How to play
Solvelingua is made for a short session most days. You don't need a plan: each morning your board suggests three
small things to do, one of them always about the language, and the town fills in the rest. Here's what a first
week might look like for learners at different levels, each in a different city.
Every session, in three steps
Check your board
Your three wants for the day, the “Try it in town” list of things you've practised in class but not yet used
for real, and anyone who's messaged you.
Go and talk
Two or three conversations: an errand, a shift at work, a class, a friend, or a stranger in the street.
Speak or type, at your level.
Read the evening diary
What you got right, what to fix and the phrases you saved to work on. They come back in tomorrow's talks.
A first week, four ways
Four made-up learners, picked at random from the cities in the game. Every game goes its own way, but everything
here is in the game today. Times are rough: a conversation takes a few minutes.
Sam learns Spanish in Mexico City
Sam has never studied Spanish. They play on their phone on the bus home, typing at first, with subtitles and
hints on.
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Day 1 18 min
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4 minMake a character, pick Mexico City and “complete beginner”, and choose a
life goal: settling in.
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6 minCheck in at the Posada Coyoacán with Lupita at the front desk. The hints
under the chat give Sam the words: Hola, una habitación, por favor.
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5 minWalk round the plaza tapping things to learn their names, from the fountain
to the benches, then buy a concha at Lucía's bakery.
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3 minRead the first evening diary: what Sam said well, and one thing to try
tomorrow.
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Day 2 16 min
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2 minCheck the board. Today's three wants: buy some fruit, use a new word, and go
to class.
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5 minBuy mangoes from Paco at his stall on the plaza, and catch the price when he
says it.
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9 minTake the Metro to Roma for the free class with Maestra Rocío: greetings,
numbers and saying where you're from.
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Day 3 17 min
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3 minSofía, the student next door, texts to say hi. Sam answers with a short
voice note.
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8 minSam wakes up with a stomach bug and sees Dr. Méndez at the practice next to
the pharmacy. Stuck on “since last night”, Sam taps Note it and types it in English. The talk carries
on, and the phrase is saved in natural Spanish: desde anoche.
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6 minPick up the medicine from Doña Elena at the pharmacy, then go over the saved
phrases at the desk at home.
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Day 4 15 min
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10 minAsk Marta for a job at her café, and serve the first customers: a coffee, a
pastry, the bill.
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5 minThe evening diary rounds up the week's patterns. The words Sam has met keep
coming back in tomorrow's talks.
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Day 5 18 min
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4 minA stranger on the plaza asks Sam the time. After four days of numbers,
son las cinco comes easily.
- 8 minAnother shift at the café, and the first pay.
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6 minSpend some of it on a T-shirt at Rosa's clothes stall in the plaza: colours,
sizes and how much.
Jo learns German in Berlin
Jo did a year of German at school and remembers the basics. They play on a laptop after dinner, talking out
loud with a headset.
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Day 1 17 min
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2 minCheck the board. Today's wants: serve three customers, use a phrase from
your list, and chat with a stranger.
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11 minA shift at the counter of Petra's bakery on the Kollwitzplatz:
Schrippen, a coffee to go, and someone who wants change for a fifty.
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4 minThe diary notices Jo keeps mixing up der and
die, and shows the fix to try tomorrow.
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Day 2 16 min
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3 minLena, the art student upstairs, texts about the Saturday market. Jo answers
with a voice note.
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9 minTake the U-Bahn to Kreuzberg for Frau Hoffmann's free class, on making
plans: Hast du am Samstag Zeit?
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4 minBack on the square, a lost visitor asks the way, just as the “Try it in
town” list said someone might.
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Day 3 18 min
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8 minJo twists an ankle and sees Dr. Weber at the practice next to the pharmacy:
where it hurts, since when, and what happened.
- 4 minPick up a bandage from Frau Nguyen at the Apotheke.
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6 minGo over the saved phrases at the desk at home, starting with the one Jo
noted at the doctor's.
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Day 4 19 min
- 2 minLena texts: dinner at hers tonight, at seven?
- 4 minBuy a cake at the bakery to take along.
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13 minDinner at Lena's: meet her flatmate, and the conversation round the table
is the meal.
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Day 5 15 min
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7 minHair in the eyes? Sit in Mehmet's barber chair in the square and ask for
an den Seiten kurz, bitte.
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8 minLena adds Jo to the building's group chat, where the neighbours write in
full Berlin mode. Tap Digga or keene Ahnung to see what they mean,
then reply.
- B1 · Intermediate
- Japanese
- Tokyo
Alex learns Japanese in Tokyo
Alex has studied Japanese for two years, reads kana and some kanji, and freezes when people talk fast. They
play on a tablet, by voice, with furigana on.
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Day 1 18 min
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2 minCheck the board. Today's wants: work a shift, learn a new word, and get
closer to a driving licence.
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12 minA shift at Riko's old-style coffee shop on the square in Yanaka, in polite
Japanese: いらっしゃいませ, 少々お待ちください, and a
customer with a complaint.
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4 minThe diary shows where Alex slipped from polite into plain forms with a
customer, and how to put it.
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Day 2 17 min
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10 minTake the theory test at the licence centre in Marunouchi, in Japanese:
keeping left, stopping at every level crossing, and the beginner's mark.
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7 minPass, and look round the cars and motorbikes at the dealer in Shibuya.
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Day 3 16 min
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8 minThe internet goes down at home. Ring the phone company's support line: spell
your name, read out your number and get a technician sent round.
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4 minMisaki, the student next door, adds Alex to the neighbours' group chat:
www, 草 and りょ, each with its
meaning a tap away.
- 4 minGo over the week's saved phrases at the desk at home.
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Day 4 18 min
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3 minIt's Thursday, and the neighbours meet about the street. The “Try it in
town” list has it at the top.
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15 minAlex makes the case for lamps on a dark corner, answers the neighbours'
doubts and wins the vote. Next day, the lamps are there.
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Day 5 17 min
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12 minEat at Hanako Shokudō in Shibuya and invite a friend along: get a table,
order, tell the cook what you think, and ask for the bill. No tip in Tokyo.
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5 minA stranger by Hachikō's statue in Shibuya asks Alex to take their photo, and
wants to chat.
Priya polishes Portuguese in São Paulo
Priya works with a team in Brazil and gets by fine in meetings, but wants to catch the jokes and sound like a
local. They play by voice on a phone, on the way to work.
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Day 1 17 min
- 9 minA C1 class with Professora Sônia, on sayings and idioms.
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8 minOn the square, an old-timer talks in nothing but sayings. Priya keeps up,
and the class comes off the “Try it in town” list.
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Day 2 18 min
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12 minA shift at the café, when two customers start arguing over a table, and
it's up to Priya to settle it.
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6 minThe friends' group chat is planning Sunday, full of
rolê and da hora. Priya weighs in.
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Day 3 16 min
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16 minIt's Thursday, and at C1 the neighbourhood meeting turns formal: Priya puts
a proposal, backs a motion and disagrees, politely, with a neighbour who'd spend the money elsewhere.
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Day 4 18 min
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10 minThe school asks Priya to give a short talk to the newcomers. Pick it from
the class list, and give it.
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8 minOpen the travel app and book three days in Brasília, ask the boss for the
days off, and ask Júlia, by now a close friend, to come along.
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Day 5 20 min
- 6 minCheck in at the desk, fly to Brasília and find the hostel.
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10 minWalk round the city with Júlia, stopping to talk about what you're seeing.
- 4 minBuy a souvenir at the stall for a friend back home.
Tips for short sessions
One talk still counts
Short on time? A single conversation moves you on. The words come back, and the diary picks it up.
Stuck? Note it
Tap Note it and say it in your own language. The conversation carries on, and you practise the natural way
to say it later.
Talk or type
Talk out loud when you can and type on the bus. Text conversations are always free.
Your level moves with you
When several talks in a row show you've moved up, the town notices. Classes, jobs and people move up with
you, all the way to C2.
Your first 15 minutes
Pick a city, make a character and check in. It's free, with nothing to install.