Best Language Learning Apps for Canadians Moving Abroad (2026 Comparison)

By Taraji Abroad · Updated March 2026

You’re three months out from your move to Mexico City. You know exactly zero Spanish beyond “hola” and “cerveza.” Your landlord doesn’t speak English. The immigration office definitely doesn’t. And the neighborhood you chose — Condesa — is charming partly because it’s not an expat bubble, which means the café around the corner runs entirely in Spanish.

You don’t need to be fluent before you land. But showing up with 50 hours of practice under your belt is the difference between a panicked first week and a confident one. (If you’re doing a scouting trip first, even basic phrases make apartment viewings and neighbourhood walks far more productive.)

We tested the major apps and platforms for the three languages our readers need most: Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Portugal), and Thai (Thailand). Here’s what actually works — and what’s a waste of your time.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you sign up through our links, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend tools we’d use ourselves. Full disclosure.

Quick Comparison

App Best For Cost (CAD/mo) Spanish Portuguese Thai Our Take
italki Real conversation practice $15-40/lesson Yes Yes Yes Best overall for expats
Babbel Structured grammar + vocab ~$18-20 Yes Yes (Brazilian) No Best structured course
Pimsleur Audio-based, hands-free ~$21-30 Yes Yes Yes Best for commuters/walkers
Duolingo Free daily habit Free / $10 premium Yes Yes Yes Good supplement, not enough alone
Anki Flashcard memorization Free Yes Yes Yes Best for vocabulary retention

Our Top Pick: italki (Real Tutors, Real Conversations)

The app that comes closest to actually living in the country before you get there. italki connects you with native-speaking tutors for one-on-one video lessons. You book a session, show up, and talk.

Why we put it first: every other app on this list teaches you to recognize language. italki forces you to produce it. That’s the gap between “I understood the menu” and “I ordered my own coffee.” For someone three months out from a move, producing language matters more than recognizing it.

What it costs:

  • Community tutors (conversational practice): $10-20 CAD/hour
  • Professional teachers (structured lessons): $20-50 CAD/hour
  • Most expat learners book 2-3 sessions per week at the community tutor level: ~$80-180 CAD/month

What’s good:

  • You choose your tutor by language, accent, schedule, and price
  • Mexican Spanish tutors teach Mexican Spanish — not Spain’s lisp. Portugal-specific Portuguese, not Brazilian. This matters.
  • Trial lessons available at reduced rates so you can test tutors
  • Flexible scheduling — book around your Canadian work hours, not a class schedule

What’s not:

  • No structured curriculum. You need to tell your tutor what you want to learn — or find one who provides their own lesson plans
  • More expensive than self-study apps if you book frequently
  • Tutor quality varies. Read reviews, try trial lessons, don’t settle for the first one

Best for: Someone 1-6 months out from their move who wants to have real conversations by arrival day.

Find a tutor for your language on italki →

Best Structured Course: Babbel

Babbel is the closest thing to a classroom in app form. Proper grammar lessons, progressive difficulty, speech recognition, and review sessions that actually work.

What it costs: ~$18-20 CAD/month (cheaper with annual subscription, ~$10/month).

What’s good:

  • Lessons are 10-15 minutes — designed for busy adults, not students with empty afternoons
  • Speech recognition forces you to say words out loud, not just tap answers
  • Grammar explanations that actually make sense (unlike Duolingo’s “figure it out” approach)
  • Courses designed by linguists, not gamification engineers

What’s not:

  • Portuguese course is Brazilian Portuguese, not European Portuguese. For moving to Lisbon, the vocabulary transfers but the pronunciation is different — you’ll sound like a Brazilian in Portugal (they’ll understand you, they’ll just notice)
  • No Thai course. If Thailand is your destination, Babbel won’t help
  • No live conversation practice. Good for building foundations, but you need italki or real-world practice to actually speak

Best for: Self-motivated learners who want structure and grammar foundations before their move. Pairs well with italki — use Babbel for grammar, italki for conversation.

Start your Babbel course →

Best Audio-Based: Pimsleur

Pimsleur is entirely audio. No screen. No tapping. You listen, repeat, and respond — out loud — in 30-minute lessons you can do while walking, cooking, or commuting.

What it costs: ~$21-30 CAD/month (subscription) or ~$150-200 for individual course levels.

What’s good:

  • Forces you to speak from lesson one. No passive learning.
  • The spaced repetition system (introducing words, then reviewing them at scientifically timed intervals) is genuinely effective for memorization
  • Hands-free — the best language app for people who don’t want another screen
  • Available in Spanish, Portuguese (both Brazilian and European), and Thai
  • European Portuguese option is a real differentiator — most apps only offer Brazilian

What’s not:

  • No reading or writing practice. You’ll speak before you can read a menu — which is actually useful abroad, but means you need a second resource for literacy
  • Lessons are rigid. You can’t skip ahead or customize
  • Pricier than Duolingo or Babbel

Best for: Audio learners, commuters, people who already spend 30 minutes a day walking or driving. The “I’ll do a Pimsleur lesson on my evening walk” habit is how most busy adults actually fit language learning into their life.

Try Pimsleur for your language →

The Free Option: Duolingo

You know Duolingo. The green owl. The guilt-trip notifications. The 847-day streak your coworker won’t stop talking about.

It’s free, it’s addictive, and it builds vocabulary. But it won’t prepare you for a conversation with your Mexican landlord, a Portuguese bureaucrat, or a Thai taxi driver.

Use it for: Building a daily habit. Learning basic vocabulary. Keeping your streak alive on days you can’t do a full lesson elsewhere.

Don’t use it for: Your entire language preparation. Duolingo graduates can translate sentences on a screen. They often can’t order coffee in the real world. The gap is production — Duolingo rarely forces you to produce language from scratch.

Best combo: Duolingo for daily vocabulary (free) + italki for weekly conversation ($40-80/month). This gives you both the habit and the real practice.

The Secret Weapon: Anki (Free Flashcards)

Not an app most people discover until they’re serious, but once you start using Anki, you won’t stop. It’s a free flashcard app with a spaced repetition algorithm that shows you cards right before you’d forget them.

Download a pre-made deck for your language (thousands exist) or make your own cards from words you encounter in lessons. Review 50-100 cards per day in 10 minutes. The vocabulary retention is dramatically better than any other method.

Best for: Supplementing any of the apps above. Especially useful for Thai, where you need to memorize tones and script alongside vocabulary.

What to Start 3 Months Before Your Move

You don’t need all five apps. Here’s the three-month plan we’d follow:

Months 3-2 before departure (Foundation):

  • Duolingo daily (10 min/day — build the habit)
  • Babbel or Pimsleur 3-4x per week (structured learning)
  • Anki vocabulary review daily (10 min/day)

Month 1 before departure (Conversation):

  • italki tutor 2-3x per week (start speaking)
  • Continue Anki daily
  • Drop Duolingo if needed — real conversation practice matters more now

After arrival:

  • Continue italki 1-2x per week
  • Add local language classes for immersion — we cover how to find them in our guide to language classes abroad
  • Real life becomes your best teacher

Language-Specific Notes

Spanish (Mexico): The easiest of the three for English speakers. 3-6 months of consistent study gets you to basic conversational. Mexico City, Merida, and Puerto Vallarta all have strong Spanish schools for expats. More in our Mexico City guide.

Portuguese (Portugal): Slightly harder than Spanish — the pronunciation is trickier and European Portuguese swallows syllables that Brazilian Portuguese pronounces. Make sure your app teaches European Portuguese, not Brazilian. Pimsleur and italki both offer the European variant. Lisbon has excellent language schools. More in our Lisbon guide.

Thai (Thailand): The hardest of the three. Tonal language with a non-Latin script. Realistic expectation: 2-3 months of study gets you survival Thai (greetings, numbers, food, directions, basic bargaining). Conversational fluency takes 1-2 years of dedicated study. Good news: Thais genuinely appreciate any effort, and broken Thai gets you further than perfect English in most situations. More in our Chiang Mai guide.

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