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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.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone: how to choose

March 20, 2022 by Jamie 48 Comments

The conversation of Babbel vs Rosetta Stone depends completely on what kind of language learner you are, and how far you want to go with your language.

Rosetta Stone, for example, is great for ultimate beginner learners who just want to get to tourist-level understanding, while Babbel is for much more intensive learners.

But, if that doesn’t answer the question of Babbel vs Rosetta Stone for you, let’s go into detail. Both resources are genuinely high quality and very useful, but neither is for every single type of language learner.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone: languages

First things first, which language(s) are you interested in learning? Both Babbel and Rosetta Stone teach:

Dutch
English
French
German
Italian
Polish

Portuguese (Brazilian)
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish

Rosetta Stone also covers:

Arabic
Chinese
Tagalog
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Irish
Japanese
Korean
Latin
Farsi
Vietnamese

And Babbel has:

Danish
Indonesian
Norwegian

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone: lesson format

Both languages apps are structured very similarly…but there are key differences.

For example, Rosetta Stone is much more simple. It’s designed for the simplest goals: tourist level of the language. The lessons are static, and you know exactly what you’re going to get. You’ll also be consistently drilled several times over.

This is excellent for beginner language learners without any experience who need to get used to repetition, but boring for those with experience.

Babbel, on the other hand, is more responsive to your answers. If you keep getting something wrong, it’ll bring it up again and again until you get it. Plus, the content is going to go much more advanced, considering it’s built to be more textbook-like.

Babbel leads you through significantly less repetition than Rosetta Stone. Babbel does it SRS (Spaced Repetition) style, where you see more difficult terms more often; Rosetta Stone has a set number of repetitions for you to get through in every lesson.

If you try Rosetta Stone, you’ll learn very quickly if the repetition is too much for you, or if it’s exactly what you need.

From here, it’s pretty evident that Rosetta Stone and Babbel come from very different beginnings: Rosetta Stone being 3-figure-investment CD sets, Babbel being one of the first language learning apps.

Babbel vs Rosetta Stone: levels

As mentioned, Rosetta Stone is only going to get you so far. Babbel will get you…well, farther than that.

The first sign: Babbel asks you to assess your current level. And interestingly enough, the whole thing is in English!

On the other hand, Rosetta Stone doesn’t attempt to assess your level at all. Instead, it presents you with the lessons available and lets you choose the one that you think matches up with your current skill level. This approach is ideal for complete beginners.

Rosetta Stone’s static lessons follow the subject-verb-noun sentence structure all the way through its advanced content. It is engaging and well-rounded and helps you learn to use the language in more than one way, but it still maintains the same, identical patterns regardless of content.

This isn’t a problem if you just want to use the language to communicate simply, maybe for an upcoming trip or something. More experienced learners, however, will get bored quickly.

Rosetta Stone will get you speaking and understanding fast because of its real-life content; Babbel builds your skills over the long term because they’re being built to be more flexible, and useful in a variety of contexts (reading books, watching TV, etc.).

This isn’t to say Babbel doesn’t provide a real-life education, though, but we’ll talk about that later.

Language learning journeys: Rosetta Stone vs Babbel

One of the most important things to keep in mind is where your language learning app is going. It is worth noting here that the exact content from language to language isn’t going to necessarily match.

Like with any other language app, more popular foreign languages are going to be more developed. It’s a simple supply/demand thing. Regardless, here’s how the Spanish courses compare.

Babbel does offer support for more niche interests than Rosetta Stone, at least with languages as popular as Spanish.

However, Rosetta Stone, again, drills its lessons thoroughly. This leaves less room for the fun stuff or other needs you may have.

Speaking practice

If being able to speak your target language is important to you, it’s just as important to choose a language app that will support that goal. So when it comes to learning to speak, how do Babbel and Rosetta Stone compare?

While Rosetta Stone was offering live coaching for a minute, I’m guessing it never really took. At the time of this review, Rosetta Stone is limited to the tech in their app.

On the other hand, Babbel’s coaching system, Babbel Live, seems to be going strong! Basically, every month you can join a certain number of small group classes (limited to 6 participants) with a Babbel teacher where you can get real-life conversational practice.

*Note that a Babbel Live subscription is separate from the Babbel app, but if you pay for Babbel Live, you get the app thrown in free. The Babbel app is priced similarly to the Rosetta Stone app.

Which is your next language app?

While both Rosetta Stone and Babbel are pretty huge language learning apps and are insanely well-known within the language learning industry, they’re actually quite different from each other and serve wildly different needs.

Rosetta Stone is simple. It’ll get you to basic conversations pretty quickly, and will drill you again and again until the lessons truly sink into your long-term memory. And even if you want to eventually go into more intermediate content, Rosetta Stone is still a high quality start.

Babbel is more flexible. It follows your lead and gives you only the information that you need when you need it. Plus, the skills you learn from Babbel can be easily applied to any language learning goals you may have.

Made your choice?

If Rosetta Stone sounds more like your speed, you can learn more about it in my Rosetta Stone review or click here to get started.

Alternatively, if Babbel makes more sense, you can find my Babbel review right here, or click here to try the app.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone: the most important comparison

March 20, 2022 by Jamie 3 Comments

Comparing Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone is pretty close to comparing apples and oranges. They’re both great for starting new languages from scratch, but the way it’s done could not be more different. It all has to do with what exactly you want to get out of your first experiences with your new language.

Let’s compare Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone to see how best to start your language learning journey.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone: available languages

Duolingo and Rosetta Stone both teach the following languages:

Arabic
Chinese (Mandarin)
Dutch
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Irish
Italian

Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish
Vietnamese

Additionally, Duolingo teaches:

Czech
Esperanto
Finnish
Hawaiian
Hungarian
Indonesian
Navajo
Norwegian
Swahili
Ukrainian
Welsh

Rosetta Stone also supports:

Farsi
Latin
Tagalog

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone: lessons

Both Rosetta Stone and Duolingo are built to teach languages from the beginning, but the way that they do that is very different. If you’ve gotten bored over time using Duolingo, I’ll show you how Rosetta Stone is much better at keeping you on your toes.

Duolingo

Duolingo’s bread and butter is short, easy-to-accomplish lessons. They’re around 5 minutes long, and are meant to be addictive; you get through one lesson, and it’s so easy that you keep playing for another 5 minutes…and another, and another.

The point is that Duolingo gets you addicted, fast.

Rosetta Stone

In recent years, Rosetta Stone has also caught up to this more modern, easy-to-accomplish approach, while still maintaining the challenge.

That is to say that Rosetta Stone is not brainless. It’ll get you thinking pretty hard for those 5 minutes by stretching your ability to come up with the language itself and limiting the multiple choice.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone: your goals

How do you want to use the language you’re learning? What skills are important for you to build? What do you want to be able to do with it after finishing with your language app (if you do finish – both apps teach enough languages to last anyone a lifetime, honestly)?

Your answer to these questions will help you understand which language app will get you closer.

Duolingo

Duolingo is tricky because it’s so good at what it’s supposed to do (be addictive) that many users misunderstand how it’s meant to be used.

Really, Duolingo’s first job is to start a habit and keep the motivation going strong.

Teaching you basic grammar is secondary, honestly.

That said, I would recommend Duolingo if you’re interested in playing around with the languages a little bit and getting used to the patterns and the flow of the language. However, don’t expect Duolingo to get you farther than it’s meant to.

Start a habit, but also keep a healthy distance from the addiction of it.

Rosetta Stone

On the other hand, Rosetta Stone is much better at this part. It’s designed to get you using the language, starting from some basic vocab and ending with useful statements that are simple, but still teach your brain to function in the language.

Rosetta Stone is still for beginners, though, and cannot be expected to teach languages beyond a tourist level of the language. It’s much more adept at doing this than Duolingo, though.

Using your language skills

As you learn a language using either Rosetta Stone or Duolingo, the activities you’re led through have you build your new language skills in slightly more difficult ways. Here’s how each language learning resource does this.

Duolingo

While Duolingo does build up a little bit, it does focus more on the gist of the language. This is evident in comprehension questions like this.

While you do need to know the vocabulary here and the general idea behind some grammar points, this activity is about answering broad questions. While this isn’t inherently a problem, it can cause some language learners to be frustrated that they don’t understand as much as they would like to.

For example, while you may be able to understand the question just enough to answer it, you’ll be disappointed if you try to reproduce it for yourself. This is because Duolingo focuses almost entirely on passive skills, without supplementing the practice required to be able to express yourself in the language.

Rosetta Stone

The thing that makes Rosetta Stone difficult (in a good way) is that it leads you to use the language in a variety of different formats. While it starts out with matching simple phrases with pictures just like Duolingo, it follows up by having you express those phrases yourself.

What many language learners tend to forget is that in order to improve your ability to speak a new language, you need to practice speaking; while a beginner may not be ready to jump into a conversation, simply repeating phrases out loud starts to train your brain to get used to those conversations.

So in activities like those shown above, Rosetta Stone leads to more “useful” use of the language than Duolingo does. You’ll start producing the language much more quickly than the simple button-pressing of Duolingo.

Duolingo vs Rosetta Stone: price

Historically, Duolingo and Rosetta Stone have come and very dramatically different price points. Times are always changing, though, so here are the price points as of this review’s most recent revision.

Duolingo

Another feature that is major to the Duolingo brand is that it’s free. Duolingo’s thing is that they want education to be free and available to all, which is an awesome initiative. While there are paid options for Duolingo users, you won’t be blocked off from any of the lessons with a free account.

Of course, just like Rosetta Stone, Duolingo is a business, which means it needs to make money. Over the years, as its business model has shifted, many free users are worried that the changes make the app less and less usable over time.

Rosetta Stone

Gone are the days of spending hundreds of dollars for Rosetta Stone CDs – it’s the 21st century, and Rosetta Stone has been forced to modernize their pricing to compete with apps like Duolingo.

Just like many other language apps, Rosetta Stone has switched to monthly, annual, and lifetime memberships. Now Rosetta is cheaper…as long as you get through the material in a reasonable amount of time.

Nonetheless, even if you do keep your subscription to Rosetta Stone going, it’ll be a few years before you spend as much as you would have had to spend in prior decades.

Which is better for you?

While Duolingo and Rosetta Stone are both great choices for beginner language learners, they also offer wildly different experiences.

Duolingo can be a great way to get in the habit of learning a language, but be careful about getting addicted to earning XP and using those fun colors and sounds to overinflate your actual ability. Read more about Duolingo here.

While Rosetta Stone is less “fun” and a bit more difficult to accomplish, it’ll draw out your ability to use a new language much better. You’ll finish Rosetta Stone feeling much more confident in your abilities to learn a language. Click here to learn more about Rosetta Stone.

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.

Pimsleur vs Rosetta Stone: from CD sets to apps

March 15, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone are unique in the language learning world for a few reasons, but most notably are how old they are. They’ve both been around since long before the internet and are still kicking to this day. So how do Pimsleur vs Rosetta Stone compare?

Between Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone, which language learning resource is best for you? Let’s take a look at what their lessons are like, what they teach you, and more so that you can decide on your next language app.

Pimsleur vs Rosetta Stone: languages

You can use either Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur to learn:

Arabic
Chinese
Dutch
English
Farsi
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Irish
Italian

Japanese
Korean
Polish
Portuguese (Brazilian)
Russian
Spanish (Castilian)
Spanish (Latin American)
Swedish
Tagalog
Turkish
Vietnamese

Rosetta Stone also can be used to learn Latin, and Pimsleur offers double the above list. You can check my Pimsleur review to see those other languages.

Comparing lessons

Gone are the days of spending hundreds of dollars on CD sets to learn a language. Both Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone have had to modernize to keep up with the introduction of language apps, so let’s compare their basic lessons.

Here’s how Rosetta Stone does it.

Here you have the same method, just easily accessible via the internet or your smartphone. Rosetta Stone uses images to help you understand what each word and/or phrase means, without making you go through the extra step of translating everything.

You’ll use the language in all the ways you’d want to learn, too, which is difficult to accomplish in general. Your time is split between listening and speaking and reading and writing, so you get a very well-rounded language education.

This is honestly an excellent way to learn the basics of a language, and I’m glad they’ve been able to seamlessly transition in this way. It really brings users back to the most simple ways that anybody learns a language for the first time.

Here’s a Pimsleur lesson.

Unlike Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur is 100% audio lessons. That’s their shtick. They’ve modernized to bring their strategy to the 21st century, but they also don’t take advantage of all this visual real estate! It’s pretty disappointing, to be honest.

If you’re not familiar, the Pimsleur method is very important to this company. It was created by one 20th-century academic, and they’ve held steadfast to this exact strategy all this time. You’re listening to a simple conversation, repeating words when you’re told to, and that’s it. You can only listen to a single 30-minute lesson a day.

This made a whole lot more sense 50+ years ago. I just wish they’d take more advantage of today’s technology when it comes to the actual method. The modern world has changed so much, but Pimsleur’s method clearly hasn’t.

Regardless of my personal opinion, you will learn to understand simple conversations one at a time, and you’ll get used to speaking the words, too. If you enjoy the process, it does what it’s supposed to do: get you conversational ASAP.

Speaking of…

Pimsleur vs Rosetta Stone: speaking practice

Here is where both apps get a little similar, and that’s not a bad thing! In the spirit of modernization, the easiest and most popular way to add speaking practice to any language app is speech recognition. Both Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur execute this pretty well.

Here’s speaking practice with Rosetta Stone

These lessons are exactly the same as they were back in the age of CD-ROMs. With speech recognition, you’ll get used to saying these phrases smoothly until you feel comfortable expressing them spontaneously. They’re functional sentences that you may actually use, so I’m a big fan.

You can see how Rosetta Stone still does not revert to a native language and instead leads you to figure it out by pairing sentences with imagery. It’s very consistent and reliable.

Now, repeating phrases is the entire backbone of Pimsleur’s lessons, though Pimsleur uses a strategy called “shadowing” where you’re just repeating words and phrases until the words coming out of your mouth sound like the phrases you’re hearing.

But today, Pimsleur also gives learners the option to use speech recognition.

This is what I mean when I say that I wish Pimsleur’s core lessons took more advantage of all the real estate. See how much more engaging this is (at least for visual learners, like me)? See how much easier it is to follow along?

I do wish there were options to have audio in only the target language and/or remove the translation, though.

Still, if Pimsleur decides to continue this particular route, I think it’ll be a great thing for language learners. In a world full of fun sound, bright colors, and quippy notifications, I’d like to see Pimsleur expand its usability a little.

Pricing

Back in the day, both Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur would cost you a few hundred dollars just for beginner lessons. Thanks to modern tech and a brand-new language learning industry exploding in recent years, they’ve been forced to adjust.

Now, instead of one giant investment for physical CDs, both apps have switched to the subscription model. While they differ in what that subscription looks like (monthly, annually, what-have-you), they each average $10-15 per month.

And most of these subscriptions give you access to all their content in one go, which gives language learners the chance to play around a little bit.

Pimsleur vs Rosetta Stone: your choice

Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone are pretty similar apps: both have been around since before language learning was an accessible interest, and both are best suited for beginner language learners.

However, the differences between these two options are much more notable.

Pimsleur is best for aural learners (those who learn best by listening) who enjoy being led step-by-step through simple, real-life conversations. It’s all listening and repeating constantly, so it’s not beneficial to language learners who need visual cues.

You can learn more in my Pimsleur review here.

On the other hand, Rosetta Stone keeps language learners on their toes by consistently switching up how you’re using and learning the language: reading it, speaking it, listening to it…it’s all there. And instead of learning one conversation at a time, you’ll be learning sentences and phrases, piece-by-piece.