Rocket Languages Reviews
Find out what actual users have to say about our courses through their Rocket Languages reviews.
The software is pretty good so far. Eventually, more interactive speaking via unexpected questions or commentary to respond to as well as slang would be useful. Entire, paragraphs of speech (some of which I assume will come in more advanced lessons) to have to parse and then respond to in a novel way it seems would be effective.
Also, since language seems to be acquired more effectively through speaking, a way of separating pure speaking instances from reading instances of the same words and phrases, would be useful. Developing learning which does not rely on picturing words in the mind first when they are spoken to you, but a purely separate verbal memory would seem to be useful.
The drilling of the material in various forms is effective. The repetition that comes from it is needed; I know by other experience.
Again so far so good!
J'ai vraiment aimé ce programme mais je ne le fais que pour l'école
I thought all the lessons would be audio such that you could listen in your car or with headphones while working out or walking but some require you to read and hear. I think even alphabet, numbers and grammar can all be made in an audio version. Also, I do not like the fact that you can’t stop and review an audio lesson. At least on an iPhone you can’t just stop a lesson and go back to the beginning. You have to let it play out until the end to start over.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Looman - Thanks for your review.
The grammar (Language & Culture) lessons have a lot more English explanations and tables that don't work well as just audio.
On the iphone app, you need to expand the player at the bottom of the screen. With that you can use the slider to move through the audio!
Wish there was more grammar lessons and verb conjugations.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Hannah - Make sure you check out the Language & Culture lessons, which have lots of detail on verb conjugations and other important grammar topics.
I'm learning ASL and I just got to the numbers part- I was shocked to see that numbers 1-5 are wrong! Numbers 1-5 are always signed with the palm facing in, not out. If they got something so simple wrong, it makes me a little worried about how much they really know the language. Was this course designed by hearing or Deaf people?
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Eileen - Thanks for your review! I just thought that I would let one of our Sign Language experts respond...
"While it is true that simply counting the cardinal numbers 1-5 in ASL the numbers are done with the palm facing in, for most practical uses of the numbers in daily communication the palm faces out - for that reason they are shown this way in the lesson.
For example, if you were to tell the time you would not sign 2:05 as "time 2:05" with your palm facing in - it would face out. Another example would be a phone number - no matter which number 1-9 ,the palm always faces out. Really, there are many different deep language rules connected with number usage - for example how you count days, weeks and months - which will be introduced and explained in later lessons.
Some of team who contributed to this course grew up using ASL to communicate, others attended ITP programs and are RID certified, while others have been educators in the Deaf community for nearly 20 years.
Thanks to this feedback we can make some adjustments to the lesson to explain clearly why we are showing the numbers this way."
So Eileen, thanks for your feedback. We will change it to make it clearer!
I would like to see a way to mark the place where I left off in the audio.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Richard - The system "remembers" where you are when playing an audio track. So, when you go back in you should see it ready to start from where you left off. If this isn't happening for you then please contact customer support and we will have a look at what's going on!
I am just considering to purchase program and I am currently trying out the free lesson and it seems pretty good so far
Unfortunatley, it's not going to be "awesome".
1. There is way too much English in the units. As a former language teacher I believe focus should be in the target language as much as possible.
2. The voice recognition does not work and cannot be calibrated. Doing the speaking units is useless.
3. The write it section should check what you wrote and not let you progress until you have it correct.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Scott - Thanks for your review. It is important to note that the first few lessons do have a reasonable amount of English, and that this lessens as you progress through the course and get to know more Spanish.
The voice recognition does work, and if you are having problems then please check the FAQs, contact customer support, or try the Rocket Languages Android/iOS apps.
The "Write it" section does check what you write. As with all our activities the rating we give is a guideline that you can either accept or rate yourself.
In general Rocket Spanish does a decent job teaching the language. However, it fails to explain the rules and reasoning for the language's grammar, especially when a phrase or sentence contains multiple verbs. Also, so far (into lesson 1 of section 2) there has been no explanation of the Spanish use of the word "lo". I am struggling with the contextual grammar, and I don't think it's really any fault of my own.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Martin - Have you had a chance to check out the Language & Culture lessons? These lessons are all about grammar and take you through how the language works step by step. You can find an explanation on what happens when verbs are used together in a sentence in Lesson 2.8 under the heading "Using Two Verbs in a Row" and an explanation on LO and how it works in Lesson 5.6 under the heading "The Thing About LO"
I like the teaching method it makes it stick longer but I wish it was more considerable to people who are financially incapable because most lectures require you to buy.