Monotonous worksheets, endless conjugation, listening exercises, and pointless group work are all the joys of taking a language class. The interactive Web site Babbel.com provides a much needed escape from your usual lackluster way of learning a language with learn-at-your-own-pace tools and a fun social aspect.
I found an ad for Babbel on WordReference.com, the mecca of words for language students. My curiosity made me click, and I was not expecting much. I was surprised to find an engaging, well-designed learning tool with several great features.
First of all, Babbel is free. The site has added extra courses and special features that one can buy, but there will always be a free version. It offers learning language tools in: English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian. Anyone using Babbel will have no trouble organizing their activities at the site with Babble’s easy top menu.
The “Learn” tab includes vocabulary tutorials complete pictures and audio of the words. There is also a writing section where the user can author short compositions and have native speakers correct his or her work. The user can even keep track of the activities that he or she has already completed.
The social features of Babbel are very unique. The site allows the users to chat, to add friends, and to send messages. The “Chat” lets the user choose to chat with native speakers of their desired language of learning, or chat exclusively with his or her friends on the site.
The chat feature is an economical way to learn about different cultures from a primary source. Although it is entertaining to be called “beauty" and have someone tell you in broken English that you give them a special feeling inside when they look at your picture, it is important to be cautious even with people across oceans.
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Article comments
1 - Luz
I just wanted to inform you that since last october babbel is no longer free and they have an automatically subscription's renew policy that is not totally clear...
2 - Prof. Kevin mcCloskey
I agree with above comment. Even a brief babbel.com subscription sets your credit card up for auto-subscribe. I unsubscribed on the day I was notified, but did not get a refund for new unwanted extension of my subscription. Think twice before using babbel.
3 - Babbel User
Yes, in general, Babbel is a good website and gives you one free lesson in each section so that you can taste it before subscribe it (pay for it). Babbel can definitely practise your listening and speaking. It also let you keep reviewing your vocabularies even you stopped your paid subscription which is really good to consolidate the languages you're leaning. It also gives you the opportunity to be able to communicate with people around the world via the site.
The structure of the course is good, the grammars in it are the principal ones that are used more often daily and everywhere, not too much super complicated grammar which might confuse and hinder users. The content of the lessons are useful in general, but in few places it seem to be too personal and giving misleading personal views in few sentences or graphs, which I reckon not wise and not good for an internationally language website and I'm not very fond of it. Also, there are quite a lot of errors in some sections. The audio is not clear enough in Spanish learning for example as they're using Spanish Spanish speakers mainly, which is not a very good help for beginners. But in French learning it is generally ok and clear enough to follow except only one male speaker's pronunciation is a bit difficult to understand. I'm still unsure about the usage of audio interaction as its a bit confusing, I'm unsure the marker of the audio is for the accuracy of the pronunciation or the loudness, there is no explanation for it. Long conversation goes too fast without being able to repeat in general.
I think in general, Babbel is a language learning site definitely should be recommended, but it needs quite a lot of improvement in my opinion. I might give it 7 out of 10.
4 - AAA
Don't bother if you're trying to learn Swedish. It's probably fine for other languages, but if you're going for Swedish, avoid babbel. Mistakes galore that they won't bother to fix, despite the hundreds of feedback messages about it. The website has the potential to be great, but the fact that it's littered with mistakes makes it useless. Try Pimsleur instead. Very effective.
5 - Jacob Levy
These guys are a bunch of con artists. They don't let you cancel you subscription, the customer service are rude and go out of their way to insult you, avoid at all costs if you don't want to lose your money! I had to open a dialog with my credit card company to get my money back after they illegally deducted it from my account after I cancelled my subscription. I wish there was a way to give 0 stars out of 5.