Reviews for Babbel - Learn Languages

overpriced/cancelled: The exercises are poorly structured, the topics are not practical; there is no ability to click on words for the translation; difficult to keep up with the required learning pace; there are no pronounciation prules. I took a long break, after the restart the exercises were where I left, but I didn't remember any of them. There is no option to customize the learning pace. The UI is confusing and unfriendly. Subscription was purchased thru G store, but not shown there.

The app itself works well and has some solid exercises. However, there have been multiple instances where I've completed the lesson, have seen my steak updated, then logged in the next day only to be shown that my steak has either been ended or saved by a steak-freeze. I will update my review to 5 stars once this bug has been fixed

a step up from the owl, but similar to other language learning platforms, you can mostly click through it and progress in lessons without having to demonstrate much recall or application. Still, there are many more voice tracks in normal adult voices, and every lesson has a longer dialog section that puts together the elements of the lesson. The audio tracks seem higher quality, as slow playback is smoother.

Totally frustrated. The app goes much too fast. I can't look at a word or sentence for more than a few seconds before the screen shifts and I'm expected to remember what the answer was. There has to be a way to pause the screen so that you can absorb the info before answering questions. The same with the voices, I can usually catch one or two words of a sentence and no what it is...that doesn't mean I understand the whole sentence. Not giving up, but completely frustrated.

I wish I'd know, from the app store that this was a totally paid experience. I wanted to see if it was better than others I tried or if my learning would progress more quickly and fully. But before I could see if it was useful or if I wanted to subscribe, I had answered a zillion questions and was hit with an "Okay agree to pay and then you can see if you want it." And it's expensive.

Navigation in the app is terribly confusing. Lessons are organized by Topics or Courses, but the lessons seem to overlap, and the organization is awful. I tried keeping an outside list of topics I wanted to revisit, but with inconsistent labeling of units, lessons, and parts of lessons, I'm just lost. I like the way it teaches the reasoning behind the grammar, but if I can't find my way back to the lessons, the app is infuriating.

I would love the ability to pause during "listen to dialogue" playback, as well as the ability to control playback speed. if I take too long trying to remember a certain word, then that ruins the rest of the dialogue playback because now I've missed an entire sentence or more. it gets overwhelming. also, after hitting pause, the option to either continue where I left off, or start over from the beginning.

Overall, not great. I've been using this app on and off for a couple years and still can't really hold a conversation. my phone and app constantly have syncing issues where I try to maintain a long streak but the other device won't immediately sync. it's happening almost every single time now and I've reached out to support numerous times and they are completely unhelpful. they just told me to update my apps, which I did, and it still happens. if I could get a refund for my subscription, I would

I'm conflicted on how to rate Babbel. I'm using Babbel to learn French. For the first several months I was very happy with the app. The lessons were excellent and did a great job of explaining verb conjugation and grammar concepts. However, once I finished the B1 level lessons, it just dropped off. There were only three B2 level units and then that was the end of it. Luckily there's other subject specific lessons I can use to keep expanding my vocabulary but it's still disappointing.

not too bad, but the speaking exercises are pretty rough because it doesn't process what you're saying correctly. I'm using a high-end mic and even tested several phrases on a native speaking (Norwegian) family member and it counted the pronunciation wrong. If you're learning to read another language, it's a decent app, but if you're learning to speak another language, I recommend going elsewhere.

This is a great way to learn or practice a new language if you respond well to classroom-like activities. I have gotten frustrated with the app having issues recognizing my streak and making me lose progress in my lessons when I have been using it daily. I've sent messages to CS, but have been told "we're aware of the issue" with no changes for months. It has been hard to stay motivated and keep coming back when all that I have left is general vocab words, and there is no "fun" element anymore.

The user interface is annoying and it will jump to the next exercise whether you're ready to do so or not and there is no option to turn it off. It also can't decide between a selectable letter bank or if it will let you type the answer out yourself. These issues are big hurdles to actually being able to use the app regularly and enjoyably. Once you get over those hurdles, it's a solid language learning app.

I like that the app actually teaches grammar (which that other language app leaves you to figure out on your own), but there are a number of things that make learning not enjoyable. First and foremost, the speech recognition is very bad, especially if there is any background noise whatsoever. You also don't get any guidance on what words were recognized or which weren't. And some phrases you have to say are a handful of words long. Some of the lessons are 4x the length of others.

Latest update is frustrating. I always do the daily practice, which is sometimes 5 exercises, sometimes 50+. The Practice icon had a little number bubble that said the number of items to do that day. This number is gone now and just a red dot. Why remove the count? Update: Thank you for removing the practice animation that popped up halfway through the lesson.

i think i am learning. However, i wish they made it more user-friendly. it takes me at least three times going over a lesson before it begins to click for me. i dont mind repeating the lessons, but the layout makes it difficult to get to your completed lessons. i can get to the past lessons, but as i progress, the older levels become more difficult to find. Your app needs a lot more opportunities to review or just make the past lessons more accessible.

horrible app. the speech feature only works about a third of the time, the rest of the time you can't even press it. I joined mostly for the live classes and they took those away. the lessons offer no cohesion and I felt more lost on this app than any other approach I've used. frustrating and not fun, which is the complete opposite of what should happen during learning a language. they did refund me, hence the 3 stars.

Babbel, unlike other language learning options, ACTUALLY teaches you the language rather than having you memorize words. It teaches you the diffrent concepts, and why diffrent letters make that particular sound. It teaches grammatical concepts early on and makes sure you understand everything. It does cost money, but the first lesson is free so you can test it out. I dont normally spend money on these types of things but it is 100% WORTH IT!!

It's okay. I like that it explains more than Duolingo, but the lessons can get pretty repetitive, not to mention stuff that just isn't relevant. There were multiple lessons on talking about environmental pollution yet no lesson on animal names or buying groceries. Also, not happy that I have to use Spain Spanish instead of Latin American because the latter only had two levels to go through. I'm glad I didn't buy the lifetime subscription. Just a year then I'll probably drop it.

Switched over to Babbel since other language learning apps were starting to make their lessons with AI and it showed. So far, I really like the lesson structure! It feels more in-depth and the pop-up tips have been very helpful. Lifetime membership was kind of costly, but since it cost me about as much as a couple years of the competition and I can see getting more use out of it than that, was a good deal for a good learning program!

Its ok at best. I'm stuck on lesson 2 because apparently I need to pay for a whole year long subscription to learn any more basic German, and having to pay an egregious amount of money for more lessons isnt my style. Most of the training modules are locked behind this pay wall, so be warned before you try this.