Rocket Languages Reviews
Find out what actual users have to say about our courses through their Rocket Languages reviews.
I studied French in high school and ended up marrying a young francophone lady from Quebec, Canada. Early on in our marriage (30+ years ago) I took a correspondence course which helped with my grammar, vocabulary and overall knowledge of the language. Try as I may over all these years, I've never been able to quite attain "the ear" and as a result I've not been able to fully participate in discussions (can't catch enough of the conversation to understand what it is being discussed) with my wife's family.
After seven days using Rocket French, I am very optimistic that I will be able to attain "the ear". Why? Primarily due to the way the modules are structured and the focus on repetition, both in the lessons as well as the tests. I really enjoy how the information is presented as it is practical and the building block approach (each lesson building on previous learnings) works very well.
I love how organized it is. Rocket Languages also does a fantastic job at keeping track of progress and achievements, which is nice. The way the language is taught has been fairly simple so far, which makes it easy to remember and to understand.
Rocket Spanish is well organized and fairly easy to use. I definitely like the experience and the process. HOWEVER - They are very wishy-washy with the meanings of phrases. In an effort to teach you different phrases to say the same thing, the designers forget that words have meaning. For example, early in the lessons you discuss someone's job. They tell you that the question, "What do you do?" can be asked ?Que haces?, which is correct. Unfortunately, they also tell you that you can say, ?En que trabajas?, which is not correct. That phrase means, "What is your work?". It may sound like I'm knit-picking, bc in the context of the conversation, either phrase will do, but it is confusing when I don't know what you are asking for. In the testing, it asks me to say in Spanish "What do you you?", but it says that I was incorrect bc I responded ?Que haces?. - WHICH IS CORRECT!! The designer of the course wanted me to say ?En que trabajas?. The student isn't a mind reader, and when he/she tries to apply the words learned, it is easy to get confused. Again, words have meaning. It is lazy to say that it is "close enough", when it is in-fact no where near what you are trying to say.
I first bought this language program over a year a go, just for fun but though my own fault, I didn't really appreciate nor use it properly, hence no results.
Recently, my reasons for needing to speak Italian changed and as with all goals, when you have a big enough "why" you find a way instead of finding excuses and since restarting with a routine and discipline, I have to say, I now look forward to my daily sessions.
I have only needed to contact Customer service once over an issue with the voice recognition and the auto responder email states service will be four to five days which for me is way too long. that said, I can comment favourably on a number of other things; the structure, the layout, and even the voice recognition for the majority of the time. but there is one thing I really like a lot! In fact, because of this, I discovered something about myself I didn't realise was such a driver for me. The Leaderboard!
The platform awards points for learning and displays your position benchmarked against other members over various time frames, last 24 hours, 7 days and so on.
The course structure enables learner to advance at his or her own pace. Sometimes the sentences are too long and the pronunciation too difficult to hear - even though my hearing is excellent. When I do these activities in Rocket Korean and upon listening to Pimsleur Korean in my car, I find that the Korean sound system to be more challenging than the sound system in most other languages. Perhaps being able to hear sounds at a slower pace would benefit me until I know more about how to enunciate the sounds as a Korean speaker does.
While I use the Chrome browser as directed, I must say - "All that glitters is not chrome!" Sometimes the system slows down and requires that I log out and log back on. This is a technical issue more with Chrome than with Rocket Korean.
I am enjoying learning Hindi from my own home, the app is great. The interactive speaking component is fantastic, I am enjoying working on getting my pronunciation right! I like the points and badges they are good motivators.
Enjoying Rocket Italian. The flow of the lessons is good. Both the website and the iOS apps are quite good. There are some minor usability issues worth noting. 1. I can't find a way to speed up the recorded lessons which would be helpful for me as I have some background in the language so the early lessons could be moved through faster. 2. The flow of the testing on the web pages is a little confusing. Not clear when you've finished a section and when you haven't. As such, the badges don't appear as completed when I think I have done so. All that being said, I'm learning a lot and enjoying the product. Glad I bought it.
The overriding problem with Rocket Languages is the faulty audio system. I own a MacBook Air 2013 computer for which the audio is excellent for all programs except this one.
Leaderboard and badges contribute to a more positive learning experience.
Your program coordinates well with Rosetta Stone and Pimsleur. Each of the three offers something special.
Rosetta Stone covers grammar in an incremental, methodical manner - offering extremely valuable practice
exercises on a whole host of subject matter and syntactical patterns. Rocket Language is a good follow-on to
Rosetta Stone and Pimsluer and offers effective reinforcement of both types of learning. For some languages,
Rocket Language sentences are overly complex if introduced too soon. They are challenging to master.
This is my first time using the computer exclusively to attempt to learn Spanish, or study any subject, really. So far, I find it very satisfactory.
I'm having a little difficulty with the Spanish keyboard is there not an "inverted" ?
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: If you are using the keyboard on Write it! just click the "Shift" button and ¿ will be at top right of the keyboard. Alternatively, this article should help with additional Spanish characters https://sites.google.com/a/orono.k12.mn.us/studenttech/foreign-language/creating-spanish-characters-and-accent-marks-on-a-windows-keyboard
Although quite new to this program, already I have learned much more than from a competitor. The learning is fun, repetitive (which is much needed!) and the lessons are given in a variety of settings which helps to solidify what I'm learning. When I have found it necessary to contact Customer Service, I have been very happy with the quick, polite and thorough responses.