If 20 years ago, learning a new language was a plus on your resume, nowadays, in a much more interconnected world, it becomes even more essential and opens doors to new opportunities, broadens our cultural understanding, and expands our horizons. No matter what your goal is – exploring the world, communicating with people from other countries, acquiring knowledge, accessing diverse entertainment, and being able to explore job opportunities, living abroad – learning a new language can be an enriching and transformative experience. And if, in the past, learning a language was limited to private courses with high costs and textbooks, today, we have various powerful resources to facilitate the language learning journey.
I’ve talked about my English learning journey several times – I learned a lot on my own, studying with a dictionary in hand and translating song lyrics – nowadays, fortunately, it is much easier to access resources to learn new languages and improve what you already know. It has become much more accessible! And if you’re considering investing in a platform to learn a new language – Babbel is for you! Babbel is one of the world’s leading language-learning apps! In this post, I’ll talk a bit about how the platform works and my impressions of it.
What is Babbel?
Babbel is a comprehensive and affordable language-learning platform that uses an innovative approach and interactive resources to help you learn new languages. With a wide selection of courses, quality content, and an emphasis on conversation, Babbel is a great tool to learn or improve your language skills effectively and engagingly. It is available as both an app and desktop version – and everything stays synchronized, ensuring that your progress is saved and can be easily resumed.
Which languages does Babbel offer?
Babbel offers 14 languages:
- English
- Spanish
- French
- German
- Italian
- Portuguese (Brazilian)
- Polish
- Russian
- Dutch
- Turkish
- Danish
- Norwegian
- Swedish
- Indonesian
One of the most interesting things about Babbel is that each language course is tailored according to the user’s native language. This is because your native language influences how you learn another language. For example, English speakers learn Spanish differently from Portuguese speakers. Pretty cool, right?
Best things about Babbel
- Variety of languages – Babbel offers a wide range of languages. From the most popular languages like English, Spanish, French, and German, to less common ones like Norwegian, Turkish, and Polish.
- Learn according to your level – the courses and lessons are based on your level. When you start using the platform, you select your native language and the language you want to learn and take a placement test to determine your level. Don’t worry: if you find the content too difficult – or too easy – you can change your level at any time.
- High-quality content, developed by language experts, in short, and dynamic lessons – the courses are structured progressively, allowing you to learn and progress from the basics to more advanced levels at your own pace. Also, these lessons are developed by over 150 language experts with scientifically proven methods that will easily and naturally seal your knowledge.
- Engaging lessons – Each lesson is carefully designed to teach relevant vocabulary, grammar, and idiomatic expressions and provide listening comprehension practice and interactive exercises. The lessons involve your writing, speaking, reading, and comprehension skills – all in a gaming-style approach, so you don’t even feel like you’re studying – you can study for just 10 minutes a day, but you can also spend a lot more time practicing!
- Improve your conversation skills – Babbel allows you to practice speaking skills through voice recognition exercises, where you repeat phrases and words in a controlled environment. This helps users gain confidence in pronunciation and get used to the sound of the language they are learning.
- Review and learn – another fantastic feature is that there are various methods for you to choose how you want to review what you have learned and absorb the content. After all, the more exposed you are to content, the more you learn, and Babbel does this through various resources, including review exercises.
- Live lessons – if in the past, a live contact with the language was only possible in language schools or traveling abroad, nowadays it is different and, undoubtedly, one of the main and great features of Babbel is the live lessons – for any language. It’s an excellent resource to enhance your learning. And everyone gets two live lessons with a subscription – there are special plans for live classes.
- Flexibility – Babbel is available both as a desktop version to be accessed from your computer or laptop and as an app from your smartphone or tablet. This provides greater flexibility for the user – and I don’t even need to say that you can choose your schedule, right? You choose the best time of day to study and practice.
- Get 60% off your Babbel subscription!
My thoughts on Babbel
- As someone fascinated by languages – that speaks English and Spanish as second languages – but has also taken classes in French and Italian classes in the past, I explored Babbel in many ways – both as an advanced English speaker and as a beginner in French, for example, and I was able to experience the different levels. By the way, I think Babbel already scores points for offering so many languages – we know that there are many apps focused only on English.
- As a fluent English speaker, I noticed that the English lessons for my level were way different than the beginner lessons in French, you know? Another thing that caught my attention is that Babbel always repeats the taught word/expression – even if it’s an exercise for you to select the correct option, spell, or speak – it doesn’t matter, you always hear it again – and that is great for reinforcing the learned content.
- I liked the fact that the lessons last an average of 10 minutes – there are days when we have more energy and time, and there are other super busy days, so it’s nice that the platform is flexible so that we can fit moments into our routine.
- I found it an incredible differentiator that Babbel offers live lessons – I think such interactions greatly enrich the learning experience, and it’s amazing that users get two lessons with the subscription – that way, it’s easier to evaluate if it’s worth it.
Babbel: How much does it cost?
Babbel has several different subscription options, including a lifetime subscription!
- 3 months – $12.65/month
- 12 months – $6,65/month
- Lifetime – $239 – 60% off
- Get 60% off your Babbel subscription!
So, did you like it? Which language would you like to learn?
This post was sponsored by Babbel – all the opinions are mine.
Content creator and journalist in New York City. Here, I share lifestyle, beauty, NYC tips, thoughts, and the struggles about living in the most amazing city in the world! I’m not gonna pretend to be another person: I’m a Brazilian immigrant and I think this is my soul, it is part of who I am. I hope you enjoy my content! Follow me on Instagram!
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