okay what peoples opinon on the babbel learning app

[Upbeat 88]

have you used Babbel I stared in November of 2021learning Spanish, and I had heard of Babbel so I tried it out and could only get so far and they wanted money for everything it seemed like

so have you ever used Babbel please leave a comment there's a link to BABBEL

https://try.babbel.com/flags-sem-brand-desktop/

[buho]

yes, i have used babbel through unofficial means. it's okay. i don't have any strong opinions about it. I have listened to their palabras bravas podcast which I liked.

the only language-learning app which i dislike is rosetta stone

[IceVajal]

[mention]Upbeat 88[/mention] it would get more attention when you give it a title like "what do you think about Babble?"

[zerogrqvity]

[mention]Upbeat 88[/mention] Well, I've heard of this app, Ravon sponsored it on one of his videos; but besides that, I don't feel like it would do much. Considering the fact that it costs money, while yes; I know Duolingo has Duo+, but the app/website is free to be on. While other people may have another opinion, this is just mine. And, it's kind of the same thing as duolingo, which is just .
Good day,
-zerogrvqityy- <3

[Deleted User 114]

Here are some different reviews for Babbel. I hope they answer your questions.

https://ling-app.com/tips/babbel-review/

https://www.langoly.com/babbel-review/

https://sites.google.com/site/videobloc ... bel-review

[Thomas.Heiss]

I installed their Android app to check out the course Newcomer (A1)/Beginner (A2)/Intermediate (B1)/Upper-Intermediate (B2) and Refresher difficulty and type of questions and available exercises as the first lesson
for each course is free / unlocked to try it out.

A bit surprising that the normal Android in-app subscription (Google store) is limited to only one language and you need to find the special 2-in-1 deal, offering you more languages for 120 Euros per year, but is only available on the Web.

I updated to the latest Babbel app version from the store.

• 180 Euros / per year is crossed out and for 12 months they currently ask for 72 Euros.
• Maybe you can receive better special discounted deals for one language per email or on BlackFriday??
• This means next year is full 180 Euros if you forget to unsubscribe (auto renew policy)!!
• However, those are NOT lifetime deals, they are only yearly subscriptions!
  I wouldn't want pay so much to sponsor their more aggressive marketing.
  Even though I know that another special LIFETIME deal somewhere exists on the Website or through other sites like Stack Social but is much higher (for ALL) languages.

..(...)..

Compare this to Busuu:

• It offers ALL languages for 50-60% Off discounted yearly subscriptions for PremiumPlus.

• The special offers are in the 34-45 Euros / per year range. But you also need to unsubscribe soon else renew rate is ₈₀-90 Euros.

• It was recently announced that Non-Premium accounts again can take more FREE lessons and won't be locked out after 1 (like Babbel) or 4-6 lessons, not anymore.
  That's a nice recent policy change on their side.
  I will link my Duome posting here later.

However, as I've completed the Busuu French A1 course as a newbie I need to note that it is IMHO quickly paced after lesson 29 or 50!
Kinda duable for a FALSE beginner or maybe if you know another Romance language well, but for a true French beginner the example sentences can get difficult with unknown vocabulary (introduced much later or in another course), exercises of fast spoken audio with sentences of 2-3 parts and A1 videos without subtitle or missing English translations are a real challenge.
The dialogues with texts and blanks are also challenging when you run into new stuff. Good for a long-term Portuguese learner, a bit too much for a true beginner.
Later A2 course material more often now seems to use video subtitles and occassionally you can see more random EN transcribes.
Audio speed varies very much.
Hope they can improve the A1 French course.

Note:
Despite having learned a lot in French (speaking aloud and repeating multiple times what French natives said) in my first year, but course teaching material not going slow enough, I now can't even review completed grammar lessons or do dedicated lesson quizzes in the A1 Busuu course anymore on my free account this year.
This is reserved for Premium(Plus) users exclusively.
The vocabulary list also doesn't contain all words you are going to see in example sentences or dialogues.

So I will have to step back and relearn French from scratch with other resource material.

Also using Dr. French grammar (Android app) and FastLingo French (both are available for a small one-time fee) show a lot of useful concepts and good explanations.

Babbel seems to offer a lot in six A1 Newcomer courses with multiple varying lessons count and another A1 Newcomer grammar course with 29 lessons?!
Maybe their A1 Newcomer French course goes a bit slower than Busuu, especially with the audio?
Well, I don't know and I'm not sponsored so I don't have access to that beginner material.

And I wouldn't buy a yearly subscription which doesn't at least give me FULL access to Brazilian Portuguese and upper intermediate B2 English, C1 Advanced English and Business English courses on top, like Busuu does it with their ALL languages yearly (discounted) PremiumPlus subscription, of it's not much cheaper.

..(...)..

The way to go is to find a learning resource which offers LIFETIME deals.

• Ouino is ₉₀ Euros for French or Spanish (one language) but with access to the whole course. Much better deal than yearly or monthly subscriptions.
  They also added stories and bonus material.

• LingoLegend offers a lifetime deal for 90 Euros but you can also watch 2 ads per day (there only is their own Premium ad, no others, at least for now) for 30 seconds. Also works with a free account.
  The 1-2 letter word builder is a nice challenge for my one year French knowledge to put whole sentences together. Only using word banks with full solutions like Duolingo does it on the older Android app is a bit lame. You're forced into higher crown levels. The toggle keyboard button often is not available.
  Already have stumbled across the m'en construct, direct/indirect pronouns (l', le/la, lui), imperfect tense in the 4th topic and Weather sub module, etc.
  Hadn't even learned those things yet on Busuu as they come much later in the A2 course.

• Rocket languages offers three levels for French or Spanish and you get one level for a lifetime.
  Each level receives discounted offers regularly. If you sum up 60 Euros (heavily discounted) you will also get into that 180 Euros range for all three levels but you can at least keep it.
  But having to separately buy three levels holds me back when compared to Ouino.

• FrenchToday offers several levels and you keep access for a lifetime if you're serious wanting to learn French.
  Their description says that there will be further explanations. No, I haven't tried it, sorry.

• Pimsleur (app) asks for 22 Euros / per months with ALL languages access.
  Their Premium Android app offers several NEW features to complement the 30 minutes lesson audio course.
  For French an audio-only course (like a Cd/Mp3) is probably the worst thing what you can do so make sure you can read English translations, get audio/video subtitles/transcribes and you can practice heard French phrases with SRS technique and relearn flashcards with reading and typing drills, guessing challenges, word builders or multiple-choice selections.
  At least after having completed the audio lesson.
  I actually need to have the picture of a heard French word and phrase in my mind, then I can better remember it.
  The writing is so different, especially when words are concatenated together with Liaisons. No idea how a true French can understand l'anglais from the Pimsleur audio lesson when he never learned anglais, le and l' separately and never has seen those French words before on screen.

• I recently got a LIFETIME offer from Mosalingua for 99€ plus Vat for all languages and ALL available modules (MosaSpeak, MosaStories, Dialogues, TravelStories, bonus,..) on a BlackFriday offer.

• Watch out for Kickstarter deals on upcoming Fluyo app from Ikenna.

To make use of Babbel you either need a company to sponsor your learning for the business side, like with pricey Berlitz classroom or 1-1 teacher education courses, or you need to live on a higher language learning budget.

Will add links to this post later.

[PtolemysXX]

[mention]Thomas.Heiss[/mention]: really appreciate your reviews. They will be very helpful for the imminent "post Duolingo" era (unless by some magic lightning strike they re-activate the tree layout).

[Thomas.Heiss]

As I've already mentioned the game LingoLegend above, here you can find my quick review in the "Language app benchmarks" thread:

viewtopic.php?p=39934#p39934