When it comes to learning a new language for the first time, the choice of language learning options online are overwhelming.
The biggest hurdle to overcome is just getting started. But you obviously want to get started with the best material.
Inferior material poorly presented can hinder your language learning before you either start and will end up either disheartening you enough to abandon it or build some faulty foundations that are hard to shake later on.
What’s the best beginner language learning program (in 2020)?
For the best beginner language learning programs, I’ve narrowed it down to:
I’ve used all of these programs for several languages: Japanese, German, Bulgarian, and Italian.
For this review, I focused on the Italian product line as I have an upcoming trip to Florence and Venice and wanted to learn some Italian.
I’m going to rank, review, and compare Babbel, Rocket Languages, LanguagePod101, and LingQ.
Then I’m going to recommend my top choice.
A note on these language learning programs:
The ideal user for all of these is the entry-level beginner to the language you’re learning.
They can also make good refreshers for the intermediate learner, but primarily these programs are best for breaking the back of a language and getting comfortable with the language.
Your language learning approach should change once you’ve understood the fundamentals.
I’ll recommend my language learning approach for intermediates at another time, but first grasp the basic grammatical concepts and build up a basic store of vocabulary and familiarity with the language.
Babbel Review
Let’s start by reviewing Babbel.
My personal favourite beginner’s language learning program.
But is Babbel the best language learning program?
Babbel has a great syllabus lay out, especially for the beginner language learner.
What you learn and when you learn it is incredibly logically arranged in Babbel.
A lot of language learning programs, including some big names which I won’t mention, have a language learning syllabus that doesn’t make much sense. There’s no rhyme or reason to why you’re learning what you’re learning.
But Babbel gives you the information you need not only to build a solid foundation in the language, but also the information you’re most likely to use first.
If you’re main aim with learning the language is to use it in the country that speaks it just to get around and order food, you’ll learn this kind of information first in context whilst learning basic grammar principles.
Babbel doesn’t bludgeon you with heavy grammar lessons right off the bat.
If you’re learning Italian, for example, you’ll learn early on about gendered nouns in the context of learning how to ask directions or ask where someone is from.
Each Babbel lesson builds upon the previous lesson masterfully well.
I’m a bit of a geek when it comes to syllabus construction (I was a teacher for many years and designed my own syllabuses, so figures). So I’m excited to talk about Babbel from a syllabus point of view.
The lessons are the perfect length for beginners and staggered expertly well.
You can choose to have a bite-sized lesson if you’re pressed for time or just fancy a quick primer. But you can choose your length of study and pace by going onto another lesson if you wish to keep going.
The syllabus is broken up with cultural videos, which make nice breaks.These fun interludes make it so you don’t feel too bogged down in the details of grammar early on.
The Babbel beginner Italian language course, for example, will present a fun video on Italian hand gestures after a few lessons focused on greetings. Then it’s back to more learning.
Once you’ve learnt about the different forms of “you” in Italian and how to ask where someone is from, the syllabus gives you a little break and rewards you with a fun video on the basics of Italian pronunciation.
It’s a breather but one where you have fun and still learn without feeling like you’re learning. Then you get a couple more lessons and the next breather is a video on how to set good language learning goals.
Babbel is like having a teacher who knows when the class needs a little break and is happy to give you entertaining interludes that still enhance your language learning goals. You find yourself wanting to keep going, to keep learning, because you’re having a lot of fun and it doesn’t feel like a struggle.
Babbel has a great review set-up.
The core of my language learning philosophy (in fact my philosophy when it comes to learning anything) is to maximise retention.
There is absolutely no use stuffing streams of information into your head and hoping it will sink it.
You want to review as much as possible and keep what you’ve learnt – otherwise what’s the point?
The Babbel language learning approach.
Tons of language learning programs fail at this aspect because they leave it up to the learner to structure their own review sessions and only focus on presenting information. That’s fine if you already know how to study effectively and know all about spaced repetition, but most people don’t know how to study and only remember cramming for tests at school.
Babbel has a ton of review moments.
Whenever you sign into your Babbel language learning platform, you are prompted to review what you learnt the last time you logged in.
There’s even a dedicated review area where Babbel keeps track of exactly what you need to review as you keep learning.
You’re told why you need to keep reviewing too – basically, you’re told your knowledge level in that specific area of the language.
If you’re knowledge level is low, guess what? It’s time for you to review!
This is how you grasp the fundamentals of a language quickly and easily.
You can also choose how you wish to review.
I typically pick the listening option because I want to improve my comprehension ability early on, but there are flashcard and quiz options too that will accommodate all kinds of language learners.
This wonderfully laid out syllabus is housed in a beautiful, clean interface.
Don’t discount the value of having a layout that is intuitive. The last thing you want to do when learning a language is to waste time trying to figure out where everything is every time you sit down to learn. You also don’t want to spend time looking at an ugly screen.
You want your language learning time to be easy and enjoyable because then you’ll commit to doing more of it. And Babbel wins having the best visual presentation in my book.
Babbel also has a few other little bonuses that really round the language learning program off and make it a nice course to use.
You’ve got a habit calendar when you log in. So you can see how consistent you’ve been. If you’ve been learning regularly you won’t want to break the chain.
You’ve also got a podcast area with wonderfully produced monolingual podcasts.
Monolingual means the podcast is only in the language you’re learning. That means you’ll need to be more of an intermediate before you can fully appreciate them, but I believe this is a huge bonus. Most language learning audio and podcasts have more English than the language you’re trying to learn, and this delays learning.
If you want to immerse yourself in the language and become more comfortable with the rhythms and pronunciation, whilst putting what you already know to the test, these podcasts are a fantastic way to stretch yourself.
You also have a 1-minute challenge area, which makes a nice break from the main syllabus and makes language learning feel like a video game where you’re levelling up and acquiring new skills.
On top of all this, Babbel’s pricing is extremely fair, costing anywhere from $6.95 to $12.95 per month depending on how long you commit to.
Babbel also offer a generous free trial so you can try before you buy.
I started with the free trial and loved Babbel so much that I decided to stay on and pay the membership fee, but you can cancel at any time so you have nothing to lose.
Babbel ranking:
- Syllabus: 8/10
- Review set-up: 8/10
- Interface: 9/10
- Effectiveness: 8/10
- Enjoyability: 9/10
Check out Babbel with a free trial here.
Rocket Languages Review
Rocket Languages has a bit of a spammy feel when it comes to the sales page.
They market in the same way that LanguagePod101 markets, and this is a style of marketing I dislike. It’s aggressive and high-pressure, but it’s effective.
I stayed away from Rocket for a long time because of this reason, but I recently signed up and their language learning course is actually completely legit.
Rocket Languages is basically an interactive textbook that covers all four aspects of language learning: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Rocket uses voice recognition software and your in-built microphone so you can practice speaking right from the start.
I love this feature. It’s one of the biggest selling points of Rocket and turns you from a passive learner into an active one.
If you just had the textbook style approach to learning, you wouldn’t remember as much information as vividly. But with Rocket getting you involved, you’re more likely to remember what you learn.
Another benefit is you can practice pronunciation right from the start by comparing your speaking to that of the natives in the recordings.
Rocket lessons typically start with a listening assignment.
The introductory lesson, for example, asks you to listen to a 17-minute audio before getting into the meat of the lesson.
This audio is interactive too and features two native speakers who prompt you to repeat after them.
There is a lot of repetition and reviewing in these lessons with a focus on pronunciation – all stuff I’m a huge fan of.
The audio can feel a little dry and rigid at times, and you can tell the speakers are reading from a script, but this doesn’t hinder you from learning.
The focus is on you repeating and getting to grips with the rules of the language and pronunciation, so that doesn’t matter so much.
There’s a lot of English spoken in these audios, but again this isn’t a problem for the beginner learner. Only once you get to more intermediate levels will you want to graduate to monolingual and native media (although I could make a strong argument that you want to expose yourself to native monolingual media as soon as possible).
After the listening exercise, you typically have an interactive activity where you can choose to participate as either speaker in a conversation about a topic. There is more voice recognition software here too so it feels like you’re having a conversation, albeit in a forced and specific environment.
It’s basically like those pre-written role-plays you got in language class at school.
You can then keep going with extra vocabulary and extra audio.
And then the lessons end on Rocket reinforcement activities. Basically reviewing, which I’m all for.
You get flashcards, listening and speaking exercises, reading and writing exercises, and quizzes.
The Rocket syllabus is okay, but less well-thought out than the Babbel syllabus.
There are many natural places to take pause so you can adapt the lessons to your own pace, but the emphasis, at least in the beginning, seems to be focused on simply repeating travel phrases.
While there are cultural lessons too, I much prefer the content and placement of the cultural lessons in Babbel than Rocket.
Babbel also feels like a logical progression in regards to syllabus, whilst Rocket seems a bit like someone said, “Now we need a lesson on eating and drinking. Now let’s do a verb lesson.”
I also feel like there isn’t enough content to justify the price tag, which varies depending on whether you get a deal or not.
Typically you’re paying a couple hundred bucks, a bit less if there’s a deal running, and I much prefer a smaller monthly fee that is negligible compared to the amount of content you get.
You could get a textbook and CD for much cheaper than Rocket Languages and it would be almost the same thing.
Or you could get Babbel, which is cheaper and better than both.
Maybe it’s a personality thing and mine just doesn’t jive with Rocket.
There might be a lot of people out there who love the format and content, but having gone through learning a language to fluency once already, I know what material would work best for me and what wouldn’t.
And Rocket wouldn’t be my top choice.
It’s not the worst choice for language learning (that accolade likely goes to Rosetta Stone), but certainly not my number one.
Having said that, they have a free trial so you can explore for yourself. If you find it fun and think it’s something you can stick with until you hit intermediate level, go for it.
Rocket Languages ranking:
- Syllabus: 6/10
- Review set-up: 7/10
- Interface: 7/10
- Effectiveness: 6/10
- Enjoyability: 7/10
Check out Rocket Languages with a free trial here.
LanguagePod101 Review
LanguagePod101 is always a part of my language learning materials and routine when I start learning a new language.
Can I nit-pick and find some faults with the LanguagePod101 programs?Yes.
But LanguagePod101 more than makes up for a few drawbacks (which they are consistently improving upon) by offering a stellar overall product.
When it comes to surplus of material, LanguagePod101 can’t be beat.
A lot of language programs are focused solidly on the beginner and intermediate levels, tapering off when it comes to the advanced learner. But you could easily keep going and learning new things well into being advanced when it comes to LanguagePod101.
They’ve put a lot of time, effort, money, and thought into their syllabuses, and it shows.
Anything you need to learn in regards to your language of choice is covered, and almost always covered to a high degree.
Whether you want to continue with LanguagePod101 once you’ve grasped the foundations is up to you. I usually don’t, or only refer back for a refresher, but I can see how LanguagePod101 could be a solid staple of your learning routine for a long time.
There is a free version of LanguagePod101, but if you take the free trial for their premium version you’ll see that’s it more than worth the monthly membership fee, which is around $25 per month.
They also have a premium plus version for almost double that amount, but I wouldn’t say the extra features are worth it. And they have a basic plan for $8 per month.
The sweet spot is the premium version, and there are a lot of reasons why it’s worth it.
I love the set-up of LanguagePod101.
The interface isn’t as intuitive as Babbel, so you might spend some time fiddling around.
There are a lot of different courses, or “pathways” as they call it. But staying on the main pathway at your level is easy enough, and branching out is also easy if you fancy a change of pace.
Your main pathway is your language learning level: absolute beginner, beginner, intermediate, advanced. But you can add specialised pathways depending on your goals.
Want to practice reading? There’s a pathway filled with short stories for you to do just that.
Want to learn a bunch of survival phrases for your upcoming trip to the country? You can add a series of lessons for that too. Everything from idioms to specific cultural points is covered, and more (including complex grammatical concepts).
A typical LanguagePod101 lesson covers one or two main topics.
Usually you’ll learn a bunch of related vocabulary in context alongside a key grammar point, with cultural notes thrown in along the way.
Lessons start with dialogues.
Then the two presenters use these dialogues to expand and teach you the language principles that comprise the dialogue.
Instructors vary depending on the language.
Some languages don’t have as robust material or enthusiastic speakers. These are typically the languages that aren’t as popular to learn. Bulgarian, for example, is like that.
But if you pick a popular language, you’ll have more material, which is well organised and passionately presented, than you know what to do with.
JapanesePod101 has a ton of material and is one of the best in their course line. I’m also finding that Italian is extremely robust and German was also well equipped when I used it learning in Austria last year.
The lesson interface is streamlined, but you can also toggle between different aspects easily at the top of the page.
In seconds you can toggle between the dialogue script, vocabulary, lesson notes, transcript, and comments section.
And within the dialogue script you can choose to see it in your language of choice or switch to English easily.
This is a superb feature particularly for those languages that don’t use roman script like English. If you’re learning Korean, Arabic, or Japanese, for example, this is a very handy feature to have. When I was a beginner in Japanese, I could easily toggle between romaji, hiragana and katakana, kanji, and English, which I found extremely valuable as a newcomer.
The presenters of the LanguagePod101 audio really make the course.
Some could find fault and say they’re cheesy, which is correct. But I like cheesy!
Geeky humour is good and personally keeps me entertained and hooked.
The presenters typically sound like they’re loving what they do and each episode show is expertly produced.
There is a bit too much English for it to be useful for people who want more of a native and immersive experience, but I don’t think this is a drawback until you become more intermediate in the language.
Throughout each LanguagePod101 lesson, you also have options to add vocabulary to the in-built flashcard deck.
You can also review, make slideshows, add to your word bank, and take a quiz if you fancy a quick review.
I can’t speak to the efficacy of LanguagePod101’s flashcard system because I already have my own flashcard system I’m happy with (it’s called Anki, if you’re interested), but a quick glance shows it set out well, so that’s something you might be keen to explore if you want to keep all of your learning in one place.
Another aspect I really respect with LanguagePod101 is the comment section.
You’ll see learners post questions, often questions you’ve found yourself asking, and the team at LanguagePod101 are quick to answer and help you. You can obviously even post your own question if you don’t understand something and the instructors will get back to you swiftly. I think that’s super cool.
Personally my favourite thing about LanguagePod101 is the lesson notes.
I’m quite a visual learner, so being able to see the language concepts broken down on paper in front of me in addition to hearing them explained and put into context really rounds off my learning.
So I consider LanguagePod101 a key staple of any beginner’s language learning program.
Try out the free trial and you get a week to see what premium looks like. I think you’ll like it a lot too.
LanguagePod101 ranking:
- Syllabus: 8/10
- Review set-up: 7/10
- Interface: 7/10
- Effectiveness: 8/10
- Enjoyability: 8/10
Check out LanguagePod101 with a free trial here.
LingQ review
I became interested in LingQ because I respect the man behind the company.
Steve Kaufmann’s philosophy of language learning jives extremely well with my own experience.
He has a lot of beliefs, which I encourage you to explore by watching some of his videos, but it primarily comes down to having lots of enjoyable exposure to the language you are learning (input theory). And it’s obviously done Steve well as he speaks 16 languages.
LingQ is a learning environment that matches interesting native and learner-focused content in your desired language at your current level.
The whole philosophy behind LingQ is one of collecting words.
When you come across a word you don’t know in one of these interesting pieces of content, you can save it, and build a “lingq”.
LingQ is about giving you as much listening and reading as possible because listening and reading is a powerful language learning combination. The more you do of each, the better you’ll get at your language.
Whilst some of the other language learning programs reviewed here have an emphasis on speaking, LingQ really is all about input.
LingQ populates your language learning feed with material that interests you.
This is a language learning philosophy I ascribe to. It’s the same philosophy I used in order to become fluent in Japanese.
Delay speaking, ramp up input, and don’t worry about material being incomprehensible to you at the start.
It’s a difficult way to learn a language, but it’s also the most effective, the most riveting, and the most rewarding. This is what LingQ does well.
It’s effective language learning, even if it might seem a bit different from the typical (ineffective) school-like syllabuses you’re used to encountering.
As a beginner, you’re going to want lots of short piece of content.
And you’re going to want the transcripts to these pieces of content.
This is what you get on LingQ.
You have the content and you click on any word you don’t understand, and suddenly you’re learning words in context and you’re not relying on English presentations to teach you the language.
I feel like the interface on LingQ is a little cluttered, but the messiness has a charm.
This is doubly true when you consider that the method underpinning everything is so effective.
I do love a sleek interface, but at the end of the day the effectiveness of the material is the most important thing.
Another great thing about LingQ is the browser extension that basically allows you to import anything you’re consuming on the web and use it as the basis for your lesson.
Just say you’re reading a news article in Italian and there are a bunch of words you don’t know. You can import that article into the LingQ learning environment and expand your knowledge. That’s pretty neat.
The browser extension also works with YouTube, so you could import a Ted Talk for example. You can also do the same with Netflix. So go into Netflix, choose a serial or a movie you’re interested in, and then you can import it into your lesson environment.
LingQ ranking:
- Syllabus: 7/10
- Review set-up: 7/10
- Interface: 6/10
- Effectiveness: 10/10
- Enjoyability: 10/10
You can check out LingQ for free here.
So that’s my breakdown, comparison, review, and ranking of the best language learning programs. There’s no reason why you should only choose one. LingQ, for example, is a great companion to have alongside either Babbel or LanguagePod101, which one you choose depending on your personality and learning style.
Want my opinion on any other popular language learning programs?
Let me know and I’ll be more than happy to give you my review.
