Afghanistan
The Pashto language has approximately 40 to 60 million native speakers.
It is one of the two official languages in Afghanistan (along with Dari) and is the language with the second largest number of native speakers in Pakistan (after Punjabi).
Learning Pashto is made easier by the fact that it is an Indo-European language. This means that there are similarities in vocabulary and grammar between Pashto and European languages.
The Pashto alphabet has 45 letters and uses a modified Arabic script.
Suitable for: Beginners and Advanced Learners, Students, Professionals
Content: 1300 words (basic course), 5200 words (complete course), complete grammar, verb conjugations, exercises
Prices: $59.95 (Basic Course), $127 (Complete Course)
Overall Value: 
The Pashto Basic Course contains a vocabulary trainer for the basic Pashto vocabulary (1300 words) with native-speaker audio, as well as grammar explanations and various exercises.
The vocabulary trainer works with a long-term memory method, in which the new vocabulary is checked at increasing intervals.
You can choose between text input, multiple choice or simply confirming whether you knew a word or not.
The exercises include text comprehension questions, filling in word gaps or just vocabulary lists where one side is covered.
The basic course corresponds to the official language levels A1 and A2 (explanation of CEFR language levels).
The Complete Course contains:
Summary: Much cheaper and even better than the famous Rosetta Stone. There is a free demo version available and a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Link: Pashto Basic Course and Complete Course
Content: Pashto vocabulary trainer (2000 words), lessons and exercises
Prices:
USD 12 (1 month all 160 languages)
USD 60 (12 months all 160 languages)
Discount offer: USD 199
(Lifetime Access to all 160 Languages)
Overall Value:
The uTalk app teaches about 2000 Pashto words and focuses primarily on playful exercises. There are several exercises to choose from:
The interface of the app is well made and is similar to other apps like Babbel, Duolingo or Mondly.
Summary: Getting access to 160 languages is impressive and the scope (2000 words with native speaker audio and exercises) is also solid.
Link: uTalk Pashto Language Course App
Content: Pashto lessons with native speaker audio
Prices: $14.99 (1 month), $79
(12 months), $149 (unlimited)
Overall Value: 
The Ling language learning app offers lessons for 60 languages and is quite similar to Duolingo or Babbel, which do not offer Pashto courses.
Ling uses "gamified learning", which means learning the Pashto language in a playful way. There are mini-games, levels, experience points, as well as tests and exercises at the end of each lesson.
The vocabulary covers about 1000 Pashto words and phrases, all with native speaker audio and pictures. Grammar is not included.
This app offers a test to determine your proficiency level in Pashto.
Summary: Good ideas that make learning Pashto more fun.
Link: Ling Pashto Language Course App
Content: Pashto video lessons and quiz tests
Prices: $12.99 (one course), $24.99 (4-7 courses bundle)
Overall Value: 
Cudoo is a kind of online university that offers courses with certificates on different topics.
This includes language courses for 160 languages. These are all beginner courses (CEFR level A1 and A2).
For each language there are 1-10 courses and each course has 20-40 lessons.
The lessons each include a short video with new vocabulary and there are short quiz questions below the video.
Summary: The videos are well made, so especially for smaller languages these courses are a good start.
Link: Cudoo Online Pashto Language Course
Content: Pashto lessons and vocabulary trainer with native speaker audio, grammar
Prices: $22 (1 month), $70 (12 months), $255 (unlimited)
Overall Value:
With the Memrise App you can learn over 90 languages.
This includes even very small languages - however, in such cases the language courses are often limited to just a few lessons.
One special feature of the Memrise learning app is the large number of lessons created by users (native speakers).
The quality of these lessons varies greatly though. For example, only the basic forms of verbs are usually taught, without the conjugations. Some languages also do not have an audio recording of the words at all.
Another good idea of the Memrise app are the user-generated tips and mnemonics for each word to help you memorize them.
Summary: User-generated lessons are a good idea. In practice, the quality of the lessons leaves a lot be desired.
Content: Pashto lessons and exercises with voice output and speech recognition
Prices: $9.99 (1 month), $100 (12 months), $200 (unlimited), $400 (163 languages)
Overall Value:
The Bluebird App offers 146 source languages and 163 target languages and dialects, including Pashto.
The Pashto language course in this app includes the following:
The Bluebird App does not have grammar lessons. Instead, you are supposed to understand the grammar "implicitly" from the examples, same as in Rosetta Stone.
Summary: The video lessons and the interface require some getting used to, but the exercises are quite varied. Especially for smaller languages, this app is an acceptable alternative.
Content: Pashto lessons with native speaker audio, grammar, culture
Prices:
USD 12 (1 month and 70 languages)
USD 120 (1 year and 70 languages)
Overall Value:
The Mango Languages App offers 70 languages, including Pashto.
This app also has some grammar lessons and cultural explanations. The explanations in English are all recorded and well done.
However, the number of lessons for learning Pashto is quite small, which means that this app is only suitable for absolute beginners.
There are no exercises, except for the repeated vocabulary tests.
You can also record your own pronunciation in the app and compare it with the recording of a native speaker.
Summary: Good quality, but not much vocabulary. Only for absolute Pashto beginners.
Suitabe for: Beginners, advanced, students, travel vocabulary
Content: Pashto lessons with native-speaker audio and speech recognition
Price: $120 (basic course)
Overall Value: 
The Pimsleur App is very similar to Rosetta Stone in that it does not give grammar explanations, verb conjugation tables, etc.
Instead, the Pimsleur method is supposed to let you learn the Pashto language intuitively, just like your native language - by combining pictures, reading and speaking (speech recognition).
This Pashto learning course for PCs and Macs also includes a mobile app for Android and iOS systems.
Pimsleur offers only initial Pashto lessons for beginners and has no intermediate or advanced lessons.
Summary: The most expensive Pashto beginners course, even though it is unlikely that learning with it is much better than with the cheaper apps.
Content: Pashto lessons and exercises
Prices: $19.99 (1 month), $40 (3 months), $60 (6 months)
Overall Value:
The Lingo Play App offers language courses for 70 languages. It offers "gamified learning", which means learning vocabulary in a playful way.
Each Pashto lesson offers the following exercises:
There is also a multiplayer mode and competitions where you can test your Pashto skills against other people.
Summary: Overpriced Pashto course that does offer some good exercises, but is not better than other similar apps.
Suitable for: Beginners and intermediate learners, travel vocabulary, business
Content: Pashto vocabulary lessons and exercises
Prices: $35 (Level 1), $55 (Level 1-3)
Overall Value:
The Instant Immersion Pashto learning software is available for download only for PCs and Macs.
According to the vendor, this software is supposed to be "as good as Rosetta Stone", but much cheaper because less money is spent on advertising.
Unfortunately, this promise cannot hold.
The software interface is chaotic and all three "language levels" offer a chaotic mix of easy and difficult words.
Essentially, this software only introduces new Pashto vocabulary with native speaker audio and pictures, and then there are a few exercises.
Pashto grammar is not included at all.
Summary: Limited scope and bad interface. At least it is relatively cheap and there is a 90-day money-back guarantee.
Content: Pashto lessons with native speaker audio and speech recognition, grammar
Prices: $35 (second language for free)
Overall Value: 
The Linguashop educational software ("TeachMe") is available for over 90 languages, including Pashto. It also includes an audio CD.
The native speaker audio and speech recognition are relatively good.
However, the interface of the learning software is quite chaotic and there are no exercises — only lessons where new vocabulary is presented.
It is also unclear how many words are included in this Pashto learning program. There is no information about this on the website.
Some grammar lessons are included — however, these are basically just images with short texts.
Summary: Poor quality for a relatively low price. You get language courses for two languages when you buy, one as a free bonus.
Colanguage: Find Skype teachers
Overall Value:
At Colanguage you can arrange face-to-face language lessons online via Skype with language teachers around the world (from $5-10 per hour).
In addition to using apps, it is definitely a good idea to also practice with native speakers in order to learn Pashto properly.
Tandem: Find a language exchange partner
Overall Value:
Instead of hiring teachers, you can also find people who are interested in a free language exchange online via Skype.
It is completely free of charge, but you have to act as a language teacher for the other person half of the time.
| Learning App | Subscription? | Price | Systems |
|---|---|---|---|
| 17 Minutes (Basics) |
Apps |
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| 17 Minutes (Complete) | Apps |
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| uTalk | Apps |
||
| uTalk |
month |
Apps |
|
| uTalk |
months |
Apps |
|
| Ling |
Apps |
||
| Ling |
month |
Apps |
|
| Ling |
months | Apps |
|
| Memrise | Apps |
||
| Memrise | month | Apps |
|
| Memrise | months | Apps |
|
| Cudoo (one course) |
Access |
||
| Cudoo (complete) |
Access |
||
| Bluebird |
Apps |
||
| Bluebird |
month |
Apps |
|
| Bluebird |
months |
Apps |
|
| Mango | month | Apps |
|
| Mango | months | Apps |
|
| Pimsleur (Basics) |
Apps |
||
| Lingo Play |
month |
Apps |
|
| Lingo Play |
months |
Apps |
|
| Instant Immersion (one course) | |||
| Instant Immersion (complete) | |||
| Linguashop |
Best Pashto Online Course:
17 Minute Languages
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