Are you a fan of vocabulary memorization but want to look for more meaningful and fun lessons? Do you also want the cultural context behind these words? If you’re looking for the perfect app to help you memorize Filipino words, then this Turong Wika review is your easy guide.
While you might think that Turong Wika is solely for Tagalog learning app, it actually focuses on Filipino, which is the national language of the Philippines. However, both of them have 99 percent mutually intelligible words. But then, Filipino has more slang, phrases, and sentences, which also include other native languages in the Philippines. Notice that as I go along this app review, I will be interchanging the Filipino and Tagalog languages often.
Let’s take a look at this Turong Wika review, one of the new learning tools that can accompany you on your language learning journey.
What Is Turong Wika?
Turong Wika is a mobile app aimed to make your Tagalog language learning journey richer. If you are a busy person like me, you’ll want a handy app to just learn with a few minutes a day. It is not just an app for vocabulary exercises. It will also be loved by advanced learners alike. The founders of Turong Wika come from Scottsdale, Arizona. It is their brainchild coming from family-oriented language learners who want to pass on the sense of connections, family values, intricacies, and understanding between generations.
Languages Offered: Tagalog
Learner’s Level: Beginner To Advanced
How Does Turong Wika Work?
Just start your day with a 10-15 minute exercise from your daily lesson. The app will remind you with a notification on your phone if ever you have set up a reminder from them. From my experience, it was perfect because it helped me build up discipline for my language learning routine.
Getting Started With Turong Wika
First, you need to download the app on the Play Store for Android phones and tablets or App Store for iPhone, and iPad (iOS devices).
First steps: You’ll be greeted with a splash screen with a randomized “Did You Know,” which talks about facts regarding the Filipino language, the Filipinos, or the Philippines.
Account creation: After the splash screen, the app will ask if you have an account or if you want to create a new one.
Activating your account: It will send a confirmation message to the email you used for signing up. Just click on the link on that email and you’re good to go!
First Lesson: You can choose the language you want the lessons to be in. However, the app’s default language is EN or English.
How The Design And Interface Of Turong Wika Stands Out
Now, let’s take a look at the design and interface of Turong Wika. In this Turong wika review, you’ll not only know how to use the app but how it is user friendly. Their color schemes seem to be dominantly purple and white, which I like because it is easier to look at texts. Although dark mode doesn’t seem to be available which some users may prefer to have. Another thing I’ve noticed with their minimalist design.
It’s easy to drag and drop and check each features because they are separated per tabs.
What Are The Key Features Of Turong Wika?
As a long time user of mobile apps for language learning, it is easy to pinpoint the typical features of apps in this niche. With that said, many key features of Turong Wika stand out from its competitors.
Here are some reasons why we believe Turong Wika can help you in learning the Tagalog language.
Simple And Structured Lesson Plans For All Language Levels
I believe that in this Turong Wika review, this is Turong Wika’s best selling point. Apart from having organized categories and levels of learning, these outline lessons have an explanation of what you will learn inside. For my type of language learning, I would love to get a preview with details of what I will learn for each lesson. This also helps me prepare my expectations with every activity, puzzle, game, or even text-based learning inside the app.
Grammar Notes And Lessons
Language experts have always commended apps that include complete grammar notes and lessons. When learning your desired language, it’s important to know the context behind many of the vocabulary words. With Turong Wika, you’ll not only know the words but also get insights into their origins and how to use them in a Filipino sentence.
Interactive Memorization Techniques
I think the part where I was able to drag and drop the Filipino words into the sentences was my first time seeing it in an app. Maybe it might not be a spectacle for some, but I kind of like how it is a bit different to help me memorize. Mnemonics that use other kinds of memory devices sure have an impact on how words are retained.
Though I can recommend to spice it up a bit by adding a few other words at th end of the lesson as a quiz or practice session.
Who Is Turong Wika For?
If you are looking to just learn Filipino during your downtime after a busy week, then Turong Wika will make your Filipino learning easier. This app is for busy students, workers, or businesspeople like you!
Before we move onto this review, you might be asking, is this language app able to teach me Tagalog? What is the difference between Tagalog and Filipino? Why should I need to know the difference? First, Tagalog and Filipino are mutually intelligible.
However, many words in Tagalog also came from other languages like Chinese or Spanish. Filipino encompasses easy-to-memorize words and has a lenient rule on making sentences. Moreover, it is the standardized version of the Tagalog language.
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Easy to learn sentence patterns for Filipino | Is not proofread for Filipino lessons |
| Separate Practice Feature | Has grammatical errors |
| Includes ample Culture and Grammar Notes | The rest of the lessons are paid content |
How Much Does Turong Wika Cost?
Want to know if this app is worth its cost? Check out these subscription plans before using Turong Wika as your language learning companion.
Free Until A Few Lessons
Turong Wika offers its first unit, “Introduce Yourself,” for free. This unit has many lessons free until you hit a specific lesson or topic. Nevertheless, there are many words and phrases that you can already memorize that can help you construct basic to pre-intermediate Tagalog sentences.
However, if you feel there is a lack of advanced grammar and Tagalog vocabulary, you need to subscribe to their membership plans.
Suki Premium Membership Plans
The paid content for Turong Wika contains unlimited access to many of its units and lessons. These include more practice lessons in verbs, possessive pronouns, and particles. Their cheat sheet lessons for marking particles and mag-verbs are also unlocked. Also, being a subscriber will let you take a sneak peek at Turong Wika’s upcoming future plans on their roadmap.
The Suki Premium Membership plans are divided into three:
| Subscription Plan | Price | Billing Cycle |
|---|---|---|
| 1 Month Membership | $11.99 | Charged Monthly |
| 3 Month Membership | $32.99 | Charged Every 3 Months |
| 1 Year Membership | $107.99 | Charged Annually |
Why I Decided To Test Turong Wika As A Native Filipino Speaker
Before I forget to say this, I am actually a native Tagalog and Filipino speaker. Honestly, I wanted to use Turong Wika to help me create discipline in learning and add it to my quick reference materials. But of course, I was also curious because there are only a few Tagalog or Filipino language learning apps out there that work.
Growing up in the Philippines, it is very easy to pick up words for Tagalog learning as a toddler. Even though it is factual that people grow up learning both English and their native language as a child, many Filipino families still use their local language first for teaching. For example, people who grew up in cities may learn English and Tagalog or English and Cebuano, English and Visayan, and so on.
However, if you are a non-native Filipino, for example, you’ve lived in the US, Europe, Australia, London, or other countries, it is common not to have Tagalog lessons from your parents.
where many languages, not just the Tagalog language, are prominent, will make it
Why Turong Wika Excels In Teaching Filipino
Easy Activities To Learn And Memorize Filipino Sentence Patterns
For beginners who don’t know how to construct Filipino sentences, this app delves just into that. With the first lesson, you can already see the (Verb-Subject-Object) basic sentence pattern. Furthermore, the app will always help you remember the pattern by the feature I mentioned earlier, where you drag and drop the words in the correct place.
Track Your Progress On Your Profile
This app not only works for those who have set their goals to learn in a few months. It is also designed for busy people from all walks of life. So, how do you even know when to learn next? The app will ask if you want to be notified of your daily lessons. Just like many language apps, it’s a must to not have very intrusive notifications, unlike what many learners felt with Duolingo’s nagging notifications.
Different Features And Practice Lessons For Different Needs
To further explain the features I enjoyed earlier, it’s a great app for beginners, especially those with zero knowledge of Filipino vocabulary. You will also have easy words to memorize as they introduce them per lesson. The practice lessons don’t stop with beginner and intermediate. You’ll have a roadmap until you reach the advanced levels, too. Check their lessons for Filipino nouns, Filipino verbs, and more.
However, let’s examine where this Filipino app should improve when teaching Tagalog lessons.
Where Turong Wika May Improve
Where Turong Wika might excel also falls into areas where it should provide more improvement. In this honest Turong Wika review, I would like to highlight some things that Turong Wika may pick up on.
Although Turong Wika welcomes beginners, there are many grammatical errors and unusual examples in the lessons that I’ve seen in the app as a native Filipino speaker. Also, it really felt like many of the lessons were not from native speakers. I’ve further elaborated more points below.
Many Lessons Have Grammatical Errors
Although some may argue about this, but I’ve seen a few grammatical errors in their lessons. One example is, according to that screenshot I inserted, ako ay guro is supposed to be ako ay isang guro. Literally, isang means one in Tagalog and Filipino. But, in both of these languages, you need to use Filipino counter numbers as an adjective. This is also known as the adjective of numbers in English. However, in Filipino, you can find these numbers under Panguri ng Panlarawan, which falls under the category numero. This is similar to Korean grammar, where there must be counterwords for describing countable objects.
Their Audio Isn’t From A Native Tagalog Speaker
What really made me a bit sad about the learning experience was that I wanted to really hear a native speaker from the audio clips. It’s very important for language learners of Filipino or Tagalog to hear the accent, tone, and syllabication of speaking the Filipino language. Hence, it defeats the purpose of learning the language naturally. Much of the audio seems like AI generated content, which is mostly what speech-based translators or language apps commonly have.
Limited Features In Read Along Practice Or Long Dialogue Conversations
As this app looked like the usual flashcard games and language learning apps that I’ve seen back then, I was expecting it to have a separate feature for long conversations. However, I’ve only seen one long dialogue conversation at the start of the lesson.
Typically, there are separate features for long dialogue conversations or read-along practice that lets you pause the sentences, fast forward or go back to a few seconds, or slow them down. This is what I’ve seen in my review of Pimsleur, which is great for audio learning.
Although I do get that these flash-card games have more text-based learning, there are apps like Ling that will help you slow down the audio to hear the word clearly. Then, you can play it back to normal to pronounce the word just like native speakers do.
Final Verdict On Turong Wika Review To Learn Filipino
Turong Wika is an effective tool to help you develop patterns for memorization. Among the most popular techniques, the Spaced Repetition System (SRS) is very prominent in flashcard apps like this. However, it not only brings you
Overall, the cultural insight in these authentic lessons is a great way to explore more of who the Filipinos are. It can give you a sneak peek of their mannerisms, traditions, and expressive nuances of what the Filipino culture can share.
We hope that this Turong Wika review helped you choose if you’re going to download and use this app or not. However, we also have an alternative Tagalog or Filipino language learning app for you.
Advance Your Language Skills In Tagalog Learning With Ling!
Did you feel that it’s about time to end this Turong Wika review? Well, it’s not yet the end of learning for you. At this time of AI, you may have some doubts about many technological advances today. Many will just depend on I don’t blame you. As a language enthusiast myself, I wanted to learn from the roots, and I’ve only seen the correct grammar notes and lessons with Ling. Moreover, there are many native speakers who update the Ling app every day. This is not just for Tagalog or Filipino lessons but for the 60+ languages included.
Ling offers a comprehensive lesson plan for learning Tagalog’s linguistic fundamentals. This app will guide you from beginner to advanced learning. Why wait when you can download it now on the App Store or Play Store?
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