Learning from your own language

The English detour

For hundreds of millions of learners, English is a second language, and most apps make it the price of admission. Grammar explained in English, corrections written in English, an interface in English. A Thai speaker learning Korean has to translate the explanation before they can use it.

The result is not only slower. Explanations lose precision when they pass through a language you half know, and the app feels like it was built for someone else.

How NativePal handles it

What is in your language, and what stays in the language you are learning.

• The interface, in one of 57 languages. Choose your own language in onboarding, then the language you want to learn, then a level. Menus, instructions and settings follow your choice. You can learn several languages at once, each with its own profile and progress.
• Explanations and feedback in your language. Corrections in chats, the notes on a Daily Challenge, word explanations in the dictionary and the tips after a vocabulary lesson are written for the interface language you chose. That is where a translated interface with English explanations usually falls short. Daily Challenges →
• The target language, kept whole. Stories, character replies, teleprompter texts and quiz prompts are in the language you are learning, at your level. Translations are a tap away rather than side by side, so you read the language before you read about it. Reading Lessons →
• A dictionary in your own words. Words you save get translations and explanations into your interface language, with examples and audio, and come back as flashcards on a spaced-repetition schedule. Vocabulary & Dictionary →

What it will not do

Depth is uneven. Explanations are richest for the widely taught languages and thinner for the smallest ones, in both directions: as the language you learn and as the language you learn from. If an explanation looks off, check it.

This website is translated into 50 languages, fewer than the app's 57, and the detailed feature, comparison and guide pages are in English only. The app itself does not have that limitation.

Setting it up

Three choices in onboarding, all changeable later in Settings.

1. Choose your own language first. This sets the interface, the explanations and the feedback.
2. Choose the language you want to learn. You can add more later; each keeps its own level, dictionary and progress.
3. Set your level: CEFR for most languages, JLPT, HSK or TOPIK for Japanese, Chinese and Korean. There is no placement test, so start a step lower than you think and raise it.
4. Try a reading lesson and a chat. If the explanations arrive in the wrong language, check the interface language in Settings.

Related

• The best language apps for absolute beginners →
• NativePal for absolute beginners →
• Getting past the intermediate plateau →