Don’t be fooled by the app’s appearance though childish,
it’s by far one of the most useful apps I’ve come across in a long time. Before
you start, you have to pick the language you want to use to learn French and
difficulty level. There are a wide range of Languages and three difficulty
levels; beginner, intermediate and expert. I chose English for my Language and beginner
for the difficulty setting (better safe than sorry) which took me to the very
colourful title screen. To start your first lesson you tap the purple light
bulb icon.
 |
| Ling Ling Francais - Main Menu |
First Lesson
At first I was overwhelmed by the amount of words I don’t
know and felt almost inadequate as I pressed the red button frantically. You
press the red button when you’re unfamiliar with a word and the green button
when you’ve memorised it. You can tap the French word to hear it pronunciation
aloud. The app allows you to practice new French words over and over again with
the audio prompting and soon you start to get it. You gleefully feel the words
becoming second nature and the Ling Ling character on the screen does a little
dance to celebrate with you as you make progress.
 |
| Ling Ling Francais - Lesson |
Pop Quiz
Once you’ve ticked off all the words it’s time for a quiz.
The quiz starts off quite slow but gradually increases from snail slow to how
do you stop this thing! You have to match each word in your chosen language to
the correct word in French. The quiz is based on the words you learn in the
lesson and each day after a new lesson another 25 words (which you’ve just
learned) are added to the quiz. When you get aconsecutive amount of answers right,
you are rewarded with one of five very silly mini games.
 |
| Ling Ling Francais - Quiz |
Here’s a quick warning for those of you who found Fruit Ninja
unnerving, there’s cartoon violence against fruits i.e. smashing them to
smithereens.
 |
| Ling Ling Francais - Mini Game |
Extras
If you get bored, there’s a section that allows youto
edit your Ling Ling character. You can also create a Ling Ling inspired wallpaper
for your device here’s mine.
 |
| Ling Ling Franceis - Wallpaper |
Conclusion
Overall I found the app quite educational and
surprisingly also very entertaining. It makes learning a new language so much
fun. There are other languages in the Ling Ling genre; Spanish, Chinese and so
much more. I love the fact there’s a reminder in your notification bar everyday
so it makes it harder to procrastinate.
The audio prompts not only help you to remember the words
but also teach you how to pronounce them.
I’m also learning at an accelerated pace of 25 words a day. The quiz allows
you to practice words and their meanings as many times as you would like in a
day.I also find it important to point out that the quiz lets
you practice all the words you’ve learned since you started using the app in
addition to the words you learn each day. I wish the app would let you focus on
the 25 words for the day before adding in the ones you’ve already been
memorizing.
