Reviews for Rocket: Learn Languages

It's difficult to find a language learning app with solid fundamentals, relevant content, and with lessons that will fit in a busy life. Rocket Russian comes very close to being perfect. If you make the time to use the product, you will advance in your language studies. Yes the speech recognition isn't perfect, but there are enough sound bites to train your ear correctly. Plus their products go on sale often, and the license is lifetime rather than subscription, which I appreciate SO much!

(Japanese learner) I'm loving the variety of lessons compared to similar apps. I listen to the audio lesson on my drives, then practice when I have free time throughout the day. The format has made it easy to stay motivated to learn. Also, very good quality of audio and the lessons seem comprehensive so far. Overall, one of the better language learning apps! Cons- a little light on the writing/kana learning. So far, no kana drills, and much more focused on speaking/listening than reading

So far(2 days in)... the app is good.... seems a little basic, and I wish I could bring the keyboard back up when doing the writing skills, or the keyboard stayed up and the reveal button moved above the keyboard. I enjoy the text explanations, which I feel you don't get a lot of in many language apps. I like that it feels more like something you'd use for school rather than a game like dou... but I think the interface could use a little bit of tweaking. It almost feels like a mobile website.

Good content, but I am not a fan of the teaching style. Lessons are around 20-30 minutes. They teach you phrases and go over grammar. Great. Problem with it is they don't spend enough time on those phrases/vocab. They go over it once, move on to the next phrase, & by the end of the lesson I've already forgotten many of what was taught at the start. They expect you to do the lessons twice which, doesn't work for me. I prefer Pimsleur where you'll hear words/phrases randomly throughout the lesson

The pros: Native speakers. Excellent voice recognition. Conversational drills help with thinking on your feet. Every single word and phrase is useful. No useless sentences. There is cultural and grammar information, too.Flash cards and typing exercises. Pricey? Not as much as Rosetta Stone. But you learn to speak in everyday situations as the language currently sounds. I just wish the Egyptian Arabic course had more than one level...but even the 1 level is chock fulla meaty goodness!

I like it records and rates you saying phrases, cuz I'm really slow. I think it's being a little generous with my accuracy tho. I'm still on lesson one and free for now so let's see how far it let's me go & vs Duolingo that I was far on years ago but stopped. it's also glitchy in parts, sounds not playing, not recording, etc. it keeps asking me to review even tho I already did, thru their popup. 7 lessons free.

It's good thus far even though I just bought it. But, I feel the voice recognition technology is a little wonky at times. For what this course is worth you'd expect everything to run smoothly. I am not a beginner, so it will be hard to determine how effective the course truly is at teaching French from zero. It looks promising, however, and I do hope this takes my French to the next level.

Early lesson uses the exact same English translation (nice to meet you) for two different phrases. And some of the pronunciation for simple words is near impossible. I can give basic street directions in Japanese but can't say pen. Not sure if there is enough repetition to build memory. But the ability to turn of romanization is great for building familiarity with hiragana. The explanation for grammar is very helpful.

One of the best apps for learning new languages. The lessons are really well thought out and is easy to follow along while driving, cooking or even showering. The knowledge tests at the end of each lesson really help to hammer in what was covered In the session. Currently using for both Japanese and German and I'm loving the progress I'm making so far. It is pretty expensive to get a full course, and this alone won't get you quite fluent, but it provides a very solid foundation. Highly recommend

I love the conversational aspect and the voice recognition is great. Except it seems unable to really understand any single syllable word or phrase so I have to always bypass those. A minor gripe but it does prevent a five star rating. Other than that, I work this into my daily language learning and I appreciate what it does differently from other apps.

Overall it's great but some of the AI speech grading doesn't recognize any audio. I'll try over and over again and it just says "sorry we didn't catch that" on something simple like the number 2 "Ni に" other than those random issues it's pretty solid app and the courses are very comprehensive. Only 4 stars because of the issue with voice recognition.

I've started learning russian. Thus far I would say this is the best all round app I have used for studying languages. The audio lessons are very clear and comprehensive making learning words very easy. Like pimseular it's good at pushing words into your long term memory which would be a problem with other programs is that I would just forget the words within moments. It is an investment for sure but it is only a one time payment so not all bad. If you are willing I would highly recommend.

Excellent course design. You can listen in the car, read, and write. It gives you a daily score, keeps up with your streak, and compares you to others on a leaderboard in case you need extra motivation to work at it every day. Compared to others that are audio-only, I really like that I can read and write; being a visually oriented learner, it really helps me to memorize. Nothing against Pimsleur or Duolingo, but I really find Rocket to have the most effective format.

Update Aug 6,2024: I've added a fifth star based on their excellent app (and language) support. A well designed course for hearing and speaking a language based on my experience as a language teacher (not of French): voice recognition generally works, repetition, mostly native speakers, stays interesting. App audio is better than in the browser version, on my PC at least. Missing: hearing my own recorded answers, a strength of the PC version. And I found the English intro to each lesson silly.

It's really comprehensive. I'm very impressed. However, voice recognition could use some work, especially on the browser client. If you're on mobile, and you happen to be outside, ambient environmental noise can throw off voice recognition. If you're using the browser client, it's very spotty at best, and I have a pretty good microphone. Other than that, I have no complaints!

Voice recognition needs work. Okay it's been a little more than a week since I have had time to use the app and I still stand by my initial response. The voice recognition is simply not sophisticated enough to recognize a surprising amount of japanese words, specifically single or double syllable words, especially those with soft consonants. Larger sentences seem to fair better. Material and presentation wise, the app is excellent. The explanations and breakdowns are excellent.

Rocket Japanese doesn't work properly after upgrading to a Pixel 10. When you try use the microphone to record your speech in the exercises you constantly get "speech recognition algorithm is currently busy" and recording doesn't work. Permissions have been enabled. I paid good money for this app and it should work the way it was intended.

I enjoy the overall app. The issue for me is the microphone. The app hears me with moderate to long phrases but has a hard time hearing for very short phrases. It can be really frustrating, especially if it's a word or short phrase that I'm really having a hard time saying. Besides that issue, I like everything else about the app. Its very helpful.

I really like the mixture of opportunities to learn Italian: listening, speaking, writing, and especially the included explanations. The reviews said this was the best app for grammar, and I need that reinforcement. BUT, I am frustrated by the great number of times the microphone fails in the app. I cannot find any microphone settings anywhere. Help, please.

I started out 5 stars but am dropping one. I think that the concept and interface are both outstanding but I'm starting to get frustrated with the length and wide scope of some of the Language and Culture lessons. They have too much info and need to be chunked better. Still a great product but I'm not as impressed as I was at first pass.