, etc.
Another good thing from this app is, it provides more complete and better explanation on each vocabulary words. Other than the meaning of the word, learners will also get to learn the synonym of that specific word and also examples how to use the word in various sentences.
Cons
Mondly offers some Indonesian grammar lessons too. However, we do find the explanation and variations of the grammar lesson to be lacking. For some reason during our testing period, we find this mobile app functions very slow as compared to the other two apps.
Though Mondly offers a free version of the app, what you can learn through its free/trial feature is very limited. You need to pay $33,18 to get a full access to learn one language, which is quite a high pricing point if you were to compare with the other two apps discussed in this article.
3. Babble
Babble is a straightforward quiz styled app that tests on both grammar and vocabulary. Learn your way through each lesson by answering the quizzes. Babble offers various level from beginner to intermediate Indonesian.
Pro
Since the learning method of this app is answering quizzes to help learners learn vocabulary and grammar, this app will suit you if you have known some basic Bahasa Indonesia. It’s a good app for you to test your knowledge. This app is also user friendly and it has an intuitive user interface. Pricing point of this app is quite affordable, starting $6,95/month.
Cons
This app is only good if you’re looking to supplement your learning. But if you don’t have any foundation in knowing some Indonesian basic words and phrases, you may get discouraged after getting low scores on the quizzes. There is also no listening / pronunciation test available on this app.
In a nutshell…..
Learning Indonesian on mobile apps is great if you want to look for a fun way to expand your vocabulary range and learn basic sentence structures. This approach is suitable for beginner learners. If you would like to expand your vocabulary on a daily, more consistent basis, yet you don’t have that memory space in your smartphone to download anymore app(s), you can utilize your Instagram and follow www.instagram.com/thinkbahasa where you can learn Indonesian vocabulary word along with its meaning in English and its pronunciation.
If you aim to be conversant, definitely learning through language apps won’t get you to your goal. Understand your need, your language learning goal and also your learning preference to determine which app is the best for you.
Our verdict: A big challenge of learning Indonesian SOLELY with language apps is that nobody is there to guide you and give you explanation when you have questions. It’s important for learners to be well informed about basic Indonesian grammar and sentence structures to build strong language skills foundation and avoid confusion in the future. At this point of writing this article, there hasn’t yet an app that have Q&A feature that allow language learners to clarify language concept to qualified teacher or native speaker.
However, language learning app allows language learners to spice up their learning method, so there is that! We believe wholeheartedly that learning a language should be fun. That is the first step to ensure continuous learning and consistency that then will bear results for the learners.
Over all the mobile apps to learn Indonesian language recommendations above, which one have you tried? How’s your experience like? How do you like or not like it?
