Today I will show you What Are the Best Language Learning Games Online. We are living in 2017 and language learning games are better than ever before in the human history. You have much better tools and possibilities to learn a new language in a record time than ever. That’s why I highly recommend taking full benefit of these resources.
Many of these games have helped me a lot when I have learned new languages and I am sure that they will help you as well. Fasten your seat belts, choose your favorite and start practicing. Let’s go!
Language games are not only fun but also very helpful!
How Do Language Learning Games Work?
Before going into real examples, I want to use a few words explaining why language learning games are so powerful. First of all, they usually very fun which keeps up your motivation. They track your progress which gives you additional motivation boosts and shows that you are really learning lots of new words. But how can anyone learn a new language by playing a game funny on the Internet?
Many language learning experts have used thousands of hours studying how we learn languages and as a result, they have created these games. With games, you will learn new words, sentences, pronunciation, reading and listening and so on. Some language games cover all of these subjects.
You will need to memorize words or sentences in order to move to next level. In the other words, the game “forces” you to learn because otherwise, you couldn’t move forward. You will also learn useful phrases on very practical subjects that you will need in your everyday life with a new language.
1.LingQ
When I tried LingQ for the first time I was a bit surprised and very impressed how well it works. It was easy to see a difference between this paid service and a free Duolingo. They have probably more resources to improve LingQ because people pay a little membership fee unlike in Duolingo. You can also use LingQ for free but if you want to get the full potential of it, then you need to get a full version.
In LingQ you can also find language tutors, have 1-on-1 private and group lessons. They have a vivid community of language learners and over the years already more than 1,000,000 people have tried their language game. By they way, LingQ is created by a guy who speaks 16 languages himself. His name is Steve Kaufman and he has used his own game for mastering many new languages.
If I would need to choose the best language learning game, it would probably be LingQ.
2.Bliu Bliu
Bliu Bliu is a wonderful idea by a Lithuanian man Claudio Santori. Their program uses a new technology to get articles and translations from the Internet.
They arrange also 30-day challenges for each language (Spanish, French, German, etc.) where a native speaker helps every attendee personally to reach their goals. Those challenges are also a great idea because it helps you to make lots of progress in a short period of time.
In Bliu Bliu you can also study some more rare languages Toki Pona, Kyrzyg, and Xhosa. I don’t know if you have heard of those languages before but I hadn’t before facing Bliu Bliu. This is a great example that you will for sure learn any language that you want to study in Bliu Bliu.
3.Babbel
Babbel has been downloaded more than 10 million times for smartphones and is widely known language learning game all around the world. May you have seen two brothers speaking 10 different languages and advertising Babbel on the Internet?
Babbel is a made by German guys and it’s literally a great way to improve your language knowledge. You will learn pronunciation, vocabulary, listening and many other skills that help you to speak a foreign language.
In my opinion, Babbel is one of the greatest resources. I have even once considered applied to work for them because I recognized that their service and company looks so great. At least not yet I didn’t go but who knows about the future. 🙂
Babbel Rocks!
4.Duolingo
Duolingo is the most downloaded language game on Android store with more than 50 million downloads. And not without a good reason. Their service is 100% free and it’s getting better year by year. Many independent developers are working on new languages to make their service even bigger and better.
I started by French and German learning journeys with Duolingo and worked quite well. I improved my language skills pretty fast by playing the game. Many of my friends have also enjoyed using Duolingo. I remember how motivated one friend of mine was to play Duolingo when he did a student exchange in Spain.
5.Memrise
For me, Memrise has always been another alternative for Duolingo because you can use Memrise for totally free. If you are not interested in investing any money for language learning, this is a great way to do it. But that’s not the only benefit of Memrise.
They have tens of thousands of language learning courses that has been created by their community members. It’s an interesting idea that their community develops Memrise all the time by adding new courses, improving current courses and so on. Also, you can become a part of that community. Of course, you don’t need to create own courses on Memrise if you don’t want but you can do it if you are interested.
Here I am using Memrise for learning German
6.Mango Languages
Mango Languages is a very large site and they have also specialized language courses. Let me give a few examples. You can learn also rare languages like Tuvan (I’ve never heard of it before either!). Then you can study, for example, Medical Spanish, Feng Shui, and MSA Arabic.
Mango languages is a modern language learning game that you can play for free in many libraries. YES, you heard right. In libraries! Mango Languages is cooperating with local libraries so people can visit there and learn languages with this modern game. You can also have it on your own phone if you don’t want to visit the library but then you need to pay $20/month which is quite expensive compared to other language games in this article.
7.Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone is one of the famous language learning games. You may have seen Michael Phelps recommending RS or big advertisements on the street if you are living in the U.S. Rosetta Stone is a big thing.
Their language learning game helps you to “learn a new language like a baby”. It means that they teach you with natural methods or at least that’s what they promise ;). When you study a new language with their courses, you don’t to translate words into your own native language. I really like this characteristic. You will learn to think in your target language because when you see, for example, a tree you know exactly what it means in your target language.
Rosetta Stone offers a language learning game, audio lessons, pronunciation and speaking exercises, 1-on-1 and group lessons and much more. Even though it seems like being all-in-one language learning service, I recommend using other methods as well. Rosetta Stone will help you a lot but I must mention that it’s more expensive than other games in this article.
Which One Is Your Favorite?
I love to hear experiences from our readers. Reading new comments makes my day so I want to ask you: Have you tried some of these language learning games? Did you like it? Why/why not?
I promise to respond to every single comment personally within 24 hours. Looking forward to hearing from you soon! 🙂
First I would like to say nice job on bringing 7 different games to my attention. Before reading the article I was only aware of memrise and rosetta stone.
Second I know that memrise has done an update recently that is gonna hurt how it’s members use mems. The communitiy aspect of finding mems that other people have shared will no longer play a role in how it can be learned. Have you heard of this and have any other products done anything similiar?
Hi Eric,
I haven’t heard of that update on Memrise. Today I tried it and it worked as normally as always before. I don’t fully understand what you mean with the update. Could you explain a bit more?
Anyway, LingQ is probably my favorite of these 7 games and I am thinking about investing more of my time to studying German with it.
-Roope
First off, I think games are a great way to learn a new language. If you can forget you’re “studying” you’re more likely to relax, have fun and take more in.
I personally think LingQ have the best language learning games and resouces. I thought Steve Kaufman was a genius (and he is intelligent) but he has learned over a dozen languages by following a set system, which he lays out really clearly. LingQ would be my top recommendation for language learners.
Most important of all, find away that works for you, be persistent and keep pushing! Three years ago I thought Thai was impossible to learn, now I’ve done public speaking and led teams of people with Thai as my second language so all things are possible if you on’t give up!
Hi Simon,
sounds great! I am happy that you shared your experiences and idea about the best language game. I was also amazed when I heard for the first time that Steve Kaufman or Benny Lewis are speaking more than 10 languages.
Then I realized that I are just making specific things to achieve that kind of success with languages. Then I also saw that there are guys who speak 40 or even 50 different languages. Wow!
It’s wonderful that you kept on going with Thai language even though you had some challenges. It’s the same with everything worthwhile in life. Success requires persistence and hard work but if we keep on seeding the positive seeds on the ground, at some point we will always harvest.
-Roope
Cool! I didn’t know there were so many different alternatives to learning languages 🙂
I have been using Rosetta Stone for the past few months, and I really like it… but I find the membership fees for the online companion can be expensive when you only may one month at a time. If it’s something you’re serious about, then investing in 1 year membership is worth is.
I’ve heard so much about DuoLingo and Babbel… I think I should check those out too. 🙂
I agree though, learning with games makes language discovery much more entertaining! Thanks for more suggestions!
Hi Mel,
you are right that after paying something every month can become quite expensive over the time course. Yearly membership is much cheaper if you are going to use the service for long.
This is also marketer’s trick. The price $9,9/month looks much cheaper than $99 one-time payment. But after 10 months you have already paid $99 and you don’t even own the product.
Yeah, Duolingo and Babbel are great language games. If you have enjoyed Rosetta Stone, I think you will like these ones as well.
Wish you all the best for your language studies!
Cheers,
Roope
This is cool! I didn’t even know there are a lot of games to help us learn new languages. And I didn’t even realize that we can learn so much just by playing games on our phone and/or over the internet.
I guess I have to free up some space of my phone to download a few of these that you recommend.
Keep up the good work, Roope. I’m enjoying the content of your site.
Hi Victor,
your phone is actually a very powerful tool for learning a foreign language. There are so many apps and games that will make language learning just a breeze. I know it from my own experience.
Hi sir Roope,
You are amazing blogger, this site is helpful, i thought games were just for kids and only for fun, but this make a real difference. This a must game for our children to literate and knowledgeable.
I’m gonna tell my younger sister to download this apps.
Thank you sir and continue to make some informative, practical and helpful articles!
Hi Gandalf,
yeah, many people are surprised how effective tools games are for language learning. You can expand your vocabulary in a fast pace. You learn new words all the time and they keep your mind stretching. It can be much more interesting than reading old textbooks 😉
First of all, I would like to thank for this opportunity of exploring new ways of learning languages. Few people are aware of these techniques. I could say that it is very helpful especially to our youth so this must be introduce to our school.
I cant give any sample for this b’coz I haven’t encountered any of this yet I’m amazed of this tool of learning new languages. I hope someone could teach and introduce me to this tool.
Thank you and Regards. 🙂
Hi Abegail,
just try them yourself. All of them have at least free trial and some of them are completely free.
Thank you for your positive feedback!
This is way better than the conventional means of learning a new language. This apps are really resourceful.
Following your recommendations, I downloaded one of them, Babbel to be precise and am enjoying every bit of it. Their customer response is fast and quiet impressive. I gave it an almost five-star rating because of the fee, but come to think about it…the fee is actually worth the experience.
Yeah, Babbel is great!
They have a free version but it’s limited for some resources only. The premium version is more comprehensive and I think it’s worth every penny if you want to learn a new language. It’s good to invest time and money for your own learning. It will pay off big dividends in the future.
LingQ was my first language tool. I learned a lot of Chinese in this tool. I experienced a lot of learning in LingQ. I will try new tools for now.
Hi Jayveeborres,
I’m happy that I am able introduce these new tools for you and you have found LingQ helpful. After you have used a few of them I would like to hear which one is your favorite 🙂
I liked lingq, but I believe it is obsolete with most of the tools that are away there now, at least for me personally. I had been a consumer from 2009 and lately halted utilizing it. I believe Benny’s review is fairly fair.
I think a much better use of time would be reading the book that the founder of Lingq wrote, just how of the linguist. That’s probably more valuable, an extended with lots of ‘Philosophical’ books about how to embrace learning dialects as a pleasure rather than a task.
Lingq’s founder is a superb cheerleader for everybody passionate about dealing with the duty of vocabulary learning and buying it and taking full responsibility for this. But…I believe Lingq was before it’s time years back, but it now is super obsolete…and regrettably just wasn’t near as active nor perfectly resourced to make that jump like duolingo. Duolingo is simple for certain, but it is merely better developed and better resourced in it’s simplicity.
Thanks for sharing your opinion and thoughts on these language games.
I haven’t read the book of Steve Kaufmann but I believe it’s great because the guy speaks 16 languages. He must have something interesting to say! 🙂
I am so fired up now to learn new languages. Maybe because I like playing games. Any game is fine with me. Knowing there are so many games that will help us learn new language, I am more motivated to learn one.
Sounds great! It’s like a double win. You’ll learn a language by doing something that’s fun.
Roope.
You are truly amazing with the way that you carry out your work in an extensive cum detailed manner. Even an ordinary layman could be able to read and understand your write up.
Honestly, I haven’t used any of these language learning games. I mainly use Google Reader translate to do a little study of other countries languages but definitely after reading this article of yours, I would definitely take out time to observe and make use of one of these cool language learning games and have my say about it.
Thank you very much Heatman.
Yeah, I always aim to explain things in simple terms. Like one famous evangelist said about his own teaching, “Simple man gives simple teachings.” 😉
Another very educative article this is Roope! I say this is really an amazing technique to learn languages. Since the makers of the games are also master of their trade in teaching language. That is why a person that will want to know a new language can practice with this games. What-ta great learning way this is. Thanks a lot as always you make us know terrific ways to learn. Keep up the good work!
You’re welcome Melvs. I’m glad you enjoy.
I think that language games are way better than the old-school way of learning languages (sitting at the classroom) for most people.
As far as I know one of the best language game I knew is THE GREAT LANGUAGE GAME . Sounds great right ? In this game, you may able to learn different languages. You just select the language you want to learn the start for it.
I just checked out The Great Language Game. It seemed interesting and very simplistic.
I guess this LingQ game. It is so awesome to learn various kind of language. We are able to learn here no matter what kind of language we want to learn. And as what I hear about its feedback, lot of people give the positive view about this language game.
You’re right!
Babbel I guarantee it because I’m using this app when I was young then I learned a lot of words about foreign language. And you should also try this game so that you will having better idea about what foreign language you want.
Babbel is certainly a great app. I have also used it sometimes to learn something.
This is one of my favorite methods to learn a language because it contains fun and not those usual boring books that will just make me lazy to learn. I love this method because of what you said, it forces me to learn to achieve the next level and without yourself realizing that you somewhat learned something.
In addition, thank you for mentioning some of the language learning games online because I only know Duolingo and Memrise. I will definitely try these games soon.
You’re welcome. Language games are one of my favorite ways to learn languages. You combine the entertainment and the benefit at the same time.