Find out what actual users have to say about our courses through their Rocket Languages reviews.
I enjoy the conversations that Rocket Italian is based on, but as a language instructor that uses strictly immersion techniques, I can't stand the amount of English that is in each lesson. There is SO much room for additional vocab that could be taught through the use of more exclusive Italian. It makes me frustrated to waste so much time on English banter. I am really struggling to make use of this course.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Megan - Thanks for your review. There is undoubtedly a lot of explanation in Level 1 of Rocket Italian. If the material is too easy then we would swap you out to a higher level that has much less English in it!
It is very frustrating that I cannot offline download the lessons in the app itself on my iPhone. It would have been better that way. I want to be able to use it in the car that way. I know you can download it through iTunes, but that is too cumbersome.
Response from Rocket Languages
(updated 2019): Hi Michael - This functionality is now on the apps. You can download the audio to your device at the press of a button!
The grading system is all over the place. They have a colour coded system that is meant to reflect proficiency but it patently doesn't correspond with any of the lessons. I completed all the modules available, everything was correct but the colour coded system gave me 1 green tick and 4 yellow symbols. It makes no sense.
I asked for an explanation for this but the response made little sense too.
I think somewhere in the Rocket system is a great app waiting to break out but it is currently too cumbersome which is a pity.
They ask users to write something awesome, they are assuming people think the app is awesome when it isn't yet.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Mark - Thanks for the feedback. The app has been completely updated as of 2019, so any glitchy behavior is hopefully sorted out!
Out is very difficult to get the scoring of certain spoken words to work properly. Course 9.11 is the most frustrating Rocket Spanish lesson so far. In the"Hear it Say it" module, every single infinitive - conocer, poder, querer, etc- could not be scored 100% no matter how it was pronounced.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Bill - We will look into what's happening here.
I like Rocket Languages but, I don't like how it is set up and you don't really learn from it, it's more of a study tool for people taking a Spanish class. You should make it so that people can actually learn Spanish from this website.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Ettrick, thank you for taking the time to leave a review. I am sorry to hear that you are finding the Rocket Spanish course difficult to learn from. Ensuring that our course is user friendly is very important to us and with this in mind our Customer Support team has contact you to get a clearer idea of the issues you are experiencing. All the best!
Very good set up and structure. However, my main complaint is that the conversations never really got increasingly complicated. Additionally, they did not include too wide a range of vocabulary. The audio is great for learning pronunciation but I feel like I spent a lot of time and did not learn as much as I could have say, through duolingo which is free. I would only recommend this program to people who have never studied a language before because it goes slow enough that it may be beneficial to get over the initial fears of learning a language. However, for people such as myself with a more developed linguistic background, I felt as if the dialogues did not advance very much and that I did not really leave learning as much as I could have if I spent the same amount of time with other resources.
I feel as if Rocket Languages needs to drastically alter the content of the dialogues to better suit them for "intuitive" grammar and vocabulary acquisition. That being said, the main structuring of the program I found to be fantastic and the native audio files also were superb.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Alexander, and thanks for the feedback. Rocket Russian Level 1 is a beginners course, so can feel slow if you are an experienced language learner. We would recommend switching to Rocket Russian Level 2, which is more advanced.
So far RL is okay. The audios are entertaining, but a tad slow and I wished that they were a bit less English-heavy as it really breaks my French-thinking mindset. Any technical issues (and there are quite a few given the nature of the voice recognition software) that are reported fall onto deaf ears. Overall, it's an okay program, but needs heavy supplementation from grammar and vocab books (as all learners should have anyway).
I think more emphasize should be placed in Hangul! Its the foundation of the language and everything is so jumbled. Consonant, vowels should be separated and thought differently. I learned by watch children videos of sing alongs in Hangul. Like they make it so simple there. Its ok I guess... It needs more material to be concise. But good program
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.
Learning languages is really nice here; it sticks. Reciting the vocabulary and having it "graded" is really helpful for pronunciation. The "Play It!" portion is extremely helpful when it comes to being able to speak the language on cue. And when you're learning Russian, like me, or a language with a different writing system, "Write It!" can be frustrating and challenging yet extremely beneficial.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Ali, thank you for taking the time to leave a review. It's awesome to hear that you are benefiting from the interactive elements, such as "Play It!," woven into our Rocket Russian course. All the best with your Russian language learning!