Notes, comparisons and the occasional opinion.
Babbel builds one of the best syllabuses in the category. This is about the three places a syllabus runs out — tested at a post office in Ljubljana.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readPraktika's avatars are endlessly patient. Ticket clerks are not. Five alternatives judged on what happens when you are cut off at word four.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readSpeak is very good at getting sentences into your mouth. The alternative question starts exactly where the script ends — tested at a Busan fish market.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readThe word tutor promises somebody who decides what your hour is for. Six AI tutors, judged on whether they take that decision or hand it back to you.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readPeople do not switch language apps because the app got worse. They switch because it stopped matching them. Six alternatives, sorted by mismatch.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readMost corporate language programmes are designed for people with desks. This one is judged on a night shift in a Zaragoza distribution centre.
29 August 2026 · 13 min readStarting a language with no cognates and an unfamiliar alphabet. Six apps measured on days from install to a first unscripted minute of speech.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readNinety days before a job starts in Manchester. Four levers ranked by return per hour, a twelve-week schedule, and the four things that reliably slow people down.
29 August 2026 · 13 min readSeven AI language apps reviewed in 2026 against criteria written down before the testing started, in the place that produced them: a pharmacy in Prague.
29 August 2026 · 14 min readConversation is not a sequence of correct sentences. Six AI tools measured on repair, interruption and the follow-up nobody scripted, on an Istanbul ferry.
29 August 2026 · 13 min readFour products, four completely different meanings of the word AI. What each system actually computes, and which of them changes anything at a market stall.
29 August 2026 · 13 min readWhat Speak charges in 2026 and what the money buys once you are standing outside a subway exit in Seoul. Priced per hour of your own talking.
29 August 2026 · 13 min readLangua's official feature grid, read against a lunchtime queue in Krakow. Which advertised languages survive contact with a real counter, and which do not.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readKnowing German grammar and producing it in real time are different skills. Six apps compared on the second one, across three countries.
29 August 2026 · 13 min readItaly rewards effort more than almost anywhere. Six apps compared on whether they get you past the tourist script and into an actual conversation.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readWritten French and spoken French barely resemble each other. Six apps compared on the spoken one, plus how to stop people switching to English.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readTwenty countries, one label. Six AI apps for Spanish compared on regional coverage, speech speed and whether the practice survives a market.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readLanguage budgets get signed off because of a specific site, client or relocation. Six tools ranked on whether they deliver at that address.
29 August 2026 · 13 min readEnglish is a transit language. These six apps are ranked on whether they prepare you for the desks, kitchens and calls where it gets spoken.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readSix practice apps measured against an ordinary week — five spare minutes, a noisy train, and whatever motivation is left in week four.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readSix AI speaking tools tested against the one thing that matters — whether the practice survives contact with a real counter, in a real city.
29 August 2026 · 12 min readWhat "AI-powered" actually means once you get past the App Store screenshot, which six apps are doing something real with it, and how to pick the one that fixes the thing currently stopping you.
27 July 2026 · 11 min read