HiNative Review: Useful But Not Exceptional Q&A App - All ...

HiNative is a Q&A app for language learners that want to have questions answered by native speakers. It's available for iOS, Android and desktop, ... AllLanguageResourcesisanindependentreviewsite.Weearnmoneywhenyouclickonsomeofthelinksonoursite.LearnMore HiNativeReview:UsefulButNotExceptionalQ&AApp HomeAfrikaansHiNativeReview:UsefulButNotExceptionalQ&AApp    ByBrian AfrikaansAlbanianArabicArmenianAzerbaijaniBelarusianBengaliBulgarianCantoneseCatalanCroatianCzechDanishDutchEnglishFilipinoFinnishFrenchGermanGreekHaitianCreoleHebrewHindiHungarianIcelandicIndonesianIrishItalianJapaneseKoreanKurdishLatinLatvianLithuanianMalayMandarinChineseNorwegianPashtoPolishPortuguesePunjabiRomanianRussianSerbianSlovakSpanishSwahiliSwedishTamilThaiTurkishUkrainianUrduVietnamese January25,2020 QuickReview 3.7  Summary HiNativeisaQ&Aappforlanguagelearnersthatwanttohavequestionsansweredbynativespeakers.It’savailableforiOS,Androidanddesktop,andithasoverthreemillionregisteredusers.Afreeversionisavailablethatoffersthebasicfeaturesoftheapp. Platform Theappisprettybasic,butitworks. Features Manyusersareveryhelpful,butnotallquestionsreceiveintelligentresponses. Value Thebasicfunctionsoftheappareavailableforfree,butyou’llneedtopayforaudioorvideofeatures. ILike… Thecommunityisactive.Mostofmyquestionsreceivedquickresponses. Thepointssystemisrewarding. Thefreeversionisveryuseful. IDON’TLIKE… Manyofthequestionsinmyfeedwereunanswerable. Thecommunitycouldbebetter. Price ThebasicfeaturesofHiNativearefreetouse.Apremiumsubscriptionisavailablefor$5.68/monthpaidmonthly,or$4.96/monthpaidannually(a$59.63payment). Languages HiNativesupportsjustaboutanylanguage. VisitHiNative Whilelearninganewlanguage,oneofthebestresourcesavailableisotherpeople.Nativespeakersareoneofthemostreliablesourcesforauthoritativeanswerstoyourlanguagequestions.Theyknowintuitivelyanddeeplyhowthelanguageissupposedtobeused. Morethanthat,theyknowhowit’sactuallyusedindailylife;somethingthatdoesn’talwaysalignwiththeprescriptivelanguagerulesyou’lllearninatextbook. Ifonlytherewereawayforlanguagelearnerstoaskquestionsdirectlytoalargepoolofready-and-waitingnativespeakers… Enterthe(adorable?disturbing?I’mstillundecided)flyingsquirrelmascotofHiNative. CreatedbytheLang-8team,HiNativeisaQ&Aappaimedathelpinglearnersofjustaboutanylanguageachievebetterunderstandingbyconnectingwithnativespeakers. Itwasdevelopedformobile,butcannowbeusedonyourcomputeraswell.It’sanetworkofmorethanthreemillionregisteredusersthathavelanguagequestionsfornativespeakers. It’sacollaborativeeffort—userscanaskanyquestiontheyliketoalargeaudienceofnativespeakers,andtheyearnpointsbyhelpingothers.Naturally,thesizeofyouraudiencewilldependonwhatlanguageyou’relearning. Forthisreview,ItriedoutHiNativeforItalianandAlbanian.MyquestionsabouttheItalianlanguagewereallansweredquickly,whilesomeofmyAlbanianquestionswentunanswered. Questions TheQ&AfeatureisHiNative’smainfunction.Ithinkthepotentialforusefulnessisreallyhighhere.Therehavebeenplentyoftimesduringtheself-studyofalanguagewhenIhaveaquestionthatcanonlyreallybeansweredbyanativespeaker. Whilethepotentialhereishigh,theexecutionfeelsoff.Forexample,here’sascreenshotofsomequestionsonmyhomescreen. Atfirst,thisreallyfrustratedme.HowamIsupposedtohelpwithanyofthesequestions?Idon’tspeakanyoftheselanguages. Ittookmeawhiletorealizethatafterselectingaquestion,you’llhavetheoptiontodoatranslation. Thetranslationsworkedwellmostofthetime,buttheprocesswouldbesmootherifthingsweretranslatedautomatically.Selectingeachquestioninaforeignlanguagetoseeatranslationtothenseeifyoucanansweritisaclunkywaytodothings. Ialsocameacrossalotof“questions”thatweren’treallyrelatedtolanguagelearning.Therewereabunchthatwerejusta“hello”or“howareyou?”andsomejustpostedasentencesayingthattheywanttobecomefluentinEnglish. Iwouldbemuchmoreattractedtothisappifthecommunityseemedlikeitwasmadeupofseriouslanguagelearners.Instead,Igetthefeelingthattherearealotofyoungerstudentsandgenerallyboredpeoplekillingtimeonit. QuestionTemplates Askingquestionsinalanguageyoudon’tunderstandcanbedifficult.Toaddressthis,HiNativeprovidesabunchoftemplatestohelpyouconstructyourquestion. Thisisanicetouch,andit’snecessary.Itaimstomakethequestionsusersaskeasiertounderstand,andthetemplatescoverthedifferentkindsofquestionsyou’dwanttoaskprettywell.Evenwiththetemplates,though,therewereafairfewthatwereunintelligible. Answers Answeringquestionsintheappisprettystraightforward.Yousimplyselectaquestionandtypeoutananswer.Ifyouhaveapremiummembership,youcanrecordaudioinyouranswer.Thisisprettycoolforofferingpronunciationhelp. TheanswersyouprovidearehowyougainpointsinHiNative.YoucanearnQuickPointsorQualityPoints,butmoreontheselater.Yourcontributioncanalsobecomeafeaturedanswertothequestion,whichisprettyneat. Bookmarks Thisisahelpfulfeature,especiallyforusersthathaveaskedalotofquestions.Theabilitytolookatandsearchthequestionsyou’veaskedinthepastmakesHiNativekindoflikeapersonalizeddictionary. Interestingly,afreemembershipallowsyoutomakebookmarks,justnotusetheminanyway.You’refreetobookmarkasmanyquestionsasyouwantwithoutpayingforamembership,butyoucan’taccessorsearchthem. I’dpreferitifitwasclearthatthebookmarkfeatureisn’tatalluseableforusersthatdon’tpay.It’sespeciallyannoyingbecauseit’stheonlyfeaturelistedunder“Freeuser”inatableoftheirpremiumfeatures. That’sright,youcanbookmarkquestionsandanswersforfree!Justdon’texpectthemtobeuseableinanyway. Layout Thewaytheappfunctionsisprettysimple,andsoisthelayout.Therearefourmainsectionsoftheapp:Home,Search,Notifications,andProfile. Home Themainsectionoftheapp,thisiswhereyou’llcomeacrossquestionsaskedbyotherusers.Youcanapplyafiltertoonlyshowquestionsaboutthelanguageyou’reinterestedin,unansweredquestions,orthosethathaveanaudiocomponent. Premiummembershaveaccessto“prioritytickets,”whichpositionyourquestionatthetopofotherusers’questionfeeds.Selectingaquestionfromthehomescreengivesyoutheoptiontotranslateoranswerthequestion. Search Forthemorepopularlanguages,chancesaresomeoneelsehasalreadyaskedthequestionyouhave.It’softenworthittosearchpreviouslyaskedquestionsinsteadofwaitingforanewanswer. Ithoughtthisfeaturewasreallyhelpfulforthemorepopularlanguages.Unfortunately,searchinginlesscommonlanguagesisn’tpossible.Iwasn’tabletosearchforanswerstoquestionsaboutAlbanian,forexample.Here’sthelistoflanguagesyoucansearch: Notifications Thispartoftheappfunctionslikeyou’dexpectitto.You’llgetalivefeedofnotificationsfromtheapp.You’llbenotifiedwhensomeoneanswersyourquestion,whensomeonementionsyouinacomment,andwhensomeonelikesyouranswer. Profile Youruserprofileiswhereyoucanseeorchangethelanguageyou’relearning,aswellasadditionalinformationlikepoints. Youcanalsoseeyourparticipationstats.Thesearethingslikehowmanyquestionsyou’veasked,thenumberofanswersyou’vegiven,likes,andbookmarks. Points ThepointsfeatureinHiNativeaddsanextraelementofengagementtotheappandprovidesextramotivationforbeingahelpfulcontributor. Ilikethisaddition.I’masuckerforpointsandlevels,andwhilethepointssystemdoesn’tmaketheappmuchmoreuseful,Ithinkitimprovestheexperienceatleastslightly.Ialsothinkthecommunityisprobablymorehelpfulbecauseofthisfeature. Therearetwodifferenttypesofpointsyoucanearnfromansweringquestions,QuickPointsandQualityPoints. QuickPoints Youcanearnquickpointsbyansweringaquestionquickly.Inordertoearnpoints,youmustansweraquestionwithinaspecificperiodoftime,andyouranswermustreceivea“Like”fromeitherthequestionaskeroranothernativespeaker. QualityPoints Qualitypointsareawardedtouserswhoprovidehigh-qualityanswerstoquestions.Answersaredeemedhigh-qualityifthey’relikedbyothernativespeakersorifthey’rechosenasafeaturedanswerforaquestion.Thesepointsaresupposedtoletotherusersknowhowaccurateanansweris. Thenumberofpointsyouhavehaslittleimpactonhowyouusetheapp,butit’sfunallthesame.I’msuretheyhaveapositiveimpactonhowhelpfulthecommunityis.Icertainlyfounditmotivatingtofindwaystohelpothers.Icould,however,seethemotivationfactorwaningsignificantlyafterprolongeduse. Pricing ThefreeversionofHiNativefunctionslikeabasictext-basedQ&Aapp,anditworks. Forlearnersinterestedinutilizingextrafeatureslikelisteningtoorrecordingvoiceandvideo,thereisapremiummembershipavailableforarecurringsubscription. Themonthlysubscriptionis$5.68/month,andtheyearlysubscriptionis$4.96/month($59.63total).Thesesubscriptionsrenewautomatically. Alternatives ThereareafewotherQ&Aappsoutthereforlanguagelearners.StackExchangeisanoption,thoughitdoesn’tofferasmanylanguagesasHiNative.StackExchangealsorequiressomepriorunderstandingofthelanguage;it’snotforbeginners. Anothertypeofappthatbridgesthegapbetweennativespeakersandlearnersisthelanguageexchangeapp.BothHelloTalkandTandemconnectlanguagelearnersofreciprocallanguagesinordertofacilitatelanguageexchange.Thisisanothergreatwaytoaskquestionstonativespeakers. AresourcewithausefulQ&Asectionandalanguageexchangeaspectisitalki.It’sprimarilyfocusedonconnectingstudentsandlanguagetutorsforonlinelessons,butofferstheseadditionalfeaturesforfreeaswell. Additionally,therearealotofotherlanguagelearningappsoutthatwouldbeworthlookingat. FinalThoughts HiNativeservesausefulpurpose.Ittakesadvantageofthefactthatnearly60%oftheglobalpopulationnowhasinternetaccessandisbringingspeakersofdifferentlanguagestogether. Thefactthatmostofitsfunctionalityisavailableforfreeisagreatthing.Itopensuptheapptoamuchwideruserbase,makingitamuchmoreeffectiveresource. ThebiggestchangeIwishIsawwiththeexperienceiswiththecommunity.Thenumberofquestionsthatweren’tactuallyaboutlanguageorthatseemedlikeapleaforhelpwithschoolhomeworkwasslightlyoff-putting. Overall,IdothinkHiNativeisworthaddingtoyourrepertoireoflanguage-learningresources.It’sfree,andIthinkitfunctionsbestwhenusedlikeaninteractivedictionary.Itisn’taresourcethatwillteachyouhowtospeakalanguageonitsown,butsometimesittakesahumantoanswerandexplaintrickyquestions.Thisappcanhelpwiththat. It’sprobablynotworthpayingfor,butHiNativecertainlyhassomemeritasago-toresourceforone-offhelpfromnativespeakers. VisitHiNative MOSTRECOMMENDRESOURCESBYLANGUAGE Chinese Spanish German French Italian Portuguese Korean Russian Japanese Arabic multiplelanguagesreview Brian/AboutAuthor I’maformerEFLteacherturnedfreelancewriterandself-proclaimedlanguageenthusiast.Ican’tquiteseemtokickthehabitofmovingcountriesandhavelivedandworkedonfivecontinentssofar. 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