By TRAVIS JONES

I’m a full-time student, part-time waiter, and perennial English speaker. I’ve never displayed any affinity or skill for learning languages, nor had I ever really tried.

But after a trip to South America I promised myself that I would at least attempt to learn Spanish, if only as a matter of passing curiosity.

However, as with most of my counterparts, I am not one for the hard way. Dedication? Nope. Talent? Nope. Money for classes? Nope. But then I saw it.

“Learn another language for free. Forever.”

This is the tag line for the popular Duolingo application, a service that promises participants a carefree approach to learning another language.

I proceeded to download it, but while perusing the virtual marketplace I saw two others: Babbel and Memrise. Since they were free to download I took them too.

But which of these language apps is the most effective? Do they even work at all?

Duolingo

Duolingo has a basic set up of progressive modules that you complete at your own pace.

The exercises primarily consist of simple games: matching pairs of English and Spanish words, basic translations and visual referencing questions.

They seem quite childish at first but they are accessible and short, encouraging quick play-throughs and short bursts of concentration.

As you complete the modules each day it forces you to revisit and refine skills that you have learned.

For example, after you learn the names of the animals, the module will go dormant for a few days to allow the knowledge to seep into your consciousness. Then it will surprise you by reappearing and making you retest yourself to consolidate that knowledge over and over again.

This is the fundamental strength of Duolingo – it makes the repetition of lessons an organic experience.

It times this repetition in such a way that once you’ve made some progress, you won't be repeating the same lessons within a short time span.

I was also able to complete the full series of modules without hitting a pay wall.

Unfortunately there are some negatives.

Some of the exercises require speaking into the microphone, repeating a Spanish phrase back to an imagined person.

While I got some enjoyment out the occasional Spanish utterance of "I am a good woman", I found this feature to be wholly inconsistent.

Sometimes it simply wouldn’t register anything as correct, sometimes I could garble my lines and it would register with a tick.

I usually disabled this feature, which thankfully doesn’t stilt your progress through the modules.

Memrise

Memrise prides itself on using brain science to help you remember the words you need.

This includes association, presenting a word with evocative images and word tricks to help you remember it.

In this way the hope is that you will be better able to adapt and remember in the course of everyday conversation.

The exercises are simple puzzles and translations, all of which are well implemented, and it keeps track of what you’ve learnt and allows you to review them.

The base courses are free but there are additional charges for extra levels of analysis offered in its Premier package.

The problem that I had with this technique, other then the fact that I don’t believe it worked that well, was that it slowed proceedings to a brain-numbing crawl.

It was all well and good that I now associated basic Spanish words in a complex matrix within my head, but the time spent memorising them really breaks flow and momentum.

This isn’t helped by Memrise’s lack of structure, which left me unsure about how much time I was taking to progress.

 Babbel

If I could describe Babbel in one word it would be comprehensive.

In terms of value the sheer number of things one can learn is quite staggering. It has hundreds of exercises, well-implemented technology (no microphone hassles here) and is very ordered and structured.

It doesn’t have the game-like qualities of Duolingo, instead opting for a streamlined, adult approach to learning.

You can study Peculiarities in Pronunciation, Tongue Twisters or Love Letters among many more.

You can gauge from this that the app is aimed at professionals who might need to learn a language as part of their job.

Its mechanism relies more on you reviewing what you have learned rather than forcing you to progress.

I found this to be slightly reductive since I always just progressed through assuming that I had done enough to answer more questions. I was wrong.

Aside from this I have no doubt that this service would provide a better overall knowledge of Spanish and might win this personal competition if it weren’t for one huge factor: you have to pay.

This won’t be a deal breaker for most people, in fact the prices are rather similar to a Netflix subscription, but it is relevant if you are trying to learn free of charge.

And the winner is ...

In my utterly subjective, uneducated opinion, the battle of the language apps is won by Duolingo.

No, it isn’t as extensive as Babbel and there are some kinks in the mechanics but, ultimately, I found the game-like structure the most intriguing.

It’s the app I found myself using the most when preparing for my Spanish test (see below) and this is because it allows the individual to progress at their own pace in a logical, organic manner while subtly consolidating any learned knowledge through constant review.

But…

What did all of this achieve if not the ability to speak to a real Spaniard? Have I actually learned anything tangible, language I could use in a real world situation?

To test myself I visited Dr Carlos Uxo, a Spanish lecturer at Monash University.