Great comment.

Language without culture is nothing.

Thank you, Eli!

That’s a great argument for not learning construct languages like Esperanto! And being a lover of etymology I must say the history of the words helps me pick up way more than the single word I’m learning.

And when learning a new language, I’m mostly interested in its culture rather than the language per se. I can’t say I love people *individually* — though people certainly help — but I do love the history they have built throughout the years.

Great interview 🙂

Yes, that’s correct. I’m Dutch. Graag gedaan. 😉

Seven languages … that’s quite the achievement!

I just got word from Glossika. They say their mobile app is still in development.

Thanks Noel.

It is tough taking my computer with me when I am walking my dog several times a day or in a car though 😉 – Part of my routine is my daily audio which up until now,

Pimsleur has filled the void of. I am on my 7th language and have a “routine” at this point. Very often it is away from a PC.

The program seems well established considering there are 60+ languages. It just seems odd that they would not have dedicated apps for it as well. I see hints of mentions of it in old posts but it almost seems at some point they gave up on it (but I am not sure on that). Thank you anyways for your time!

p.s. Judging from your last name, it is possible you are Dutch. If so, dank je!

I see. I guess that’s a pretty big drawback of Glossika.

I did a few sessions on mobile and didn’t have any problems with it. However, since there are many different phones and configurations, they don’t all behave equally.

BTW, If you have a computer, I would recommend you use that for Glossika. A phone can be more distracting than a PC, depending on configuration. I’m not a big fan of smartphones for language learning for this same reason.

Noel, I thought of extending the screen time out but that is a pretty substantial battery saver. It isn’t just about timing out though. If you make the mistake of using any other app or tab in the middle of a session, more often than not, it resets you.

Also, the webpage is not optimized for mobile devices (phone or ipad). When I view it on my ipad, the bottom of the page is partially cut off and I have to scroll down to see how many items are left in the current review session… etc.

One reason I like Pimsleur is that their app works fine on any platform, including letting you temporarily download the next handful of lessons. That way you can work even without an internet connection.

Thanks for checking with them. I would be really interested in their thoughts on it.

Hi Tim,

Not that I know of.

I forwarded your question to Glossika to be sure, I’ll update the comment here when I get a reply.

I don’t know much about the iPhone but on Android devices, you can set your screen to time out in 30 minutes. That should do the trick at least for most sessions.