Rocket Languages Reviews

Wonderful woman Italian speaker. Most beautiful Roman Italian. But totally exasperating waste of time as the American goes on and on and on with useless chit chat. I don't have that time to waste and have given up on this program

Hi Richard - Did you notice the Language & Culture lessons? They have thousands of Italian words and phrases that don't have the "chit-chat". In saying that many people do find the chit-chat entertaining.

a lot of the time the microphone button doesn't work

My overall impression of the level 1 program is that, with the exception of vocabulary, and the present tense, Rocket Italian Level 1 is very weak on teaching the student Italian grammar. An example of this is the use of prepositions. These seem to pop up everywhere with no explanation as to the rules governing their use (like the use of "di" which has at least 15 different meanings!), Level 1 aggravates this problem by frequently giving you lengthy Italian phrases in th flash cards & the "Know It" section to memorize. These contain grammatical structures that are never addressed in the course. Also, it makes no provision for different responses that the student may have translated correctly even though it is different from the translation in the course.

I would suggest they introduce a grammatical rule give some examples, & and then drills on that rule. The drills would also incorporate review of a verb tense. This would reinforce the latter and help us master both until they become second nature.

Instead, we waste enormous amounts of time memorizing lengthy sentences with no idea of the grammatical rules which govern the sentences. These are sentences which we will never use and quickly forget.

it doesn't pick up what you say and it sometimes just says the wrong thing even though its nearly indistinguishable from the prompt

I hate the points and streaks function and you have provide no ability to swith off!

I am preferring the Pinsleur system far more.

Honest review

The voice recognition could use some work, but it's fun to use and definitely gets you speaking out loud. I haven't really seen any features offered yet that's worth the price. I'm basing that off of what's offered for free on the internet already.

Another feature though that deserves praise is the 'Play as' feature where you take the role of someone in a conversation. It's honestly a 5 star feature on its own.

Thinking about this in depth is making me realize how much is actually offered and how much I'm paying for it... I could only think of a couple good things (and they're basically the same thing). I can't recommend this to a friend while I'm thinking about discontinuing use of it myself. Wow

The program is OK but no grammar nor conjugation. It is a lot to pay for things I could get for free on Youtube



I hope that helps! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact our Customer Support team.

I am only using the free trial period (for now) and I am very impressed with the content, that as soon as I'm able to I am purchasing the full French course. Thank for for a superb website that offers more than you'd expect to get for free.

Rocket Languages is an excellent way to learn a language . It opens you up to how you can pronounce the language through following the tutor. I enjoy the bit where you have to write because it is a good practice to know the words and how to pronounce them. I also like the flash cards because they enable you to pronounce and get to hear if you are doing it properly. My favorite is the quiz because it gives me the opportunity to show that I understand what I have been learning. I like Rocket Languages to an extend that I will not hesitate to recommend it to anyone willing to try it. I enjoy it when it also corrects spelling to show you where you went wrong right away.

Overall, I understand the structure of the course, but it seems like many aspects, especially in testing, are done by a cookie-cutter algorithm which makes some really critical mistakes.

First, some technical issues. I use Chrome, as recommended, and there are a few things missing. Most notably, the on-screen Korean keyboard is not there. Also, I often do not have the button to mark a Writing lesson as completed. Finally, unlike in the app, there is no way for me to cut a voice recording off if I wish to restart, which often means waiting quite a while for the program to try to sort through gibberish.

Now, for the "cookie-cutter" aspect that bothers me. Frequently in the Audio lessons, the native speakers will say something that was not part of the lesson. This is fine, except that these phrases get put in the testing sections. For example, in the very first lesson there are introductions of the two native speakers. One says that he served in the Korean Marine Corps, then was discharged and migrated to the United States with his parents. He says this in Korean. This is a great way to get acquainted with the sound of the language. However, then this phrase comes up in the testing section of the exam.

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