Babbel

[Ogrim]

I don't see Babbel mentioned very often on the forum when e-learning methods are being discussed, although I've noticed there are a few members who use it. I am curious to hear about people's experience with it. Google and company certainly know that I am interested in language learning, because wherever I turn I get bombarded with ads from Babbel (on as diverse sites as the Guardian, my Yahoo mail account and El País to name just a few), much more than from any other language learning company, so they must clearly spend a decent amount of money on advertising. Some of the questions I have are:

How far does it take you?
How does it compare to Duolingo, Memrise, LanguagePod 101 etc?
What is particular about Babbel as a method compared to other courses?
Do you feel you get value for money?

[Speakeasy]

Ogrim, thank you for opening a file on this resource. As you noted, there has been no overall review of Babbel on the LLORG. There are a few discussion threads on the HTLAL which, given that Babbel continues to evolve, would be of ever-decreasing relevance. Nevertheless, for those who are interested, here are the links to the most prominent discussion threads:

Babbel vs GermanPod101 – HTLAL – January 2015
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=39946&PN=6

Why so little love for Babbel.com? – HTLAL – January 2013
http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=35054&PN=6

Is babbel.com good? – HTLAL – March 2011
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=25467&PN=1

Reviews on Babbel? – HTLAL – September 2011
http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=29495&PN=5

There’s not much point in going any further back in time.

[jeff_lindqvist]

I have the same experience as Ogrim - the ads show up everywhere. Occasionally I watch one of their videos, mostly those where a bunch of people "learn a language" in just one hour/one day/one week. Many videos and articles feature the Youlden twins (Matthew and Michael), but I wonder if the app is a major tool for them. A lot of the languages they speak (and learn) aren't available.

From what I can see, these are the ones you can learn:
German, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, Dutch, Polish, Indonesian, Russian, Danish and Norwegian.

How many here have used the app? How far does it take you?

[Cavesa]

I tried it at some point and gave up. I think it is much more of a toy than a real learning tool.

[baskerville]

In a Turkish challenge I saw on Youtube, the Youlden twins used Babbel and some grammar books to learn Turkish in a week.

In my opinion, Babbel is good if you are a complete beginner in a language. I just got myself a 3-month Babbel subscription for German to supplement my once-a-week German classes. Before Babbel, I used Duolingo but it was a bit boring and I didn’t like the robotic German voice in the app Now I do 2-3 lessons in Babbel daily and I think it is helping me. I also like the grammar explanations in English. My German class is taught in Hungarian 95% of the time so it takes me a while to process some tricky explanations like the dative. I did the dative lesson on Babbel and finally got it.

[Speakeasy]

Just passing through to cross-reference two discussion threads on Babbel …

Babbel each lesson has a well made dialogue. - LLORG - October 2019
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=11257

[fbitterlich]

This thread is somewhat "oldish", but I'll drop in my opinion anyway...

I'm using Babbel for several years now, first for Spanish, and later added Dutch. For me, this is so far the most successful way of learning languages. I also attended a Spanish course at a folk high school, and one in a language school. I found that the "offline" courses success wore off very quickly, especially if you don't have the chance to actually use the learned language much.

The problem with Babbel is that the forum they had at one point does not exist any more, so it is hard to get answers if you have a question. But their method is very effective.