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Tuesday, February 18th
Busuu is an excellent online French lesson program where you can receive personalized instruction based on your personal goals. You can also choose whether you want to focus on speaking or writing, or both. It's great to know you can make "friends'' on Busuu, where you can check each other's work done in your own native language, rather than relying on a bot to give you feedback. The only challenge is finding out the price once you're on the site, but fortunately we've done that legwork for you.
Where should you start?
Start with the placement test, especially if you've already had some French classes. Busuu will then provide personalized lessons just for you. The placement test is well-designed because a nationally-known testing company created it. The level you're placed at will coordinate with CEFR, the European determiner of level of fluency.
Personalized lessons
Why do you want to learn French? Perhaps you want to travel, your profession requires it, or maybe you've had some French and want to improve your pronunciation. Whatever your reason, let Busuu know. Then tell them how much time you plan to commit to learning French, and Busuu will create a curriculum and time line with your needs in mind. Since adding to your routine can be challenging, Busuu can remind you of when your lesson will start.
Hey, we actually say it like this
You know how sometimes a phrase in a textbook isn't what's said in a real conversation? For example, rather than saying "How is it going?” we might actually say, "How's it goin'?” Busuu does some of that for you in French, so you can sound more like a local.
Costs
Busuu offers 2 plans to choose from: Busuu Basic, and Busuu Premium.
You'll do okay with the Basic plan
Free is nice, and with the free Busuu basic plan, you have access to goal setting, vocabulary, writing, reading, and interactive quizzes. You can still have fun bonuses like earning prizes, which are actually Busuu "berries” - and they're motivating. You can trade in the berries for fun "purchases.” You can also have Busuu "friends” to compete with and motivate each other to complete lessons or reach fluency goals. With the free plan, however, you can access only some parts of the lesson, so you may be missing important grammar lessons.
You'll get complete access with the Premium plan
When you purchase a Busuu plan, rather than using their free one, you get access to all that the Basic plan has to offer, plus access to the grammar lessons. You'll get all of the lessons, you can use the Smart Review to practice with the mistakes you've made, you can get faster feedback from the Busuu French community, and access even more courses such as pronunciation, travel, and more.
Student discount
There's a student discount of 20% when you verify your student status with Busuu.
Canceling your subscription isn't easy
There are different ways to cancel your subscription depending on which platform you enrolled: website, App Store, or Google Play, and whether or not you used PayPal. There's a 14-day money-back guarantee, and that only applies to your initial purchase. You cannot receive a refund once your subscription automatically renews. This could cause a huge issue for you if you got a longer subscription such as a year. We'd suggest trying the free version for a good while until you get a feel for it, or try the one-month subscription until you're really sure.
You play hide and seek to find the refund and cancellation policies
When you're on the site, it's quite a challenge to find the differences between the Busuu basic and Premium levels, and also to find the cancellation policy. Make you know exactly how to cancel or get the refund before you sign up for the subscription.
They've got the whole package
Busuu offers a lot for free in their online lessons, plus so much more with the reasonably-priced Premium subscription. Not only do you have a personalized curriculum, but you can get feedback on your speaking and writing from native French speakers. The unique social component lets you make "friends” on Busuu, where you can communicate in French with other students or native French speakers. Just be sure to check the cancellation and refund policies before you commit to any of the subscription packages. Still, that shouldn't stop you from trying Busuu - it's our #1 choice among providers of French lessons today.
When we think of someone speaking French, we think soothing and seductive, as it's simply dreamy to hear. We think of the romance of Paris with the Eiffel Tower, of Southern France with the rolling lavender fields, of the Alps with the snow-capped mountains, of the coast with the warm sandy beaches. And of course there's the decadent French food and wine.
Learning French allows you to more fully enjoy French culture. When you learn French, it opens the door to learning phrases that the French speakers use in conversation, manners and mannerisms, how the French live and interact in everyday situations, and perhaps gaining an appreciation and insight into their art and history. There are so many doors to be unlocked once you take the first step.
Naturally, when we think French we think of France. Yet French is actually a global language and the official language of 29 countries, so you can practice your French language skills in more than one place. French is also a heritage language in all or part of Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and even the US - like Louisiana.
Picking up the French language may be easier than you might think. Some of us are intimidated by the unusual sounds and the silent letters, but did you know that there are many words that look like English? We'll bet you know these French words: table, responsable, ambiance, brilliance. There are about 1,700 words in French that look like the English word, so there's a good start.
When choosing among the several options for online French lessons, here are some things to consider:
Top Consumer Reviews has researched and ranked the most popular French courses available today, to make it easy for you to choose how you'll want to learn French. Whether you're thinking of learning French for the first time or brushing up on what you may have taken in high school, now is a great time to learn French online as there are such a variety of French lesson programs out there. We're sure you'll find at least one that you'd like to try.
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