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If you’ve been learning languages for a while, you know the frustration of not finding the “right” app. You download app after app, each promising fluency in a month, perfect grammar in a week. But let’s be honest, most fizzle out faster than a firework on a damp night.
I know because I’ve been there. I’ve tried several language learning apps and only a few of them stuck.
Enter Rocket Languages, the latest app in my language-learning arsenal. After months of using it to learn Korean, I loved it. And I think you will too.
If you’ve been considering using Rocket Languages but you’re not fully convinced, well, I’m here to help you. By the end of this Rocket Languages review, you’ll know more about how the app works, its features and benefits, and how it can help you master a language. Let’s get to it!
What is Rocket Languages?
Founded in New Zealand in 2004, Rocket Languages provides a comprehensive and engaging approach to language acquisition.
This platform caters to learners of all levels, offering courses in 14 languages, from Spanish and French to Arabic and Korean. It prioritizes real-world communication, focusing on practical dialogues and cultural insights.
Unlike some apps that rely solely on rote memorization, Rocket Languages employs a multi-faceted approach. Interactive audio lessons, complete with varied exercises, ensure vocabulary sticks. Voice recognition technology helps you refine your pronunciation, while gamification elements (in some courses) add a fun and competitive edge to the learning process.
But Rocket Languages goes beyond just vocabulary and pronunciation drills. It integrates cultural insights into its lessons, helping you understand the context behind conversations and the nuances of the language. You can also refine your pronunciation through voice recognition software. For some courses, there are dedicated grammar lessons and writing lessons too.
Here’s a quick look at its key features:
| Number of languages offered | 14 languages |
| Learning methods | Audio-based lessons focused on building conversational skills; Grammar and culture insights woven into lessons; In-depth explanations of concepts |
| Course structure | Level-based learning (typically 1-3 levels per language); Modules contain core audio lessons, language and culture Lessons, writing lessons for languages with non-Latin alphabets; Reinforcement exercises after every lesson |
| Pricing structure | Purchase individual levels or subscribe for 6 months. Discounts available. |
| Free features | Access to sample lessons and resources on its website |
| Other features | Survival Kit lessons; study tips integrated within audio lessons; downloadable audio tracks for offline listening; benchmark tests; Rocket Certification |
| Devices | iOS, Android, desktop |
What languages can you learn with Rocket Languages?
Rocket Languages has courses for 14 languages. Or technically, 13, since one of these is English for Spanish speakers.
On Rocket Languages, you can learn popular languages such as Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, Italian, German, Arabic, and French. For those aiming to learn Asian languages, there are courses in Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Hindi. There’s also an ESL course, as well as American Sign Language.
In terms of course content, not all of these come up to advanced levels. Only Spanish, Russian, Japanese, Italian, German, French, and Chinese do; the rest cover only beginner and intermediate levels.
For this review, I mainly tested Rocket Korean.
How much does Rocket Languages cost?
Rocket Languages uses a tiered pricing structure to cater to different learning budgets and commitment levels. Here’s a breakdown of its pricing options:
One-time payment: This level-based pricing allows you to purchase lifetime access to individual language levels (typically 1-3 levels per language). Here, you can pay for the specific amount of content you need, which can be a good option if you’re just starting out or want to focus on refreshing a specific skill level. Each level costs $149.95.
6-month plan: With this pricing scheme, you still get lifetime access to all the course content but make monthly payments. Since not all course lengths are the same, the price for a subscription varies.
For example, courses such as Spanish, Japanese, and French go for $75/month. Shorter courses like Korean and Portuguese cost $27/month. When you do the math, the 6-month plan costs more than the one-time payment. But this is a good alternative for those who can’t shell out $149.95 or more right away.
Rocket Languages also frequently runs promotions and discounts on either level-based purchases or the 6-month plan. You can also test out the platform with trial lessons.
Learning with Rocket Languages
So, how do you actually learn on Rocket Languages? Let’s get down to how the courses are designed.
Audio lessons
At the core of the Rocket Languages experience lie its interactive audio lessons — the first section in every module — that aim to improve your conversational skills. Designed to be comprehensive but engaging, these lessons are downloadable, allowing you to learn offline or on the go.
There are usually three to four audio lessons in one module. Each lesson is presented like a podcast ranging from 15 to 35 minutes long. It centers around a practical conversation, introducing new vocabulary and grammar points in a natural, real-life context.
In the case of Rocket Korean, there’s a host called Kelly, who functions as a narrator dissecting the short dialogue between native speakers, Sujung and Taewoo. The narrator guides you through the conversation, explaining new vocabulary and breaking down complex grammar. You’ll also hear voice clips for individual words and phrases, allowing you to familiarize yourself with the native pronunciation.
Rocket Languages doesn’t stop with listening though. The program incorporates a voice recognition tool (Rocket Record) that lets you practice speaking the language yourself. You’ll get the chance to role-play dialogues as either character, responding to prompts and having conversations just like you would in real life.
Interactive vocabulary practice related to the previous dialogue is also integrated, helping you solidify new words and phrases in your memory.
Language and culture lessons
Here’s where it gets really deep. Rocket Languages dedicates a whole section to the technical aspects and cultural nuances of your target language.
I say technical because many of these lessons revolve around grammar and, sometimes, the writing system. With Rocket Korean, because of the elaborate honorific system and speech levels within the language, many of the language and culture lessons deal with explaining how certain vocabulary and grammar structures fit into this honorific system.
As for the cultural part, each lesson explores the history, traditions, and social etiquette related to the language you’re studying. This section goes deeper than the usual lesson on how to properly greet someone or avoid faux pas. For instance, some cultural lessons in Rocket Korean discuss traditional Korean medicine, how birthdays are celebrated, the Korean education system, and more.
Format-wise, these lessons are more textbook-ish. Unlike the audio lessons that feature dialogues, Language and Culture lessons come with long written explanations of linguistic and cultural concepts, accompanied by audio clips.
Writing lessons
Rocket Languages is primarily an audio-based program. Understandably, not all courses come with writing lessons. But it also recognizes the importance of writing in languages with non-Latin alphabets. For the Korean, Arabic, Hindi, Japanese, and Russian courses, these lessons lay the groundwork for higher proficiency.
Like the two audio and language and culture lessons, the writing lessons follow a well-structured approach, starting with the history of the writing systems and an introduction to each character or syllabary.
With Rocket Korean, each character comes with an audio clip of its pronunciation, as well as a short video demonstrating stroke order and sample words.
Reinforcement activities
To solidify what you learned from the audio lessons or culture lessons, Rocket Languages serves you reinforcement activities. These activities vary in length and target different language skills, ensuring well-rounded practice.
Flashcards test your recall of vocabulary introduced in the lessons, helping you transition from recognition to active memory. You’ll have to guess the correct translation of the phrase. You can set the language that will be shown on the front of the card and whether you want to hear the audio upon reveal.
Hear It! Say It! are basically listening exercises that require you to listen to audio clips without accompanying texts. Then, record yourself saying the word or phrase. You’ll be challenged to understand the content (and say it correctly) solely based on your listening comprehension.
On the flip side, Know It! is the app’s version of speaking/translation exercises. Here, you’ll see only the meaning of the missing word. Then, you have to record yourself saying it in your target language. The built-in voice recognition tool will then give feedback on your pronunciation.
The quiz lets you answer several questions in a multiple-choice format. Some lessons in the Korean course also include Sort It! Hangeul tests, wherein you have to sort the cards to make correct sentences.
What’s unique with these reinforcement activities is that you’re essentially “grading” yourself. After answering a question, you can tap “reveal” to see the correct answer. Then, you can rate yourself with easy, good, or hard. You have the option to re-do non-easy phrases.
Other features
While Rocket Languages excels at interactive audio lessons and pronunciation practice, it offers additional features that make the learning experience just a bit more interesting.
Survival Kit lessons
These bite-sized lessons are found both within the Intro module and as a separate module. They focus on essential phrases for common travel situations, as well as vocabulary you might need if you decide to live in another country.
Rocket Korean includes lessons on colors, days and dates, countries and nationalities, family matters, body parts, Korean food, and more. This is a fantastic resource for travelers or learners who want to build basic communication skills quickly.
Study tips
Embedded within the audio lessons are useful study tips that may include study techniques and tips to overcome any learning hurdles.
You can think of these as having a personal language coach explaining the nuances of the language learning alongside the vocabulary and conversation practice. I think it’s a really cool feature that enhances the whole experience.
Gamification…sort of
To be honest, this is a feature that’s not highlighted and most days, I forget that it exists. But yes, Rocket Languages also incorporates elements of gamification.
You can earn points for completing lessons and compete with other learners on leaderboards (depending on the specific language course). Your streak is also recorded. If you’re a highly competitive learner, this can give you more motivation. Otherwise, it doesn’t affect your learning experience.
Web-exclusive features
Rocket Languages can be accessed on mobile and desktop. While the course content is the same regardless of the device, I noticed that there are a few features that aren’t available on mobile.
The three worth noting are Benchmark, Rocket Certification, and Saved Vocab.
Benchmark allows you to test your current ability. Then, as you go through the course, you can re-take the benchmark test regularly to keep track of your improvement!
Rocket Certification tests are CEFR-based tests that you can take after completing all the lessons within a module. A test takes around 30 minutes to complete. To pass, you need to get 80% or more. Once you’ve passed all the certification tests, you’ll receive a printable Certificate of Achievement.
Sure, it’s not an official certificate that you can use for a job application (especially if you took a course with only one level) but it’ll earn you some bragging rights.
What I love about Rocket Languages
Here’s the most important part of this Rocket Languages review — what I enjoyed and why I think this platform is an amazing tool that can help you achieve your learning goals.
Structured learning path
What truly sets Rocket Languages apart for me is its meticulously structured learning path. Unlike some language learning apps that confuse you with their disconnected lessons or random mess of vocabulary and grammar rules, Rocket Languages offers a reassuring sense of progression.
The curriculum is thoughtfully designed, with cohesive modules and each audio lesson building upon the previous one. It doesn’t overwhelm you with complex concepts before you’ve grasped the fundamentals. And while you can skip modules and lessons, it’s also not hard to keep track of the ones you have yet to tackle.
I also love that every skill is addressed in both the lessons and the reinforcement activities. And I appreciate that the lesson duration is displayed in the learning path, so I can manage my expectations as to how much time I have to spend on each one.
Focus on conversational skills
Rocket Languages claims that it can get you talking. Many tools promise this but after spending some time on this app, I saw that it delivers. It does have a laser focus on building real-world conversational skills.
The main way it does this is through the dialogues in its audio lessons. It presents vocabulary and grammar through the context of conversations. Right from the onset, I understood how certain words and structures apply in conversations.
This approach not only builds your comprehension but also gets you comfortable with the natural flow and rhythm of spoken language.
The app has no shortage of speaking practice. With Rocket Record, the app’s voice recognition tool, you don’t just record your voice and hope that you nailed down the pronunciation — it actually tells you whether you got it right or not. The feedback is no doubt helpful if you want to sound like a native speaker.
In-depth writing lessons
While Rocket Languages is primarily known for its conversational approach, I was pleasantly surprised by its extensive writing lessons.
Unlike some apps that neglect writing altogether, Rocket Korean incorporates audio clips to teach you the pronunciation of Hangeul (Korean alphabet). And it doesn’t stop there — there are videos showing the stroke order for each character too!
I can already read and write Korean characters so I merely skimmed through these lessons. But if I were completely new to learning Korean, this would be an immense help in establishing foundational skills. And this applies to other languages in the app that use non-Latin scripts.
Grammar isn’t neglected
Another thing that impressed me about Rocket Languages was its approach to grammar. This platform understands the importance of a solid grammar foundation and it’s evident in how it seamlessly integrates grammar instruction into the learning experience.
Rocket Languages doesn’t overwhelm you with dry grammar rules at the outset. Instead, it strategically weaves grammar tips throughout the audio lessons. These short explanations are clear, concise, and directly tied to the language you’re practicing in the dialogues.
In Rocket Korean, there are also dedicated grammar lessons within the Language and Culture section starting from the second module. These lessons offer in-depth explanations of specific grammatical concepts and come with audio examples that illustrate practical applications.
Some areas for improvement
As much as I love Rocket Languages, no app is perfect for every type of learner. Here are some things that I think can hinder some learners from fully enjoying the app.
No visual aids
While I thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Rocket Languages, one thing I noticed right away — and felt would be a dealbreaker for some learners — is its lack of visual aids.
Rocket Languages relies primarily on audio lessons and text-based explanations. This can be great for developing listening and speaking skills, sure, but it doesn’t cater to those who benefit from visual reinforcement.
There are very few images within the course; most audio lessons don’t have pictures at all. Some culture lessons have images but many of these are far from appealing. Apart from the videos demonstrating stroke order, there are no video clips that might help learners visualize whatever they’re learning.
The lessons can be text-heavy and excruciatingly long
If you’re not a fan of reading long chunks of text, you’ll likely struggle with Rocket Languages. Yes, it has engaging dialogues and challenging tests, but the lessons tend to be quite text-heavy (especially the ones under Language and Culture), relying on written explanations outside the audio dialogues.
I take pride in having the patience to read long-form content but even I found myself occasionally bogged down by the lesson format.
This text-heavy approach is further compounded by the lesson length. The writing lessons typically range from 11 to 13 minutes long, while the audio lessons and language and culture lessons run longer. They’re not exactly bite-sized, right?
Content repetition and distinction
This one’s a bit nitpicky but I think it’s worth mentioning that I found some redundancies and overlaps in content throughout the course.
For instance, there’s an audio lesson on self-introduction in Module 1 and another self-introduction lesson under Language and Culture in Module 2. Some of the sentences taught in the former were repeated in the latter. Some vocabulary phrases are also repeated in the Survival Kit.
This repetition wasn’t inherently bad, and in fact, it can be helpful as reinforcement. But I would have appreciated having more topics to cover instead.
Another thing I noticed was the “Language and Culture” label could be a bit misleading. While there are many important and interesting cultural information here, these sections were often dominated by more language lessons — again, with lengthy text explanations.
I would have preferred a clearer distinction with perhaps dedicated “Culture” lessons showcasing traditions, customs, and social etiquette alongside some language points. And then move the more technical stuff like grammar concepts to the audio lessons or an entirely separate grammar section to make the distinction.
My verdict: Is Rocket Languages worth it?
So, all things considered, is Rocket Languages worth recommending? It’s a big yes for me!
Weighing all the pros and cons I mentioned in this Rocket Languages review, I can safely recommend Rocket Languages to serious learners, especially beginners.
If you’re looking for a well-rounded resource covering listening and speaking skills, vocabulary, grammar, and culture, this is one of the best out there. And if you’re studying Korean, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi, and Russian, the writing lessons will prove useful.
That said, if you’re a visual learner and/or not a fan of reading long text explanations but are still interested in Rocket Languages because of the quality of its lessons, I say go for it! But do consider your learning style by looking for other dynamic resources that cater to your needs.
FAQ about Rocket Languages
Will Rocket Languages make you fluent?
Rocket Languages is a powerful language learning tool but it likely can’t make you fluent on its own. It’s great for building conversational skills and pronunciation through dialogues and voice recognition. It even teaches grammar, writing, and culture. But no single app, class, or book can make you fluent. It’s best to use multiple resources and converse with native speakers to become fluent faster.
Is Rocket Languages better than Duolingo?
That depends on what your goals and learning styles are. If you prioritize conversation and building practical speaking skills, go with Rocket Languages. However, for a completely free option with bite-sized lessons and gamification elements, Duolingo might be a good starting point.
Is Rocket Languages better than Babbel?
Both apps are known for comprehensive courses and impressive voice recognition tools. Choose Rocket Languages if you need to boost your conversational skills and pronunciation, and if you appreciate detailed explanations of grammar and cultural insights. Go for Babbel if you want bite-sized lessons and a more visual approach.
Do you have to pay for Rocket Languages?
Yes, Rocket Languages requires payment for full access to their language courses. It offers a one-time payment option per level or subscribe to a whole course for six months. However, it also often has promotions and discounts.
Does Rocket Languages offer a free trial?
Yes, Rocket Languages offers a free trial. This allows you to test out the platform and see if it fits your learning style before committing financially. While the extent of the free trial content varies per course, it typically gives you access to sample lessons to get a taste of their approach.
What level does Rocket Languages get you to?
The level you achieve with Rocket Languages depends on the specific language course you choose. Some languages, like Spanish and French, offer courses that progress to an advanced level. However, for other languages, the highest level available might be upper beginner or intermediate.
Can you use Rocket Languages offline?
Yes, Rocket Languages offers offline access to its content! You can download the audio tracks for each lesson, allowing you to learn without an internet connection. This is particularly useful for studying on the go or in areas with limited Wi-Fi connection.