Find out what actual users have to say about our courses through their Rocket Languages reviews.
Very good. Unfortunately, I can not find more time to learn Rocket Chinese
Response from Rocket Languages
We are glad that you are enjoying the course. Rocket Chinese will always be waiting for you and you can always return to continue the course at any point!
So much potential….but the play buttons in the app work sporadically. Records just fine and voice recognition is great. But I Have to reboot my iPad Air quite often to clear the issue. Note that The coin is flipped on the web site - which I tried hoping to address the play buttons in the app not working. Well - the play buttons work fine on the web site - but the voice record says “having trouble” on every single item. And I am, per the instructions, using safari and the red microphone is on (not crossed out or greyed out). As such - this tool can’t really be used. Will try tomorrow - maybe a server issue. Ready to request full refund if issue(s) persist. Exasperating experience. May resort to old fashioned Pimsleur CDs to prepare for vacation to france in a few months.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Jeff, thank you for your review. We are sorry to hear that you are experiencing these difficulties. We have sent you an email to follow up with you on this.
Very monotonous and hard to follow material. I can't keep engaged in the material. Super boring content.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Thelma, we are so sorry to hear that you are not engaging with the course material. We have sent you an email following up on this.
I purchased the English rocket language, but I have encountered some issues with the audio on the Android app. The words and phrases do not play correctly, but they do work properly on the laptop browser. However, when trying to record on the laptop browser, only the last part of the word or half of the sentence is recorded, which is very inconvenient. As a solution, I have been playing the words and sentences on my laptop browser and attempting to record on the Android app. Rocket language has a 60-day refund policy, so I will be requesting a full refund due to these issues.
Response from Rocket Languages
We're sorry to hear about the issues you are experiencing with our program. We have sent you an email regarding the issues that you are having to get more information on this.
Overall, I think the Rocket French folks have developed a pretty good system to learn French, so I won't go into detail about the things that I like. The big downside, however, is how their system tracks how far you've progressed in each module. For example, I just finished module 3.9, and the icons have changed from no color to the following colors and comments:
FLASHCARDS = ORANGE (GOOD)
HEAR-IT = ORANGE (GOOD)
WRITE-IT = ORANGE (GOOD)
KNOW-IT = ORANGE (GOOD)
QUIZ = GREEN (EASY)
That is not sufficient. What I want (and need) to know is how often I have reviewed each module and how I have done each time. So I have created an offline spreadsheet that shows the following for each section that I have studied. For example here is how I have tracked section 3.4 that I have reviewed several times and self-graded:
11/8/22 = D, 11/9/22 = C, 11/20/22 = C, 11/23/22 = B
You can see that first studied this module on 11/8/22, and then reviewed is subsequently three times, and my self-grade has improved from the initial D to a B. And, instead of a self-grade, I would much prefer to see the percentage of answers I got right.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi Dan, thank you for your review and for this feature request. We have passed this request on to the Development team for their consideration. We hope you continue to enjoy learning with Rocket French!
Buggy on Ventura Safari, the most current MacOS and browser version.
Travelogue way too advanced and difficult to avoid.
Encountered user setup error that service and support quickly corrected.
So far greatly prefer Pimsleur and will likely invoke refund option.
Response from Rocket Languages
Hi David, thank you for your review and we apologize for the problems that you are having with the program. We generally recommend using Chrome as a browser as it has the more powerful technology that our voice recognition software requires. Regarding your other points, we have sent you an email about all this.
Very sloppy mistranslations plague the course throughout. I raised this issue with Rocket and they gave the lame excuse that they don't want to have us memorise literal translations, but so often the meaning in English is just so unacceptably divergent from the French and I am not talking about idiomatic expressions. Rocket is terrible in responding to any issues raised so I have given up trying long ago. They just answer that they no best. Well I am sorry but I just don't find that good enough.
There are other clear mistakes:
Je prendrai la fraise des bois.
I will have wild strawberries.
From what I understand it is totally wrong. Should be des fraise des bois.
Ok. this is a simple error, but there are scores of errors throughout.
No use complaining though. Rocket seems to think it knows best and if you ever make a complaint it is usually so long before a response is given and I cannot ever remember them saying, oh yes, that is right, we will correct it.
I think they are worried that if suddenly a phrase is changed midstream then many people may get upset or confused by the change. But this is so bad if this is the case and is a major flaw in the platform.
In this regard duolingo is so much better.
Response from Rocket Languages
Thank you for your review Ian. We're sorry to hear that you aren't satisfied with your course. We are always working to improve our courses, so feedback like yours is valuable to us. If you haven't already noticed, Levels 1 and 2 of French have been recently reviewed, with a review of Level 3 on the way in the coming months. You'll find that the translations are more accurate, with a better balance of literal and natural. We've also included hundreds of new useful phrases in French for our learners. As for the French voices, you'll hear a mix of different voices across the lessons and levels, so I hope you find some of them more to your taste.
The more I go through the course, the more frustrating it gets. Instead of learning and practicing individual words, I'm supposed to memorize incredibly complex sentences without understanding the meaning of how all the words work together in the sentence. There is no logical progression from learning words to forming sentences. As a result, I forget everything immediately and feel demotivated. And I stumble over the pronunciation because I have to say ten new words at a time. There is no daily reinforcement of previous lessons, which makes the course meaningless over time.
Response from Rocket Languages
Thank you for your review, Daniel. If you are finding the Interactive Audio lessons quite challenging, then we would recommend going through the Language and Culture lessons first. Once you have a better understanding of how the language works, you may find that the sentences make more sense. If you continue to find yourself feeling demotivated, please don't hesitate to reach out to the customer support team on [email protected]
I absolutely want to love this program. The content is great. The audio lessons are top notch, but I can't get anything to work correctly on any device and 20 days in and still no contact from a manager or tech after several email requests and live chat requests for it.
I've submitted a pile of screen captures and video of the errors. I've tried multiple devices and computers.
Marie G responds quickly over live chat, but nothing ever seems to come of it.
The program has great content, but trying to use it is is beyond infuriating.
At this point I'm not prepared to keep the product unless it's next to free.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Thanks for your review Jesse. Our sincere apologies for the trouble you've had with your course, and for the delay in getting some help for you. We will get some assistance from the IT team and get back to you ASAP.
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.