Busuu is a language learning app (and website) that focuses on providing language learners the necessary vocabulary, but especially focuses on grammar. The app also has other features that make this app unique, as well as some cons that I’m going to discuss here.
I made a video review on Busuu over a year ago on my youtube channel and it got some positive feedback from viewers so I decided to make another one for my website here. This is the updated review from me and you can check the older review from last year at the end of this post. I should mention that I’m not sponsored by Busuu (although they gave me a free subscription for a year, thank you Busuu). Enjoy the review:
Pros:
Excellent Grammar Courses:
The number one reason why I use Busuu myself is the grammar courses that they have. From my experience, they’re the best grammar courses I have encountered only due to how organized they’re. However, I should mention that this might not be the case for every language, but from my experience, it was amazing with the German language.
The great thing about the grammar courses is that they’re both light and organized. This makes memorizing rules much easier for me since I only use my eyes to memorize rather than writing down sentences. This could be different for different people but this is how I have memorized rules my entire life and this is how I feel the most comfortable.
A Community of Native Speakers:
Another big advantage for Busuu is the way they designed the app around communities and people that are already learning to benefit each other. While you’re learning German, for example, you can help someone that speaks German learn English by providing them with feedback on their exercises and vice versa.
The benefit of this feature is getting to pronounce words or sentences as the native speakers after they provide you with their feedback. There are many questions and quizzes that ask from you to record your voice pronouncing a word so that people can correct you if you’re wrong. You can skip this feature but I really think that you should do it because it’s really beneficial in my opinion.
Easy To Revise What You Already Learned:
As you can see from the picture above, I stopped learning German for quite some time so most words are in the “Weak words” section. When I click the “Review now” button it starts quizzing me on these words so that I can get a quick revision of what I’ve already learned without having to go through all courses again.
Another new feature that I noticed recently is the ability to review grammar courses as well. This wasn’t present when I first started using Busuu as far as I’m concerned, but this is truly a life savior. Grammar courses are the “hardest” part about learning a new language in my opinion, and with this new feature it makes the process much easier.
Good Exams to Check Your Level:
I haven’t used French in quite sometime now and I just wanted to see where I’m at, turns out there’s some McGraw Hill Certificates when you finish a level on some languages. The test was quite good, it tests you on many different topics and subjects from what you’ve learned and it gives you a good estimate on where you’re right now with your journey.
A Study Plan:
The study plan feature is one of my favorites as well, with it you can specify your goal to the algorithm and provide it with how many minutes you want to study the language every day and it gives you a good estimate on when you could achieve your specified goal.
A Great Website As well:
Busuu has both great apps and a great website. They’re clean and minimalistic just as I like an app to be. the design team did a good job on that part in my opinion. This enables you to use your Busuu account both on your smartphone and your computer without feeling a difference.
A Good Collection of Languages to Choose From:
While Busuu doesn’t have a huge collection of languages to choose from, it still has the most famous languages. For other people, this might be a disadvantage rather than an advantage. But, for me, this is a good sign. it means that the team is taking their time to focus on the languages that they already have rather than adding many languages while rushing the production.
Cons:
The Price:
While the app is free to install and has many free courses, in my opinion, it’s not worth using the free version. The free version lacks many key classes and it just makes no sense why would anyone finish a program using the free courses only. However, the free classes are like a sneak peek into how the courses work and kind of like an advertisement to pursue you into getting the premium version.
In my opinion, this is a great way for customers to get to see what they should expect before committing to the subscription. This is a better model in my opinion than just watching an ad about the service.
Some Languages Have Worse Programs Than Others:
From my own experience, the German language program was slight better than the Turkish language one. However, I’ve seen this change in the last two year (or I might be imagining things) the Turkish language program is getting better. This is due to the age of the app, and I’m sure things will get better in the future. But, the situation now is that some languages have either better programs or more options as seen in the photo above.
Is the Busuu Premium Membership subscription worth it?
The Busuu subscription is quite on the high end compared to other language learning apps (around 9.99$) but not overpriced in my opinion. The premium subscription was worth it for me especially that I used to pay much more on private tutors that did the exact same thing for me. However, this decision will come down to you, you can install the app and try out the new version to see for yourself if it works for you or not.
Conclusion:
The language learning app Busuu is my favorite app for language learning so far and I think it’s worth a try if you’re interested in learning a new language. However, you should know that if you really want to commit to using the app you should know that you will end up needing to get the premium membership. When I first bought my first year’s subscription I got it on a discount for 50% or more, so you might be lucky and get one on a good price if you wish to do so.
