The short answer is “yes”. (Yup, you guessed right, of course that’s what we’d say)

 

The more detailed answer is: depends on what you mean by “fluent”.

If you mean “speak the language like a native”, well, anyone who’s being honest with you will tell you that no one app or resource alone is going to be enough to help you achieve that. However, if you mean being able to develop a good grasp of the vocab and grammar you’ve learnt, so you can speak smoothly without noticeable pauses, LingoDeer can definitely help you do that. 

 

Of course, the more you practice, the better you’ll get, so here are some tips:

  • Start small. As a good first step, when you get presented with new words to listen to in lessons, make use of the record function to record yourself as well. (If you’re using ‘Silent Study Mode’, remember to come back to the lesson again with sound on.)
  • If the vocab and sentences from the lessons aren’t enough practice with you, go to our Travel Phrasebook and choose a topic you’re comfortable with / interested in. Listen to the audio track, repeat, and record yourself. But don’t feel like you have to do things in order – instead, start with single words, then build up to phrases, and finally moving on to entire sentences. This way you don’t risk overwhelming yourself.
  • Also, don’t forget our ‘Story’ section. After you’ve finished recording the ‘Story-Speaking’ section the first time, try reading it out loud again. But this time, try reading out 2 or 3 sentences in one go. (Ignore any role assignments – the goal is to get through as long a section as possible.) Repeat this as many times as you need until you can read out the entire ‘Story’ smoothly. Remember you can always play the audio track if you need help with pronunciation.
  • Finally, if you’re up for a challenge, try our ‘Fluent’ course (currently available for Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean and Spanish). Use the same method outlined for the ‘Story’ section above until you’re comfortable reading through the entire dialogue. Since the dialogues in ‘Fluent’ are longer, you can also try roleplaying to make practice feel more like a real conversation. But when you do this, try variations such as listening to your character’s lines and repeating them without looking at your screen (or using any written/visual aid). Then, try not using any (visual or aural) hints at all – see if you can remember how to respond to your “conversation partner” all by yourself.