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Verbling vs italki for language learners

March 21, 2022 by Jamie 1 Comment

One of the best ways to practice speaking a foreign language is to have conversations with native speakers of the language. The two most popular platforms to connect with native speakers are italki and Verbling. Let’s take a look at Verbling vs italki to see which platform is best for you.

It should be noted that Verbling and italki are very similar platforms, and while they may technically be in competition with each other, it may be best practice for language learners to take advantage of both platforms.

Because as we’ll discover as we compare Verbling vs italki, it’s not so much the platform that matters as the teachers who use the platforms.

Verbling vs italki: teaching experience

Each company has different experience requirements for language teachers who are interested in using their platform to find students. This can also be evident in the student’s search for a teacher.

The most popular option, italki, lets you choose between professional and community teachers. The difference is that a professional teacher has some sort of official qualifications or certifications to teach; community teachers are just native or advanced speakers of the language.

On the other hand, Verbling requires potential teachers to have professional experience. If you’re using Verbling, you’re there to learn, not just to practice.

Is professional experience necessary? If you want the structured approach of a teacher, yes; however, if you just want to pay a native/advanced speaker to be available and help you focus on communication, not necessarily.

And of course, community teachers are much cheaper. Professional experience comes at a premium. It’s up to you to decide if professional experience is a priority, and this will help you decide on which platform to prioritize.

italki vs Verbling: trial lessons

Taking a language lesson for the first time can be a daunting experience, especially when you’re meeting the teacher for the first time, and you’re not quite sure what the atmosphere will be like.

Fortunately, both Verbling and italki offer a version of trial lessons. The approach, of course, is different.

First, italki offers 3 free trial lessons ever. These are tied to your account and must be applied to 3 different teachers if you use them. Not all italki teachers offer free trial lessons, so I’m guessing it’s truly free, which means that the teachers are not paid at all (italki does not pay for these lessons for you).

Verbling is a lot less strict and gives its teachers 100% say in their own trial lessons.

If a Verbling teacher decides to offer a trial lesson, they set the price. With this system, each new student gets to trial the teaching style of any teacher.

Plus, Verbling teachers are paid for their trial lessons. It’s half the time of a full lesson, so they can charge half the price. This is compared to italki, which expects its teachers to offer them for free.

In this way, Verbling is a much better option, both for language learners (who get to trial as many teachers as they like) and for language teachers (who get paid for their time, regardless of how much time they’re spending).

Class types

Both Verbling and italki specialize in private language classes, which means 1-on-1. You’re paying someone to focus on your language learning. There is a little bit of wiggle room, though.

For even more ease of commitment (more on this later), some Verbling teachers offer bulk lessons; if you commit to a number of lessons (5, 10, 20, whatever), you get a small discount.

On the other hand, italki has a small collection of group lessons.

On italki, this is definitely not the star of the show. It simply does not compare to a service like Lingoda that truly excels at this. Based only on first impression, it seems to be a low-stakes way to find your next language teacher.

Though, at the time of this writing, this feature isn’t available in most languages. As I said, it seems to be an option to support more private classes, by making them slightly more accessible to start, as opposed to a formal feature.

Booking a class on Verbling vs italki

The process of booking a language teacher differs between platforms, and this is more important than you may think.

Emotionally, it can be difficult to commit to a lesson with a language teacher. It’s not uncommon to be self-conscious about your ability to have foreign language conversations, worried about financial commitment, anxious about committing to a routine, etc.

That said, it’s the responsibility of the platform to make it easy for language learners to book a lesson. If it’s too difficult to book, that just becomes another obstacle stopping a language learner from committing.

There’s one tiny difference between Verbling and italki here: where the lesson is hosted. italki allows you 3 options: their own software, Zoom, or Skype.

To be fair, I am 100% nit-picking. But at the same time, I am well aware of how tiny things like this can make it feel impossible to do things like schedule a lesson with a language teacher, which can be hard enough as it is.

italki offers 3 different platforms (which I’m assuming invites some technical difficulties when it comes to sharing usernames, Zoom/Skype outages, etc.), while Verbling only uses their own software.

Verbling keeps it simpler. When it’s time for your lesson, all you have to do is go to the website and there will be a link for you to join the classroom, right there on Verbling.

Obviously, I can’t say how reliable it is – that’s something to ask your language teacher with much more experience with the tech than I’ll ever have. But from the perspective of a language learner, this is a much better system.

Which platform is best?

While most online creators will mention italki, I personally find Verbling to be just slightly higher quality for language learners: higher quality teachers, easier to book lessons, and easier to join.

Above all else, as I mentioned at the beginning of this review, is that specific teachers on each platform. While looking for a language teacher, the website they’re on isn’t as important as the teachers themselves, so I encourage you to keep an open mind.

Want to learn more about each platform?

You can read my italki review here, and my Verbling review here.

Rosetta Stone review: for beginner language learners only

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Rosetta Stone has been a major name in the language learning world longer than most. This Rosetta Stone review will help you decide if it’s the language app for you.

Can you really get fluent using Rosetta Stone? Is it worth the money? Should you be considering it? In this Rosetta Stone review, I’ll touch base on all these questions, so you can make an educated decision on whether to take the plunge.

First things first, though, is to make sure Rosetta Stone actually teaches the language you’re interested in learning. Rosetta Stone offers the following languages:

Arabic
Chinese (Mandarin)
Dutch
English (American)
English (British)
Farsi (Persian)
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Irish
Italian

Japanese
Korean
Latin
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Russian
Spanish (Latin America)
Spanish (Spain)
Swedish
Tagalog
Turkish
Vietnamese

Rosetta Stone review: what works

First off, let’s talk about how exactly Rosetta Stone accomplishes what it says it will accomplish. I’m very particular about making sure I’m practicing all of my language skills and knowing exactly what my goal is with any language.

That being said, how does Rosetta Stone work, and what does it teach you?

The closest thing to immersion

Rosetta Stone’s claim to fame is that it teaches you the language by immersion, which is great! And it’s true – you will never see or hear a single English word using this program. Using Rosetta Stone as an ultimate beginner is great because you’re learning to think using the language right off the bat; compared to other programs, where you’re translating between languages in order to learn, this is undoubtedly the best way to take in a language.

And Rosetta Stone is great for this very reason: it makes you think. With every round of questions, the way it’s designed forces you to actually think in the language. This is the first step in learning a new language authentically and efficiently.

So, if you’re starting out with the language fresh and new, the Rosetta Stone method is incredibly challenging, but in the best way.

The lessons may not go by as quickly and painlessly as Duolingo’s 5-minute lessons – you’ll spend a significant amount of time really using your brain, just like you would in real-life immersion. In fact, I had to take a break after the first 2 lessons because my brain hurt like it does when I’m in actual language exchanges!

Multiple-choice questions that you can’t fake

Another thing about Rosetta Stone that I really love is that you can’t really BS it. The program depends heavily on multiple-choice questions, but they switch it up. For example, you’re given a phrase, and then you’re given 4 pictures – your job is to match the phrase to the correct picture.

Once you’ve done that, not only is the text taken off the picture (so you still have four images to choose from for the next phrase), but the order of the pictures is flipped around. It’s just another level at which you actually have to think, as opposed to “well I’ve already matched up 3 pictures, so I don’t even have to look at the last phrase to know which picture it belongs to”.

It’s a simple thing, but it really makes a world of difference when it comes to making you actually think in the language, which, again, is one of the most important parts of effectively learning a new language.

Speaking from the beginning

Another thing that Rosetta Stone does really well is making you speak from day one. At the beginning levels, this is really helpful, as a lot of newbie language learners don’t realize that getting used to forming the words correctly is a skill in itself.

Foreign languages use different sounds, and just recognizing them by ear isn’t enough – you need to build muscle memory, and Rosetta Stone helps with that.

Rosetta Stone makes very large claims about speech recognition. I personally tend to take this with a grain of salt, because this isn’t the first time I’ve heard that, and it’s usually pretty useless. Most of the time, speech recognition is either easy to fake or says you’re wrong even when you’re right.

In my experience…Rosetta Stone’s speech recognition is about 50/50, as well. In some ways it has alerted me to how I’m pronouncing incorrectly, but whether or not it’s been a convenient fluke…who knows. I say that because after saying the same word with the same exact pronunciation four times and being told it was wrong the first three and right the fourth…it’s still not 100%.

So, take what it tells you with a grain of salt. Listen carefully, and absolutely practice your speaking, but I feel like there are better ways to go about that one.

…and all the other language skills

Yes, speaking is the big thing that most newbie language learners might avoid. Besides speaking, Rosetta Stone is surprisingly good at hitting the other language skills: reading, writing, and listening. Once you get through your core lesson, where you’ll learn all the things you need to learn about that unit, you’re also taken through lessons for each individual skill, which is amazing.

You get all of your language skills, appropriate to your level of learning, right in one go. Honestly, no other independent language learning resource does that, so in this way, Rosetta Stone is way ahead of the game (and has been for more than 20 years now).

That being said, this is a big deal. From the very very beginning, you get in the habit of practicing the language in every way necessary. Pretty good for beginners!

Rosetta Stone review: what doesn’t work

Now that I’m done raving on and on about how wonderful Rosetta Stone is, let’s talk about its failings. Now, keep in mind that it’s not that this program does things wrong necessarily – Rosetta Stone knows who its target audience is, and if these faults are a big deal, it’s not meant for you anyway.

I say this because I’ve seen plenty of reviews talking about how Rosetta Stone is heavily flawed, but so is every other language learning resource. Nothing is one-size-fits-all; if it were, there wouldn’t be a reason for all of these products. Know what you’re looking for in your language learning journey, and that will help you to make the right choice.

It’s repetitive

Right off the bat, Rosetta Stone can get infuriatingly repetitive. If you’re used to learning languages, and it’s easy for you to grasp linguistic patterns, Rosetta Stone is horribly boring and slow. The most basic words and grammatical patterns don’t need to be drilled so incessantly for learners who have already learned these same exact patterns in other languages.

If you’re an ultra-newbie this is great, because you’ll learn the basics and you’ll learn them well. However, if you’ve already done the legwork to recognize and be familiar with these basic patterns, you’re gonna get real bored real quick, which means you’ll give up.

Even with more advanced-level content, this was too slow. I tried to go into the settings real quick to speed it up, but no-go.

Rosetta Stone will provide you with a great base level to build on, which is great if you need it. If you don’t need it, don’t bother with it.

It’s basic

Rosetta Stone has 5 units of lessons for languages that are related to English, but only 3 or 4 for other unrelated languages. There is a lot of content, and the content is very thoroughly broken down into all of the language skills. It involves a lot of drilling and a lot of basic hand-holding.

However, the amount of drilling and hand-holding involved means that the content doesn’t get you very far. If you’re planning a trip abroad and want to feel comfortable understanding and communicating at a basic level, it’s very thorough and efficient. However, you won’t get much farther than that. And if you’re a seasoned language learner, you’re gonna get bored real quick, even if you’re still learning things.

You will not be learning intermediate or advanced words or concepts with Rosetta Stone. If you’re just starting out with the language, you’ll be fine, but there is no real building on the basics using this program. You’ll get a very solid root to the language, and you’ll be at a good place to push onward, but you can’t get onward depending solely on this program.

It’s expensive

This has been a major sore spot for Rosetta Stone since the beginning. Especially since the internet became a thing, and a variety of cheap or even free resources have become available, the steep price tag (think $200 for a single-level CD-set!) has turned a lot of people off.

As time has gone on, Rosetta Stone’s prices have become a bit more palatable by switching to a monthly model like a majority of the industry. The caveat is that you cannot invest month-by-month. You can see current prices here.

Fortunately, they do offer a 30-day guarantee.

Rosetta Stone review: stories

With stories, you get 3 different options for practice: read the story, read and listen, or read and read aloud. These stories are very on-level, and offer you another resource to practice both input and output.

I’m a big fan of listening to text while you read it, plus highlighting each individual word as it’s read? Two thumbs up!

When reading aloud with the story, the concept is exactly the same – the highlight tries to follow along with you word-by-word. It’s not exactly 100%, but it does the job enough.

Use this tool to listen to how you’re pronouncing the words, and then switch back to listening to compare.

My only complaint here is that I wish you had the option to download your recording. That way you could send it to a tutor or language exchange partner for feedback, or even just keep track of your progress for yourself.

Rosetta Stone’s audio companion

Then we have the audio companion. With each lesson, Rosetta Stone offers audio tracks of vocab pronounced correctly and slowly, with a beat after each word for you to repeat.

On mobile, you have the option to rewind, pause, and fast-forward; on desktop (as pictured), you just get the audio tracks downloaded straight to your device. In this case, it’s up to you to have a program that offers these options.

This first lesson had 18 audio clips (including the intro), by the way, not just the 3 shown here.

Rosetta Stone review: is it for you?

Rosetta Stone is a great language learning program that satisfies every language skill (that in itself is hard to come by), meaning you don’t have to look elsewhere for practice. If you’re a total beginner looking for a very confident base in the language, click here to get started with Rosetta Stone.

However, if you’re not a beginner or find the pace to be much too slow, I’d skip it. Instead, I’d recommend these comparisons if you’re interested in something similar:

italki review: the best place for private language lessons

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

Italki is arguably the most popular language-learning resource online used by learners of all languages under the sun, so an italki review only seems reasonable! Like Verbling, italki provides its users the opportunity to practice speaking the language they’re learning with real live native speakers, regardless of geography.

From a social network for language learners in 2006 to the world’s most popular platform to find foreign language teachers, let’s dive into this italki review and see what the italki experience is like.

Finding your italki teacher

Italki boasts hosting native speakers of any and all languages you could be learning. Because there are so many italki teachers available to you, the site helps you narrow down your search, so you’re not sifting through all kinds of italki teachers that you don’t actually have any interest or need in setting up a conversation with.

That being said, your italki teacher search can and should be incredibly specific if you can make those decisions for yourself. This will really narrow down the number of choices you have to make.

So, for example, when I’m searching for an italki teacher to practice Spanish with, I’ll always choose Spain in this first category. Most of my experience communicating in Spanish is from living in Spain, so I have a hard time understanding accents from any other countries.

Though you do have a plethora of options to narrow down your search, my personal sticking point is that you can’t easily search by gender.

italki price

Hopefully, you’ll notice that one of those categories is “price”. Your italki price depends entirely upon the teacher that you choose. If, for example, you’re searching around for italki Spanish lessons, and you choose an italki tutor that’s from Spain (like I do), your italki cost is going to be just a bit pricier than if you’re learning from someone based in a Latin American country.

This is also the difference between an italki community tutor and professional teachers – because professional teachers are more experienced and likely have some sort of degrees or certification, you’ll pay a premium.

Fortunately, if you’re just testing the water, you do have 3 free trials to spend. Free trials are 30-minute lessons that must be used with different teachers. Not all teachers offer these trial lessons, but it makes it just a bit easier to try out using italki for the first time.

Choosing your italki teacher

After you’ve narrowed your search for an italki teacher, it’s time to do some deeper research. Each italki teacher offers a ton of information: an intro video, About Me, calendar, statistics, reviews, any packages they offer (like specific test prep, for example), and more.

Suffice it to say, all the information any reasonable language learner would need to make an educated decision.

And if you have any further questions, you can easily send your potential teacher an email, no pressure.

The italki lesson experience

Once you’ve gone through all these options and decided who you want to try out, you’ll go through a few steps. The italki platform does this all pretty well and very smoothly, in my opinion. Everything is very clear and to the point.

As you can see above, you’re already given a preview of your italki teacher’s availability on their page. And yes, this availability is presented in your time zone, so you don’t have to do any gymnastics to find a teacher that matches up with your schedule.

Once you’ve made an actual decision regarding who you want to learn from, you’ll get access to their calendar and be able to make a selection based on their open slots. If you’ve opted for a trial lesson, you’ll be able to select a 30-minute slot, and if you’re making a request within 24 hours, you won’t be able to cancel or reschedule your lesson after your teacher accepts it.

Then, once you choose a time, you’ll be able to choose your communication tool. Italki offers 3 options for you to host your lesson:

italki Classroom
Zoom
Skype

If you choose the italki Classroom (which I honestly recommend* – it runs well, and you don’t have to worry about tech issues/passwords), you’ll be granted access once your teacher accepts your lesson.

*it is worth noting that my experience using the italki Classroom is limited, and my teacher stated the platform isn’t as good as just using Skype or Zoom.

Then, like any lesson with a language teacher, you’ll be able to make full use of whichever platform you choose – talk to your teacher via the video chat, get corrections in the chatbox, or follow along if your teacher shares their screen to walk you through an activity.

italki language partner & other perks

Besides being able to pay to talk to native speakers of the language you’re learning, italki has also expanded to offer a few other perks. If you head to the Community tab on the upper right-hand side, you’ll see your options.

Articles are written by italki tutors, and you can specify which language you want to be reading in. Notebooks, on the other hand, are written by your fellow language learners, and you have the opportunity to both review others’ content and post your own practice and potentially have it reviewed by someone else.

You can see the option to listen to a recording, participate in a quiz, and answer a question, all of which can be great ways to engage in your target language.

italki review: group classes

Usually language learners seek out italki for private lessons, but some learners can try out italki’s group classes as well. It’s not nearly as popular on this platform, so you’ll have fewer options, but it’s still an opportunity you may want to take advantage of.

As of the date on the bottom of this post, group classes are only an option for learners of English, Spanish, and Japanese. To be honest, though, I’d be more inclined to use Lingoda for group English and Spanish lessons, as that’s Lingoda’s bread and butter.

But if you’re more interested in one-off group lessons, every bit of exposure to the language helps.

italki review: alternatives

If this italki review just proves that you’re looking for something else, there are also a few italki alternatives you might also consider. There aren’t many other major platforms like italki, especially considering the sheer number of languages available.

For websites like italki that also host a variety of languages, you might consider Verbling, which is very closely related – the biggest difference is that Verbling does not support as many languages. HelloTalk is a free option if finding a professional teacher isn’t important to you.

And if you’re looking for one language in particular, that may help narrow down your search. BaseLang, for example, is a potential option for Spanish language learners who are open to a more intensive commitment..

italki review: in conclusion

This italki review proves that the platform has a lot to offer any language learner. There’s a reason it’s the go-to for most of us in the language learning community. Conversations with natives in almost any language you could think of are easy to find with just an internet connection; it doesn’t get much simpler than that!

Ready to give italki a try? Click here to get $10 in free italki credits!

Verbling review: don’t sleep on this language teacher platform!

March 21, 2022 by Jamie Leave a Comment

In the language learning community, there are two well-known and well-trusted ways to practice having conversations with native speakers: italki and Verbling. They have their similarities and differences (as noted in my Verbling vs italki review), but now let’s focus on this Verbling review.

In this Verbling review, I’ll take you step-by-step through going to the Verbling website for the first time, all the way through your first lesson, pros and cons, and alternatives to Verbling for all your language learning needs.

Verbling review: find a private language teacher

Starting from the “Find a Teacher” button right next to the italki logo, you’ll find yourself confronted with a huge list of people who teach your target language, as well as a few options to narrow down your search.

As you can see, Verbling keeps the search criteria pretty simple: language, location (important because you may be more confident with certain accents), any particular goals you have, and availability.

In the past, Verbling used to allow you to search by gender, which was a huge plus for me. They seem to have removed this option, though.

After applying your preferred search, click through to any of the Verbling teachers that stand out to you. And if none stand out to you, pick one at random! You can learn about any teacher you like, including listening to their voice/accent, and hopefully getting to know them a little bit before booking a lesson.

You’ll find tons of information on the Verbling teacher you chose, like their resume, how long they’ve been on Verbling, how many lessons their average students take with them, detailed reviews, any articles they’ve written, and more.

It can be a lot to take in, but you only need to take what’s most important to you. The idea is to give you an opportunity for an educated choice before you spend your time/money on your first lesson, even if you opt for a discounted trial lesson.

Once you make your choice, you’re just 2 clicks away from your first Verbling lesson. They don’t make it difficult, which is helpful. I definitely understand the pressure of hitting that “buy now” button, so I appreciate how easy it is to get started.

Once you complete your trial lesson (or even before), you can also opt for bulk lessons with that teacher at a slight discount. This is a plus not only for convenience but also for accountability – you’re more likely to consistently practice if you’ve already bought the lessons.

It’s worth noting that the discount you get with bulk lessons differs from teacher to teacher (and not all Verbling teachers offer lessons in bulk) so don’t make any assumptions based on this Verbling review. However, this is a feature unique to Verbling.

What Verbling classes are like

If you’ve never taken an online class with a private language tutor, you can expect your language teacher to start a conversation with you by asking some getting-to-know-you questions.

This will likely be primarily over video chat, with the added perk of using the chat box to help with spelling or vocabulary. If your Verbling teacher has an activity for you, they’ll probably share their screen, like any Zoom call you’ve been in.

However, Verbling language lessons do not occur over Zoom or even Skype – they use Verbling’s own proprietary software and that’s it. This does make things easy when it’s time for your lesson because all you have to do with click a button and be connected.

Then, once your lesson’s finished, Verbling will email you summarizing your lesson. This summary can help you keep a record of when/how often you’re practicing, with whom, the vocabulary you referenced, and your conversation. If you really like your teacher, you can also go ahead and book another lesson right from this summary.

The Verbling community

If you’ve got a few minutes to spare, you can also check out Verbling’s Community tab. You may be able to find an interesting article or a future Verbling teacher you may like, but it’s definitely not Verbling’s strongest suit.

Honestly, it seems more like a side project than a full-blown feature.

If your teacher referenced an article they wrote or a discussion thread they started, you can also click on the My Teachers tab and easily find any of the content they posted. Or, if you’re just browsing around the Trending tab, and you find an article that you’re interested in or have a question regarding, each article links to the teacher who posted it, so it’s easy to send them a message asking for clarification, or (better yet) book a lesson to chat about it in the language you’re learning.

This option is definitely helpful for coming up with material to talk about in your lessons, as your teacher will probably ask you what you want to talk about after you’ve had your initial “getting to know you” lesson.

It can be tough to come up with good material for yourself, especially when your new language teacher doesn’t know you well enough just yet to recommend study material that will be engaging to you. Think of this section as Verbling’s library.

Verbling review

While Verbling (now a part of Busuu/Chegg) isn’t as popular or well-rounded as italki, this Verbling review shows that it’s still a great option for language learners who want focused conversational practice with professional native speakers.

There are a few key differences, as noted in my italki vs Verbling comparison review, but the most significant thing to know is that the value and experience you get from either platform depends not on the platform itself, but on the teachers you work with.

My recommendation? If you are looking for conversational practice with professional, experienced native speakers, Verbling is an excellent place to start.

You can also look for non-professional native speakers (so basically a glorified Tandem or HelloTalk language exchange) on italki, but regardless of your choice, don’t be afraid to shop around for a private language teacher on Verbling!

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.

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.