Great tips, Chris!

I agree that there’s a lot more you can do with Yabla than one would think.

A bit of creativity in your strategies can make all the difference.

Agree as well on the cultural exposure. Some videos almost make you believe that you are really there, which is highly beneficial for learning.

Yabla isn’t perfect, but if you can look past its limitations and use it in unorthodox ways, you’ll have one hell of a language learning tool at your disposal.

I’m a long time Yabla user, love it. I like bending the tool into ways it might not have been intended. E.g. use Scribe, but don’t listen, hit the Reveal Translation right away and try to type the Spanish (or your target language) translation without listening. Really gets you to start dynamically converting English to Spanish. Also, and this one is a big help, mimic the speakers. Use the slow play feature to start with, talk right along with the speaker (again, try not to use the Spanish caption), when you can talk right along with the speaker, increase the speed until at normal speed. It was crazy for me because not only did my spoken French (for me) improve, but I could understand so much more spoken French as well. Its like it changed my language processing speed.

This is a great review by the way, I’m probably more disappointed with the Flashcard feature than you, but its for the very reasons you listed. One thing not mentioned I think that is great… Yabla gives some great cultural exposure too, something you don’t get from a lot of other tools.

Hi Jeremy,

Great comment, thank you.

Yes, I do think the price is very reasonable, at least compared to other language apps.

I haven’t had to deal with their support department a lot, but it’s great to hear they are responsive.

Noel

Yep, still true.

However, they offer some kind of a one-time rebate for people purchasing subscriptions for multiple languages. The only caveat is that the subscriptions must be for at least 6 months.

If interested, drop them an email.

Not sure, Bob.

But I did compare Yabla to FluentU in this post:

https://www.smartlanguagelearner.com/fluentu-vs-yabla/

It was not easy to write the post as I honestly like both. Overall I think FluentU is a more complete product (it also keeps improving), but Yabla has better content and IMO is more entertaining to work with.

And, as nothing more than a point of curiosity, do you remember an “audio-magazine” from a few years ago named Champs-Elysees? It was a cassette tape and a little lesson booklet (scripts, glossary, and a quiz.) I wonder if that morphed its way in Yabla or one of the others.

Thank you, Suzanne.

For Spanish I thought the series called “Confidencial” is quite charming and entertaining.

Having said that, I think the best way to find good series is to check them out yourself.

Some of the series might not impress you at first, but if you give them a chance you’ll see that most of them are actually quite entertaining and interesting.

Though they may not be the blockbuster type of series you see in the US, I love them and they add a continuous story element to the learning experience.