italki vs Mondly
Overview
italki is an online language learning community which connects students and teachers for live online lessons in 150+ languages. It’s highly user oriented: you choose your teacher, the type and number of lessons you take and whether to learn 1-1 or in group sessions. You pay as you go with no subscription and can connect with other learners and native speakers for free via the community.
Mondly is a language learning platform with 80 million learners. It offers 42 languages and enables you to learn anywhere on any device. It targets all aspects of communication: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Mondly provides you with a gamified, interactive learning experience via memory exercises, a very intuitive interface and cutting edge augmented reality (AR) and chatbot technology.
Pros
- Live tutoring from professional or community teachers to help you get fluent fast
- Connects you to native speakers - via the community and by selecting a native speaking teacher
- Flexible - learn what and when you want at your own pace and with no subscription
- 1-1 tuition enables you to personalize lessons 100% to your needs
- 150+ languages to choose from with lessons covering speaking, listening, reading and writing and tutors to cover all levels
- Free italki community to ask questions and receive feedback
- 1-1 or group lessons available
- Free resources to boost learning between lessons
- Effective and comprehensive covering speaking, listening, reading and writing
- You can tailor your learning according to your goals and interests
- Engaging and fun - short sharp lessons and gamification to make learning fun and motivating
- Learn anywhere, anytime on any device
- Great user experience with a user friendly, polished interface
- Augmented reality and Interactive chatbot conversations provide an immersive way to practice your skills
Cons
- Potential lack of consistency due to tutor availability
- May not suit absolute beginners, or those preferring a more structured approach
- Lack of curriculum
- Less to offer more advanced learners or those wanting a strong conversational focus
- You always have to start at the basic level
- Bite-sized lessons may be too short for those preferring a more in-depth approach
- Free version is limited
Best for
Best for: Anyone wanting to receive live, individual one to one tuition and connect with native speakers from over 180 countries. Whether this is to learn a new language or improve on your existing skills. Also, those not wanting to commit to a subscription. However, as there is a tendency to use the target language almost exclusively in lessons, it may not suit those who are shy or tentative about doing this - or those who are absolute beginners.
Best for: Anyone who is looking to learn a brand new language or has a limited grasp of one and wants to improve. Those who love fun, gamified, interactive apps and are intrigued by AR and like to engage with new technological experiences. Overall, Mondly is for those of you who consider themselves to be self-guided learners and would benefit from daily, weekly, and monthly lessons and goals
Price
From $10 per hour
From $4.99 per month
Number of users
5 million
500,000 active subscribers
Overall
Overall: italki is an adaptive, practical way to learn a new language or build on current skills. Live lessons get you reading, speaking, and writing in no time. Unlike many providers, italki connects you with native speakers and live teachers which allows you to get personalized real-time feedback. I found italki to be an effective platform for immersion in a new language but you do need to be prepared to dive right in and speak the target language from the off.
To providerOverall: Mondly is an incredibly popular platform that has over 80 million users. Having used the platform for the past couple of weeks it's easy to see why. Lessons are comprehensive and immensely fun and I found it a really effective way to learn a new language. I was very impressed by how easy it was to use and how fast I was able to introduce myself in a new language.
To providerSupported languages
The most popular are: English, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese (Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien), French, Italian, German, Korean, Arabic (Egyptian, Gulf, Levantine, Maghrebi, Modern Standard), Hindi and Russian. But equally, a range of less widely spoken (or even fictional) languages are also on offer including Basque, Choctaw, Dothraki and Klingon.
English (UK), English, (US), Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Hebrew, Catalan, Latin, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Romanian, Afrikaans, Croatian, Czech, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Hindi, Bengali, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai
About
italki launched in 2006 as a social network for language exchange. It connected people around the world so they could learn from one another.
It expanded in 2008 to include a marketplace where learners could pay fees to teachers for live online individual or group lessons.
Italki now has over 5m learners and 20k+ teachers from 180 countries who offer personal tuition in 150+ languages. You select the language you want to learn, the level you want to learn at and the teacher that best suits your needs. And you pay as you go for lessons so there are no fixed fees or rigid timeslots to commit to.
Mondly is a language e-learning service founded in 2014 designed to meet one aim: to get adults and children speaking a new language - fast..
It’s consistently ranked as one of the highest-rated education apps in the app store and has 80+ million learners.
Mondly is a gamified language learning application that provides you with a guided yet interactive learning experience via memory exercises and a very intuitive interface. It offers learning in 42 languages via desktop and app, using virtual and augmented reality products.
It was acquired in 2022 by Pearson, the world’s leading education company, to boost its existing portfolio of state of the art learning tools and provide a way for students to study languages independently online. For Pearson to select Mondly, out of all the language platforms available is testimony to its effectiveness.
How it works
To get started you go to italki.com and simply click on ‘Start now’ and open a free account using your email address, Google, Facebook or Apple.
From that point on, you are in control of what and when you learn, as well as who you learn with.
After selecting the language you want to learn, you can choose your skill level, take a language placement test or work with a teacher to build a customized learning plan.
Teachers will be filtered to match your target language and skill level. Most offer a 30-minute trial at a reduced rate and hourly rates for each lesson. They set their own fees and sessions helping you find those best suited to your budget and schedule. And because you pay per lesson, there’s no fixed fees and you can choose how much time to commit.
The italki Classroom is similar to Zoom but is a built-in feature of the italki desktop and app versions. So, you don’t need to download any additional software. Some tutors also offer the option to use Zoom or Skype.
With the aim of immersing you in a language, italki tutors will speak to you mainly in the target language right from the get go.
You also have the option to record lessons and watch them back as often as you’d like, which is great for revision.
To get started on Mondly you simply select the language you want to learn and click ‘Start Learning’. Mondly works the same way regardless of the language you choose.
You’ll see the Mondly dashboard containing lots of topic icons such as weather, travel, food, etc. You can choose a topic or select ‘daily lesson’ and Mondly will guide you through in a recommended order.
For each topic (or within the daily lesson) you’ll take bite-sized lessons which cover the following:
- Vocabulary (Interactive flashcards)
- Listening (Audio to written and spoken exercises)
- Speaking (Hands-free conversational lessons and thematic lessons)
- Reading and writing (image association and phrase creation)
Conversation (chatbot conversations)
Lessons are self-paced and you complete them in your own time. You can view them on the go, on your computer, mobile, or tablet. Plus, you can track your progress with statistics and leaderboards and compare your score with other learners. Weekly quizzes, and monthly challenges are created according to your progress.
On top of this there are additional resources to optimize your learning, such as the Mondly Augmented Reality (AR) app. The AR app uses a virtual teacher to help you learn new words by showing you interactive worlds and activities.
As an experience, Mondly very much has the feel of a board game, where your objectives, achievements, and progress are visible as you go along a ‘learning path’.
What a lesson is like
Lessons on italki vary depending on the teacher you choose, lesson length, your skill level and your individual preferences.
Teachers will assess your current level if you’re new and help to develop a programme that suits you if you choose to commit. You can contact any teacher to clarify lesson content prior to purchasing.
Once you’ve chosen your teacher, you connect via italki’s own version of Zoom. This is built-in so you don’t need to download any software. The connection is stable and high quality so you can stay focussed on the lesson.
In a typical lesson you will:
- Converse directly with your tutor in the target language as much as possible (aiming for this to become 100% of the time)
- Speak, read and translate phrases from a worksheet, with real time feedback to help pronunciation
- Engage with interactive whiteboard content
- Pick up new vocabulary with picture clues and real life examples
Use the note function to write phrases
Each tutor and every lesson I took was conducted mostly in the target language. This was rather intimidating at first. But repetition, visual clues, use of worksheets, notes and the interactive whiteboard help to make things clear.
You can also review lesson content by re-entering the chat page and your teacher can share resources and set tasks to take learning beyond the classroom.
Mondly’s lessons are grouped around topics such as weather, food, travel, etc.
The structure is very straightforward. This means that you know exactly how many words and phrases you will learn, the estimated time it will take you to complete the lesson and your overall rating.
For each topic there are:
- 6 vocabulary activities (all are interactive and use different methods to target memory retention)
- 1 conversation exercise (where you practice what you’ve learned with the chatbot function and voice recognition software)
1 vocabulary review in which you swipe the correct translation
You can match your lessons with an intelligent calendar that helps you organize your learning objectives and provides you with a visual record of how your learning progresses over time.
Overall, you can view your progress by navigating through Mondly’s map and using the calendar function and the statistics view.
If you want to extend your learning, it is possible to click on parts of phrases and sentences to get additional information or grammatical explanations. Such as this screen below which conjugated the verb ‘to be’ after I had clicked on ‘is’.
Who is it good for?
The italki learning style would suit anyone who:
- Feels they’d benefit from 1-1 teaching
- Is keen to spend time practicing conversation in their language of choice
- Is unable to commit to rigid programmes and fixed time slots
Already has some foundational skills and is looking to advance
While italki is designed for students of all skill levels, you will be expected to converse in your chosen language. So, coming to italki with some basic knowledge to build upon is ideal.
Right away, italki has you speaking and listening in your chosen language. This means you get real-life experience talking to a professional teacher and/or a native speaker!
The Mondly learning style would suit anyone who:
- Wants to learn a new language from scratch or has a limited grasp and wants to improve
- Has a busy schedule and needs to fit lessons around their life
- Loves fun, interactive apps
- Likes the flexibility of learning on mobile and desktop
Is intrigued by AR and likes to engage with technological experiences
Overall, Mondly is for those of you who consider themselves to be self-guided learners and would therefore benefit from daily, weekly, and monthly lessons and goals.
Features
- Personalized 1-1 live tuition
- Direct contact with native speakers
- Immersion
- Flexible pay as you go learning
- Desktop- or device-based to best suit your needs
- italki Challenge
- Gamification
- Fun, interactive lessons that touch all learning styles
- Flexible learning
- Chatbot function
- Augmented reality
Is it worth it?
In short, it depends on your preference.
If you’ve tried out some other providers like DuoLingo and found the content hard to translate into everyday life, italki is an excellent resource for building your speaking and listening skills.
Also, if you have a busy/unpredictable lifestyle and find that you can’t commit to fixed days, italki makes the scheduling process easy and convenient for you by letting you choose your time slot.
Although I don’t have extensive speaking skills in my chosen language, I found that after only a couple of hours I had so much more confidence speaking Italian aloud than I ever did from using previous sites. That being said, as someone with zero knowledge of Welsh I felt very overwhelmed at first - though I did make progress by the end of the lesson.
While being thrown in at the deep end and conversing almost solely in your chosen language is intimidating, it is arguably the best way to progress and advance those foundational skills.
With trial lessons starting at as little as $5, with no commitment needed, you have very little to lose and a whole lot to gain. If you’re looking for adaptive learning that suits your needs and helps you to become fluent fast, italki is one of the best e-learning options out there.
So, why not browse the teachers and give it a go?
I found Mondly easy to use, and thought the lessons were well structured, engaging, effective and ‘sticky’.
Together with gamification through points, streaks and leaderboards it makes for a fun learning experience that motivates you to come back for more.
Mondly’s stand out feature is its use of technology such as chatbots and AR that provide a novel and more immersive way to practice your new skills. It’s also comprehensive, helping you to improve all aspects of communication: speaking, reading, writing, and listening.
That said, there’s always room for improvement. Whilst it is comprehensive it has a fairly narrow focus on grammar. Its approach to this is more intuitive - with constant practice of phrases and sentences you’ll learn the rules without realizing.
Also, if you really want a laser-like focus on conversational skills, you may find the chatbot a bit limited and prefer a platform that offers live lessons with native speaking teachers.
However, if you value a fun yet structured approach that really helps new learning stick then Mondly is definitely worth considering.
You can use the free version to get a flavor of the platform or subscribe and make use of the 7 day free trial to make up your mind. Just remember to cancel before the 7 days is up to avoid payment. The pricing point is very competitive and there are frequent discounts available making it even better value.