They’re designed to be completed at a rate of one lesson per day. The most popular courses have five levels, while some less popular courses have fewer.Īll levels have 30 lessons, lasting at 30 minutes each. Pimsleur’s courses vary in length based on the language you go for. Its more unique courses include the likes of Lithuanian, Swiss German, Tagalog, Twi, and Urdu. Some of Pimsleur’s popular courses include Spanish, French, Italian, German and Japanese. Pimsleur offers courses for learning 50 different languages, while Babbel gives access to 14 different languages.īabbel’s courses cover mostly the standard, popular languages: Dutch, Danish, English, French, German, Indonesian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Spanish and Turkish. The speech recognition feature doesn’t offer the most effective way of learning pronunciation.Not enough focus is given to grammar concepts in the review exercises.There’s a lot of repetition, which can make lessons fairly boring.The practice activities users have access to in the premium plan aren’t very well thought-out.There’s not enough focus on the written side of the language, which often appears to be an afterthought.What I don’t like about each program: Pimsleur
Lessons are fairly short, well structured, and teach the languages as a whole.The interface is well-designed and user-friendly.Content covered in the lessons is practical and designed for use in real-life situations.Progression from one lesson to another is smooth and previously learned material is consistently reinforced.Constant prompts encourage you to stay active and produce the language you’re learning quickly.The focus on oral language encourages you to practice your speaking skills straightaway.But, if you’re looking to focus specifically on your speaking skills, Pimsleur is your best bet. I’d recommend that you choose Babbel over Pimsleur if you’re looking to develop your all-around language skills. Some learners may have a strong preference for one program over the other, but that largely depends on learning preferences and goals. I’d struggle to choose a firm favorite between Babbel and Pimsleur because both are well designed and provide fairly high-quality lessons at relatively good value for money. Learners using Babbel would have a more well-rounded knowledge of the language, but lower speaking and listening skills compared with students using Pimsleur. Babbel teaches more holistically, including grammar and written exercises – two areas mostly ignored by Pimsleur.Pimsleur primarily focuses on oral language which can help learners develop their conversational skills very quickly.Some of the key differences between the two include: They offer courses for learning a range of languages from scratch, although when it comes down to lesson specifics, they each have their different focuses.īabbel and Pimsleur offer good courses but take different approaches to language learning. Pimsleur and Babbel are two of the biggest names in online language learning.