Busuu: Learn & Speak Languages

Coming from someone who’s used Duolingo on and off for about as long as it’s existed, and seen its system change time and again over the years, I feel that Busuu’s system has a focus on certain essential ideas of what it means to learn a language that Duolingo has historically struggled with. I’ve been impressed with Busuu has crafted exercises which prioritize the meanings behind words rather than just translating back and forth, and how the community feature directs students to actually express thoughts of their own in the language they’re learning. These are things that the base loop of Duolingo typically fails to integrate, and that new features, only presently available in particular Duolingo courses, have only begun to address. The monetization scheme of Busuu is also something I appreciate, in that there are meaningful features you can get with a subscription, but what you get for free (with ads, to be clear) still feels like a complete and healthy product, and it doesn’t feel like I’m being pushed unnecessarily hard to buy a subscription: this is also something which has frustrated me with Duolingo in recent years, even though free Duolingo is still entirely complete, there are a lot of factors which push very hard in the direction of a subscription. I still use both apps, but Busuu is the one which keeps me better engaged with actually learning a language, and it is the one I would recommend to someone learning a language it supports.

I joined last month and have already finished one level of French, which was a review since I had taken French in high school. I love that the platform is collaborative and native speakers in the language you want to learn correct your errors and you can help & correct those trying to learn your native language. Very cool. And there is a nice mix between written and spoken lesson options. I’ve tried several language apps and this one is my favorite! There are definitely some glitches that need to be resolved. The scoring is odd and you get double points than expected with reviews of flash cards. And it is not intuitive that you need to remove vocab words from your vocabulary list to not have them continually repeated in your quizzes and to generate different flash card quizzes. And the test I took for French A1 was odd. There was more fast spoken French than there was through all the lessons. Thankfully, there is an option to slow it down. It seems like there should be more fast spoken French in the lessons, if that’s how you will be tested. Also, there was vocabulary in the test that wasn’t taught, or if it was, it was just in passing. It seems like those words should be included. Also, I wasn’t able to take the test on the app - and that wasn’t really clearly indicted in the app. But overall, it is one of the better language learning platforms I’ve used and I like that features keep being added.

I’ve been multilingual from a young age (native English speaker, learned and became fluent in Spanish by 6, and learned and became conversationally fluent in German by 13), and have continued learning languages into my adulthood both through online resources and college courses. Out of every language learning app I’ve ever used, Busuu EASILY takes the cake for the #1 best. I have never learned so much just from an app, nor have I ever learned so quickly. It’s a great supplemental tool alongside more “traditional” methods of learning a new language, but it’s also a FANTASTIC resource for anyone who is brand new to learning a language to get to reading, writing, and even speaking very quickly. I absolutely love the grammar review option, it really makes a difference in learning to actually think in your target language rather than translating in your head, which is what gets you thinking like a native speaker! I also love how Busuu makes it a point to explain *why* a certain phrase is structured the way it is rather than having you just memorize phrases without understanding how they’re structured, leaving you unable to express your own original thoughts in a natural way rather than sounding like a textbook (I’m looking at you, Duolingo). I just really can’t understate how much I love this app, the premium version is 100% worth every penny, this is my second year paying for it. It’s a perfect tool to brush up on languages I already know and dip my toes into new ones.