Got a Minute? Try Lingua.ly’s New Snake Game
As if I didn’t already love Lingua.ly before, this brand new feature really sealed the deal. The Lingua.ly iOS app has been updated and with it comes one of the most unique and entertaining features I’ve ever seen in a language learning application.
I’m speaking of course of the brand new “Snake” game, and if you haven’t logged on recently to check it out, it’s pretty much awesome.
What is Lingua.ly?
If you’re not familiar with the Lingua.ly mobile app or Google Chrome browser extension it’s high time that changed. To recap super briefly; Lingua.ly is a free mobile app available for both iOS and Android devices and can also be synced across platforms via an internal cloud as well as with the Google Chrome browser on your computer.
Lingua.ly collects foreign words you find on The Internet and translates them to English (or the language you set as your native) for you, then stores them on your cloud for later review. You get to pick just the vocab you want to study, converting them to flashcards that makes it super quick and easy to review the words that trouble you most.
Even more awesome is that Lingua.ly then uses the words you’ve collected to attempt to locate web articles from around the world in your target language specifically tailored to your interests and estimated capabilities. As you read you select more new words to learn and remember the app continues to tailor your articles to your level. This makes Lingua.ly my absolute favorite app for 2nd language reading comprehension.
You can read my full review of Lingua.ly from last year here for better details.
Don’t have it? Go get it right now. Even if you lack a smartphone or tablet, get Google Chrome and use the extension.
Apple Store
Google Play
The Snake game
The Snake game is a brand new feature available in the “Practice” tab on the Lingua.ly dashboard – the same place that you would visit to use the flashcard review feature.
Players take control of
a “snake” – a blue line comprised of four blocks really – that is constantly in forward motion. At the bottom of the screen there is a foreign language word (one of the ones you highlighted and saved to your flashcard deck) and four possible translations. It is your job to navigate the snake over the correct word. With each word correctly answered the snake accumulates an additional segment to its body and speeds up very slightly. If the player navigates over an incorrect word the snake acquires an additional four segments.
If the player twists the snake in such a way as to allow it to run into itself the game ends, so it becomes significantly more difficult as time goes on and the snake grows.
The snake is controlled by tapping in the direction with your finger or stylus (if you have one, the stylus makes it slightly easier.)
This feature is a really interesting take on a traditional flashcard study session and is fantastic for filling the nooks and crannies of your day with language study that usually takes less than a minute to complete.
Check out a couple of images from my own game. As you can see the user interface is quite simple.
Unfortunately, Snake is not yet available on Android devices or the web browser version, though it is expected to be available soon. When it is you’ll be the first to know!
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Apex-editor of Languages Around the Globe, collector of linguists, regaler of history, accidental emmigrant, serial dork and English language mercenary and solutions fabricator. All typos are my own.
