As you may or may not know, I started to develop Natulang because I couldn’t find a similar app to improve my Spanish. I’ve been using it since the very first working demo, and I hope to learn Japanese one day with the help of Natulang. Right now, I’m refreshing my French, and I’m currently on lesson 130. In this article, I’m going to explain how I use the app, how it works, and how to use it to achieve the best results.
Regular Lessons
As the app will advise you during your learning: “Complete at least one lesson a day.” It’s the right start, and I can’t add much to it. You need to spare some time each day to learn, even if it’s just 5 minutes. Spending 15 minutes each day in the app is incomparably better than skipping the whole week and then making a 4-hour sprint on weekends. If you’re curious why this is the case, your keywords for Google are “memory consolidation.”
What if you want to do a few lessons per day? You are very welcome. That’s what I do with my French now, as I didn’t start from scratch and I can move much faster compared to an absolute beginner. But remember to prioritize repetition sessions and continue with regular lessons only when there is nothing to repeat.
What if you don’t have time for even a single lesson? Just do a repetition session. It’s much better than nothing.
What if you skipped a few days? In that case, you will likely have a lot of material in the repetition session. Continue with the regular lessons only when you empty the repetitions list.
Repetition Lessons
Natulang uses the spaced repetition learning method to ensure that learned material will land in your long-term memory. You will have a repetition session after each regular lesson, or you can start one manually by pressing the microphone button in the bottom right corner of your device. Natulang remembers each word that you learn and will plan repetitions for each and every word. The initial intervals are predefined, but depending on your answers, Natulang will adjust them for each word separately. Based on the words that you need to repeat, Natulang will find the phrases that contain these words and will ask you those phrases. If you answer correctly, Natulang applies the next (longer) repetition interval to the word. If you don’t answer correctly, Natulang will shorten the next interval and will also add the word to Challenging.
Your goal with repetitions is to keep their counter at zero. This way, you can ensure that the repetition intervals are optimal. You can do repetitions to warm up before regular lessons, or you can do them after a lesson, but always try to fully empty the list.
If you have too many items to repeat, the app will give you a hint, but it’s better to keep an eye on the repetition counter and make sure that it’s zero.
Challenging Vocabulary Lessons - the Bookmark Button Next to the Repetitions
As mentioned earlier, words and phrases land here if you don’t recall them in a repetition lesson. But you can also add them here manually by pressing the bookmark button on a phrase bubble. That button will also show how many repetitions are left before it will be removed from challenging. I bookmark phrases manually when I feel that a specific word might be a challenge for me (e.g., it’s similar to a word from another language but has a different meaning) or if I want to focus on a specific grammatical construction.
And if the app bookmarks something by mistake (glitch in recognition, I was distracted, etc.), I immediately un bookmark the phrase to make sure I don’t waste time on the things I know well.
The same as with repetition lessons - you need to keep the count of challenging items at zero. They require being repeated a few times (configurable in settings; my choice is 2), and they reappear in the list after 2 hours, so you have at least some pause between the repetitions.
I usually start my learning process with this type of lesson and clear the list before I continue with other lessons.
Flash Cards
This is the only lesson type that is not really necessary, and you can just omit it. But flashcards have one advantage - they allow you to learn when speech-based lessons aren’t possible: during a regular commute on public transport, in a noisy environment, or when you just have a spare 5 minutes that you can dedicate to learning. Words will pop up in flash cards somewhere in between regular repetitions, giving you an additional method to strengthen your memory. And if you repeated a word recently in a speech lesson, it will not appear in flash cards for some time, as there is no need to repeat it.
Your memory is a complex conundrum of different associations. The more associations you add, the easier it is to remember a specific concept. By using flashcards, you add another type of association and simplify the task of retaining the concept.
Free Dialogs
Free Dialogs are very useful on higher levels. If you passed lesson 100 - you should definitely give them a try. After lesson 200 - visit them regularly to practice what you have learned in a free form. Don’t forget to bookmark interesting phrases for spaced repetition - they will appear in your regular repetition sessions.
You can also use free dialogs if you have your own list of words that you want to practice. Use "Custom dialog" mode to create a dialog that will include the words provided by you.
With "Custom dialogs" you can also rehearse a specific scenario. Planning to visit your Latin girlfriend’s parents? Run through this scenario a few times to get confidence before the real event.
That’s it. All being said could be simplified into one sentence: practice every day, keep the count of repetitions and challenging vocabulary at zero, use flashcards whenever you can, and you will be surprised by your progress.
Flashcards - Start a flashcard session limited to the lesson’s vocab
Free dialog - A "Free dialog" based on the lesson’s content
Phrase Panel
Grammar Button - Grammar explanations for the concepts used in the phrase
Mnemonics & Breakdown - Breakdown of the words into parts with explanations, hints for memorization and useful mnemonics. If you can't remember a word - use it
Challenging - Add the phrase to "Challenging" for additional repetition
Play - Repeat the phrase to train the pronunciation
I know that if a UI requires a description, something went wrong. We appreciate your patience. We'll rework the UI as soon as we have resources.
Released courses in active development and new lessons weekly: Ukrainian, Czech, Turkish, Dutch,English for Francophones, English for Germans.
Courses currently in development:
English for Portuguese(BR) speakers.
First release - late 2026
Courses to start soon:
Japanese - as soon as we find a linguist. The interview process is ongoing. More than 20 candidates completed the test task, unfortunately without success yet.
Future languages:
Mandarin is next on the list after Japanese.
If you want to see any other language in Natulang, please comment on this post.
P.S. Sorry for the late roadmap, but 2026 has been a bit chaotic :)
-Max
I’ve mainly been using Natulang to learn Czech the last 3-4 weeks. Over the last few days I’ve had a few trials with different tutors on italki for practice. All of them are really surprised and impressed when I tell them I’ve only been learning for this amount of time. All of them have asked me how I have done it and what resources I used. Thanks Natulang!!
I want to start by saying that I really love this app! Kudos to everyone involved in its development and filling a real gap in the market. I recommend Natulang to everyone who asks me about language learning!
Now to the purpose of the post: does family sharing not work for lifetime subscriptions? I recently upgraded from a premium subscription to a lifetime subscription but now my family doesn’t have access to it anymore? I remember reading that one-time purchases also carried over for family sharing. Anyone else experiencing this?
Firstly, I'd like to thank this app for keeping the fire lit for my language-learning motivation. It's become a great habit, even on days when I don't feel motivated. I've been studying Polish, and this has made me determined to learn Ukrainian once I'm C1. Other languages will definitely come after those two!
While I know (and commend) the app for avoiding gamification, I really like the inclusion of the vocab tracker. It's a great visual reminder of the progress made. However, I am curious as to the total words used in the course to get a sense of how much I will know by the end. I've seen that Spanish uses a little over 3,000 words. Additionally, I noticed that noun and adjective declensions aren't counted (which is great), but verb conjugations appear to be. Since verb conjugations become patterns after a while, I feel this muddles the word count. I understand if that's too difficult to change, though. I'd love to know if someone has the total for Polish vocab taught, regardless of what is counted. Thank you once more!
I recently started learning another language with Natulang, and the current "lemma" system is still my biggest pain point because it makes reviews way more frustrating for me than I feel they need to be.
I'm not saying the system should be changed - I'd just like there to be an option in the settings to switch to a review system that's more like the one used in most SRS apps, or at least a "Forgot" button that gives you the correct answer, resets the progress for a phrase, then shuffles it back into the deck to be reviewed.
Just a quick question, how do I avoid my answer being marked as correct when it’s wrong?
For context I’m the French course.
Sometimes when I can’t recall the full sentence and say like 80% of it; the app marks it as correct and moved on… if I’m driving I don’t really know what I did wrong.
Sometimes I would be saying first 80% of the sentence and as I get to the end I’m thinking in my brain but before I could finish, app marks it as correct; is it my setting?
I see around 300 on the app, somewhere I saw someone saying its 360 if we include summaries. But lessons from 148th onwards are in locked state. Im unsure how to interpret that? I mean, lessons so far only exist until 147th or I first need to finish until 147th to unlock 148th onwards?
Today I sent a bug report about an issue with the review system.
For example, in the sentence “En este santuario hay muchos cocodrilos y elefantes rescatados de circos clandestinos,” I couldn’t remember or pronounce “rescatados” and “clandestinos” correctly.
However, the app asked me to repeat easy words like “elefantes,” which I already know and pronounce clearly.
This happens quite often: when a sentence contains difficult words that I forget or mispronounce, the app usually selects simpler words for review instead. It should do the opposite and prioritize the words I actually struggled with.
This is not limited to this example. I experience it regularly.
We’ve previously had many users complaining about Bluetooth connectivity on Android. What’s worse, we couldn’t reproduce these bugs on our devices. Hopefully, this should be fixed now. For tech geeks, the fix was using one library for recording audio and a different library for controlling Bluetooth. Sorry that it took so long, and if you have any issues in the latest version, please let us know.
Free Dialogs should also be more creative in inventing scenarios, and they should use your learned vocab in a smarter way.
Mnemonics and grammar explanations also use a newer AI, so they should be more precise as well.
And some improvements under the hood that you can't see: new synonyms for the languages in development, a new system for learning the Japanese alphabets for the future Japanese course.
Hi! I saw there’s a new Achievements update with mini-tests and badges.
Does it work for the Spanish course? I’ve already completed about 270/300 lessons. Can I access these challenges separately, or only during the lessons?
This would be where if you turned on auto play in the lessons, it would automatically move on to the next one. I would find this exceptionally helpful for long drives, when I am doing chores etc, what do you think?
I feel like a “hide text” option during a lesson or review would be helpful. Enabling this would take away any written form of what is prompted, thus simulating more of a natural conversation, but still shows after answering the prompt. What are your thoughts?
(Of course I could just look away but sometimes I like to make sure I got it correct)
I’m on about lesson 10 of the course. Later in the course, is the grammar, as well as future and past tense explained, or is it just implied through context? Thanks
I’ve just started the Czech course. I was looking for some motivation or experiences of people who have also completed most of the lessons (can be other languages). Let me know how your speech and understanding is now compared to the start! Thanks
A small quality-of-life update is now available in Natulang.
We’ve added a new “Review all at once” option.
If it’s ON (the default), all your reviews for a day will be scheduled together at the same time.
If you like the previous behavior, no worries - just turn it off.
The most important part of long-term memorization is called “memory consolidation,” and it happens while you sleep. So both options are equally effective; please choose the option that you find more convenient.
And as with every update, a few under-the-hood improvements: improved synonym lists and small fixes.
1) In some languages, I get instructions in the target language, in others in my original language, despite similar level. When does it switch? Could the user choose the language to use for instructions? It would be nice to hear more target language when the user feels ready.
2) After hitting "ignore" on flashcards, the notification stays at the bottom of the screen for a pretty long time, obscuring parts of the following 1 or even 2 flashcards, and you may have to wait if the needed translation is at the bottom of the screen. Could this notification disappear faster?
I just wanted to say that Natulang has been a huge help to me in my efforts to learn French. As a parent of two toddlers, I rarely have time for an uninterrupted hour of tutoring with a real person. Natulang is perfect for the long walks when the baby is contact napping. I also love the stories you guys think of, which make learning really fun. I like to add a lot of emotion when I’m speaking about Lucas and his love triangles.
I recently visited Quebec and was able to get by pretty decently having used only Natulang as my main source of output (paired with tons of comprehensible input).
Anyways, I’m grateful for what you guys have created and excited about how you continue to support the product.
🇩🇪 English for German speakers has just been released.
I don't expect it to be popular or even profitable, since Germans are already strong in English, but it's part of our mission to make language learning more accessible and predictable.
🇧🇷 English for Brazilian Portuguese speakers is now in active production and is coming soon.
🇯🇵 I’m also actively doing interviews for the Japanese linguist position. It's tough, I’ve already interviewed 15 candidates without finding the right person yet. The search continues.
I use Natulang every day and clear out the review every day so there usually is not a huge amount of it. Today when I opened it there were 81 items for review. Well, that's a lot, but not unprecedented, so I cleared those out. As soon as I finished that, it presented me with 114 items more. Getting nearly 200 items for review at one time when I clear it out every day seems excessive. Is that much review in one day intended?
--when I tried to post this at first it flagged it as a bug report and thus in violation of Reddit rules. Well, I don't know if it is a bug, that is why I am asking.
We always stress how important input is for language acquisition.
Since I’m learning German, I do my best to complement Natulang with YouTube.
Here is my personal recommendation: “Learn German With Falk”. The videos are 1 hour long, have a good pace, and I just enjoy listening to them.
If you’re wondering what level they’re suitable for, I’m past lesson 200 and can understand pretty much everything. But even if you’re at lesson 100+ and can grasp the general topic, they’ll still be greatly beneficial.
It keeps doing this, but I don't understand why? I've had a similar problem with other phrases in the past, where I feel like im saying it right, but it won't let me pass. I feel like the marking is way too strict sometimes, like in this case
but wiredly a lot of the time with other sentnces its also way too lenient to the point where it will mark my answer correct before I've even finished saying the phrase, or, when i say half correct phrases and it marks it correct anyways even when I miss keywords?
This is not a huge deal, though, cause I can manually mark the phrases as hard
Still love the app, though. I've been using it for about a month from scratch, and my speaking has improved so much after 90+ lessons. I couldn't string basic a1 sentences together before this