I'm Kyra Blackwell.

I'm Rosie Garan, and you're listening to The Wirecutter Show.

Kaira, are you excited for your trip to Japan coming up?

I'm pumped, Rosie, as you can probably tell. I'm just counting down the hours. I also know that you've been trying maybe to learn a little Japanese. How's that going?

Yeah, I'm not going to demonstrate for you what I've learned so far, but it boils down to the basics, which is hello, goodbye, and thank you.

Have you messed around with any language learning apps before? Oh, yeah, I think everybody had a

duolingo phase. Absolutely. The streaks, the addiction, but I mean, I didn't get very far, so.

There are also so many of these apps. There are too many, actually. And that's why I'm really happy that we're having Matthew Gayon to chat with us about some of the ones that he's tested. He's joining us all the way from Thailand. Matthew has tested 15 different language learning apps for Wirecutter. And surprise, he doesn't think there's any one best language learning app. He really thinks it depends on you, your learning style, and what you want to get out of them.

That makes a lot of sense.

I've tried a lot of different things, and I think there are different aspects of different apps that have worked for me.

But I am very curious to see through actual testing what is emerging as the top tier.

Exactly. So we're going to take a quick break

and then when we're back, we'll be on with Matthew

Gay on the other side. See you soon.

Welcome. Welcome back. With us now is Matthew Gay.

He is a writer for wirecutter who's tested 15 language learning apps,

and he's coming to us all the way from

Thailand. Matthew, welcome to the show. Happy to be here. Hi, Matthew. If someone is listening

starting from basically zero, what is a realistic goal they should have for learning a language

on an app? What can these apps genuinely help you do before a trip? And what

can't they do? Yeah, you should be able to expect that with a bit of time in the apps, you should

be able to say hi, order a coffee and a croissant and point across the room and say, this is a cat.

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