Rocket Languages‪.‬ 4+

I like Rocket Spanish much better than Plimseur, but like most Spanish instruction it misses an opportunity to reinforce the syntax, structure, word order, and idioms of the language. They will often put a literal translation of the Spanish as a footnote, whereas if the more literal translation was the default to begin with (and I realize that it can never be exactly literal or linear) over time it would be easier to “think” in Spanish. In essence, we have to translate twice: once from the English structure and idioms to the Spanish structure and idioms and then to the Spanish words. On the plus side, Rocket Spanish seems quite comprehensive and relevant, providing context as well as translations. I also appreciate that there are a variety of exercises to reinforce and check what you learn from the dialogues: flash cards, opportunity to check your pronunciation, writing, and quizzes to check your understanding. Overall, I am very happy with Rocket.

Thanks so much for your review, Saxman. It's great to hear that you are enjoying the course! Regarding transcripts, you should be able to view these while listening to each Interactive Audio lesson in the app. Enter a lesson, click on the play button, and then once the hosts begin talking, the script should appear just below. Please give it a try, and if you have any trouble, don't hesitate to contact the customer support team on support@rocketlanguages.com.

The first week or so, everything worked amazingly. Things drastically went down hill from there. The audio does not work at all. I reached out to customer service and they told me to reinstall the app but they were pretty dismissive with my issues. I reinstalled the app and there is still no audio. How are you supposed to learn when you can’t hear how a word is pronounced?

The next thing is the audio recognition. Again, first week it went great. After that, I can no longer use this feature. This was another issue I brought to their attention and they told me that feature is not compatible. It worked fine when I first got it. Even on their website, the audio and the microphone do not work.

This has been a huge waste of money. The bugs completely make the program useless and the customer service is severely lacking. If they ever get these issues fix, it would be fantastic. I was learning Japanese very quickly with this for that first week but it has now been 5 months since I’ve been able to use it. I keep checking regularly to see if they’ve fixed the issues, because like I said, this would be a fantastic program.

Thank you for your review, it's much appreciated. Our apologies for the trouble you've had with the course. We have recently released an updated version of the app. Please try it again, and let us know if you continue to have problems with it.

I have tried the paid versions of almost all of the popular apps out there for learning German and I can say that this one is the best. It is very systematic, comprehensive, free of errors, addresses the idiosyncrasies of the German language and most importantly, forces you to speak. I wish I had found it earlier and didn’t waste my time and money with the other apps.
The only feature that I wish Rocket Languages had is some sort of a spaced repetition tool that reminds you to repeat words and phrases that you find difficult. Other than this, the app, the method for teaching German and the quality of the content are just perfect. I am using the app both on my phone while driving (to listen to the lessons) and on my iPad to do the exercises. Transition from one device to another is seamless. I have not tried the desktop version.
I live in Germany and this app has already helped me tremendously to speak with a lot more confidence than before. Thank you and keep up the good work!

Thanks so much for your review 911toM3to911. It's great to hear that you are enjoying the course, and that you're seeing positive results - living in Germany and being able to speak the language every day will be so beneficial for your learning! We just wanted to mention that if you rate any phrases in the lessons tests as either Good or Hard, you will be able to re-test yourself on just those phrases until you can confidently mark them as Easy. We hope that helps. All the best with your language learning!