Language App Review Wednesday #30: KidsLipi — Learn Hindi and More

I’m not going to say the past month was a hiatus because that would imply I wasn’t constructing any form of self practice worksheets and notes during that time frame. Not to mention, during that time, I was also bookmarking apps to consider using and reviewing when I get to them. Additionally, I have also been crosschecking and updating the pinned post accordingly. So, there’s that. Anyways, I’ll go ahead and get this review started.

Zoomed in Screencap from Playstore

About Kidslipi — Learn Hindi & More.

Created by KidsLipi, the app basically contains vocabulary words for up to five languages. They are: Hindi, Gujarathi, Sanskrit, Telegu, and Tamil. Each one has a “Foundation” category and four of them have a “Sentences” category. It’s a nice starting point, especially when the first few squares in the Foundation that contain the alphabet and twenty numbers. While the app does mention the word “Kids” in it, I’m still reviewing like how I do with the other apps.

Strengths

Regarding strengths, the audio is the big part of using the app for me. That said, I won’t be able to fact check or catch anything odd. Or, at least not immediately. But, I can resume with the usual listening to the audio and pair it with old fashioned writing drills and vocabulary list typing.

Weakness

I’ll get this out of the way. There isn’t an option to turn off romanization in the Learn (flashcard) category. However, they don’t appear in the Play (multiple choice) section. So, it’s only fair to split it into a -.25 deduction instead of a solid -.5. Anything else so far is just minor technical issue. Which, that one can just be resolved by doing the flashcard word(s) and/or alphabet learning multiple times and isn’t that big of an issue to warrant any sort of deduction.

I did find it odd, as of this review date, that Hindi doesn’t have a sentences section like the other four and Sanskrit only has four sentences learning boxes while Gujarathi, Tamil, and Telegu each have six boxes for sentence learning. But, I’ll let that go since the primary focus in the app is vocabulary and I rather leave sentences more for apps that come with grammar. That said, Tamil and Telegu don’t have an equivalent of a Barakhadi (vowels and consonants combinations) subsection square. So, I will nitpick that part.

Effectiveness in Learning/Reviewing

Regarding effectiveness, I found the “Find a Picture” and “Find a Word” subsections within the Play category neat to use. The audio is a big part in the learning effectiveness if talking about both the Learn and the Play category.

Ability to Stay Motivated

The app contains flashcard and multiple choice options, which is standard for bulk of language learning apps in general. So if well accustomed to that learning style, I would say go for it and encourage compiling a vocabulary list in a word or excel document while going through the app.

Offline (Optional)

I did a quick check and when I go into the app, I get a page telling me to make an account. So, I’ll be putting that as a “no” regarding if the app can be used offline.

Overall Score: 4.6/5

There was only -.25 deduction and one -.15 deduction I the scoring. In a usual deduction, I would’ve done a -.15 each for each language regarding the lack of equivalent of a Barakhadi (vowels and consonants combinations) subsection square to review combination. But, in all honesty, I feel rather rusty at the moment regarding reviewing. So, I decided to keep it simple and put both under one regular deduction instead. As always, if you ever feel any of my reviews are too harsh, feel free to go over why in the comments below. See you next time!