Call me old school, but I’ve always been skeptical of AI. But the language learning community has been raving about AI learning tools for a while now, so when I heard about Langotalk’s unique features, I thought it was about time I finally gave it a try.
I chose a language I’m fluent in—Spanish—for this experiment for two reasons: to see how accurate the AI lessons are and to see how advanced they get. I can honestly say I’m surprised by how much you can learn from Langotalk—from pretty much every thinkable grammar topic to different dialects—but I don’t think it’ll ever replace real-life conversations with native speakers.
Overview
Name: Langotalk
Description: A language learning app that uses AI to stimulate real-world conversations in your target language.
Languages offered: 19+ languages including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Greek, Norwegian and more.
Offer price: $19.99 per month, $79.99 per year or one-time purchase of $149.99 for lifetime access
Langotalk is an app and website that teaches over 19 languages using AI. It offers beginner through advanced lessons using a conversation-style messaging format between you and a chatbot. You can also participate in conversations with AI characters and create your own lessons by asking the AI to teach you what you want to learn. But AI can’t replace real conversations with native speakers, the advanced lessons aren’t really that advanced and the customer service needs improvement.
User friendliness - 10/10
10/10
Delivers on promises - 7/10
7/10
Authenticity - 8/10
8/10
Value for price - 5/10
5/10
Pros
Tons of conversation topics and styles
Lots of unique practice tools
The lessons are almost 100% in the target language
Offers self-made lessons that are generated super fast
Langotalk uses AI to create an “immersion” environment in your target language. They do this with various AI characters and the lessons are given via an AI chatbot that takes a conversational approach.
There are over 19 languages offered and over 50 AI tutors for each one. The languages include Spanish, English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese and more.
Since I signed up for the Spanish version, I got AI characters from multiple Latin American countries and Spain.
You can choose from pre-designed lessons or even use AI to create your own based on what you want or need to learn. The lessons are tagged with the level—beginner, intermediate or advanced—and clicking on it takes you to a chatbot where the AI tutor starts the lesson.
The tutor introduces you to new words and grammar concepts through text message-like conversations. Each message is short and introduces a new word or grammar point. Once you understand it, you click “Continue” to move on to the next part of the lesson.
After being introduced to a few new words, the AI bot asks you how to say something in the language based on what you’ve learned so far. You choose from an option of messages to send back and get instant feedback from the bot. If you got it wrong, they explain why.
Once you complete the lesson—which usually only takes about five minutes—you gain points and add a day to your streak.
One thing I like about Langotalk is that the lessons are almost 100% in the target language, even at beginner levels. The language used is simple enough that you understand it, so you never use English as a crutch.
Langotalk’s Key Features
AI-generated chat conversations
Langotalk’s two main features are “Lessons” and “Chats.”
Lessons are the messages between you and the chatbot that teach you new vocabulary and grammar based on a topic you choose from the library. Chats are where you practice what you learn and use your conversation skills.
Clicking on the “Chats” menu option took me to a page of conversation topics and categories. I chose the “Dealing with Hard Emotions” category and chose the conversation called “Opening Up About Loneliness.”
Once I chose the topic, an AI character named Sam started the conversation by asking me how I feel today. The responses are completely up to you—I ended up responding with “I feel a little anxious.”
The character responded instantly and asked if I’d like to talk more about why I feel anxious, and the conversation continued from there. Langotalk also comments on your responses to tell you if there’s a better way to word your answer or to congratulate you if you responded very well.
Each category has about 10 conversations, so there are a ton available. For example, the “Dealing with Hard Emotions” category has 10.
Premade AI characters to chat with
The “AI Characters” tab brought me to a page with several conversation categories—similar to the “Chats” tab—but this time with icons of characters.
Since I was using Langotalk for Spanish, the characters were accompanied by a country flag that represented where they were from. Most of the characters are from Spain, Mexico and Colombia. Some of them don’t have flags, so I’m assuming that means the dialect is supposed to be more neutral.
One thing I really loved about this section is that by clicking on the “Culture” category, you can take lessons specifically on an ancient pre-Hispanic culture with an AI character. Itzcoatl is from Mexico and gives a lesson on Aztec history, Pachacuti is from Peru and teaches Incan history and Ixchel from Guatemala teaches Mayan culture.
They also have two more culture lessons on Latin American music and food.
Clicking on one of these chats takes you to the chat room with the AI character where you learn using the same text message-based format as the other lessons.
Self-made lessons
Something unique that struck me about Langotalk is the “create your own lessons” feature. Anything you want to learn in Spanish (or whichever language you choose), you can ask the AI tutor to create a lesson for you on the topic.
You do this by going to “Lessons” and then the “Created” tab.
Once you’re there, you click the “Create a Lesson” button. It then asks if you want to learn a topic, make a quiz, learn new vocabulary, do a grammar drill or get speaking practice.
I loved the concept but was curious to see how in-depth the lessons would actually get and if they could be highly specific. So I asked the AI to create me a lesson on Venezuelan slang—being Venezuelan-American myself. Although it didn’t teach very many words, it created the lesson immediately and I was surprised at the explanations.
Once you’ve finished the lesson, it’s saved in your “Created” tab so you can always come back to review it.
Grammar and vocabulary-themed lessons
Langotalk doesn’t just teach vocabulary. They teach grammar, too. I took the lesson on the past imperfect tense (pretérito imperfecto) to see how it works, and it still follows the same conversation style format.
The chat first taught me how to conjugate verbs in the imperfect yo form, then moved on to using it for descriptions and telling stories. But it didn’t move on past that. So by the end of the lesson, I had only learned the first- and third-person conjugations.
Another thing I didn’t like was that it categorized the past imperfect tense as an advanced lesson. When in reality, it’s a B1 (low intermediate) level grammar point.
Regardless, there’s a good amount of grammar lessons available, I’d just recommend supplementing them with another grammar resource.
Progress tracking
Langotalk gives you points for completing a lesson and for accuracy—how many mistakes you made (or didn’t make). These are added to your progress dashboard and the more points you earn, the more you level up.
At the end of the last lesson I completed about my weekly sleep routine, a pop-up appeared with a progress bar telling me I was almost to level three. But I can’t find anywhere on the progress dashboard (or other part of the website) what that means or how many levels there are.
What is on the progress dashboard though is your current streak and how many points you’ve earned over the last seven days compared to other learners of your target language. There’s no leaderboard, but this might suffice if you have a competitive spirit.
You’ll also see how many lessons you’ve completed at the bottom of the dashboard and how many of those you made a perfect score on.
AI tutor
Each language comes with a designated AI tutor that lets you ask it anything you want. The Spanish one is just called “Spanish Tutor” and is located under the “Practice Tools” category under “AI Characters.”
Clicking on the tutor brought me to a chat box where I could ask any question about Spanish. I started by asking “What is the Spanish subjunctive?” To which it gave a paragraph-long message explaining what the subjunctive is used for and gave an example sentence.
It reminds me a lot of the “create your own lessons” feature, but the main difference is that the AI tutor doesn’t generate an entire lesson on just one subject. The next thing I asked was “What are the conjugations of Spanish commands?” and it gave me a very long, choppy paragraph that did what I asked but was very hard to read.
I think the AI tutor is great if you have a quick question you need clarity on. But if you want deeper explanations, it’s better to use the “Create a Lesson” feature.
Practice tools
Under “AI Characters,” there’s a tab called “Practice Tools.” This is where the AI tutor hides out. But there’s also Roleplay Pal, Interview Prep, Grammar Drills, Deep Thoughts and Fill in the Blanks.
Roleplay Pal is supposed to be conversation practice where you stimulate a real-life situation with AI. You don’t get to choose the topic of the roleplay—it’s assigned to you once you start the drill. When I did the roleplay, it told me I was traveling internationally for the first time and was anxious. The goal was to get my plane seat assigned by the end of the roleplay.
The conversation was pretty good, but there was one part where I answered the bot’s question of whether I preferred a window seat or an aisle seat, and it just repeated my answer back to me. I responded with, “Window, please” and the bot sent me the same exact thing back. After that I sent, “Yes, I prefer the window” and then the conversation moved on.
Interview Prep is great if you’re learning the language for a job. It asks you a series of common interview questions and you respond to the bot as if it were interviewing you.
Grammar Drills is an exercise where you translate four sentences to the target language while trying not to make any mistakes. The theme is revealed once you start the drill. I got “asking for directions” and the bot asked me to translate sentences like, “Could you point me in the direction of the town hall?” They were pretty advanced, but I’d assume that they’d be more beginner-friendly if your settings were at a lower level.
Deep Thoughts is a drill that’s supposed to get you creating more complex sentences in Spanish and stretching your knowledge to have in-depth, meaningful conversations. The topics are pretty deep, and it can easily turn into a journaling session. For example, the first question it asked me was “How do your daily habits impact your emotional and physical well-being?”.
Finally, Fill in the Blanks asks you to complete sentences with the right words. It tests your grammar knowledge, but also how much you know about the culture. The topic I got was “Festivals and Celebrations,” which asked me about Semana Santa (Holy Week), El Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) and Carnaval de Río de Janeiro (Carnaval of Rio de Janeiro).
Pros of Langotalk
Tons of conversation topics and styles
Langotalk has an impressive library of conversation topics, making for hours of learning time. While there are quite a lot of lessons, its biggest strength is the chat conversation practice by far.
It really gets you writing in the target language and thinking about topics you probably haven’t attempted to talk about yet. Plus, I recommend discussing the same topics with a language partner or tutor to get even more practice—and with a real person.
I also like how Langotalk incorporates different accents and dialects for languages like Spanish. And the self-created lessons can even teach you slang, as we saw in my self-made Venezuelan slang lesson.
Lots of unique practice tools
The practice tools are unique and throw you in an unknown environment, which is what you need to expand your skills. You can’t choose the topics and the bot gives tips and corrections with every response you make. And the exercise variety is impressive—everything from grammar drills to interview prep.
The lessons are almost 100% in the target language
The chatbot gives the lessons in the target language—the only time I saw English was when it was commenting on my responses and giving me feedback, such as when I got something right or wrong.
Even from the very beginner level, you’re exposed to the language. I really like this. And as the lessons advance, the bot uses more and more of the target language.
For example, in the beginner lessons, I found the Spanish explanations were basic and minimal—just enough for a beginner to understand. But the past imperfect tense lesson I mentioned earlier used much more detail as if someone were explaining the concepts in my native language.
The self-made lessons are generated super fast
I was definitely impressed with the self-made lessons—first because of its ability to teach really specific topics like a country’s slang, and second because of how fast it was made. It took less than 30 seconds for Langotalk to create my “Venezuelan slang” lesson, and the explanations were accurate.
Save words to your personal collection
As you have conversations with the chatbots, you can click on any word to translate it, get a detailed explanation of how it’s used and save it to your “personal collection.”
For example, here’s what happened when I clicked on the word día in a sentence:
Clicking “Learn about word” took me to a slide that gave me the meaning, noun gender, plural form, pronunciation, how it’s used and example phrases.
You can find your collection under the “Profile tab,” and there are separate tabs for phrases and words. Once you’ve saved nine words, you can take a quiz.
Cons of Langotalk
The app shows lessons out of your level
Even though it asks about your goals and current level, Langotalk shows lessons for all three levels—and they’re not even in a specific order.
I selected fluent for my level. But as you can see, it continues to show me beginner and intermediate lessons. Personally, I find this a bit annoying because I have to sift through all the other lessons before I find something that might be suitable for me.
No quizzes or exercises after lessons
You can take quizzes on your saved words, but I’d prefer to see some kind of exercise or quiz at the end of lessons to practice what you learned.
Right now, the closest thing to this is the Grammar Drills feature in the practice tools. But even with that, you can’t choose which grammar topic you practice—Langotalk assigns you a scenario and you just have to translate the sentences the best you can.
Because of this, I’d definitely recommend downloading a flashcard app and taking notes while going through the lessons. Then make your own “quizzes” using a website like Anki or Quizlet.
AI can never replace real human conversations
This is a hill I’ll die on—AI will never replace real conversations with native speakers. No matter how advanced it’s gotten.
Even though Langotalk does a good job of generating interesting topics and mimicking a spontaneous interaction as much as possible, it’s just not the same. You still pick the topic and you’re still in your comfort zone knowing you’re not talking to a real person—something that makes many language learners nervous.
So try not to use Langotalk as a crutch. It’s excellent for dipping your toe in the water, and I agree that it prepares you for real-world conversations. But at a certain point, you need to make native-speaker friends or use a language exchange app to talk to real people.
Canceling your subscription is complicated
In my personal experience with Langotalk, this has been the biggest con.
Canceling is not straightforward. The number they gave in their cancellation policy didn’t work, so I emailed them about five days before my free trial ended to let them know I wouldn’t continue using Langotalk. But when the trial ended, they still charged me $79.99.
They refunded me eventually, but the customer service was poor: The representative was not responsive at all, ignoring my original email and only responding after I sent several follow-ups.
How Much Does Langotalk Cost?
Langotalk offers a one-week free trial if you sign up for the yearly plan, which costs $79.99 annually. Their monthly subscription is $19.99 but offers no free trial, and there’s a one-time purchase option for lifetime access that costs $149.99.
Lingoda is an online language school that offers German, English, Business English, French, Spanish and Italian.
They offer individual classes but are most known for their group classes. The classes—individual and group—follow a structured curriculum designed by expert language teachers. The tutors give classes based on this curriculum. So you choose your level according to the CEFR then start booking classes to work through to the next level.
There is an option to request that a tutor teach you something else during a one-on-one class. But overall, Lingoda is best suited for those who want a tutor—that’s not AI—to guide you through a step-by-step program as if you were in an actual language school, but for a much more affordable price.
With FluentU, you hear languages in real-world contexts—the way that native speakers actually use them. Just a quick look will give you an idea of the variety of FluentU videos on offer:
FluentU really takes the grunt work out of learning languages, leaving you with nothing but engaging, effective and efficient learning. It’s already hand-picked the best videos for you and organized them by level and topic. All you have to do is choose any video that strikes your fancy to get started!
Each word in the interactive captions comes with a definition, audio, image, example sentences and more.
Access a complete interactive transcript of every video under the Dialogue tab, and easily review words and phrases from the video under Vocab.
You can use FluentU’s unique adaptive quizzes to learn the vocabulary and phrases from the video through fun questions and exercises. Just swipe left or right to see more examples of the word you're studying.
The program even keeps track of what you’re learning and tells you exactly when it’s time for review, giving you a 100% personalized experience.
Rocket Languages has been a big name in the language learning world for over 20 years. The courses use a mixture of text and audio and there are tons of practice exercises.
The lessons start with a podcast-style audio recording normally between 15 and 30 minutes. Two hosts go back and forth having conversations in the target language and then explaining the new vocabulary and grammar concepts they used. It’s not a listen-and-repeat format, but rather like you’re listening in on a conversation between two friends.
After finishing the lesson, there are notes to recap the material, and at the bottom is an array of practice drills. They include flashcards, listening practice, speaking practice, roleplay, writing practice, a quiz and more.
The course follows a premade structure and combines the normal lessons with Rocket Language’s “Language & Culture Lessons,” which give more insight on how the language is actually used by native speakers.
They currently offer languages like Portuguese, Spanish, Hindi, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Russian and more.
Final Thoughts: Should You Use Langotalk to Learn a Language?
In conclusion, I think Langotalk is a great way to start building your conversation skills from the comfort of your home. It also has several impressive never-seen-before features, like the ability to create your own lessons.
But AI will never replace human conversations, their customer service needs a lot of improvement and canceling your subscription should never be this complicated.
Overall, I’d recommend Langotalk if you already have a structured course and need something to supplement it. And if you’re too shy to start talking to native speakers yet, it’s a great way to work yourself up to it. Just don’t use it as a crutch to avoid real-world conversations.
