Should You Use Babbel in 2024? | Language Learning App Review
After I have done a test video about Busuu and I will link it here, now I have also tested Babbel. Since Babbel and Busuu have many similarities in how they approach teaching a language, also the role those apps play in my learning routine is similar.
I have already explained in my video about Busuu the science about the noticing hypothesis, but I will quickly recap it in this video as well.
After that we will do an in depth review of the Babbel app, looking at Pro’s and Con’s as well as having a look at the pricing. In the end we will conclude if you should use Babbel for your learning.
▬ Contents of this video ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
0:00 - Start
01:10 - The Science Recap - Noticing Hypothesis
02:45 - In Depth App Review
20:21 - Pros and Cons
22:25 - Pricing
23:07 - Babbel or Busuu or None?
24:56 - Conclusion
▬ Resources mentioned ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬
Babbel
www.babbel.com/
Busuu
www.busuu.com/
Lingq
www.lingq.com/?referral=Cx4
The Noticing Hypothesis
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noticin...
nflrc.hawaii.edu/PDFs/SCHMIDT...
• Jack C. Richards on th...
• The Noticing Hypothesi...
Baader-Meinhof phenomenon or frequency bias
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frequen...
Articles/Papers about the Comprehensible Input Theory by Stephen Krashen
www.sdkrashen.com/content/arti...
sdkrashen.com/content/articles...
Great Presentation by Stephen Krashen (Videoquality is bad but content is King)
• Stephen Krashen on Lan...
Have you already tried Babbel? And how did you like it? Thank yoz very much for watching! :-)
Gut gemacht! Goed gedaan! And good pronunciation of the Dutch, especially that guttural G. I just downloaded Babbel today (big lifetime discount), and this was one of the first videos I watched discussing the app. You offered much more relevant and usable information in your video, which is appreciated. Cheers!
Thank you so much! :) I try my best! I hope you like the app and can derive lots of value from it. Everybody is different, and we really need to try things out in order to know what is working for us and what not.
@@DustinSchermaul Would agree. I'm currently using Rosetta Stone for Greek (moving from Germany to Greece, this week actually), and although it's great on one level, it's missing the more instructive/informative approach. Was a little disappointed to learn through your video that the different languages in Babbel only go to certain levels of advancement, mostly related to popularity/# of speakers of the language. Was hoping to use it to refresh the Dutch a bit, but refreshing will be about all that it's good for. No opportunity to really go much past the level I was at more than a decade ago.
@@ProckGnosis Got it… Yes, that's unfortunately always the same for different apps. So we really need to take that into account when choosing an app. Greek is also a fascinating language, why do you move there?
@@DustinSchermaul Taking a work sabbatical to relax and enjoy my music hobby for a bit, study the language, and just relax. Fortunately Greece is a pretty relaxing place. If I get really bored, I'll try to find a job. I have some family there as well.
@@ProckGnosis Very nice! Sounds like a great plan :). Have a good time there!
Great, thorough video! Thank you very much!
You’re welcome Emiliano 🤗!
Thank you for the nice and extensive app review!! I didn't know that the learning content would depend on your source language! That's really good to know :)
You're welcome Linda :). Glad that I could help out!
I have used Babbel to learn Spanish from almost scratch and I can recommend it for a beginner. I find their grammar explanations good and concise. Obviously, you need to rely on other resources to strengthen your skills and learn additional vocabulary - no single app can do that. Unfortunately, in the long run, Babbel lacks diversion and fun - the app becomes super boring to use after a while because every lesson follows the same structure and, unlike Busuu, there are no features to interact with the community whatsoever.
Thank you very much for your comment! Yes exactly, especially for those bigger languages it can be really useful as a part of our language learning stack. I also think that, in the long run, it can lack in diversion and fun… I try just to do one lesson each day and that makes it okay to use :). Will definitely proceed to do all the Dutch content to see how it goes.
First like first 🥇🏆❤️
Thank you very much! 🤗
I've used Babbel for my fourth and sixth language with quite different experiences. For Portuguese it covers was a great source for the first two months. I had Spanish as a base language and thus I just needed an overview of what is similar and different to Spanish. Portuguese and the other Romance languages seem to be well designed and contain enough content. For Polish though I was highly disappointed. It was a generic and almost empty course. However still better than Busuu...
Thank you very much for your comment :). Wow, fourth and sixth language! You are doing good as I see. I also think the romance languages are in general pretty well covered and also German and English. But with other languages it can get difficult. Didn't know that Polish is so badly covered :(. We definitely need to check first which resources we use… Is Polish your first Slavic language or did you study another one first?
@@DustinSchermaul Polish is my first Slavic language and definitely the most difficult language I've learned. I'm still learning Polish on a daily basis on LingQ. Right now I'm quite comfortable speaking Polish though.
@@amstabomitdembabo5984 Wow great work! Yes I can imagine that it's challenging to learn the first language of a new language family. Can't wait for my first Slavic language at some point.
@@DustinSchermaulI think it's great how thoughtful you are in interacting with your viewers in the comments. It's really refreshing to have a conversation instead of a generic "Thanks for watching!" response.
Thank you so much, Zola! Comments as yours really mean the world to me and help me to keep making videos. I try to answer as good as I can, and I learn so much from the comments and the wonderful community here. @@CatholicZola