Lingodeer Review 2024: Should You Choose It? (Comparison With Duolingo)

Choosing the right platform while learning a language is a great problem. This is the story of all learners. Although I have tried multiple platforms, Lingodeer was one I had not yet explored. It follows a gamified approach, which made me more interested in it. Many people think having a gamified appraisal means focusing more on fun elements and less on the content. But is it really true? To find out the answer to this question, I will share my experience by providing you with a detailed LingoDeer review.

Quick Takeaways

• LingoDeer is the perfect platform to learn the Asian languages.
• It has both free and paid versions.
• Following are some features that help in learning the language-

1. Alphabet section
2. Travel phrasebook
3. Review section
4. Learning Tips

What is LingoDeer?

Lingoder is another language learning platform that follows the gamified approach. Just like Duolingo, it has a lot of exercises developed based on Games. As you know I love Duolingo due to its gamified approach, I had to give LingoDeer a try. It was an amazing experience. I used it after learning Korean, and trust me it was better than Duolingo. Of course, I will discuss it in this guide, let us know the languages offered on LingoDeer.

Languages on LingoDeer

Although the main focus of this platform is on Asian languages, there are many other languages to learn. The following table shows the languages offered on LingoDeer-

Korean	Portuguese	Italy	Chinese
Spanish	Japanese	German	Vietnamese
French	Russian	English	Thai

Is LingoDeer free to use?

Technically yes, but actually No. So what does this mean? It means a few features are free and the rest are paid. Each course gives the first lesson freely. Additionally, the following two are the free features-

• A review
• Phrasebook
• Section to improve conversational skills and practice writing characters (for some courses)

However, if you want to access all the content and features try the paid version. The price of the plan depends upon which type of plan you are taking up. Here is a quick table that shows the pricing of each plan-

Plan	Pricing
Monthly	$14.99
Quarterly	$39.99
Yearly	$79.99
Lifetime	$159.99

How is the course designed?

Each language course starts by teaching the alphabet of the course. This is a feature that not every tool has. The alphabetic section was really comprehensive and also had the right pronunciations. With the several words and phrases, it makes the course worthwhile. I believe it is very important to have basic pronunciations and explanations. Once this section is done, you are not on the topic units. Each course is divided in its own way. Generally, you may get less important content before learning the important one. However, it depends upon the language you are learning.

If I talk about a Spanish course (taken by my friend), there were words like Lawyer and robot in the very first lesson. I don’t think that it should be there. Meanwhile, in my Korean course, the content was up to the mark. Therefore, based on my and my friends’ experience, one thing was clear the order of the unit and content of the lesson depended upon learning the language itself. Even the food items are taught based on the language you are learning. Each unit has 2-3 lessons with different features in it. You will get these units under the learn tab. Further, I have discussed all the features in the unit one by one-

1. Testing out feature

The course is created based on the very beginner level. But have you thought, what if someone already knows the language? In such a case, we need to test out the previous unit. As I had already learned some basics of Korean from Duolingo, I wanted to jump at the third unit. For it, I started testing up the units and had to take 2 tests together. Although it may piss you off, it can be a better way to test your knowledge. Once you are done, you will be at the unit you want.

2. Learning tips 

 Most of the learning platforms do not provide many grammatical explanations. The major justification behind it is that children do not enjoy learning it. But this is not the case for adults like us. Learning grammar makes it easy to learn the language. In the tip section, there are a lot of examples and explanations, which make it an enjoyable feature. All the examples and explanations show how well Lingodeer has done its job.

You will also agree with the fact that every language needs its own explanation, you can not quickly copy them for each language. The simple reason behind this is that the sentence structure varies between the languages. 

3. Lessons

Each unit is a combination of 2-3 lessons in it. A particular lesson is a club of exercises. In starting, these exercises are easy but with time, it becomes more tough. All the exercises make learning the language interesting and develop multiple skills. It helps you to be well-rounded in the language you are learning. Here are some of them-

• Listening Exercise 
• Matching pictures to words
• Writing sentences
• Speaking Exercises 
• Adding words to the correct place 

• Multiple choice questions 
• Removing words that don’t belong 
• Fill in the blanks
• Matching 
• Ordering sentences 
• Spelling

4. Review Tab

On the app, there is a different tab – Review Tab. I really think this feature works fantastically. The tab is further divided into 4 or 5 different sections, depending upon the language. Each section is a way to understand how much you have learned in the course. Here is an overview of each section-

• 5-minute quiz – Looking for a quick quiz to test if you have forgotten something learned so far? A 5- 5-minute quiz is a perfect choice for you. I have used it several times, and trust me it is the best feature to find out what words or phrases you are missing out on.
• Characters – This is the section that will be with the languages that have a different writing style. As I was learning Korean, it was available for me. It helped me to check if I was able to understand it properly or not. (Update: It is no longer available)
• Vocabulary – The next section was the vocabulary section. In it, all the words you have learned so far can be revised. This was really one of the best things I got. It helped me to revise the words I was forgetting. I made a list of them so that I could easily remember them.
• Grammar – All the grammar rules covered so far, were under a single tab. It was easy to revise from it.
• Knowledge cards – I am sure, you know using a language learning platform means having flashcards in them. This is the same case for Lingodeer. But the name given to this app is different. Here, it is known as Knowledge cards. These cards are basically the summary of the content of each lesson.

5. Fluent feature

Lingodeer gives you the option to choose what you are expecting out of the course. For Korean, there are four different sections-

• Korean 1
• Korean 2
• Fluent Korean
• Travel Phrasebook

When you choose the fluent feature, it helps in developing conversational skills. Here, you will get dialogues with audio writing, and speaking exercises. Additionally, there is a section known as Key Points. It is a section with grammatical explanations. If you are a free user, there are very few topics you get. To unlock all of them, you must get the premium version.

6. Travel phrasebook

Do you know Lingodeer is one such platform that is best suited for travelers? The simple reason behind it is this Travel Phrasebook. Even if you have no plan to learn the language but are traveling to a new place it could be helpful.

7. Character Drill Feature

It is a special feature that is only available in Japanese and Chinese language. With this feature, you can learn how to draw their characters. There are around 100 Kanji characters in the Japanese language and 1000 characters in the Chinese language.

8. Achievements

I don’t think that the gamified approach is incomplete without giving rewards to the users. Undoubtedly, Lingodeer has to continue with this ritual. Thus, it introduces an Achievement feature. This feature is a package of multiple challenges. The following are the two main challenges under the achievement section-

• Earning the XP points
• Getting the streak score

XP points are the points for completing lessons on the platform. They work like Duolingo XP. Every task you perform gives you some XP. However, what I loved about this feature was there was no extra XP for completing the lesson faster.

Now, if we talk about the Streak score, it is the number of days you have used LingoDeer regularly. Again it works similarly to Duolingo streak score.

Along with these two challenges, there are many other challenges available-

• Completing the first lesson
• Completing the whole course
• Time duration

To get these achievements, go on the ‘Me Tab’. At the top of the screen, there will be a statistics option. Below that there will be an achievement option. 

9. Stories 

Next comes the Stories section. It is not like an exercise but more like videos with captions. All the languages on this platform have stories but the Asian languages have more explanatory videos. In some languages, you will see the story is just the summary of the lessons. But in others, the stories are behind that. One such story was in the nature unit of the Korean language.

Along with the story, some questions go along with the story. While I was in the story, I got to remember the names of the planets in Korean. Also, there was a practice exercise, where I had to record myself. After recording it, I could also listen to it.

What are the benefits and drawbacks of using LingoDeer?

I have used LingoDeer to explore the Korean course. Whereas, my friend did that for the Spanish one. According to our experiences, the platform is an excellent choice for any language learner. However, it does not hide the fact that it also has drawbacks. Here is a table that shows the benefits and drawbacks of LingoDeer-

PROS	CONS
All the courses have native speakers.	Limited features for free members.
Allows you to learn offline.	No content for advanced learners.
There are great grammatical explanations.	Not great for non-Asian languages.
Gives you a free travel Phrasebook.	Very little video content.
The lessons are structured properly.
Great review system
Writing practice for specific languages – Japanese and Chinese.

Quick Lingodeer Review: Should you use LingoDeer?

After all the discussions that we had, I am sure you can see how nicely LingoDeer works. If you are learning Asian languages, it is obvious that you must try it. I have used a lot of different platforms, and trust me, this is the best one for Asian languages. It teaches you the language from a point, it must be started i.e it’s Alphabets. There is no other platform that has this feature in it. It also allows me to review what I have learned so far.

Overall, I was really attracted to how the platform works. But the only thing I didn’t like in the Korean course was there was no content for advanced learners. So, you must look for other platforms to gain advanced knowledge. Another thing that is the biggest drawback of the platform is the content for non-Asian languages. These courses are not developed so much. If you want to learn them, try Duolingo.

Is LingoDeer membership worth it?

LingoDeer is really a great platform to learn the language. Usually, I did not suggest taking the membership plan, but I would say, taking the LingoDeer subscription plan is definitely worth it. There are a lot of benefits to taking a membership plan. Here are a few of them-

• All the lessons in the main course and fluent feature
• Allows you to learn offline
• Gives cross-device access

However, if you are on a Tight budget, Duolingo could be the best solution for you. Lingodeer also keeps bringing discounts. Try to look for them.

Important: If you still are confused, take advantage of the 7-day money-back guarantee. 

LingoDeer vs Duolingo: Which one is better?

You must have noticed, I have used Duolingo a lot while explaining LingoDeer. Naturally, you must be thinking about the reason behind it. The easiest answer to it is that it follows a Gamified approach. Almost all the features of both platforms are the same. To make you more understand, here is a quick comparison between both of them-

Features	LingoDeer	Duolingo
Number of Languages	12	43
Free version	Here are some things which are free lessons of each course guide Review feature Some lessons under the fluent section	All the content is freely available
Stories	They are basically short summaries of the unit in video format with subtitles and are available in all languages.	They are like small conversations between the Duolingo Characters. You will have to listen to what they are saying and answer the questions they ask.
Alphabets section	Lingodeer starts teaching the language by teaching you the Alphabet of it.	It directly starts teaching the vocabulary words rather than teaching the characters. However, there is a writing system tool for languages having different writing styles.
Skipping the units	If you want to go to a particular unit, you must take a test for previous units respectively. Skipping a single unit can be done by testing out features.	It allows you to skip the unit similar to LingoDeer. However, the name of the feature is known as the Duolingo Placement test.
Grammar	There is a lot of Grammatical knowledge and explanations. For each language, examples are differently explained.	There is almost no Grammatical knowledge.
Achievements	They are like the badges that you get on completing specific challenges.	Duolingo achievements work similar to the LingoDeer achievements.
Best suited for	Asian Languages	Other languages
Heart System	There is no heart system on the platform.	There is a heart system, which restricts you from making mistakes while practicing.

Both platforms are known for their gamified approach. But which one to choose is a big confusion. Clearly, from the table, it could be understood that LingoDeer beats Duolingo in each aspect. Whether it is grammatical explanations or the alphabet section, everything is perfect. The only thing that is a major drawback for LingoDeer over Duolingo is the availability of fewer languages. There are only 12 languages available on it and it is best suited for Asian languages. As I have used both platforms, I would suggest you choose LingoDeer for Asian languages and Duolingo for others.

How to use LingoDeer to learn the language?

So, far you must know how it works and why it is a perfect choice. But it is equally important to know how to use it to get the most out of it. Therefore, here is a quick guide on how to include it in your language-learning journey-

1. Stay consistent 

If you have checked my previous blogs where I have mentioned how I learned Latin and German, I am sure you know how consistent I am with my goal. But do you know why? Because “Consistency is the Key to Success“. So while using LingoDeer, ensure that you stay consistent with it. Don’t forget your consistency will also be appreciated by the platform. There are rewards waiting for you.

2. Using all the features

Many learners just focus on completing the lessons but do not use other features. This is wrong. As a language learner, I genuinely think taking advantage of all the features is important. Ensure to use the Review Tab and stories as well.

3. Repeating the previous content 

Try to revise the old lessons after a few days. It helps to remember the previous content. This also helped me in figuring out if there was anything that I forgot.

Alternatives for LingoDeer

Above I have shown the biggest alternative of Lingodeer i.e Duolingo. Do you still think a platform following the Gamified approach is not for you? Don’t worry. There are many other platforms to learn the language from. Here are some of them-

1. Tandem

A platform that bridges the gap between communicational practice and learning the language. On this platform, I get language exchange partners to practice along with them. In fact, some of them have become my online friends. There are two features, inclusive autocorrections and translations.

2. Preply

Preply provides live classes to the students. As a language learner, it is very important to get the right guidance. Preply is a platform that helped me to get it from the tutors. It gives me the flexibility to choose the right tutor by filtering my options. It could either be based on the teaching experience or on the duration of the classes.

3. Pimsleur 

This is the third option which comes with a unique approach. It basically focuses on teaching the language through audio lessons. The idea behind this platform is to make you understand how native speakers talk. It was the approach started by Dr. Paul Pimsleur. The platform covers a wide range of vocabulary in audio lessons. Based on them, there are 10-15 minute exercises at the end of each lesson. If you don’t get much time, this is a perfect way to learn the language.

Conclusion

LingoDeer is a perfect choice for those who want to learn Asian languages. Although it has French and Spanish, they are not as developed as other courses. The alphabetic section on the platform is the biggest advantage of the platform. I don’t think that any other platform first teaches you the alphabet and then goes further. The grammatical explanations and the examples make it a perfect choice for adults. However, if you are learning more Western languages, try to use some other platforms.

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