Learn Scottish

Systems: Android App, iPhone App, Online Version

Content: Scottish vocabulary (2000 words), lessons and playful exercises

Prices:
USD 12 (1 month and all 160 languages)
USD 60 (12 months and all 160 languages)

Discount offer: USD 199 (Lifetime Access to all 160 Languages)

Overall Value:

The uTalk app offers both Scottish-Gaelic and Scots. This app teaches about 2000 words and focuses primarily on playful exercises.

There are several exercises to choose from:

• Read and listen to Scottish words (with translation and photos)
• Match the Scottish word you heard to a photo
• Speak a Scottish word and compare the recording with the original
• A memory game with pictures
• Speak the Scottish translation of an English word

The interface of the app is well made and is similar to other apps like Babbel, Duolingo or Mondly.

Summary: Getting access to 160 languages is impressive and the scope (2000 words with native speaker audio and exercises) is also solid.

Link: uTalk Scottish-Gaelic and Scots Language Course App

Systems: iPhone App, Online Version

Suitable for: Intermediate and advanced learners

Content: Scottish-Gaelic advanced exercises

Prices: USD 17 (1 month and 1 language), USD 31 (1 month and all 64 languages)

Overall Value:

The Glossika app is for people who already have some basic proficiency in Scottish-Gaelic or already know a similar language.

The app has an entry test to determine your Scottish-Gaelic proficiency level. You can start from A1 to B2 (beginners and intermediate).

Glossika works with whole sentences instead of single Gaelic words. You can choose which topics you want to learn.

This app has intentionally no "gamification". The only exercises are reading, listening, typing the sentences and speaking into the microphone.

There are also no grammar explanations. You are supposed to understand Scottish grammar from the context, like in Rosetta Stone.

You can try the complete app with all 64 languages for 7 days for free (without providing payment information).

Summary: Effective exercises for advanced learners, but somewhat higher price and not much variety.

Link: Glossika Gaelic Language Course App

Systems: Online Access (PC, Mac, smartphones)

Content: Scottish video lessons and quiz tests

Prices: USD 12.99 (one course), USD 24.99 (4-7 courses bundle)

Overall Value:

Cudoo is a kind of online university that offers courses with certificates on different topics.

This includes language courses for 160 languages, among them both Scots and Scottish-Gaelic. These are beginner courses (CEFR level A1 and A2).

For each language there are 1-10 courses and each course has 20-40 lessons.

The lessons each include a short video with new vocabulary and there are short quiz questions below the video.

Summary: The videos are well made, so especially for smaller languages these courses are a good start.

Link: Cudoo Online Scottish Language Courses

Systems: Android App, iPhone App, Online-Version (PC and Mac)

Content: Scottish lessons and vocabulary trainer with native speaker audio, grammar

Prices: USD 8,99 (1 month), USD 60 (12 months), USD 110 (unlimited)

Overall Value:

With the Memrise App you can learn over 90 languages, including both Scottish-Gaelic and Scots.

This includes even very small languages - however, in such cases the language courses are often limited to just a few lessons.

One special feature of the Memrise learning app is the large number of lessons created by users (native speakers).

The quality of these lessons varies greatly though. For example, only the basic forms of verbs are usually taught, without the conjugations. Some languages also do not have an audio recording of the words at all.

Another good idea of the Memrise app are the user-generated tips and mnemonics for each word to help you memorize them.

Summary: User-generated lessons are a good idea. In practice, the quality of the lessons leaves a lot be desired.

Systems: Android and iPhone apps, online version (PC and Mac)

Content: Scottish exercises with native speaker audio and speech recognition

Prices: USD 9.99 (1 month), USD 100 (12 months), USD 200 (unlimited), USD 400 (163 languages)

Overall Value:

The Bluebird App offers 146 source languages and 163 target languages and dialects, including Scottish-Gaelic.

The Scottish language course in this app includes the following:

• Daily video lessons in three difficulty levels
• Basic Scottish vocabulary on several dozen topics
• Common Scottish verbs with conjugations
• Analysis of your own pronunciation (with speech recognition)
• Tests: listening comprehension, filling in word gaps, vocabulary quizzes

There are about 500 video lessons for learning Scottish, each 5 to 60 minutes long. For languages with other scripts, the words can also be displayed transliterated in the Latin script.

The Bluebird app has no grammar lessons. Instead, you are supposed to understand the grammar "implicitly" from the examples, like in Rosetta Stone.

Summary: The video lessons and the interface take some getting used to, but the exercises are quite varied. Especially for smaller languages, this app is a viable alternative.

Systems: Android and iOS Apps, Online Version

Suitable for: Intermediate and Advanced Learners

Content: Multiple-choice selection of missing words in sentences (with native speaker audio)

Prices: USD 8 (1 month), USD 60 (12 months), USD 140 (lifetime access)

Overall Value:

The Clozemaster app is intended for intermediate and advanced learners of Scottish-Gaelic who have already mastered the basic vocabulary and want to practice.

The only exercise is to choose the correct missing word in a sentence from a list of four words. The translation of the sentence is displayed as well. At the end, the sentence is also spoken by a native speaker.

In the English version of this app there are 70 languages to choose from.

Large languages have up to 50,000 vocabulary items (words, phrases, and verb variations), while smaller languages often have only 500.

In the online version, you can also type in the missing words. The smartphone app now offers speech recognition.

Summary: An interesting method that is quite fun. Since many apps teach only at a beginner level, this is a good addition for advanced users.

Systems: PC and Mac

Suitable for: Beginners and intermediate learners, travel vocabulary, business

Content: Scottish vocabulary lessons and exercises

Prices: USD 35 (Level 1), USD 55 (Level 1-3)

Overall Value:

The Instant Immersion Scottish-Gaelic learning software is available for download only for PCs and Macs.

According to the vendor, this software is supposed to be "as good as Rosetta Stone", but much cheaper because less money is spent on advertising.

Unfortunately, this promise cannot hold.

The software interface is chaotic and all three "language levels" offer a chaotic mix of easy and difficult words.

Essentially, this software only introduces new Scottish vocabulary with native speaker audio and pictures, and then there are a few exercises.

Scottish grammar is not included at all.

Summary: Limited scope and bad interface. At least it is relatively cheap and there is a 90-day money-back guarantee.

Systems: PC (Windows 10, 8, 7, Vista and XP)

Content: Gaelic lessons with native speaker audio and speech recognition, grammar

Prices: USD 35 (second language for free)

Overall Value:

The Linguashop educational software ("TeachMe") is available for over 90 languages, including Gaelic. It also includes an audio CD.

The native speaker audio and speech recognition are relatively good.

However, the interface of the learning software is quite chaotic and there are no exercises — only lessons where new vocabulary is presented.

It is also unclear how many words are included in this Gaelic learning program. There is no information about this on the website.

Some grammar lessons are included — however, these are basically just images with short texts.

Summary: Poor quality for a relatively low price. You get language courses for two languages when you buy, one as a free bonus.