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Busuu review: the best combo of academic & social

March 21, 2022 by Jamie 1 Comment

Busuu is one of the most popular, recognized, and biggest language apps out there (so much so that they bought out Verbling, and are now owned by Chegg, a huge education company), and in this Busuu review, it will be made clear why it’s so well-liked. Get to know all of Busuu’s features and how to best use them for your own language learning so you can reach your language goals faster.

If after this Busuu review you find that it’s not the best solution for your language learning, I’ll also share some alternatives based on Busuu’s flaws so you can make the best choice for your languaeg learning.

Busuu review: languages offered

Busuu is available to learners of the most common foreign languages:

Arabic
Chinese
English
French
German
Italian

Japanese
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

Busuu is appropriate for all levels of these languages, making it accessible for language learners coming from all over. This is important because some of Busuu’s features are only successful because of its huge audience.

Without further ado, let’s take a look at Busuu and see if it’s the language app for you.

Busuu review: quality of lessons

Thanks to Busuu’s partnership with Chegg (a college education company), you can rely on Busuu for a high-quality education based on the CEFR levels (or Fluency Score, as they put it). Right from the start, this sets our expectations: Busuu is focused on academic use of the language, i.e. passing exams and textbook knowledge.

While many of us language learners have been taught that this is the only and/or best approach to learning languages, but it quite simply is not (always). If your goal is not an academic one, and you instead want to focus on being conversational as a priority…well, we’ll talk about this lower down in this Busuu review.

With this in mind, let’s take a look at Busuu’s first lesson to see how they execute their academic approach.

If you’re not a total beginner in the language, you have the option to take Busuu’s assessment. As a general rule, I take these online language level assessments with a grain of salt; no matter the platform, they’re almost always some variation of inaccurate. I recommend you do the same.

From the start, it’s clear that I was right about Busuu’s approach to learning a language! Very academic, very focused on using the language “correctly” and working towards the eventual goal of taking and passing an assessment.

Busuu’s assessment basically judges my ability in Spanish based on grammar, and much less so on things like communication or understanding. As such, I was really frustrated to be put at the A2 level in Spanish. I understand why – my A2 grammar is top-notch, and my intermediate is fairly functional but not quite textbook – but A2 is much too conservative, and I know that the content will be too easy.

It doesn’t seem like this would be too big of a deal, but in the past (and in the present for many language learners) I’ve followed these assessments, learned what they’ve told me to learn, and then quickly gotten bored and given up because of it.

After completing the assessment, you’re sent off to a comprehension lesson based on where Busuu thinks your level is. And keep watching, because I was genuinely shocked at the end to see some gamification.

As I assumed, the A2 level was boring and repetitive for me. The vocabulary was snooze-worthy, and I was not even the least bit challenged. This isn’t as much of a problem for me because I know how to solve the problem, but it can prove to be an insurmountable obstacle for language learners who are used to being bored and use this as further proof that they don’t like/are not good at learning languages.

Fortunately, Busuu allows you to switch lessons and attempt checkpoints at any time! You have to achieve at least 80% in this checkpoint, and the questions are pretty well-rounded. They prioritize grammar, of course, but also include other ways to use the language.

Regardless, I do really like the lessons themselves (once I get to my appropriate level!). Everything is very smooth and user-friendly, and the video comprehension questions make the language just a touch more 3-dimensional, too. I can tell that they’re trying to make a traditionally boring skill just a bit more engaging.

And like any intentional journey to learn a language, Busuu lessons end with a certificate! Unfortunately, official institutions will not accept a McGraw-Hill (another textbook company!) certificate from Busuu as proof of foreign language fluency.

You can use it as a resume builder for unrelated career paths, or you can frame it for your own personal pride, but it’s not the same as an official CEFR exam.

This certificate is also only available to paid users (which we’ll talk about more in a second).

Vocab review

Need to review? Busuu has a sleek way to have you review the vocabulary terms you come across in the lessons. The platform itself looks great, and I appreciate how you not only have to spell the words, but you also will be marked wrong if you don’t use appropriate accents, but there’s room for growth.

For one, I wish I could tell Busuu that I already know these terms. If I continued on with more at-level vocabulary, it would be easier to kick these easier terms out and focus on what would actually be helpful for me. I don’t see that option anywhere, though.

I do also wish you could add your own vocab! Assuming you’re using more than just Busuu to learn a language, or that you’re not a total beginner, it would be helpful to include other terms that you find off-platform. Spanishdict is an excellent example of this improvement.

Honestly, the fact that you can’t give Busuu any input whatsoever is a major bummer. These words are super easy for me (I told you I wasn’t A2!), and if I follow this lead, I’ll just be studying these terms that I already know until my eyes bleed.

Busuu community

Besides the frankly awesome lesson pathway, Busuu really excels with their community! You can only get so far in your language learning without actively using the language and making any kind of connections; fortunately, Busuu’s got you covered.

Click over to the “Community” tab to participate.

Here you have the opportunity to make connections with other language learners who can benefit from your native skills (hello, potential language exchanges!), as well as to practice your own use of the language in whichever way you see fit.

If your priority is communication, focus on the different ways to practice speaking. Likewise with written skills.

Whichever method of communication you want to improve, your response will be automatically submitted to the community, where native speakers can help correct you and encourage you along the way, just like you can encourage those practicing and learning your native language.

Wait a beat, check your notifications, and you’ll get a handful of corrections from the native-speaking community.

If you like, you can also go through and add respondents as friends and form a mutually-beneficial relationship where you correct each other’s submissions.

Finally, you can see all your corrections, submissions, and potential language friends by visiting your profile.

Busuu’s community may not be their primary talking point, but do yourself a favor and keep it in mind when you consider using Busuu to learn a new language! Even if this isn’t the only version of an online community for language learners, I think it blows communities like HelloTalk out of the water completely.

The difference between Busuu Premium and free

The bulk of Busuu is available for free to all, which is amazing! It’s awesome to see such a high-quality resource accessible to language learners of all different economic backgrounds. If you opt for Busuu Premium, you can also access:

No ads
Additional “fun” courses (travel, pronunciation, etc.)
AI-powered vocab review
Faster community feedback
The aforementioned Busuu certificates

These features are all not required for basic learning of the language. If you find them beneficial to your language learning and believe they would help keep you motivated, you’ll be happy to know that Busuu Premium is also very reasonably priced!

You can also start out with a 14-day free trial before you commit.

Click here to see updated pricing.

Busuu review: worth the hype for you?

Busuu’s success isn’t a mystery – it combines the academic approach to learning a language with a more motivating platform (meaning modern technology, not boring textbooks) and a strong community of other language learners to help keep you and your language learning on track.

If this sounds like your kind of language app, you can click here to get started with a free trial of Busuu Premium.

However, if grammar is not high on your list of priorities, you may find Busuu boring. If, for example, you want a stronger focus on conversational skills, you might consider finding a tutor on Verbling (which is owned by Busuu, fun fact!)

Or, if you like the structured, step-by-step approach to mastering a language but don’t want to rely so heavily on grammar, LingoDeer may be another option for you to consider.

Busuu vs Duolingo: do you want fun or functional?

March 20, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Busuu and Duolingo are two of the most popular language apps there are, so how do you make the choice when it comes to how to learn a language? In this post, let’s compare Busuu vs Duolingo, so you can make the best choice for your own language learning.

We’ll address each app’s flaws, where they shine, and which one is more likely to get your language learning where you want it to go.

Busuu vs Duolingo: languages

The following languages are available on both Busuu and Duolingo:

Arabic
Chinese
French
German
Italian
Japanese

Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

Busuu also offers English, and Duolingo’s list of languages is massive, so I’ll leave it to my Duolingo review.

Busuu vs Duolingo: finding your level

Both Duolingo and Busuu are appropriate for total beginners, and both honestly have similar systems. It may be surprising to see how Busuu has evolved to be easier and more addictive, like Duolingo has trained language learners to become.

Here’s Duolingo’s checkpoint test to fast-forward in your Learning Path.

And here’s Busuu’s version.

As you can see, Busuu isn’t actually very different from Duolingo. It’s smooth, easy, and focuses almost entirely on passive skills (i.e. learning to understand the gist of the language, not necessarily reproducing it).

This makes it a fairly easy transition for language learners who enjoy Duolingo, but are tired of the heavy gamification. Busuu does have some gamification, but the way that it’s implemented makes the process of learning a language smoother and more engaging, not just an addiction.

That said, what makes Duolingo and Busuu different?

Using your target language

The base core of learning languages on each language app is pretty similar. However, learning new words, grammar, and other concepts isn’t so hard – it’s using them that gets language learners stuck.

It’s very easy to present you with new information, but not so much to lead you to actively use and produce that information. Let me show you what I mean.

This feature of Duolingo, Stories, is the main way that they attempt to get you to use the language. These Stories are intertwined within the Learning Path, so you have to complete them when presented in order to continue to higher levels.

And even though it’s technically closer (I guess?) to real use of the language, it’s still pretty passive. You’re still tapping buttons, an activity you can do in the background of watching a movie or doing the dishes.

Here’s Busuu’s strategy for comparison.

The Busuu community is full of language learners who speak your target language natively, and use this skill to help critique your submissions and motivate you.

While you are prompted to submit something (whether it be an audio recording or a writing prompt, your decision) consistently after lessons, you don’t have to. I mean, obviously it’s a good idea, but you’re not going to be chastised if you just want to move on.

Suffice it to say, Busuu is much better for helping you to produce the language using the information they teach you.

What you’ll pay to access each language app

This comparison couldn’t be more simple (in theory): Duolingo is free, and Busuu is not.

Being free is very important to the Duolingo brand. While you can invest in a Premium membership, Duolingo states that they will never hide access to their content behind a paywall. Their goal is to make education free for all.

It’s the ads/gamification that is different with a Premium subscription, and many users claim that the Duolingo app becomes less and less usable for free members as time goes on. I personally can’t speak on that particular theory, but you should keep it in mind.

Busuu, on the other hand, is largely a paid app, and offers subscriptions from monthly to annually. You can see updated prices here. You can generally expect to pay $10-15 a month.

Duolingo or Busuu?

This is honestly a short review, but only because there’s not much to say about the difference between Busuu and Duolingo. Duolingo is addictive and surface-level, while Busuu is engaging and well-rounded.

This is one of those cases where the price point accurately reflects the quality of the service – if you’re willing to invest in your language learning just a little bit, Busuu will teach you exponentially more.

On the other hand, if you’d rather keep things fun, low-commitment, and flexible (this part being a reference to the sheer number of languages available to learn on Duolingo) Duolingo is excellent at keeping education accessible and consistent (many Duolingo users complain of addiction to their daily streak, despite not learning as much as they’d like).

If you want to learn more about either of these ways to learn a language, you can read my Duolingo review here, and my Busuu review here.

Busuu vs Babbel: minor differences, major implications

March 15, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Busuu and Babbel are in tight competition with each other. It can be difficult to compare the two because they are so similar (not to mention both being named 2-syllable words that start with ‘b’). So for language learners, which is better, Busuu vs Babbel?

In this blog post, we’ll focus on what each language app does differently, for better or for worse, so you can make an educated decision for your own language learning strategy.

Busuu vs Babbel: languages

Both Busuu and Babbel offer their content in the following languages:

English
French
German
Italian
Polish

Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish

You can also use Busuu to learn:

Arabic
Chinese
Japanese

and Babbel to learn:

Danish
Dutch
Indonesian
Norwegian
Swedish

Busuu vs Babbel: getting started with each app

Like many other apps to learn a language, Busuu and Babbel both give you the opportunity to assess your current level in the language. However, the way they do this is wildly different.

When assessing your skills, most language learning resources will provide you with a series of activities and see how far you can go before answering consistently incorrectly. This is exactly what Busuu does.

It’s a very simple, black-and-white, “either you know it or you don’t” kind of thing. Very academic.

And while I would also consider Babbel to be a more academic approach to learning a language, their assessment style is…decidedly not.

Here, Babbel is more focused on how your skills can be used in real-life scenarios. Here, Babbel is less focused on helping you get an A on an exam and more focused on what you can do with the information you already have.

When it comes to assessments like these (as in, assessments given by a computer), I’ll tell you what I tell my clients: don’t rely on these results too much. If the app does its tech right, these assessments will get the right level of activity for you, but it’s not a very reliable indicator of your skill in the language as a whole.

And this is an excellent display of this. Do you care more about acing a test or using these skills? How do you want to have your foreign language abilities judged?

Busuu vs Babbel: which skills you’ll build

To the unseasoned language learner, Busuu and Babbel seem to both be excellent quality apps. While this is true, there are some small yet important differences to consider when comparing to two, especially when it comes to which skills you’ll be building.

Let’s look at a Busuu lesson.

In this lesson, you follow along with a simple dialogue and then are tested on your comprehension of the conversation. Exercises like these are really helpful if you want to be able to understand conversations in a foreign language or watch foreign language movies.

These are important skills, but they’re not the only important skills.

One of my biggest critiques of Duolingo is that it’s a lot of button-pushing, not a whole lot of learning to use the language. And in this way, Busuu has the same problem.

To show you what I mean, here’s a Babbel lesson.

In one Babbel lesson, you’re using the content in a variety of different ways, including speaking and writing. Most language apps struggle to fit such a holistic approach into one system, but Babbel does it well!

If speaking and contributing to the language (not just understanding it) is important to you, this is a major distinction.

How each app reviews vocabulary

An important part of learning is the review, and both Babbel and Busuu have slightly different systems to do this. Each platform allows you the option to review instead of learning at any point, and these reviews are similar to their lessons.

For example, here’s a Busuu review session.

Busuu takes the vocabulary terms it’s shown you and has you actively write them out. This is very helpful for recall, as it forces your brain to think about it more deeply than it would if you were just constantly pushing buttons.

Let’s compare it to Babbel’s review.

I love that Babbel starts out by asking you how you’d like to practice. If you’re intentional about your language learning and are clear about what skills you want to develop, this is an A+ way to review.

This is opposed to Babbel, which does not give you any options. Writing out all the answers is excellent, but it can also be frustrating if spelling isn’t your priority.

Busuu vs Babbel: how you’ll practice having conversations

Likely the biggest way that these two apps differ is how you’ll practice using the things you learn in conversation. Neither is better nor worse than the other, but this difference can truly define which app is the better fit for you to learn a language.

Central to the Busuu experience is the community. As you complete your lessons, you’ll be led to submit a recording or written prompt (your choice) to Busuu’s community. You also have the option to truly invest time into Busuu’s community and build up your conversation skills.

This is a hugely important part of the Busuu experience because there are so many options to use the language you’re learning in engaging ways. It’s always your decision when to practice and how in easy, 5-minute exercises that are not just pushing buttons.

Assuming you take the time to build up some relationships and connect with other community members, your functional language skills will skyrocket.

Babbel takes a different approach with their new group lesson service, Babbel Live.

While Babbel focuses on short, community-driven practice sessions that you can execute in whatever ways you need to in your own time, Babbel gets you in front of professional teachers that will lead you appropriately and correct your mistakes.

These are very different strategies, so here’s a basic pros/cons list to help you understand your best fit.

Babbel Live

Professional support
Scheduled lessons = accountability
Labor-intensive
Expensive over time

Busuu community

Convenient for any schedule
Flexible activities
Unreliable feedback
Less structured focus

How much do they cost?

Both Babbel and Busuu are premium apps. They’re not free, but they’re also not outrageously expensive. If you’re in a position to invest in your language learning, the prices are worth it.

That said, the apps themselves are similarly priced. Their subscription lengths may differ, but the price you pay monthly/yearly/whatever is essentially the same.

You can find updated Busuu prices here, and subscription prices for the Babbel app here.

Babbel Live is a different, more expensive subscription, but real access to language teachers is going to cost more (and be worth more) than an app. Check Babbel Live prices here.

Busuu vs Babbel: make your choice

Now that we’ve compared Busuu vs Babbel in different ways, it should be clear which language app is the better fit for you.

Babbel is considerably more flexible, as it’s always asking you how you want to complete your activities, so you’re always building the skills you want to build. And if you spring for Babbel Live, you’ll be held accountable by your teachers in your lessons to not only study, but also to study correctly.

On the other hand, Busuu’s lessons are a lighter touch, closer to Duolingo’s method of tapping away. It’s not quite so surface level, though, as you can use Busuu’s huge online community of language learners to help correct you and keep you accountable.

Still can’t decide?

You can learn more in my review of Busuu here, or my Babbel review here.

Babbel vs Duolingo: only one will truly teach you languages

March 15, 2022 by Jamie 7 Comments

Babbel vs Duolingo are two of the most popular language-learning resources on the market. While they’re both great for language learning in general and have really nice platforms, each of them has a different approach. This review will help you decide which app to use to learn a language

We’ll compare behind-the-scenes looks into the apps themselves and see what you can expect from each way to learn a language.

Languages

Babbel and Duolingo both offer a wide variety of languages, which means some significant overlap. Both apps can be used to learn:

Danish
Dutch
French
German
Indonesian
Italian
Norwegian

Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish

The only other language that Babbel supports that Duolingo does not is English. Otherwise, the list of Duolingo languages is honestly massive. Because all the other languages cannot be compared to Babbel, I’ll let you read more in my Duolingo review.

It’s also important to know that not all languages are equal, especially on Duolingo. While you can spend months learning Spanish on Duolingo, a newer language won’t have as much content. Babbel is much more likely to have some uniformity in their languages.

Babbel vs Duolingo: what you’ll learn

The first significant difference between Babbel and Duolingo is the approach each language app takes to teach you a new language. In simplest terms, Duolingo is much more of a game, while Babbel is closer to a high-tech textbook.

In this lesson, while it’s obviously more intermediate (as in, you’re completing sentences, not just matching words with pictures), it’s important to realize that this is all still passive. You’re consuming the language and expressing that you understand it, but that’s only one piece of the puzzle.

This is an important flaw because many language learners get this far into their Duolingo learning path, but end up frustrated because they can understand a lot more than they can communicate themselves.

A surefire way to know that you’re not developing your speaking skills is if you’re not spending a lot of time speaking. Duolingo gives you a little bit of opportunity with some speech recognition exercises, but it’s definitely not enough to truly build those skills.

To compare, here’s a Babbel lesson at a similar level.

The lessons aren’t wildly different, but they are different enough that as you continue through them, you’ll end up with very different skills. You’ll find yourself tired after a few minutes of Babbel, because you’re working your brain and having to figure out the language, not just press the right button.

With Duolingo, you can expect to nail down a solid routine (shout out to that anxiety you get when you’re about to lose your streak!) and be able to understand quite a bit.

With Babbel, your skill set will be more complex, and you’ll be able to do more with the language. It’ll be less fun and less motivating over the short term, but if you can stay reasonably consistent in the long term, you’ll be great.

Duolingo Stories vs Babbel Live

Babbel and Duolingo’s lessons are similar, but the way that each app helps language learners to “immerse” in the target language is vastly different.

With Duolingo, each language has a “Learning Path”, which is essentially a handful of lessons followed by Duolingo Stories. These Stories used to be a separate activity from the Duolingo tree, but now they’re stuck right into the Learning Path, and you’re required to complete them to continue to the next lessons.

Objectively, this is a more helpful strategy to make sure you’re getting more realistic practice.

As you can see, Duolingo Stories takes you through a real-life conversation, so you can see the language in action. It’s still just tapping buttons and figuring out just the general gist of the conversation, but it’s a step closer to functional use of the language, and a step is a step.

In recent years, Babbel has taken a much larger step towards connecting language learners to useful skills: Babbel Live. This feature (outside the Babbel app) makes it easier for language learners to work with professional teachers in group classes.

These are online classes with real-life language teachers who have the material to support your language learning right alongside the lessons you’re learning inside the app.

Unlike Duolingo’s Stories, Babbel Live classes are not required; in fact, they’re an extra subscription (more on that below).

Babbel vs Duolingo: price

When comparing Babbel vs Duolingo, the biggest difference is the price.

One of the major parts of Duolingo’s brand as a whole is that its app is free. There are ways to pay, but you will never be restricted from educational material if you don’t want to or are unable to pay.

While this is true, many language learners believe that Duolingo intentionally changes their app so that it’s next to impossible to use without a paid subscription. Whether this is true, I can’t say, but it is worth noting when comparing paying for Babbel with Duolingo’s paid subscription.

On the other hand, the Babbel app is a paid service, through and through. You can see updated prices here.

Babbel Live, the group coaching platform, is another paid service. Here’s Babbel Live’s prices. Fortunately, if you do invest in a Babbel Live subscription, they throw in full access to the app for free!

Duolingo is always free, Babbel is not (especially not Babbel Live).

Which one?

After comparing Babbel vs Duolingo’s lessons, goals, immersion activities, and price, it should be pretty clear which language app you should be using.

At the end of the day, Duolingo is free and fun, but it’s important to remember that it’s designed to make you feel like you’re making more progress than you really are. And unfortunately, most language learners don’t realize it until they’ve spent many hours in the app and then try to participate in a conversation.

You can learn more in my Duolingo review here.

Babbel is much more structured and is designed to help you build practical skills. Babbel’s primary goal is real-life, functional skills, in a way that’s logical but not boring. It’s not for everyone, but if you decide that Babbel is your best bet, the app (and Babbel Live) will get you far.

Read more about both in my Babbel review here.

Glossika review: for all your repetition needs

February 6, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Glossika is a highly engaging way to learn 60+ different languages. It does this with AI-supplemented sentences, high-quality audio, and a variety of different types of exercises. In this Glossika review, let’s take a walkthrough of the platform and discuss who can benefit most and who won’t.

And if Glossika doesn’t look like your kind of language app, keep scrolling to see some Glossika alternatives.

Glossika review: available languages

As mentioned, Glossika offers courses in 60+ languages:

Arabic (Egypt)
Arabic (Morocco)
Arabic (Standard)
Armenian (Eastern)
Azerbaijani
Belarusian
Bengali (India)
Bulgarian
Cantonese (HK)
Catalan
Chinese (Mandarin)(Beijing)
Chinese (Mandarin)(Taiwan)
Croatian (Štokavian)
Czech
Danish
Dutch
English (British)
Estonian
Filipino (Tagalog)
Finnish (SW dialect)
French
Gaelic
Georgian
German
Greek
Hakka (Hailu)
Hakka (Sixian)
Hebrew
Hindi
Hokkien
Hungarian
Icelandic
Indonesian

Irish
Italian
Japanese
Kazakh
Korean
Kurdish (Sorani)
Latvian
Lithuanian
Manx
Mongolian
Norwegian (Nynorsk)
Persian
Polish
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Portuguese (European)
Russian
Serbian (Ekavian)
Slovak
Slovenian
Spanish (Mexican)
Spanish (Castilian)
Swahili
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Ukrainian
Uzbek
Vietnamese (Northern)
Vietnamese (Southern)
Welsh
Wenzhounese

And because Glossika cares about language preservation, a few of them are available for free; you don’t get all the benefits of a paid membership, but you do get unlimited spaced repetition practice to do your part to keep these languages alive.

We’ll talk about that more at the end.

Glossika review: the placement test

To start with Glossika, you can first opt to take a placement test. It’s a very simple test: listen to a few audio recordings of sentences, and select the sentence that you hear. If it ever gets too hard, you can always let Glossika know that you need to start from that level.

Unfortunately, like most placement tests, it’s pretty useless.

While the audio recordings themselves are very clear and high quality (the same goes for the usability of Glossika as a whole), I’d rather they just toss the whole thing.

The sentences are so different that all you need to do is recognize one single word at the beginning to answer correctly. This is regardless of whether you understood the statement itself or could even create it – you can see towards the end of the above video that I could answer correctly based on literally the first word.

And that’s beside the fact that it’s only testing listening (despite claiming to exercise all the language skills) and didn’t even attempt to test me beyond B2. Where the placement test is concerned, I’d rather they just ask me directly.

Glossika review: learning new phrases

Glossika teaches users a new language by introducing new sentences that are useful in day-to-day life. You’ll learn to understand the language implicitly, as opposed to learning new vocabulary words and grammatical terms piece by piece.

You’ll learn 5 phrases like this at a time, through reading, writing, listening, and speaking, as well as using spaced repetition.

Glossika lessons follow this format:

The new phrase is presented written in both your source and target language
You hear a recording of the phrase in both languages, so you can follow along
You type out the phrase in the foreign language
You reread the phrase just in the foreign language
You record yourself saying the phrase in the foreign language

As you can see, you got these phrases drilled into your brain really well. It doesn’t seem to be wildly sensitive to mistakes (I didn’t use any capital letters or accents, for example) which can be a significant drawback if you don’t get used to spelling appropriately, especially with Spanish.

Glossika is very customizable, which is a plus; for example, you can opt out of speaking practice if it’s not convenient for you at the moment, or you can turn the English translation on or off. The only problem is that these customizations aren’t obvious.

Another example: this next video was actually my first attempt at a lesson with Glossika.

I didn’t realize that it had automatically been set to “listening mode” until I started clicking around. There’s no tutorial showing you these options, nor any attempt to even let you know they’re there, so you’ll have to do some experimenting for yourself.

Maybe there’s an option to require correct accents somewhere? If there is, it’s not obvious.

Another helpful setting that Glossika didn’t tell me: if any of the phrases are too easy for you, just click the smiley face, and they’ll be taken out of the cycle.

Nonetheless, if used appropriately, this approach can provide language learners with a very well-rounded language education.

As a whole, I do love Glossika’s approach! In general, it’s engaging, modern, and really attractive.

Glossika’s “reps”

If you hang around Glossika’s Facebook group enough, you’ll see tons of talk about “reps”. The basic idea is that Glossika teaches through repetition, and your mastery of any given phrase or sentence can be defined by how many reps you’ve completed.

With Glossika’s approach, if you repeat their sentences enough times, you’ll master the language! How many times? According to this page here:

25,000 Reps → Speak sentences comfortably
50,000 Reps → Start engaging in casual conversations at natural speeds
75,000 Reps → Start honing skills with more specialized topics
100,000 Reps → Mastery level where you can say just about anything

This is Glossika’s version of spaced repetition (also known as SRS). This concept is not unique to Glossika; it’s when a computer program predicts how easy or difficult any given term or phrase is for you. If it’s easy, and you get it correct, it puts that term to the side until it thinks you’re just about to forget it. Then it shows you that phrase again, therefore getting that phrase from your short-term to long-term memory.

Does this make sense? Sure. Using this strategy, could you theoretically boil down a language to a specific number [of repetitions]? Makes sense.

The problem is (and this is my personal opinion), repeating the same phrases tens of thousands of times is insanely boring.

You’ll practice each phrase 5 times at a minimum, more often if you’re struggling with it. This strategy is great for the more logical and scientific of minds, less so for those needing more entertainment.

Don’t get me wrong, repetition is very important for every language learner. But for my own personal needs, this level of repetition drives me crazy.

Using your stats

Glossika is very scientifically-lead, so their stats are a bit more interesting than most. For one, I love this feature of the “Memory” tab.

Note: I don’t know if the audio problems are because of my device, or a Glossika error.

As I was doing my spoken reps, I honestly didn’t realize that my audio was actually being recorded, so I was disappointed at first. However, going back into this section I can listen to myself repeating the phrase, and compare it to Glossika’s native audio.

This is a helpful strategy called “shadowing”, where you learn to mirror your pronunciation of a foreign language based on an audio clip. Honestly, it’s pretty tough to come by, which is strange considering it’s a simple way for any given language learning app to help you practice speaking a foreign language.

Another interesting feature: you can choose the topics of Glossika’s sentences.

I appreciate being able to tell Glossika that I have absolutely no interest in talking about the military or science. It’s not quite enough to make the approach less boring (again, as a personal opinion and not at all an objective one), but every little option that users can mess with is a bonus.

Glossika’s pricing

Glossika offers free trials to all new users, and then offers 2 pricing tiers: $30/month for unlimited reps in unlimited languages, and about half that per month to only change your language once every 30 days.

This new lower tier is brand new as of this Glossika review, and I’m very happy to see the compromise to make language learning more accessible!

And finally, in an effort to promote minority languages, the following languages are 100% free to all users:

Catalan
Gaelic
Hakka (Sixian)
Hakka (Hailu)
Kurdish (Sorani)

Manx
Welsh
Taiwanese
Wenzhounese

If going through this Glossika review convinces you to give it a try (more on that below), I highly recommend you at least spring for your free trial. No credit card is required!

Glossika review: who it’s for

Glossika is beautiful, smooth, and high quality, but it’s not for everyone. For one, Glossika does not start from 0, with basic vocabulary and grammar. Instead, you’ll start with beginner phrases. It’s more of the “figure it out as you go” approach, as opposed to the “1+1=2” one.

If you’re a big fan of repetition, Glossika is great for a wide variety of language learners, especially how well they tackle all the language skills. The advanced customization is a huge plus, too, as long as you’re tech-savvy enough to figure it out for yourself.

But if you want usability with a less…sterile approach, you’re not alone. If that’s the case, I might recommend Busuu, which connects the language more by way of living, breathing community, as well as more explicit language lessons.

Hooked on Glossika and want to give it a try? Click here to start your free trial!

Rocket Languages review: scripts from 0-fluent

February 6, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Rocket Languages is a genuinely well-rounded way to learn languages that has the potential to help language learners achieve many different kinds of goals. In this Rocket Languages review, we’ll walk through some lessons and talk about what Rocket Languages does well, not so well, and if it’s a resource you should consider.

Language options

You can use Rocket Languages to learn:

American Sign Language
Arabic
Chinese (Mandarin)
English (American)
French
German
Hindi
Italian

Japanese
Korean
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Russian
Spanish

For this Rocket Languages review, let’s test Rocket Languages Spanish.

Rocket Languages review: level 1 interactive audio

Rocket Languages has its material organized into 3 levels (as well as some other courses for practice, depending on the language), and each of those levels has its own dashboard. Starting with the very first lesson in the very first dashboard, you’ll learn the very first phrases you’ll ever need: how to say ‘hello’.

First, you’ll get an audio file introducing you to everything, all in English (which makes sense, considering if you’re starting at level 1, you probably don’t understand much Spanish). It’ll introduce you to that first conversation.

Or, as I did in the video below, simply skip past the English introduction and jump right into the audio itself.

I do love the modernized interface – you have complete control over the speed of the audio, which part of the audio you’re listening to, and have a clickable transcript for us visual learners. You can also download the mp3 for independent practice without having to go back into the course itself.

I still don’t like how much if it is in English (that’s my main issue with the Pod101 series, too), but it is easy enough to skip past it and get right into the goods.

Regardless, this script is very slow – excellent for beginners, but not for you if you have experience with the language (at least, not level 1). But you’ll go through a normal greeting conversation with some helpful tips: how native speakers speak, any important cultural knowledge, etc.

If this is too slow for you (and you’ve already purchased the course), you can jump right to the lessons at your level. There is no need to complete any lessons – move around Rocket Languages as you please.

Next, you’ll take that same conversations and break it down even more for you to act out both sides of the dialogue.

In this first lesson, you get an incredibly simplistic conversation, and a ton of options for digesting said conversation:

Play the conversation
Play Mauricio’s side of the conversation (for you to role-play as Amy)
Play Amy’s side of the conversation (for you to role-play as Mauricio)
Play each individual piece of dialogue independently
Record yourself saying each individual piece of dialogue independently

This offers fresh new beginners plenty of opportunities to learn the way that they need to learn. And if it’s too easy for you (which is totally understandable – this is at a snail’s pace), click the gear at the upper right-hand corner to manage the settings.

With these extra settings either checked or unchecked, you can give yourself more of a challenge by:

Blurring the English translation (practice thinking in the language)
Blurring the Spanish text (practice listening comprehension)
Removing a word or character for a fill-in-the-blank
Having Rocket Languages grade your recording

In these sections, Rocket Languages uses speech recognition to grade your pronunciation. I generally don’t like to rely on this tech, but I do like being able to see what it thinks I’m saying.

After this “extra vocabulary” section – vocab that is relevant to this conversation but doesn’t actually appear in it – it’s time to “make it stick with Rocket reinforcement”! Using the same conversation, you’ll continue to:

flashcards
more speech recognition
transcription (type the statements)
verbal translation (see the English words, say them in the target language)
multiple choice quiz

In all these reinforcement tools, Rocket Languages also prompts you to report how easy or difficult any given term is! This is my absolute favorite and I wish I saw it more.

It keeps track of what you’re learning, kind of like Anki and LingoDeer do – literally just tell Rocket Languages how well you know the term. Then, once you’re through with those flashcards, you have the option to just study the more difficult ones again.

It’s important to notice that the transcription exercise corrects you if you don’t use appropriate accents. Always write the language correctly – the accents are more than just annoying pronunciation marks.

But, at the same time, whether you got it right is completely self-reporting. So technically you could just not make an effort to use the accents, but they did their due diligence to tell you. If you don’t have an accurate understanding of the language, that’s on you.

Language & culture lessons

On the dashboard, under the “interactive audio” lessons, you’ll find “language & culture” lessons. These lessons are here to give you some key background information of the language, including pronunciation tips, grammatical patterns, and more.

Basically, this is where Rocket Languages takes important knowledge that can be dry (and therefore normally avoided), and applies it to their methodology to make it a bit more intriguing.

For example, the first lesson explains the difference between the B and V sound in Spanish – it’s not a make or break kind of thing, but definitely helpful for pronunciation.

This is honestly great – most resources don’t explain things like the alphabet from the get go, as most resources (as well as most learners) don’t tend to find these things important.

Interactive audio level 3

As we’ve already seen, level 1 is very, very slow and simple, great for total beginners. Rocket Languages is broken up into 3 levels, so how advanced does level 3 get?

Honestly, more advanced than I’d expected!

This particular conversation is around an upper-intermediate level. Considering how slow and simple the first level was, I’m pleasantly surprised by the content here. It’s played at a decent speed as well, and very clearly.

If you want a more native-level speed, you’ll have to find native content.

If you want to challenge yourself more (which I highly recommend if it’s not too much of a stretch for you), go into the gear icon and turn off the English translations. At this level, your comprehension likely can take a bit more pushing – do it if you can.

My only issue is that “cheesy” clarity. For some it may be beneficial, as it’s easier to understand, but it’s almost unrealistic unless you’re in an elementary school classroom.

However, this doesn’t reflect on the approach as a whole, which I tend to agree with. For example:

Grammar isn’t crucial to being able to make yourself understood in a conversation.

I mean, it’s true. If conversing fluently is your goal, you don’t have to be too concerned over grammar. Which is probably why they don’t formally address grammar at all. It’s nodded at in contextual examples, but that’s about it.

Nonetheless, I don’t see you ever running out of conversational practices. Once you’re done with all 3 levels, you can click on to “Travelogues” for even more conversational practice: 20-30 minutes of advanced-level conversation, where you need to actively go to the English version if you want the translation.

Rocket Languages review: pricing

I can honestly say that Rocket Languages is a high quality resource, which means it comes at a high quality price. You can spend a couple of hundred dollars for all 3 levels, or if you don’t plan on needing every level, you can lower the price by purchasing courses individually.

Click here to see up-to-date prices.

Buying Rocket Languages includes access to only 1 language.

If this Rocket Languages review shows you that this may very well be the best language learning resource for you, that price tag may make you a bit nervous. Keep in mind that not only does that price include lifetime access to all updates, but you can also always trial the first few lessons of any course for free (this review is based on those very same trial lessons).

The first free lessons, at every level, are available to you forever. No obligation, no nothing.

Who can benefit most from Rocket Languages?

Rocket Languages is a very well-rounded resource that can take you from day 0 of your language to a pretty advanced level for one program. It presents a variety of different ways to study, based on what’s engaging and important to you, with no obligation to use any of them if you don’t want to.

However, if you need fun sounds, bright colors, and heavy gamification, Rocket Languages’ clear, lightweight activities won’t keep you interested.

Same for those who want a thorough knowledge of grammar – you’ll get a basic idea/feel for grammar, but you’re mostly left to pick up patterns implicitly without drills or grandiose explanations.

Otherwise, if you have a bit of cash to invest in your language learning and want to engage almost all the senses no matter where you are in your journey, click here to give Rocket Languages a try.