Rocket Languages Reviews
Find out what actual users have to say about our courses through their Rocket Languages reviews.
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!
This was an amazing experience until the 2021 update, which reformatted all of my notes, and pretty much trashed a year of work. UGH.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Lee - We fixed the issues you were having. It is all sorted now!
I really am enjoying the course so far! I do miss the old "write it" sections from the 2020 website though. They were really helpful in reinforcing the new concepts and I hope they return in the future. The "sort it" sections just don't help as much.
I'm always having an issue with the audio/record portion. Other than that, I enjoy the lessons. I also wish under the extra vocab record sections there was a way that the super fast speaker could be slowed down so you know if you are using the correct dialect and saying the word properly.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Theresa - Thanks for your feedback/review. We would recommend that you go over lesson 1.5 on "Pronouncing Korean Letters," as sometimes slight changes in the way words/phrases are pronounced can make a big difference to the voice recognition result. Also, we would recommend that you listen to an online Korean radio station if you can so that you can more quickly get used to the rhythm and intonations of the language.
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.
Customer service needs to be quick. Please make it at least 3 minutes, not 2 to 4 days. What's awesome is, logo is intelligent.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Anga - We try and turn around our customer service emails within 2 working days. This is a better turnaround than a lot of sites and we are always trying to improve it!
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"
Me gusta la manera como enseñan me es un poco difícil pronunciar pero me gusta deberían tener también como se escribe y se pronuncia
The app has continuous glitches that the owners are not able to fix. The program is great, but the actual functionality is horrible.
Response from Rocket Languages
Response from Rocket Languages: Hi Tyah - Unfortunately there are so many different types of phone, screen sizes, operating systems, etc that it can be hard to get apps working perfectly across the board. If you contact customer support we will try our best to trouble shoot your system.
The only reservation I have is the fact that basic, essential grammar is not part of the first lessons. For instance, basic conjugations of "to be" or "to have" are not detailed and explained, but simply mentioned during lessons.
This is a problem since the grammar of the Spanish language is different than of the English language.
With this exception, I am content with the quality of the course.