If you've spent any time in language classes, you know what makes a good one stand out: small group or one-on-one instruction, enthusiastic teachers, challenging but appropriate materials, and the right amount of time per class. Unlike language-learning software, classes with real live people push you beyond your comfort level to express your thoughts instead of just translating words, which is key to progressing. Lingoda is an online service for language classes taught via Zoom that hits every nail on the head.
For a reasonable price of $10 to $20 per class, you can join an hour-long lesson with a fantastic instructor who will guide you through speaking, reading, and other interactive language-learning experiences. If you already have experience with a language, you can take a placement test on the site to find the right place to start. Classes are engaging and use some standard language-learning topics to get you talking. The one caveat is that it offers a limited set of languages, including French, German, Spanish, English, and Business English. Still, Lingoda is one of only a few language courses that, after testing and writing about it, I continue to pay for out of my own pocket because I find it so valuable, and that's enough to earn it a PCMag Editors' Choice award.
What Languages Does Lingoda Offer?
As mentioned, Lingoda offers courses in English, Business English, French, German, and Spanish. The English taught is British English, although the teachers may come from the US, Canada, South Africa, UK, and other English-speaking regions.
It's similar for the other languages. The Spanish course uses Castilian Spanish, although many of the teachers are from Latin America. The German lessons are based on standard German, although there are teachers from Switzerland and Austria. The French class is European French, though you might get an instructor from Québec or another French-speaking region.
Similar Products
Rosetta Stone Language Learning
Duolingo
Sign It ASL
Fluenz
Pimsleur
Transparent Language Online
Yabla
Classes are meant to be immersive and taught in the target language as much as possible. In our testing, however, a beginner German class used English as the language of instruction. In Spanish classes at the intermediate and higher levels, very limited English was used, though sometimes an instructor would clarify a point in English. A representative from Lingoda confirmed that the English and Business English classes are as immersive as possible and that there wouldn't necessarily be a language of instruction. Learners can also look at the instructor's bio before a lesson to see what other languages they speak, if the instructor chooses to include that information. Instructor bios can also tip you off as to whether a Spanish speaker might have an accent from Mexico versus Argentina.
How Much Do Lingoda Classes Cost?
Lingoda offers a variety of plans for both small group classes and one-on-one classes. The prices are more than reasonable, but they vary based on your commitment level and by language. Note that for all classes, you cannot purchase a single class. You must buy a package of classes for a time period, such as four classes per month.
Small Group Classes
For group classes, limited to five students, the prices work out to be $10–$20 per 60-minute class. Four classes per month costs $59 for Spanish, French, or English, for example. German and Business English classes cost a little bit more ($79 for four classes). You pay up front every four weeks for a package of classes, rather than paying per class, and packages can contain 4, 12, 20, or 40 classes per month.
One-on-One Classes
One-on-one classes start at $139 per month, paid every four weeks for four 60-minute classes per month, which works out to $35 per session. As with the group classes, prices are slightly higher for German and Business English. If you want more, you can sign up for 12 ($349), 20 ($489), or 40 ($839) classes per month
For comparison, Rype is an online marketplace that connects language learners to teachers for private lessons. Those classes cost around $7–$10 per 30-minute class and are one-on-one. Having taken years of language lessons in various settings, I strongly recommend an hour-long class or tutoring session over a 30-minute one for most people. In half an hour, you're just getting warmed up. Rype's instruction isn't as well structured as Lingoda's either. But if you need quick 30-minute tutoring for language maintenance rather than instruction, Rype might be a better fit.
Sprints and Super Sprints—Earn Free Courses
Every so often, Lingoda offers special plans called Sprint and Super Sprint that offer up to 100% of your money back if you meet their challenges. You enroll for three months of classes and commit to taking 15 classes per month in the Sprint, or 30 classes per month in the Super Sprint. If you make it to all your classes, you get a 50% refund for the Sprint and a 100% refund for the Super Sprint.
For the Sprint, you pay $59 up front; $161 after one month; and $220 at the start of the third month (prices for Spanish, French, and English). If you meet the challenge, half your money is refunded to you a few weeks after the Sprint ends. For the Super Sprint, you pay $59 up front; $311 after one month; and $370 at the start of the third month. If you meet the Super Sprint challenge, all your money is refunded a few weeks after it ends.
There are a good number of rules for the Sprint and Super Sprint. These programs fill up fast and may have a wait-list.
The Lingoda Method
Lingoda very specifically does not classify itself as a language learning app. It's a service that offers classes with teachers.
If you are a beginner, you can enroll in the first level for your chosen language. If you have prior experience with the language, you can take a placement test on the website to find where you should start. The levels are based on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR). The number of levels available varies by language. For example, for Spanish, Lingoda offers A1.1 through B2.3. For German, you can learn all the way up to C1.4. The highest level in this system is C2.
With Lingoda, there is a presumption that you, the learner, will put in some time to learn and study the language on your own beyond the materials you get from Lingoda. When you show up to a class, you should be prepared to practice what you know and learn a little more along the way.
Each class has a topic or theme and a PDF of material that you may download in advance of the class to review. These learning materials have prompts for discussion, short reading passages, and other activities, many of which are designed to be done aloud. By going through the PDF, you can prepare for the class, look up any vocabulary you don't know, and make notes. In our testing, we found it was worthwhile to set aside about 20 minutes a few hours before a class to review the PDF. Most students should still be able to participate in the class just fine if they don't put in this learning time in advance.
Lingoda's Interface
When you create an account with Lingoda, you can log in to see what classes are available on certain days or at certain times. The tools for filtering are intuitive, simple, and useful. Before booking a class, Lingoda confirms the time by stating the current time in your time zone. That way, there are no doubts as to what time the class starts.
Every class has a title and description, which includes the type of focus for the class—vocabulary, reading, speaking, grammar, and so on—the name of the instructor with a link to learn more about them, and a number showing how many seats are still available in a group class. When you preview an instructor's bio, you don't always find out where they're from, linguistically speaking. It would be helpful to know in case you prefer instructors from a particular dialectical region, such as Central America versus Spain or Germany versus Switzerland.
If you begin taking classes and find the level is not appropriate, you can change it to a higher or lower one at your own discretion.
Inside a Lingoda Class
To test the service, Lingoda provided PCMag with access to German classes for beginners and Spanish classes following the Sprint plan. The placement test for Spanish, which took less than 15 minutes to complete, seemed accurate in determining the right level.
Classes take place over Zoom. Lingoda provides the link to the class on its website inside your account a few minutes before the start time.
When you join the class, your Zoom name automatically appears as [First Name] Lingoda, for example, Jill Lingoda. No matter what settings you previously had for your display name, your surname won't ever show.
In most classes, the instructor greets everyone and spends no more than five minutes asking people to share a little information about their biodata, such as where they're from and their motivation for learning the language. Depending on your language ability, this might be done in English or the language of instruction.
The Learning Material and Instructors
For the bulk of each 60-minute class, the instructor shares their screen to display the PDF for the class. The instructor asks participants to take turns reading a passage aloud, answering a question, or asking a question of another participant. The materials that Lingoda uses are based on CEFR.
The classes are not scripted. Instructors might linger on an activity that is proving useful in getting the learners to speak or skip an exercise if they don't see the need to complete it. All instructors are required to be at C2 level or above according to CEFR in the language they teach. They must also have a certificate to teach in that language and have at least two years of teaching experience.
Typically, the instructor marks up the PDF as the class works through various exercises, either to make notes or write down corrections and give feedback.
The classes are engaging, and having no more than five students per class keeps them so. When a class has only two or three students, you can really get the most out of it.
Video: On or Off?
Turning on your video camera is optional. Aside from one class where even the instructor kept her camera off, the majority of students and instructors enabled video, which makes for a better class for a number of reasons. For one, you can see when someone's connection freezes. Another example: The instructor may be able to tell from your facial expression when you need a moment to think about how to respond to a prompt. Additionally, you can see mouth and lip movements, which helps in language learning.
Some classes use the chat feature of Zoom actively. In a few classes, instructors asked the learners to type their replies to a question in the chat. In other classes, the chat doesn't get used. When the chat is used, Lingoda provides a downloadable copy of it after the class ends.
Class Feedback and Quiz
After each class, you can rate the instructor using a short feedback form.
Additionally, after each completed class, you can optionally take a short quiz on the Lingoda website that's related to the topic of the class. The quizzes are multiple choice, and they don't count for anything, but they may help you reinforce what you learned.
What Makes Lingoda Different?
Lingoda excels in small group classes where you hear and speak the language. What it doesn't offer is a tandem self-paced course of study. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but it is different from what other online language learning courses offer.
For example, Rosetta Stone offers live online classes to practice speaking and interacting, and each class is directly tied to a course you complete in the Rosetta Stone software. You can sign up for these classes as you want to use them. For each class, you know what to expect because it's the same material from the associated lesson. The problem with Rosetta Stone's classes is that they're highly scripted rather than free flowing. In a Lingoda class, the instructor can stop to explain something or perhaps even raise a point about regional linguistic differences. In a Rosetta Stone course, the instructor must stick to the script. In this way, Lingoda's classes are better.
Similar to Rosetta Stone, Fluenz is a language-learning software program that also offers classes. Unlike Rosetta Stone, however, Fluenz's classes require a long-term commitment, either 15 hours ($1,500) or 30 hours ($2,800), taught in 90-minute one-on-one sessions with a language coach. You can learn through Fluenz's program in tandem with using the online software, but it isn't strictly required the way it is with Rosetta Stone. Fluenz also sells a six-day travel package language-immersion program in Oaxaca, Mexico City, and Barcelona. PCMag has not yet evaluated Fluenz's classes or travel package, but we have an in-depth review of the Fluenz software.
Who Should Sign Up for Lingoda?
Lingoda's classes are a wonderful addition to any adult language learning path you may be on, and the service is a PCMag Editors' Choice winner for language learning. It's accessible to people who are learning a language on their own with apps or those who are familiar with a language through family or cultural exposure and want more instruction. Lingoda gives you the opportunity to speak and communicate with real people, a crucial step to advancing in any language, all within the framework of CEFR standards. The only hitch is that it might not offer the language you need.
If you're in need of language-learning software that you can work on in your own time to pair with classes, we recommend Duolingo or Rosetta Stone, our Editors' Choice winners for free and paid language-learning apps, respectively. Fluenz is another very strong candidate that uses prerecorded video lessons followed by interactive exercises.
Speaking and interacting with others is a crucial part of learning a language, and Lingoda offers hour-long lessons with excellent instructors and solid teaching materials to get you there.
Like What You're Reading?
Sign up for Lab Report to get the latest reviews and top product advice delivered right to your inbox.
This newsletter may contain advertising, deals, or affiliate links. Subscribing to a newsletter indicates your consent to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe from the newsletters at any time.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Sign up for other newsletters
![70% Off Babbel Will Have You [Literally] Speaking Other Languages](https://i.pcmag.com/imagery/articles/04ytrnz8EmTwejt2wZpZCTq-3.fit_lpad.size_400x225.v1730386055.png)
