Rocket Spanish Reviews
Find out what actual users have to say about our courses through their Rocket Spanish reviews.
I tried the interactive lesson on planning an activity for the weekend. I was disappointed as I thought it would be interactive enough to the extent that if would allow me to repeat the phrase/sentence/word after the spanish speaker and have him correct my pronunciations. It does give me time to repeat after him but without the correction of pronunciation, it left me wanting.
I like the idea of the course, but I find it too cumbersome to use on a regular basis. Firstly, I practice at home in the evenings and it is disruptive for me to be speaking aloud continuously. Half the time this feature does not work for me, likely because I have slow internet. It also absolutely cannot understand me when I say the word "enchilada" even though I am 99% sure I am pronouncing it correctly. Secondly, the rating system is really annoying and I do not understand it at all. I would like to be able to run through lessons without having to click on a rating (I also have yet to figure out what "so so" and "good" mean). Clicking a rating after every single answer makes me take my hand off of the keyboard to reach the mouse to click, when it would be much quicker and simpler to be able to just hit 'enter' to go to the next phrase or word. This is especially annoying during the typing practice, which also requires the use of a virtual keyboard to type special characters. There should be keyboard shortcuts for these, it takes an inordinate amount of time to find the characters and select the right one for very short words.
A great site for learning any language you want, methods are nice everything overall is nice, the only problem i have found is the really high price for it to be bought, not all people may aford that high price..
Quite good although the programme is not that easy to follow which makes it harder for me to buy.
I need a simple one with less computer glitches. Although this ones verbal pronunciations are good.
I also couldn’t understand jumping from modules throughout the trial.
No directions on how to get back to programme.
Summary: It is most important to start SPEAKING a language as soon as possible to get comfortable with it. I think that Rocket does a decent job getting you ready with some key phrases, pronunciation, and review, but it overloads the learner with too much new vocabulary per lesson.
Format: I really like the audio format in a nice progressive pace and it's less 'cluttered' than the popular pod101 program. The review material is very well rounded, using audio, writing practice, spanish - english and english - spanish practice, plus flashcards (english - spanish).
Overall audio quality: Try the trial to hear them speak. Decide for yourself. In my opinion, Mauricio has a good accent and Carmen speaks slowly. Amy is a dork and I get a little tired of hearing her voice. Her Spanish makes me cringe. The "repeat after me" can be very rushed and I have to pause so that I get a chance to actually repeat a phrase.
Workload: The dialogues can be quite long (some almost 45 minutes!) and the practice has WAY too much vocabulary to absorb for one lesson. I'm currently doing a lesson in Level 2 that has 117 words.
I have been using Rocket Spanish for a while now, beginning with the second level, then, when I realized it was too advanced, moving back to level 1.
Overall, it has been very helpful to me. I like practicing the conversations, and once I got my microphone to work, the voice activities were great.
However, there are a few issues. First, until just recently, you were able to flag vocabulary words as you moved through a lesson that would then be stored in your saved vocabulary. But now I can't do that. I've reported the problem and have heard nothing back.
I did not get a "deal" when I joined, so I paid full price, which was a bit high compared to other programs.
I tried Babble first and found it too difficult for a complete novice. So far, I have found Rocket much easier to follow and the tips in the first few days have been very helpful. My disappointment is the short window to purchase the full course at a reasonable (Discounted) price after downloading the free lessons. I'm not sure I have the time to devote to study right now and I will probably be interested in buying an online learning class in the future. It may not be Rocket because I will know I could have purchased it for a lower price if I had been ready in the early stages. I also would like to find a course that has an Echo Auto App for the program. I mostly listen and practice in the car and I use my echo auto to play the lessons on my car speaker. If they had a app I could control it a little better with voice commands. Oh well, "If wishes were horses then beggars could ride." (anonymous)
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.
I am just considering to purchase program and I am currently trying out the free lesson and it seems pretty good so far
I have been using Rocket for about a week and am actually learning to speak Spanish