Mondly Review

Wednesday, December 4th

2024 German Lesson Reviews

Mondly

• Price: $9.99/month, $47.99/year, or $89.99 for lifetime access to all 41 languages
• Access to all 250 lessons and weekly quizzes, monthly challenges in premium version
• Freemium model with a 7-day free trial for premium features
• Availability of professional and educational lessons such as Business Communication, Negotiations, and so on
• Lesson search function to find specific lessons
• Mondly VR for practicing German in virtual reality scenarios
• Option to learn at own pace and in any order

Mondly is a platform that you can use to learn new languages, including German. It's made up of a website and various apps, and it turns language learning into a game-like experience. Unlike some other platforms featured in this review, it has grammar features. In May 2022, Mondly became part of Pearson's language learning portfolio.

Learn German from languages other than English

Signing up is simple. First, create a free account and then choose the language you speak. Mondly lets you learn German from a wide range of languages. Next, specify the language you want to learn, in this case, German. Finally, select your proficiency level - beginner, intermediate, or advanced.

Freemium model

With the free version of Mondly, you can access daily lessons, the "Hello" category, and a lesson with a chatbot. There's not a whole lot you can do on a free account, which makes it feel more like a demo than a full product and wouldn't serve your needs in the long run. If you want to see more, you can start a 7-day free trial that gives you access to all the premium features. If you decide to stick with the premium version after the trial, you will be automatically charged. The premium version gives you access to all 40 categories of lessons. These are displayed on your dashboard like a map. They range from basic greetings to more complex topics like asking for help or visiting the doctor. You can learn at your own pace and in any order you want. Plus, you'll get unlimited access to all daily lessons, weekly quizzes, and monthly challenges.

Academic and professional lessons available

If you click on "More courses" located at the graduation cap icon at the top right, you'll find lessons on professional and educational topics such as Business Communication, Meetings, Negotiations, and even specific professions like Customer Service or Restaurant Staff. We also appreciated Mondly's lesson search function. If you're getting ready for a trip to Germany, you could search for "flight" or "passport". This would reveal a list of lessons that include these scenarios, like "On the Plane” and "Emergencies”. However, strangely, every search we tried included the Daily Lesson from August 8, 2019. This is likely a glitch.

Lessons are nothing original

Mondly's lessons aren't very unique. You complete the usual exercises like choosing words to complete a sentence, matching words with pictures, spelling words, and picking the meaning of a word. However, we did like how at the end of a daily lesson, they read all the German words and phrases you practiced out loud.

Grammar lessons are not as robust as we hoped

Even though Mondly promotes its grammar lessons, it may not meet your needs if you're after in-depth grammar instruction or are an advanced learner. After completing a lesson, you can redo it or look at a summary that may clarify some grammar points. If you click on a highlighted verb, you'll see and hear its different forms. But, Mondly mainly expects you to intuit grammar rather than directly explaining it. Whether this works for you will depend on your learning style and the other resources you're using to learn German.

Practice German in VR

Mondly VR is probably the most unique feature of Mondly. While some language learning platforms leverage AI chatbots to help you get comfortable using the language, Mondly VR goes a step further by adding a virtual reality component. It even has speech recognition. You can interact with the virtual world around you to practice scenarios like making a hotel reservation, hailing a taxi, or ordering dinner without feeling embarrassed. It's available for download as a separate app in the App Store and on Google Play, and access is included with your Pro subscription.

Gimmicky deals

Mondly offers several pricing plans for learning languages. You can choose a one-month plan for $9.99, or a yearly plan for $47.99. The best value is the lifetime access to all 41 languages for a one-time payment of $89.99, allegedly discounted at the time of this review from $1,999.99. However, this is likely a sales tactic to make you feel compelled to buy their product right away. It's doubtful Mondly ever intended to sell Lifetime Access for $2,000, especially when you consider how much its competitors are charging for the same thing. It seems more like a marketing gimmick.

They don't have a competitive edge

If you're really serious about learning German, Mondly might not be the best fit for you. It's pretty simple and the free version doesn't give you much. There's also a concern about Pearson taking over Mondly, as their main focus seems to be on English learners, not on improving the German course. While Mondly isn't bad, there are other options out there that can give you a better understanding of grammar and might offer better user support. We wouldn't strongly recommend it for learning German.