Rocket Languages Reviews

I think there is a lot of hard work that has been put into these products, but there is just way to much English. I want to hear introductions my name is , i am your host all in my target language from lesson 1 then 100 lessons in it is all so natural....here I tested level 2 but started with so much English. We need to be flooded with our target language and get the explanations later.

Been doing the Rocket German for about 3 months. So far, I've enjoyed it for the most part and am looking forward to getting into the second Level. My one complaint/suggestion is that I find the written lessons to be poorly set up. The focus looks like it is supposed to be on grammar in many lessons, yet they are taught with 20+ new vocabulary words in many of them. So instead of focusing on the new grammar rules, you get lost trying to figure out what all of the new vocabulary is. Would suggest using only words already known when first introducing a grammar lesson so that the focus is kept on the grammar and not diverted to the new words. I've come out of several of the written lessons with no more knowledge of the grammar rules then when I went in because 90% of the examples were with new vocabulary. Audio lessons are great though, and overall I still think there are many positives. Looking forward to the updated level one German whenever it is due out.

Overall the course has some good points and some not so good,

The good is the audio course, I am not sure how far it can get you towards fluency but every little helps and the course does present information well. I found the banter a tad annoying at first but it's grown on me and I have come across stuff that i haven't seen elsewhere. My feeling is that it will get you no further than basic communication and that michel thomas method is far better, as is pimsleur and paul noble. I think their methods get you speaking and understanding more effectively and more quickly; that said this is a good supplement to other learning systems.

The bad for me is the grammar section. It is basically just explanations that could have come from any textbook but without exercises that support the material very well. I think for what they are doing here a textbook is a better option, its cheaper and you will get better reinforcement of the lessons. In fact the quizes attached seem completely irrelevant and are just vocab memorization.

The quizzes for the most part are just dull to be honest.

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I am about ready to give up on you. I was going to do another lesson tonight, but when i saw my percentage completion on Module 1 and 2 was at 93% instead of the 100% that was there this morning. How do you expect anyone to complete anything if you keep adding new, and in my case, unnecessary, lessons to the areas already completed?

TL:DR -These courses are worth bothering with and a fair deal but don't expect perfection or a miracles.

This was sold to me (by external reviews) as being better than Rosetta stone and the current market leader in comprehensive language learning for self study, and yeah it is better and may be the best all around, but it's still far from perfect. There are other products that are distinctly better for certain aspects of Japanese study, but this one is a good all-rounder.

It is very much like a by the book language study course that you would get in a generic language school.
It's not groundbreaking, but it's very solid and should successfully teach any diligent student some extent of their target language.

Given that you get hundreds of hours of lessons that you can do at your own pace I think the price is great value but I can't quite give 5 stars because there are some flaws in the product and service.

Unlike many free apps you aren't limited to 5 or 10 mins per day which means that the system can take its time to teach you slowly and methodically, and that if you have a lot of free time (and almost everybody does at the time of writing mid-April 2020) then you can do an hour or more everyday.

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Overall, definitely gets you "speaking" quite a bit. The great majority of this, however, is just rote copying of what was just heard. Regurgitation, not processing and internalizing. The rest is straight translation, which in my opinion is a far inferior way to learn a language. A good number of lessons use words/phrases/tenses that have never been discussed and are simply not explained. There are quite a few glitches with speech recognition, especially regarding numbers and accent marks. The material is HEAVILY focused on travel, which I get makes some sense if you're learning Spanish in order to travel, but I suspect a large number of people are like me, learning Spanish to use in everyday life. May just be a US bias though, where Spanish can be very useful almost everywhere.

I am using Rocket Italian as a review to the Italian I studied "Molti anni fa" in college so that I can be more fluent and approachable when I travel. I like the pace and the ability to skip around. However, the American accent of Alex is distracting and there is too much spoken English. I can see if a beginner is trying to get traction it might be okay. I am looking forward to moving up into the later levels. Overall, hearing so much English and the English accent is distracting. There are also some grammar errors in the translations along the way. For the price, I would expect more flawless execution. However overall, I like the conversational approach and the ability to hop around to get what I need to progress.

Some days it is good, other days voice and speech recognition is plain atrocious and frustrating. Whole phrases 'not heard', words (or numbers) plucked out of nowhere that bear no resemblance to what was said. And this on a high speed internet connection. That wouldn't be half as frustrating come each time with a useless pop-up on what to do. Will I keep using it - yes. Can it be useful - yes. Does its voice recognition engine need to be improved - YES.

Tried the 7 day free trial, didn't work very well so not confident to purchase ,

I've been using Rocket Italian since December 2019. I purchased Levels 1, 2, & 3-Instant Lifetime Access and the Travelogue. (Yes, I am committed to learn Italian.) I am on Unit I- module 6. In addition to Rocket, I use 2 other Apps/programs along with Rocket Italian. After 3/12 months of use, I feel I can write an accurate review.
Pros
1. I love the structured lessons
2. Like having the audios of Alex and Maria (audio lessons and reviews)
3. Like having the ability to record myself and mimic pronunciation

Cons (or possible areas to improve)
1. I wish there was a way to manipulate and build sentences rather than solely memorizing. (Maybe this happens in later units, I don't know.)
2. I wish that in lessons, such as in Language and Culture, where they may be over 90 terms to learn, that the lesson be divided in smaller lessons. Memorizing close to 100 terms is overwhelming and a big challenge. Maybe limiting the terms to a more manageable number would be beneficial to the learner.
3. I wish there was a method to answer questions on a lesson directly on the lesson page itself rather than on the forum. Also, I would appreciate if someone from Rocket could answer those questions rather than relying mostly other learners.
4.

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