When I planned my first trip to Tokyo last year, I didn’t give myself a heavy itinerary. I had whimsical notions of wandering the unnamed streets and seeing which way the wind took me. So instead, I poured my energy into learning one crucial thing: The basics of Japanese language. After all, I may be able to cheat my way through other alphabetical languages, but I doubted I’d have such luck when trying to decipher entirely new characters.
A well-traveled friend of mine recommended I try Drops, a language app that uses word games to help you learn mnemonically and efficiently. The free version gives you five minutes of learning a day—a perfectly manageable commitment with my busy life. Plus, it focuses on vocabulary (as opposed to grammar) so I could quickly build up my word bank. No, I wouldn’t be fluent, but I would have all the words I needed for necessities. Within one month, I knew enough Japanese that I felt fully confident going into a 10-day trip.
Often, when I was playing Drops on my phone, my twin daughters would peek over my wrists and ask what “game” I was playing. (The app has an interface that does, indeed, look and feel more like a game than an educational tool.) I explained it was an app for grown-ups to learn new languages, and maybe one day they’d be able to play, too.
From my mouth to Drops’ ears: They have now released a kids’ version called Droplets. (How cute is that?) Not only that—I discovered that my subscription to Drops now automatically comes with a subscription to Droplets—as well as Scripts, Drops’ alphabet learning app—and that Droplets allows a family of up to five kids to use the app tracking each of their progress separately. Perfect for the twins!
My girls were so excited to play “Mommy’s favorite game” that I didn’t have the heart to tell them they’d be learning a language in the process. They chose Spanish, and immediately took to the colorful, simple interface and beautiful illustrations. I love that Droplets is swipe-only: The experience is easy and fast-paced, yet it still provides immediate feedback and easy-to-follow progress. Bonus: No kids’ car sickness from trying to use the keyboard.
Just like Drops, the free version of Droplets has a built-in 5-minute limitation. This is especially brilliant for little ones because it automatically limits screen time while still providing a digestible amount of learning. Parents don’t have to worry about overstimulation or burn-out, while Droplets is the bad cop saying, “Time’s up!” Win-win!
Although my kids are on the younger side, I think Droplets will be an amazing app to grow with because the competencies are ideal for tweens and teens. Both Drops and Droplets focus on the three Cs: Core vocabulary, confidence, and consistency.
Just as I found when learning Japanese, it’s most beneficial for kids to start with a breadth of vocabulary, rather than jumping into the complexities of grammar. It makes sense: Research has shown that vocabulary leads to comprehension (meaning, even if you can’t speak a language, you can still understand it), and with comprehension comes confidence. Once you have the basic tools, it’s much easier to learn the nuances of speaking and writing.
By equipping our school-aged children with these core competencies, we’re making it super accessible, fun, and easy to process language learning, almost like osmosis, one drop at a time.
With all of that information dancing in my head, I started thinking about how Droplets would be a great supplementary tool for when my kids choose their language classes in middle school, and then how it could grow with them into high school. And then I fell down a rabbit hole of imagining them as young women who had mastered Spanish so they could study abroad, and how they’d go to Barcelona and fall in love with twin brother sommeliers, and how they’d get married and live in Europe and I would just miss them so much, and—
BING! Just like that, five minutes is up and our Droplets lesson for the day is done. My girls are little girls again… just a little bit wiser in Spanish.
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About the Author: Kristyn Merritt is a writer, editor, artist, and branding expert specializing in lifestyle and life sciences content. Her work has appeared in major platforms across all media, from magazines, television and newspapers to retail, e-commerce and digital. Kristyn lives in the Bay Area with her brilliant husband, troublemaking twin daughters, and oft-neglected rowing machine.
"Love my fun language learning and practice with daily Drops sessions, and monthly Challenges to participate in, and quiz mode to test contextual learning - brilliant! So much thought, consideration and inclusivity has gone into the design and function of this app, I can't praise it highly enough."
"Great little learning app! I've learned at least 5-10 new words in Spanish in my first 5 minutes. Easy to pick up and thorough."
"Great language learning app! It helps you get daily words done in a short amount of time. I would highly recommend using drops to learn whatever language you want to learn."
"What an amazing app! I’ve tried several apps for language learning and I cannot recommend Drops enough. I don’t know how a short Drops session can teach me as much as 1 hour+ of focused use of other apps, it’s like magic."
"Amazing language learning tool. Excellent app for increasing vocabulary in your foreign language of choice. Useful for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners. The repetition of the words makes them much easier to remember, and without the hassle of making your own flash cards. I have used Drops for two years now and have seen great results."
"Very engaging way of learning Yoruba in a stimulating way. Will be using to learn myself and to teach my child!"
"Less than a week in but using this alone with the popular one babbel working on German. When using just one app I got bored, babbel is not as fun. So using both at once actually let's my adhd do its thing but I still focused since I can switch easily between both apps and work in different areas. Also I like the quick little sessions makes me feel like I actually did something."
"So engaging. I speak Spanish well, but often forget words in conversation that I know I should know. This game is fun and quickly brings back vocabulary I may have put in the back of my brain after not using it for awhile. Case in point: I spent 11 years in construction, then went back to teaching in English and/or Spanish depending on the teacher/student"
"Amazing app"
"I have been desperate to find an app that really helps me learn Japanese and this is the best by far"
"I like that you can switch between different subjects and topics constantly and it’s really easy to learn a lot of vocabulary very quickly! This works perfect for me because I can learn a lot of words but then practice sentence structure with my grandmother whose from Croatia"
"Fantastic app great opportunity to learn languages on your spare time. Drops makes it easy to learn and retain words to formulate sentences."
"Best of the best. Awesome app in every sense"
"This app us the best and how I am doing Learning Ukraine is Helping me alot tnx"
"Definitely recommend! I'm using this to learn mandarin 10/10"
"Fun and interactive. Great for repetition!"
"Very engaging way of learning Yoruba in a stimulating way. Will be using to learn myself and to teach my child!"
"Amazing language learning tool. Excellent app for increasing vocabulary in your foreign language of choice. Useful for beginner, intermediate, and advanced learners. The repetition of the words makes them much easier to remember, and without the hassle of making your own flash cards. I have used Drops for two years now and have seen great results."
"Great little learning app! I've learned at least 5-10 new words in Spanish in my first 5 minutes. Easy to pick up and thorough."
"I have been desperate to find an app that really helps me learn Japanese and this is the best by far"
"I like that you can switch between different subjects and topics constantly and it’s really easy to learn a lot of vocabulary very quickly! This works perfect for me because I can learn a lot of words but then practice sentence structure with my grandmother whose from Croatia"
"Fantastic app great opportunity to learn languages on your spare time. Drops makes it easy to learn and retain words to formulate sentences."
"What an amazing app! I’ve tried several apps for language learning and I cannot recommend Drops enough. I don’t know how a short Drops session can teach me as much as 1 hour+ of focused use of other apps, it’s like magic."
"Love my fun language learning and practice with daily Drops sessions, and monthly Challenges to participate in, and quiz mode to test contextual learning - brilliant! So much thought, consideration and inclusivity has gone into the design and function of this app, I can't praise it highly enough."
"Definitely recommend! I'm using this to learn mandarin 10/10"
"This app us the best and how I am doing Learning Ukraine is Helping me alot tnx"
