Babbel - Language Learning
reviews and complaints

Update: After using this app every day for over a month it’s become clear that I’m not learning all that much and the functionality of the app is even worse than I first thought. I had to change my score from 3 stars to 1. I would not recommend this app. So much promise in this app, so little actualized.
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I’ve tried several different language apps over the years and Babbel is definitely the most infuriating. This is due mostly to the fact that it’s the only one I’ve paid for, as opposed to using a free version and watching ads.

Before I explain the negatives, I’ll say Babbel uses good learning techniques and their approach is far better than the other app I’ve used. So, if you’re patient and willing to work within the limitations of the app, this is the one for you.

Now for the negative:

The most upsetting thing is the speaking comprehension. I’m admittedly horrible at speaking Spanish but Babbel seems arbitrary. Sometimes I’m not done speaking and it cuts me off and counts my pronunciation correct. Sometimes I speak simple words clearly and it counts it wrong.

Also, the layout is horrible. I have better than 20/20 vision and the text is so small it’s uncomfortable to read. The multiple choice options are so close that it’s easy to inadvertently choose the wrong answer.

There’s also no option to ask questions. I often wonder why something it translated a certain way and there’s no way to find out.

Having said all that, Babbel has a lot of potential. If this app had been around for a year or two it’d be impressive. However, it’s been around since 2008 and there are so many easy fixes they need to make.

Response to Babbel: I’d be happy to submit my suggestions to Babbel’s Wishboard but the link in your response is broken and the “contact a developer” link just takes me to a page asking me to download the Babbel app.

The diversity of learning techniques is great. I got through the first course of Indonesian and moved to Bali. I was able to communicate basic needs and wants everywhere I went. Then I learned a lot being there. I came back to the states and started the second course. The second course is full of sentences. It has much more interactive communication where you listen and write. I was so happy for this as I can talk now but I can’t understand many people. Some know how to talk slow for me. I hope after being home six months and completing part two that I will be able to understand more. I am extremely happy with Babbel as it has enabled me to be a part of a community. I have friends who only speak Bahasa Indonesia and because of Babbel, we can be friends and communicate. It is a simple communication, but it is huge! I am a happy traveler.

Here is a summary I wrote before I left for Bali:

Hear it, say it, select it, put the syllables in order, spell it, use it in a sentence, hear it and spell it from its place in the sentence.

So many many lessons! Chapters in the first part divided primarily in lessons of threes a- introduces topic, b- more into that topic, c- review all of that topic. Each lesson gives maybe 9-12 words, some easy, some not.

Another section covers “words and sentences”, “grammar”, etc. Over 20 subjects. They are not as well-covered. I subsidize this with an app called Indonesian Dictionary by Ithinkdiff. I put these words in their bookmarks and play games with them.

By the time I complete this course, I will be able to communicate on many subjects and be understood. Even with where I am, I could figure some good conversations out. I’m going to continue and pay monthly. I passed my initial payment time period. If all I did were the primary lessons and not put time into the less covered words, I could have completed that much before running out of time on my dollar.

(for reference, i’m learning french and i’ve been practicing every day with duolingo for almost a year.)

at first i was really happy with this app and used it in conjunction with duolingo. i felt like the areas in which duo lacked, babble made up for (like explaining why we do and say certain things) but i quickly realized the structure of the lessons are incredibly confusing and overwhelming. it might work for someone who is taking a french class but otherwise, i was spending a lot of time looking up definitions so i could understand what superlatives, definitive articles, and infinitives were. that is, of course, important for learning another language but i got tired of it quickly.

they pride themselves on teaching you sentences that you’ll actually use in conversation but there’s virtually no practice in each lesson of each phrase they teach you. you see it, say it, spell certain words out from a word jumble, hear it in a complex conversation and that’s it. the only repetition comes from the reviews they offer. it feels like a course that expects you to do extensive practice/homework on your own between lessons to really drill in what they’re trying to teach. they will also throw the new words/phrases you’re learning into complex sentences that you’re completely unfamiliar with which is so distracting.

i do like how they structure the reviews and show how well acquainted you are with each word/phrase which is why i gave it two stars.
i also feel like the accents and cadence used is more reminiscent of what you’ll hear when you’re speaking to someone who knows the language, in comparison to duo.

i also wish they had a dark-mode option.

this structure might work for some people but at no point in my lessons have i felt confident about what i was learning and often feel overwhelmed and exhausted after a lesson or two. i’m really disappointed i paid for a year subscription and suggest you give it a couple of weeks after your free trial ends before committing to a year.

Tried several lessons in different languages and purchased. One is directed to also look at their website for discounts not offered through the App Store. One is given a discount code and directed back to the App Store to purchase. However when doing this one doesn’t get to select the language, the app chose the last language trialed, and discount code was not applied. Immediately canceled the subscription upon realizing the app chose the last language trialed but could not obtain a refund. Contacted Babbel support and was told they have no control over the app on the App Store and they couldn’t change the language nor refund the purchase; but one could buy another package through links provided via email to their website and buy the correct language or multiple languages for a year. So you’re paying twice for something one has already paid for.
In response to Babbel asked since they developed the app, how could they not have access to change the language or refund the purchase so one could buy the correct module one intended? Again they said they have no control over the app. How can this be since they developed the app for Apple and android use? In response told Babbel this was a fraudulent practice, they were double dipping and would report for fraudulent activities. Babbel then provided a link to iTunes support and filed a claim for a refund. Babbel not only denied the claim but also charged the account again for the purchase. Had to spend a lot of time on the phone with Apple support to get money refunded, figure out why was charged twice upon filing for cancellation and discussed Babbel’s responses via email. Apple confirmed Babbel developed the app, supports it and therefore has access to refund or change the language.
Apple refunded both the purchases, the second without authorization. Very disappointing and not a reputable company after this experience. Although it seemed like a good app there is no reason to give a dishonest company money again. There are other apps out there to use.

I started learning Russian two months ago on Duolingo and absolutely loved it. I was happy to pay the subscription until the developers completely scrapped the model that worked for me and changed it to something that I hate. Despite hundreds of one start reviews, they don’t seem to want to change back anytime so. So I switched to Babbel. There’s a lot to like about this app. I think it does a great job of presenting the grammar in manageable pieces of information. I actually started from the beginning because even the early courses had some vocabulary and information that I didn’t know yet. I really like that they include conversations right from the beginning, including some casual vernacular (of course, well, listen! Etc.). Some of the most useful exercises are listening to a conversation and answering questions about it without seeing the words written down. What I find a little frustrating is that I am now well into the course and we are still not translating or composing full sentences. They will either give chunks of the words to put in order, or have you fill in one words out of a sentence. I leaned the best in Duolingo when I hid all the hints and just did the work on a Russian keyboard. I still hope it gets to that point, but I have already finished several courses and over 100 units and we are not there yet. I don’t feel like I am retaining the info as well as I want to. The other thing is that I wish the review was a little more robust. You do get some review questions every few units, which is good. Also, you can go back and redo any unit you want to. But there are several times I wanted review questions and there weren’t any available. I will definitely complete the course and probably use the membership to brush up in a couple of their languages. I think Babbel with rightly benefit from Duolingo’s mistake, as I know many others have switched as well. I just hope they keep adding new content and more challenging content for advanced learners. Overall, I am frustrated with the lack of more challenging engagement with the content.

I have been using this app to learn Dutch for almost 4 months and I’ve come a long way, but as I delve deeper into the language the app is becoming less helpful. It is very vague on explaining sentence structure for the language and after 4 months of using the app daily, I still don’t understand how to form a complete sentence. I know I am a beginner, but I couldn’t speak the language to a native speaker if I tried. Just a couple phrases and single words which is pretty sad considering I’ve been dedicating myself for all of these months to atleast have a very basic conversation. The sentences I’ve learned I would never use in real life and are useless. As for the review portion, It will give me two new words in the same sentence but I can not tell which word I am supposed to be writing in the blank. Would be nice if they underlined the words in the English sentence to identify which word they were specifying. They do not break the word down near enough to suddenly throw an entire sentence at you where you only know a couple of words. They should start with phrases like,
I like…I hate…I see…I saw…I said…I need…I want…Those are just a few examples of common ways to start a sentence but they don’t do that. Right away they start talking about subjects and things that are useless and void. Glad I can specify a kilo of cherries or how much a stranger hates books but can’t ask someone how much a bus ticket costs or how to describe the weather or even what someone’s hobby is? I’ve spent two weeks just learning how to plan a birthday party. Like, WHY THOUGH? I’m not learning this language to move to the Netherlands and become a caterer! Also, when I use the speaking option in the review, it almost never picks up what I’m saying unless I exaggerate each syllable in a word (which is not how you would normally speak to someone), and It will say I am incorrect. I haven’t been as excited or interested in using this app anymore because I am frustrated and disappointed. I paid for a whole year, but unless it improves I plan on canceling it before it autorenews, which by the sound of the other reviews that’s what’s bound to happen.

Now that I’ve tried Babel, I can say I’ve now used the main three language learning apps on the market right now, RosettaStone, Duolingo, and Babel. Each has their own unique style and here Ill do my best to compare the three.

First up is Rosetta.
I used Rosetta in school to learn Spanish for four years, and I will say it gets the job done. It’s main method for teaching is presenting context and giving you words and phrases without directly telling you the translation in order to replicate the experience of learning a language through immersion. However, there are pros and cons to this. The main con is that things like grammar rules are significantly harder to pick up on. It’s also a little pricey especially compared to competitors.

Next is Duolingo.
I’ve used Duolingo to learn French and Swedish. I love Duolingo. They have a huge selection of languages to learn even if English is not your first language. It has a nice balance of learning through context and instruction, though depending on the language the quality and frequency of direct instruction varies. For common languages like Spanish, English, and French, there are a lot of resources that help you comprehend grammar rules. However when I was learning Swedish, there wasn’t much of that at all. The program also wasn’t as efficient at making you conversational very fast. I was learning words like newspaper far before I ever learned how to tell someone what my name is or ask how they’re doing. The biggest thing is that it’s free. I love what they do and the education is quality. They’re not in it for the money.

And finally Babel…
I had heard about Babel through a friend. I was having some difficulty picking up applicable Swedish through Duolingo so I decided to give Babel a try. Wow. They really have something special. The instruction is applicable and comprehensive. It exposes you to new concepts and words while only quizzing you on what you’ve already learned. It’s the perfect balance of simulating immersion while also giving you helpful instruction on everything from pronunciation to grammar to conversational context. It focuses much more on conversational language learning and less on formal speaking. And the price is very reasonable. It couldn’t be easier to learn a language.

I like the Ap, but I wish it administered a test first to know where to start, instead of making everyone start from the beginning. Each lesson should allow the user to test out.

There are some occasional errors; like counting your answer incorrect but giving your answer as the correct answer; or asking for a word they haven’t gone over yet. As the lessons progress, there are more instances where they ask questions about materials they haven’t given out yet.

So far, I’ve encountered 2 times where an instruction was given. Then, a question was asked about that information. They count the correct answer (according to the instructions) wrong.

I wish there was an easier way to go back and forth within a lesson. You have to close the lesson, reopen, and select not to resume in order to go back one page. And then it starts the entire lesson over.

You never know when the speaker is going to be using Latin America Spanish or Castilliano. Native speakers use one or the other, but don’t tell you beforehand which.

This course is a “memorize dialogue” course; so you have to hope what you’re learning is going to match up with a real conversation. It’s not like Pimsleur that makes you form your own sentences.

I do really like the thorough coverage of the plural informal “You” verb conjugations. I’ve taken 3 years of Spanish and a total immersion class in Mexico and all of them neglected to teach those verbs.

I like that the words/phrases are captions to pictures. That way you can recall a picture associated with words and you get a better concept of the meanings.

I like the pop up explanations. They are very easy to understand instruction. And I like it that the pop ups distinguish between the Spanish dialects ( just wish they’d let you know which dialect the native speakers were using.)

And I’m liking the review and getting congratulated for knowing the info. I don’t know how many wrong answers it would take for the Ap to say I wasn’t doing well.

In conclusion, I wouldn’t depend on this course alone to make me fluent in Spanish or any other language. If you’re serious about wanting to learn; then, you’ll want to include several different courses, listen to Spanish radio and television, and hang around with native speakers. This Ap is a good start, but get DuoLingo and Pimsleur, too.

Let me preface this by saying NOTHING GOOD IS EVER FREE. I see a lot of complaints about it not being free. Look, you’re a fool if you think you can learn a language for free. They give you a limited free trial so you can get an idea of how it all works! Don’t be dim!

I’ve always wanted so much to be multi-lingual but high school classes weren’t helpful at all (a lot has changed in 30 years), and I paid a lot of money to attend courses over the years, only to drop out, feeling completely defeated only a week in. Babbel is revolutionary. They make language learning so fun that it’s hard for me to only do one lesson a day. I feel as if I’m playing a game. I forget that my objective is to learn. Some people play Best Fiends, but I play Babbel. And I chose Russian first (no specific reason why). I have learned so much in just a couple months, and I’ve learned it in a way that doesn’t at all feel like I worked toward it! The language is being so effectively embedded that I find myself thinking in Russian as I do mundane, daily tasks. And not only am I getting the phonetics of it, but even the alphabet and writing the Cyrillic script. It’s becoming second nature. I asked Babbel support a while back if they offer a deal if you subscribe to ALL languages, and sure enough, there is! I don’t know if it’s a regular offer but I received a code for a lifetime, all access subscription for $200. Look, I’m 47 and thought there was no hope of me ever learning a foreign language. If this works on me it’ll work for anyone who really wants to learn. In my opinion I’ve already gotten more than $200 worth of education from this app. I’ve spent at least $1500 over the years on numerous attempts at Spanish, French, and German, only to give up in the first levels. THIS WORKS! Now I do admit, it’s got me so hooked on learning Russian that I like to supplement Babbel with other language learning apps such as Drops. Drops is more word memorization through matching games, but also really fun and effective (I just use their free version for 5 minutes a day). Drops isn’t as comprehensive as Babbel, but I find it to be a fantastic companion app to help basic words stick. I tend to copy phrases to a notebook as I go through my Babbel lessons, thinking that writing in Cyrillic and sounding out the words as I go will also help. I also listen to Russian language podcasts casually, in the background as I’m working. I make no effort to listen closely. It’s like a test. A few hours after doing Babbel I’ll put a podcast on and with each passing day I recognize more of the words and phrases I hear. Learn your next language through Babbel. You won’t regret it!

First, I have seen some comments prior to my enrolling in the Babbel Language Program, online, making statements to the effect that they are difficult to make contact with, they are not reliable etc. Well, (and this about three years ago), driven by desire to learn the French language and knowing that it emanated from Germany, I decided to enroll in the program.
And I can state categorically that anyone is able to learn the language in which they are most interested using Babbel.

It is easy to negotiate online, it has a superlative vocabulary review which reinforces what has been presented in the lessons, and if one has questions or needs some form of support (of which I have had several), the customer associates are there almost immediately, not only to respond, but to actualize the learning process as well as even going so far as to explain the changes in Apple's latest software, which requires holding down specific keys in order to obtain the accents and other language markings.

You see, I can promise good results with every aspect of Babbel, because I was a real neophyte when it came to online and language learning.

Despite the publicity of programs like Rosetta Stone, it is a system that for me was literally a waste.
The repetition of sounds over and over is not only annoying, but proved to be stressful. No one pronounces the vocabulary you are supposed to be responsible for acquiring, unlike Babbel, during which each dialogue is spoken by native speakers. Rosetta Stone required one to pay an additional fee for 'group sessions' with a native teacher. In my experience he either didn't show up or the material being reviewed was not the units to which I had indicated on the program where I was at that time. And this is at additional cost!

The worst part of Rosetta Stone is if you have the misfortune of asking to make a return (supposedly guaranteed); all I can say is that be prepared to take a flight to the country of your choice and still do not be surprised if after going through myriad levels and so-called escalations, if your product is processed correctly. And God forbid if the return involves a return of money.

In short, Babbel is a program which explains all aspects of the language and the why of changes, whereas Rosetta Stone (at least for me) is not attentive, no one responds to your needs, and their service is just in essence a 'call-center' operation in collaboration with UPS (all timed just right), but it doesn't work and it is a waste of money.

Babbel works because all points are carefully explained, and their service is great, in addition to the fact that it is grounded to the A1,2 levels of the European Framework.

Many times on forums I see people asking if some language app will make them “fluent.” Well, I have tried many apps, and no app on the market is going to make you fluent, but some apps really do a great job in getting you started. Babbel is a leader in this regard.

To be clear, I finished Babbel’s main German courses, experimented with the Spanish, and regularly use the vocabulary builder and special courses for Polish. Polish is my wife’s language, German is a language I need for research (I am a historian in academia).

Babbel’s method has many things to commend. The spaced repetition feature ensures that most words you learn remain firmly embedded in your memory. The conversation-based main courses are entertaining and help you practice listening and learning new words by context. Babbel teaches grammar concepts methodically, with lots of drills. People may whine about drills, but it is necessary to master, say, a conjugation of a certain verb. The explanations Babbel provides for different grammar concepts is commendable, and allows for solid understanding. The special courses enrich the learning experience and build skills needed for real world situations, such as business. There is a huge amount of material, at least for the major languages of Spanish, French, and German... but some of their other languages don’t go beyond the elementary level, so check before you buy.

There are a few drawbacks to Babbel, as it stands in August (Babbel is constantly improving itself, so these might not be applicable soon.) There is no feature to allow you to view an explanation of all the grammar concepts in the course, or even in a specific lesson, in a written, synthetic form, such as Duolingo or Lingodeer has, and you have to actually go into each lesson to access these conceptual explanations. This can be tricky if you forgot which lesson a certain concept or rule was in. It is also annoying if you forgot, say, the third person plural of a certain verb, and you have to start opening different lessons hoping to stumble on it. Just provide a conjugation chart! Babbel already has excellent grammar material, just make it available outside of lessons! To pick another issue, the speech recognition is weak, and I have turned the speaking feature off as it is simply not helpful. One final issue is the spaced repetition system needs more user control. Some words or categories of words need more work and review than others, and there should be some way to allow users to control this.

In the end, no system is perfect, so I supplement Babbel with textbooks and other apps. However, considering Babbel’s affordable price, I doubt you will get more bang for your buck anywhere else.

I committed to use this app every day for a year, when I allowed myself to pay for the yearly subscription. The first lesson in Spanish was free and seemed promising.

I’ve been using it for 221 days straight and it was a big mistake.

This app is awful and I suspect most of these reviews are either fake or from people who haven’t been using it for very long.

I can’t stress enough that this app WILL NOT take just “15 minutes a day”, some lessons are more than 100 questions long.

It WILL NOT let you “learn a language in 3 weeks”, it has zero memorization resources and lacks any effective review mechanism.

It WILL NOT teach you “conversational skills”, what they mean is that some questions are presented in a text message format, but there’s no meaningful difference between those questions and all the others.

It won’t even teach you vocabulary, it’ll show you some word once, and then quiz you on it once before just tossing them in the rest of the heap of things you’re not remembering.

What it WILL DO is give you a quiz without study material every day until you rage quit from hearing the obnoxious dull bell noise over and over that reminds you the app isn’t working.

The topics are a jumbled mess. Words and concepts are often introduced just once, and then only briefly before being incorporated into new and bigger concepts you won’t be ready to tackle. It won’t help you keep track of what you’re not getting, or make it easy to review things you need to brush up on. This is literally just the quizzes at the back of a text book you didn’t read. And much like a textbook it will try to teach you using overly academic language that it didn’t define. Sometimes even technical grammar terms that you’re expected to reflexively understand the meaning of are presented IN THE LANGUAGE YOU’RE TRYING TO LEARN. Like, just try reflexively recalling the meaning of ‘the infinitive’ or ‘the past participle’ or the ‘pluscuamperfecto’, whatever that is. They didn’t actually explain it, they just started quizzing on it.

This app is bordering on a scam. Not because it couldn’t be useful for some people in some situations at some times, but because they’re selling it as something that, to anyone who has been using it for a while, it blatantly is not.

I’ll update my review when my year is over, but I don’t expect much to have changed. The ineptitude of this app is shockingly consistent. It also still hasn’t gotten an update for the iPhone X, and it actually breaks certain questions on some lessons, and babbel support said they didn’t intend on updating it.

As of right now, I’d say this app MIGHT be good if you’re surrounded constantly by native speakers of the language you’re trying to learn, or if you’ve already completely mastered all the levels of other more immediately effective apps, such as Duolingo or Memrise. Otherwise, you’re in for disappointment and wasted money.

Let’s start with the background. I’m learning Dutch. My 3-month goal is to have some basic conversation skills. I have Dutch friends, and I’d like to be able to communicate easily with their family and friends. I also hope to spend some time in the Netherlands eventually. I’ve been using the Apps about 2 weeks.

My long-term goal is fluency. I have a subscription to Rosetta Stone, which I also use, and Babbel. Between the two, I find Babbel the better learning experience.

What I like.

Babbel has a better speech recognition (by far) than Rosetta Stone. It’s important that I pronounce words close enough to be understood. (Let’s be honest. I’ll always have an accent! ) Babbel stages where this early in my lessons, close is good enough. As I see the same word again, I’m encouraged to do better. As opposed to Rosetta Stone, where the microphone doesn’t work most of the time, unless I remember to count to three slowly before speaking, and then I still can have failures.

Babbel has better grammar and spelling. Dutch has rules, and when you know the rules, many things are easier. (Yes, English has rules. You remember “i-before-e”? Do you also remember the second part, the third part, and the about 12 exceptions?) Things ain’t perfect in Dutch, but they are better. This also helps with understanding.

Babbel has better context. Let me give you an example. In English, we can say “hi”, “hello”, “howdy”, and the like. Babbel already gave me 6 common greetings with when they’re used. Rosetta: 1 with the 2nd recently.

Babbel has some great supplemental material. I’ve just scratched the surface.

Babbel understands: repetition, repetition, repetition. That’s how we learn. Check out the review page. And, you can repeat lessons any time, which is difficult (if possible) with RS.

Babbel does a better job of reinforcing lessons with all the ways that your brain learns. I’m a cognitive scientist with a background in education. Believe it or not, even your tests in school had a reason besides measurement.

Babbel’s lessons almost always include a scenario where you hear full conversations in Dutch (or whatever you’re learning), spoken by natives.

What I like less.

Babbel isn’t perfect. Don’t let yourself get frustrated. There are lessons that throw a lot at you at once. This is a two-edged sword. I love the goal, but I sometimes have trouble learning so many words at once. (Remember, the lessons do reinforce what you see later. So, don’t panic if you’re having trouble.)

Sometimes I’d like to see the lessons step through these words using simpler reinforcement, such as picture/meaning or read/listen/repeat, before more complicated things like fill in the blank.

All in all, that’s pretty nit picky. Huh?

The big negative is that I started on the online (web) learning. It had bugs, to put it mildly. I strongly encourage Babbel to fix that. I nearly gave up before I thought to try the app.

Summary

I spent some time finding a learning app. I like this one. Obviously, there were reasons that I looked for something more when I started with RS and had previously used it. Obviously, I find RS worthwhile, or I wouldn’t still use it. I think you’ll like Babbel better, if you use the review features and don’t get frustrated too easily.

I know I previously wrote a review, but I am changing my review. I would like my money back. Although you do learn from this app, I find that I am not learning everything I need and it is rather boring. The reason it’s boring is because the lessons are short and I personally do not learn everything on the first try so I need to redo the same short lesson over and over which is boring and causes me to memorize.

The focus or each lesson appears to be one concept and the conversations are nice, but besides the introductions and basics of the lesson it’s hard to understand the conversations they have since you are supposed to be learning some specific concept. For example, learning numbers is fine, but the conversation that goes with it uses words and phrases what I’ve never seen before and the conversation is very difficult to navigate.

When the podcast explains things it’s challenging, but they explain the way through it which is helpful. Overall this is not the success I’d hoped for and I find myself getting frustrated which doesn’t happen when I use Duolingo’s free version except when I run out of hearts.

The podcasts are wonderful, but after the first few lessons there is a lot of depth in the chat conversations and it isn’t the easiest to navigate though. I find I try to understand a conversation that is by far more advanced than where the rest of the lesson should be. I am hopeful to get a full refund for my lifetime subscription.

To clarify why 3 stars? This is because it really does a good job explaining rules like how to distinguish plural vs. singular and how to navigate things like a male from America vs. a female from America and how to spell and pronounce the differences. With that, this app is great. The issue is the lesson lengths are short and they attempt to move you on after each lesson being so short and no more practice suggested. Once you learn a conjugation or rule you should have opportunities to practice those rules over and over in the lesson so you see various ways rather than just the one. Take a greeting for example. You learn how to say how are you one way. When you listen to the podcast they let you hear a variety of ways people
greet and ask how you are. That is helpful, but the lesson only shows one, maybe 2, and gives you 1 opportunity to try it maybe 2 before ending meaning if you want to review one part you need to redo the same lesson on entirety which is short, but you need to redo the other things within the lesson and will soon realize you will memorize the answers which personally doesn’t help me learn. When you do practice again, the lesson is repetitive and kind of boring. The review sessions are fine as well for the basic lesson, but doesn’t cover everything you learned in the lessons themselves or the depth of the conversation.

If you are like me, I’d look elsewhere. If you are looking for grammar and tips and tricks like general rules, rules of thumb, you follow easy, and like things short and to the point, this is the app for you. This is also for you if you pickup things quickly. This app is also for the person who wants short lessons and doesn’t want to spend a long time on lessons, but rather 5 to 10 minutes on. Don’t get me wrong, I like what I learned, but I don’t like how much I did not get at the same time which for me outweighs since I’m grasping so much elsewhere. Hard to explain.

Try it out to see if it’s for you. The free version trial is pretty much what it’s like in the full version minus the review section and podcasts (podcasts being the best part, but seems the good ones are only for the newcomer.) There is not any difference in the sample vs. the paid versions. Again for grammar and rules it’s great. To actually learn them in a fun way and get real repetitive practice is where this app lacks.

They do have classes which I have not done and I saw they offered me 2 free, but after that you’d need to pay for them. This may be well worth it from what I read, but I am finding I am frustrated by what I’m not getting overall from each lesson rather than what I am getting.

1. You can only review what they allow via the app. You can’t just review to review and actually sit and drill the information into your head. Which I’m not sure about others is how I learn. There’s no way to just cycle through words and phrases wherever you please. You are limited extremely in this. Which to me is merely a ploy to purchase more time to learn the same information you’re paying for. And since this actually extends the time needed to learn and fully absorb a language. This upsets me dearly.

2. With the first topic of interest. App rarely at a higher level brings back some of the more fundamental things it teaches to keep you fresh in all aspects. It would be better to allow study of all segments studied. At any time to do review on it. This is part of learning. Constant refreshing. Even in college this is done. Why not here? So that you get to a level of understanding then are required to repurchase the app in order to try again or more. Yes you can go over a studied chapter. What I’m referring is the review functionality. It really is poor.

3. The ins and outs really aren’t explained very well. They act like I have a formal education in English to understand what conjunctive metaphors are etc. Perhaps a clearly more average person level explanation would be more preferred. Not everyone is a Harvard graduate with under studies in English. Even as a native speaker and getting As in English in school I don’t understand some of the terms they try to competitively associate to. It would be far better to show the sentence structure why it is the way it is. Explain that. Explain where when why to add this or that more. And when not to. This is now my largest pitfall conjugation. I know the words I need but the order is beside me sometimes. And it really annoys native speakers more than anything I’ve noticed when that isn’t understood.

4. When I take an exam I’m gotheit institute I’m at a2 level. Yet I’m in app at b2 that shouldn’t be possible. This just goes to show the connections aren’t being properly shown or made passed this.

5. With number 4 many of the words in the gotheit exams aren’t even here nor are they explained or the conjugation of them. For example they just start tossing auf at me.. what is auf is it for is it on? How am I to know which is which? Where do I use it and how? When don’t I use it? What is improper. This is where this app really really lacks. Likewise aus and many other words. They just string them along but they can be used clearly in many different functions. But yet instead of covering this they just toss it at you. Then expect you to just go oh yeah ? I’ve had professors do this to me in university it never worked there either. It’s better to cover the context if you don’t want foreigners making conjugation issues out of a sentence. For example: besuchen ? Why the be? Suchen means searching. Is this separateble into the perfekt? When can’t and can’t I use the perfekt ? Does the habe habt haben thing apply to each word in a sentence or just the one adjoined to the influence word? For ex ist it ich habe zu fliege nach Berlin .. or is it ich habe zu fliegen nach Berlin? And yes that was likely a horrid example but you get the idea..

6. What’s to use der die das den dem des etc. their way of explaining this makes absurdly no sense at all to me as an average person. It’s like okay sometimes it’s this way if it’s masculine neuter etc or feminine.. they really don’t say more than this.. and the way they do it and then go back and forth with it that way then not is righteously confusing! Why not just teach it through all of them one way then the next and so on? No instead they flip flop every other study term. It becomes very demoralizing and makes it feel more daunting then exciting. It makes it seem like there’s more to learn to a level that’s not impossible but it makes it feel so.

7. It would also be excellent if there was a messaging platform to interact with other users. That way the language can be practiced. Perhaps by those whom don’t care to go live on video. Though it would be preferred to separate gender in this because let’s face it every time I’ve tried joining a group to learn on social or any platform it’s nothing but needy men trying to play hookup. When all I want to do is attain a higher knowledge instead..

There’s so much more I could say but this is the tip of the ice berg..

In some of my A2-level lessons, quite a few A1-level students are participating. I believe in a supportive environment in the class; however, these students often do not understand the lesson and need time to articulate responses, which slows the pace to the point that active dialog is limited. The final sections of the lesson are the most challenging and interactive, but, because of the slow pace, we fail to cover these sections before class is over. Can anything be done to resolve this? A preliminary language-level exam that is strictly adhered to before being allowed to move to the next level?

I am a teacher who appreciates learning apps. I have a PhD in psychology and so I can appreciate a good learning app. I really like Duolingo, for example, because they nudge learners using what we know about learning. After using Duolingo for almost 3 years I was ready to try something new. Babbel seemed like the obvious choice. However I’ve been extremely disappointed. I’m an intermediate speaker and I was defaulted to saying hello and goodbye. Twice I took a placement test to be advanced to classes at my level. But the test wasn’t even a real test. Instead of seeing if u could speak Spanish by giving me Spanish to understand or statements to produce Babbel just asked me — in English — how good my Spanish is. That’s ok as a start but it’s ludicrous as a placement test. Making matters worse, the app is hard to navigate and it keeps offering me beginner lessons even after it says it places me at the intermediate level. Finally, so far at least, the content is boring. Duolingo uses humor and has inspiring podcasts with interesting life stories. Babbel has mundane stories that simply don’t engage me. Maybe I need to take a course in how to use Babbel but so far it’s a big disappointment. I’m giving it another week before I cancel. Brett Pelham

This is the very first ADA accessible language tutor I have found on my iPhone but it has a very important bugs that make it unworkable. First of all it is the first app I’ve ever had that would actually read to me what was on the screen. It read the word in English, my native language, and then in Spanish, the language I want to learn. The problem is that when I swipe left or right of the screen I have to go through every single word on the entire page because it will not read sentences. It takes an option out even when it is in my router to begin with. I have to go through and swipe until it says choose the correct but it actually says,
Choose
The
Correct
Answer
And so on. Even when I go through the answers it doesn’t just say each answer as a complete sentence. It says,
Muchos
Gracias so it is very painstaking to try to read the text and make a choice.
Then I got to the real serious bug that made me stop using the program. When I try to use the listen and repeat feature, my voiceover talked over the top of the person saying the word in Spanish and also prevented me from saying the word in the recording. I kept getting the wrong answer because it did not wait politely for my voiceover to finish talking. Just like Rosetta Stone, this app is entirely “blind need not attempt”.

So, I know passable french, but I wanted to improve more. I thought to myself “oh every ad is pretty much Babbel and I have nothing to lose” so I downloaded the app. I was so excited to learn more french. I opened the app, filled out the beginning question and was presented with a challenge “beginner or advanced”. Now, I know I went to france and did a decent job of understanding and speaking so how hard could it be? Well, I chose advanced. The first question- my mind finds the answer to “what time is it” a phrase I leaned 4 years ago. Perhaps it’s just getting a feel for where I am... I click the right answer. It repeats the phrase in french. This is it, I think, I’m finally going to get another question and go back to learning! So I wait for it to load... and I wait... and I wait some more. Maybe it froze? I closed the app and opened it back up. I went back through the same survey thing and finally back to the question. I have this one under control now. I click the right answer. It doesn’t repeat the phrase. Okay, weird. I go to my home screen, open another app, and come back. I try the question again. It took half an hour and I’m on good wifi and service this is an issue with the app I couldn’t do anything why the hell did I think it would work? Everyone else said you get 6 free words but hey at least you got words all I got was a haunting reminder of the passage of time

The way the app teaches works fairly well however there are several problems that have caused me a lot of frustration.

The app has its own keyboard that doesn’t respond as well as my phones normal one and special characters are more difficult to type. The option to use my phones normal digital keyboard would be nice.

All answers you submit are either wrong or right, a small spelling error and it counts it wrong. Which with the weird keyboard happens a lot. I would also like to see a optional button when you get a wrong answer that explains the correct answer. Couple this with some of the question types aren’t explained at all and I have to either get a wrong answer or have to figure out what the app want me to do (or both).

The app is also slow between questions, it almost feels like it has a built in timer for the next portion. This might be because my phone is older but the app should be complex enough to slow it down that much. I prefer a bit faster experience as it keeps my mind more active.

Lastly I would like to see the pages of the grammar rules written down without having to do exercises. I don’t really want to do an entire lesson to see them again.

Overall I feel that the app will teach me a language but it just keeps frustrating me. It’s not so much the method of teaching the language but the app‘s Interface itself that is holding it back and I feel like I won’t stick with it for long and try to find another way to learn.

I really do like this app, let me just say that.

However, it’s profoundly difficult to use if you are a beginner. The material escalates very quickly so be prepared for that. The app is also incredibly finicky. For example, in one of my French lessons, the app marked my answer wrong because I put dix neuf instead of dix-neuf (with a hyphen). Kind of ridiculous to nitpick something that minor in the beginner lesson. In a similar situation, other apps would mark something like that correct, but offer the advice that the word should have a hyphen. Other apps also explain why your answer was wrong, where this one just moves on without really addressing it.

Babbel should seriously consider something like this, as well as the ability to provide feedback in the app. For a paid service, it sure is disappointing. The main reason I stick with this is the focus on grammar, which I really find useful.

Update: Babbel addressed my concerns with lesson escalation, but the app is still horrible at voice recognition and nit-picking over minor details. The voice recognition is bad to the point where I’m definitely quitting the app after my subscription is up. Easy words like “sept” are marked wrong when I say them, even though I know for a fact I’m saying them right. When I listen back at the recording of my voice compared with the lesson, there is no difference, yet Babbel marks it wrong.

They’re losing a star because the app has made language learning frustrating. While the grammar lessons are nice, I’ll try my luck somewhere else.

[Edit] This is for German. I’ve updated my review based on developer’s response. First things first, my initial comment does not change. You only get 1 lesson for free. The free lesson consists of “hello”, “how are you”, and other such introductory words. Babbel claims that some languages contain up to 80 free lessons, but I am unsure which languages they mean specifically. Why do some languages have more free lessons than others? Either way, it seems a bit inconsistent, if not, unfair. Nonetheless, German has only one. I can not review highly of an app, I could not even use. Now, why comment about this? The biggest problem with only 1 free lesson is that it’s extremely difficult to see if you want to pay or not for the service. It’s $17.99 per month OR nearly $80! for a full year of service, of only ONE language. Keep this in mind. How could I justify such a price? In comparison, Duolingo is free and I’ve used it a bunch…so what’s the advantage in using this app? How would it sell to me to start paying? Hence why, for the developers, I’d recommend adding more free lessons across the board, especially with languages like German, so people can get an actual taste of what the app is like and if it is for them. It doesn’t matter if some have “80”, if it is not all of them. OR, include a week/month of a free trial, so that people can actually try it for themselves. OR add a discounted price for new members. There’s so many solutions to this problem, but it’s actually frustrating how you claim it is free and only include 1 lesson. Until this problem is resolved, I will not recommend.

I enjoy this over Duolingo for learning and was happy to pay for the year but I’m constantly frustrated with the user experience. There are many times where I get answers wrong because of the design and not because of an incorrect answer.

For example. The app will ask you to complete a sentence by tapping on different word boxes. When doing so, the boxes rearrange into a smaller space. As a result, you end up accidentally hitting the wrong word box which impacts your score.

Another example. Sometimes the microphone delays and doesn’t kick in while you’re testing your speech. Again, it dings your score. You can’t tell if the mic has kicked in because you have to hold down the button while you speak. Difficult to tell when your finger blocks the display. Why not just tap once to activate the microphone?

A final example. The keyboard. I have no idea why but the keyboard they provide has terrible tap targets. You end up having to tap multiple times. It’s extremely frustrating when you think your tap has been registered but it didn’t register and you get an incorrect answer because of it.

Last point. I wish the app also included a way to give feedback within the app. It doesn’t so I’m forced to give my feedback here. There’s an annoying bug too. If you shut the sound effects off it still does the sound effects on the iPad during speech recognition.

Language learning is hard and I’m okay with that but it’s a shame that my learning experience is frustrating because of the user experience, especially on the iPad. Duolingo gets the interface stuff right. Babbel gets the learning.

I don’t understand what the hype is about this. I’m a complete beginner in Italian and wanted the best app to learn practical things quickly. I am also using Duolingo. I really enjoyed Duo for Spanish but I had a base of knowledge from school years ago on that. With Italian I’m brand new. But this app is so much worse than Duolingo. It’s not innovative in the least. It’s just like a school book. If anything it takes words more out of context than Duo because you fill in charts in order rather than randomness that keeps you on your toes in Duolingo. And when you learn phrases there is nothing teaching you about sentence structure or conjugation. Just repeat. I don’t learn that way at all. I’m terrible at rote memory. I need to learn the rules near the beginning and build around a structure. Also it’s just dumb sometimes. Like when I’m learning to say “I’m from Germany” the fill in the blank is for me to remember and correctly spell the Italian word for Germany. Who cares?!? I’m a couple hours in, maybe there’s more important things to learn right now. Also, unlike Duolingo, it’s really hard to do a quick review. That flash card thing is so dumb. At least with Duo I can go back and do a quick lesson to refresh that skill then move on. The only thing I can see is to go back and redo a whole lesson that sometimes takes over 15 minutes. Am I missing something here? Honestly I haven’t used this a whole lot, I got so frustrated after a few hours on it that I quit. So maybe I’m missing something? Also, the app is slow. When I click on continue, I don’t need a 2 second transition. Just go already.

Update. Please read my review below. I spoke with PayPal regarding situation below. They clearly saw the actions of babbel who took $66.90 out of my account for the second year in a row. The PayPal rep I spoke with agreed it was ridiculous for babbel to claim I had no account and not give me access when they were taking my money. I also was able and am able to provide all the screen shots showing the account at my email address from babbel, which they claimed did not exist! PayPal did not even wait to get response from babbel after seeing the two years of business activity between myself and babbel! They gave me an immediate refund.

I had an automatic renewal with babbel. On May 29 they deducted $66.90 from my PayPal account which they accessed thru my gmail. When I tried to log on to babbel app, msg said I needed to pay for access. I contacted their customer support and sent them a photo showing they had charged my PayPal account a few days earlier. The response I received was that they had no record of my email account! Funny they had now problem taking almost $70.00 from my PayPal account linked to that email! I then Sent them photo of my babbel logon. With the account they claim they have no record of. Finally I sent them photos of emails from previous day where THEY had sent me emails. Clearly they have a serious problem when around 10:00am they tell me my account/email doesn’t exist and I provide proof from their own system and PayPal that it does! And I get nothing more to resolve this more than 12 hours later! And this was they organization that was supposed to teach me a language? Refund my money!