Rocket German Reviews

First of all, In the middle of exercises (as I'm trying to speak a German phrase) I get annoying popup windows asking me to write a review of Rocket German. I think that's pretty indicative of how much Rocket cares about me actually learning, an how much it just wants more business. In fact, just above this box where I'm typing, Rocket has a link to some "example reviews" which are glowing reports of how when you buy RG, all your wildest fantasies will come true. Since RG insists, though, here is my review...***

Right after I paid $250 dollars for the three German courses (the first of which I didn't even want, but you have no option to remove it from the bundle) I get directed to another page telling me I should really also buy another add-on course that normally costs $50, but they're going to give it to me for $30. Classic used-car salesman tactic. I decline. I'm directed to another page saying "Ok, we'll give it to you for $20, but only if you buy it right now. No kidding, this is your last chance!" Does it get any more sleazy than that?***

The German course was clearly written by native German speakers, which is good, but not really checked by a native English speaker for the quality of the English dialogue.

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The course has a good approach to use various methods to reinforce learning and make it practical and effective. With Rocket Language I'm learning and progressing toward language fluency. One big downside is the abysmal speech lesson functionality. Often you're marked as correct despite not saying the phrase accurately, completely, or even in the expected language. And you're given insufficient time to say phrases with more than ~7 words as it cuts off and marks you as correct. For the price these issues are unacceptable and must be resolved.

First year of German course is good, but the quality goes downs in the second year.
Also, they are spammers: does not matter how many times you hit unsubscribe, you will continue to receive the wonderful 60% discount a LOT. I do not recommend at all.

1. You could give more practice with the words, before passing to the flashcards.
2. More activities can be introduced, such as putting in the missing words in the sentences, and others like those. Currently, the major way of learning is merely the typical drills. It is too much technical, which is good if it is something additional, but without the greater variety of the exercised it is too inhuman, and somewhat boring. I am also comparing it with the Babbel, and they have some adaptions to the humans, when the dialog is going on, and one has to add the missing words. So, more human like activities would be useful.
Cannot say anything about the customer service, because did not use it yet.

This could easily be a 5 star program, but there are enough poor choices by the designers that make it less valueable or frustrating to use that I am being generous to give this 3 stars. The bottom line is that it works, and it did better for me than when I used Rosetta Stone to learn another language.

I have been using this program for 10 months and have had 3 visits to Germany during this time related to work. This is where I think the program isn't good:
1. This program stresses in the informal ways of addressing people. Germans, especially in business, use the formal case (Sie not Du).
2. The program doesn't teach any language rules, rather just provides example after example such as how to conjugate a verb.
3. THe most frustrating part is that the program tries to inculcate easy words (Ja, Nein), and sometimes not useful words like Wunderbar constantly, but doesn't stress words that are important to know such as to want, to like, to take, to need. If someone can't get Ja and Nein correct after the third lesson, then they need to quit.
4.

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I just went through the introduction, the only problem I had would be there's no spelling in the conversation. If I would be listening to this program without pre-study the contents, it's hard to remember the sentence afterwards.

Voice recognition is not very good. Results are erratic.

I Have Been Enjoying My German Learning Through Rocket German. I Like That Each Lesson Explains What You Are Learning And There Are Opportunities To Review Everything I Have Learnt Looking Forward To Doing More And More Lessons.

I have generally enjoyed the lessons and have moved through easily. Some of the German speakers speak too quickly, however, and I cannot follow them. This true mostly for the lessons are sent to me or the extra lessons, not the dashboard.

I like the interaction in the 'Play it' section but there are problems;

1. The programme frequently states that it has not heard my reply - despite that when I press playback my reply is very clearly there - this is very frustrating and time consuming.

2. The programme makes no allowance for a beginner taking time making a reply which inevitably takes a lot longer than a fluent speaker would take - this again is very frustrating and prevents making best use of the programme.