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hey what's up everybody john here from testprepinsight.com and today i'm going to be comparing the three biggest companies in language learning duolingo rosetta stone and babel there are literally dozens of language learning apps on the market today but there's no doubt that these three are the most popular so if you're ready to take a look and get my thoughts let's get to it [Music] okay welcome back i should mention up front here that since i'll just be focusing on the major highlights and low lights of each of these apps in this video today if you find you need more detail at any point we also have a full in-depth written comparison over on our website an easy way to get there is just to google test prep insight duolingo vs rosetta stone versus battle it's a quick way to find it alright so here's how i'm going to break down this video first i'm going to run through each of these three apps one at a time to give you a brief overview of how each app works as well as my thoughts and then circle back for a quick verdict at the end on which one i would personally choose and let's start with rosetta stone since they've been around the longest so here's how rosetta stone works the program is made up of around 20 learning units it does depend on your language but around 20 generally and each unit covers a different topic or category like greetings and introductions transportation feelings professions and hobbies etc then within each unit there are four primary lessons and each lesson contains one core 30 minute learning module and three to 15 supplemental drills that are typically 5 or 10 minutes in length so if you wanted to complete an entire lesson it'll likely take you right around an hour so and that's really it in terms of structure you've got 20 units 4 lessons per unit and each lesson is comprised of a variety of exercises and drills but in terms of what the actual rosetta stone lessons are like they're essentially a combination of images and recorded audio you're going to spend most of your time listening to a word or phrase repeating that word or phrase and then matching it up to a corresponding image think of the rosetta stone lessons and drills as sort of an interactive flash card if you will for example say you're learning spanish you listen to a voice say la nina bebe and then you click an image of a little girl drinking a glass of juice to match the two up the idea is that you have to rely on visual cues and tuition and inference as you gradually acquire the language content necessary to move on to the next lesson or unit you'll start with one or two word building blocks and progress to longer more grammatically complex sentences as you reach the higher levels and that's really it there are some bonus features and extra resources around these primary lessons but that's the meat and potatoes of the rosetta stone program so let me tell you now what i like about this structure in lesson design and what i don't one the speech recognition technology rosetta stone has some awesome speech recognition software that is super accurate and gives you great feedback on your pronunciation two it's great for visual learners because of all the imagery and pictures the rosetta stone system is great for people that learn visually and third some of those bonus resources that i mentioned are pretty cool rosetta stone gives you bonus video lessons short stories phrase books and podcasts among other tools for people going the extra mile they're pretty useful then as for the things that i don't like about rosetta stone the first and clearest thing is how repetitive the lessons are they are just unbelievably monotonous you sort of end up doing the same style of drill over and over and over it just wore on me a little bit over time then the second thing i wasn't crazy about is the lack of emphasis on grammar rosetta stone seems to place a big emphasis on learning language chunks which is important but not actual grammar and that makes it kind of hard to truly learn when you're not getting lessons in verb conjugations how to structure sentences and the like and lastly there are barely any translations in the rosetta stone program they are a full immersion program making it sort of sink or swim without english guidance and translations it can be kind of frustrating and that's the rosetta stone program but real quick before we jump into babel i just realized we haven't talked about pricing or costume and what i'll say here is that in terms of regular pricing all three of these companies are in the same general ballpark duolingo does have a limited free version i'll talk about that more in their section but in terms of paid plans all three cost somewhere in the range of seven to twelve dollars per month making them pretty comparable however what i'll say is that rosetta stone babble and duolingo all seem to run pretty frequent sales and special promotions so be sure to check the description below for coupon codes we track and aggregate the most current discounts for all these language learning companies and i'll keep that text down below the video screen updated with the best discounts and deals out there that i can find for you anyway now let's talk about babel here's how their program works essentially they have different levels that range from total newbie to advanced like newcomer level 1 beginner level 2 or pre-intermediate you get it and within each of these levels there are two to six courses and within each course there are somewhere between five to 15 lessons which each take around 10 to 15 minutes to complete so you can sort of think of their program structure like a pyramid you've got overarching levels at the top courses below and lessons at the bottom those are going to be your building blocks and what you'll work on daily altogether there's about 275 hours of lesson work across all the primary levels and courses and as for the lessons themselves they are very short like i just said each one is only about 10 to 15 minutes long and they go by super fast and that's because each lesson is made up of several quick hit interactive drills and exercises for the first two minutes you might be listening to new words and phrases and then repeating them then the lesson will quickly transition into a digital flashcards drill for a few minutes from there you'll read a short note on how to conjugate certain verb types or use prepositions then you'll reconstruct phrases by using your keyboard and afterwards you might be asked to follow a short mock conversation and fill in the blinks it's just a very fast moving blended approach which i personally really appreciate and that's the babel program in a nutshell like rosetta stone they do have some cool extras like podcasts supplemental audio lessons language games and vocab practice but that's the main course so let's run through what i like and don't like one the review sessions so one thing i didn't mention is that every time you log into babel to do your daily lesson they give you a short review session it takes just two to three minutes and you get a quick refresher on stuff you've already learned this space repetition is awesome for boosting retention second the variety i love how babel throws the same content at you in a variety of different ways and really forces you to interact with material and as a result you really don't get bored in this way it's a lot different from rosetta stone babel just does a great job of keeping your attention three the quick hit nature i love that babel's lessons only take 10 or 15 minutes like a lot of people i don't have an hour every day to complete hour-long lessons so i like that babel keeps their lessons super tight and i can keep making progress every day with just a few minutes and one last thing grammar babel place places a much greater emphasis on grammar than rosetta stone and duolingo who i'll get to here in a second it's not over the top coverage and they do an awesome job of efficiently weaving it into their daily lessons it's hard to explain but it's a very smart way in which they do it and in fact to see what i'm talking about make sure to check out that written guide that i mentioned a couple minutes ago i'll have a link for that down below in the description anyway as for the things i don't like i don't have as many with that the one thing i'd say mainly is that their voice recognition software isn't as powerful as the other two rosetta stone has some killer voice tech and even duolingo's is very good babel has the same style of voice software but it's just not as accurate or robust there were times when i knew i'd be saying something that didn't quite sound right but it would let it slide that honestly is my only real knock-on babble as compared to the other two and lastly we've got duolingo but before i get to that i should mention that every single month here at test prep insight we actually give away a free lifetime subscription to a language learning program to one lucky person it's just a way of saying thank you for supporting the channel it's super simple dinner everyone out there is eligible i'll put all the details down below in the description but just know it takes like 10 seconds center and hey you never know you could win a totally free pass to one of these companies that i'm talking about here today anyway duolingo and i'll be honest here this is a little preview of my verdict but i did not like duolingo as much as the other two duolingo to me is kind of like babble light the program is similar to babbles in many ways but just not as deep or comprehensive let me break it down for you essentially duolingo structures their course around checkpoints and within each checkpoint there are 20 to 30 modules each module covers something from a basic grammar principle to more thematic topics like feelings and travel then each module is made up of six levels and within each level there are three to four lessons and i know that might sound a little confusing but it's really not too bad once you're inside the program and see what i'm talking about basically there are different modules you need to complete and each module consists of several levels and lessons that's the basic framework as for the lessons themselves like i said they're a lot like babbles they're very short and only take five to ten minutes to complete and that's largely because each lesson is made up of a dozen or so quick hit interactive drills and exercises these exercises include listening drills filling the blanks matching pairs verbal practice writing full sentences and completing mock conversations they are very diverse quick moving lessons and i should also mention that as you complete each lesson you earn experience points as well as duolingo currency known as lingotts the xp points relate to your daily goals and allow you to track your progress while the lingotts can be used to purchase additional features from the duolingo store the whole idea here is that duolingo is trying to sort of gamify your language learning journey and that's probably a good place to start with the things that i do like about duolingo i really like the gaminess of it duolingo has this cool feel to it like you're playing some kind of questing game or something alongside other users you stack up points buy features from the store and see how you stack up i thought that was pretty neat and second i love duolingo's user experience their digital platform is awesome there are tons of cool little motion graphics and visuals and it just feels super modern and fun and lastly i like the variety and swiftness of the lessons just like i did with babel the lessons only take five to ten minutes to complete and they're fun and easy to knock out but what i will say here and this is my first negative with duolingo i guess is that the lessons almost are too fast and light to the point that i sometimes would complete a lesson and feel like i didn't even really learn much babble's lessons while similar in style are a little longer and deeper i think they're a more appropriate length the next negative with duolingo is that they use unnatural language you'll frequently get weird phrases and drills like the bed is fat and my horse collects teeth it's just a little weird i've read that they do this on purpose to make you think more about the grammar than the meaning of the words but man it does trip you up and on that point of grammar my third con here is that duolingo is a lot lighter on grammar than babel and maybe even rosetta still there's just not much emphasis on direct grammar tips and lessons i really prefer how babble weaves it in and lastly that free version that i mentioned it isn't my favorite they put daily caps on the number of mistakes that you can make before you get blocked out and you get bombarded with ads it's just super annoying for the low cost of these programs i would just pay for the pro version of duolingo if you go with them okay final verdict should you go with rosetta stone babel or duolingo well if it's not already clear by now i have a huge preference for babble among these three companies while i like duolingo's gamified style of learning and cool features like interactive short stories and motion graphics to me they're just sort of gimmicky and the lessons aren't super effective and with rosetta stone i love the visuals and voice recognition technology but the lessons are just super repetitive and it can be frustrating at times with no guidance in english but with babel i feel like you get the best of all worlds diverse fast-moving lessons that only take 10 or 15 minutes smart efficient grammar lessons space reviews speaking practice and a bunch of cool extras for me after using all three programs i would say go with babel they're my first choice in the program that i still use and that's all i've got for you i hope this was helpful and you learned a little something if so make sure to turn the favor by subscribing to our channel liking this video and dropping us a quick comment below that would be really appreciated and again if you want to see that full detailed in-depth written guide that i mentioned earlier in this video just hop on over to our website testprepinsight.com or check out the rest of the videos on our youtube channel we've got a bunch of great content out there but as always thanks for watching best of luck and i'll see you in the next one [Music] you ...
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