Rocket Languages Review

Wednesday, March 22nd

2023 German Lesson Reviews

Rocket Languages

• Plenty of audio for listening
• Unique and accurate speech-recognition and assessment program
• Survival Kit: added list of helpful words and phrases
• Complete, understandable lessons
• Earn points and compete on the leaderboard

When we think of learning a language, oftentimes it's because we want to have a conversation with someone. Rocket Languages has plenty of audio for you to get used to hearing and understanding German speakers. It also has a speech-recognition program to help you be understood when speaking German. Focusing on listening and speaking gets you ready to converse. These lessons also have reading and writing lessons and practice. A unique feature is Rocket's Survival Kit, which is a section with additional vocab and phrases useful for conversation. Rocket German does focus on communication and culture, and their videos offer a little humor as well.

The nuts and bolts

First you'll choose your level, from 1 to 3. The lowest level, for example, has 128 hours of lesson time, 33 interactive audio lessons, 2051 voice-recognition phases, 31 language and culture lessons, and 10 Survival Kits. Once you choose your level, select whether you want the Interactive Audio, Grammar and Culture, or the Survival Kit. Pretty simple.

Each lesson is themed

Since they are focused on communication, their units are, too. You can choose any lesson you want within your level, such as relationships, business, sports, literature, politics, German culture and more, to make it interesting to the many interests of learners. The scenarios they have are just like you'd find in local Germany.

Culture is the reward for learning the grammar

There's a Language and Culture tab where you first learn the grammar associated with the lesson. The grammar is presented, you practice throughout, and at the end of the lesson there's a cultural component.

Lots of grammar or none: your choice

You don't have to click on the Language and Culture tab and take the grammar lessons. If you are the kind of learner to listen to a conversation and catch on enough to how the sentences work and don't want the grammar, don't click on the Language and Culture tab. Or, just go to that tab for culture notes.

Helpful feedback on your pronunciation

Rocket Languages offers Play It!, an interactive listening and speaking activity. You listen to the word and repeat it. Their speech-recognition software will analyze your speech, give you a percentage score, and with the transcript of what they heard, mark both your accuracies and inaccuracies, in green and red fonts. We found this feature to be quite accurate and enjoyed using it. We all want to know if people will be able to understand us when we speak another language, and Play It! is a good indicator. Speech-recognition technology is fairly new in language learning, and with most technology, there can be imperfections. Sometimes the program thinks you're done with your sentence, and it stops listening. It's not the worst thing, but it can be frustrating.

Are you a bit competitive?

You can earn points for completing lessons, and there's a leaderboard so you can compete with other learners as you progress. If you want to keep up your motivation, or if you're losing motivation, this healthy competition might be the trick.

Costs

• Free trial when you give them an email address
• Free 60-day trial, but only with a paid subscription
• Lifetime access to Level 1 for $149.95, sale priced at $99.95 with coupon code
• Lifetime access to Levels 1, 2 for $299.90, sale priced at $249.90 with coupon code
• Lifetime access to Levels 1, 2, 3 for $449.85, sale priced at $259.90 with coupon code

Which package should I choose?

In Rocket Languages' pricing, all packages include Level 1. If you're not a beginner and don't want to pay for Level 1, you can contact the company to purchase the levels individually. No matter which you choose, your cost can range from $100-$450, which can be pricey. The advantage of Rocket Languages is that there is no auto-continuation of monthly subscriptions like you'll find with some of the rival German providers we evaluated: with membership based-lessons, if you don't know how long you want to take German, your costs can keep going up as your subscription renews every month. With Rocket Languages, you will always have access with a one-time fee.

No cost trial

You can have a no-cost trial when you give them an email, but you'll get quite a few emails filling up your inbox. You can try their sample lessons at all levels, and there is no time limit on the free period.

60-day refund policy

Rocket Languages offers a full refund when you email them within 60 days of making your payment and creating your Rocket German account. That's much more generous than most German lesson platforms we've found.

We like Rocket Languages, but there's room for improvement

Rocket Languages has some great features: there are plenty of lessons; the speech-recognition software is better than other programs have to offer; and there are plenty of listening and speaking activities. Where Rocket German could improve is less repetition of format for all lessons. While we give this platform a good rating overall, there's still room for improvement.