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Babbel vs. GermanPod101

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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
9 messages over 2 pages: 1 2  Next >>
carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3989 days ago

94 posts - 138 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 1 of 9
19 January 2015 at 6:13am | IP Logged 
There's a person over at Fi3M that's zipping along using Babbel--or seems to be. And I've noticed a couple of people here that seem to like GermanPod101.

I've look at both sites. Babbel allowed me to do a simple lesson, but for $6.95 a month it looks like access to the lessons, grammar, writing and a number of other things.

On the GermanPod101 site it says I already got my 7 days free preview over a year ago--I vaguely remember it being a conversation between 2 people. They have super-basic for $7 a month, but to get the grammar and such it was $24 a month. But is it worth it?

Opinions, anyone? Or some other site you're happy with?
1 person has voted this message useful



redflag
Senior Member
Australia
Joined 3842 days ago

123 posts - 182 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Danish, Indonesian, French

 
 Message 2 of 9
19 January 2015 at 6:32am | IP Logged 
I like Babbel because I'm lazy and it leads you along by the nose from one thing to the
next whereas with the ...Pod101 (I used the Indonesian one) there's a lot of downloading
extra documents and different options and I found it a bit confusing. From memory I kept
downloading the wrong pdf (of several) because it wasn't clear what went with what audio.
However they DO have a lot of content and that content seemed good, and I'd assume there
would be even more for German than there was for Indonesian. Babbel doesn't have
downloadable PDFs etc that the Pod101s do, it's more like a more comprehensive duolingo,
so if you wanted to compile a collection of those for reference 101 might be worth it.
2 persons have voted this message useful



bryanpeabody
Groupie
United States
Joined 4985 days ago

48 posts - 79 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 3 of 9
19 January 2015 at 3:35pm | IP Logged 
I also really like Babbel. I've been using it as a Spanish basics refresher for a few
weeks. Overall, I'm really happy with the course.

Two of it's best features are the review manager (an SRS type review of words/phrases
you've learned) and the Babbel app. The review manager is especially nice as it keeps
track of the most important things for you (no need for your own Anki deck unless you
just really want to).
1 person has voted this message useful



tristano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4047 days ago

905 posts - 1262 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 4 of 9
20 January 2015 at 10:46pm | IP Logged 
You can't compare those two resources, for they are totally different approaches.
Why not using both.
1 person has voted this message useful



carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3989 days ago

94 posts - 138 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 5 of 9
21 January 2015 at 6:31am | IP Logged 
tristano wrote:
You can't compare those two resources, for they are totally different approaches.
Why not using both.


I just got a years-worth of Babbel today. Maybe I can get the GermanPod next month if I keep hearing that people like it.
1 person has voted this message useful



Cavesa
Triglot
Senior Member
Czech Republic
Joined 5009 days ago

3277 posts - 6779 votes 
Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1
Studies: Spanish, German, Italian

 
 Message 6 of 9
21 January 2015 at 3:50pm | IP Logged 
I prefer Germanpod101. I tried both and babbel looks more like a toy meant primarily
to be liked, not primarily to be useful, while Germanpod101 is a serious, modern,
enjoyable resource. You can get some similar things to babbel elsewhere for free, such
as duolingo, italki, etc.

The quality of somethingpod101 varies and I believe you the Indonesian isn't that
awesome but the German is great. I liked it for the week and the only reason why I
didn't pay for mor e was that I had other great quality resources that were leaving me
little time for it.

What to download seemed pretty clear to me in the Germanpod101 and the content is of
excellent quality and there is a lot of it. I think it is a great graded reading+audio
that introduces things right from the beginning through the following levels, the
speakers are good, there isn't too much English on the audio etc.

Recently, they made an app to give you access to everything on the go, so while I
haven't tried yet, it might partially solve the downloading issue.

So, I recommend you to try the free week and see.

The only thing I hate about somethingpod101 is the really spammy marketing but that
shouldn't be an issue for a paying member, I suppose.

Edited by Cavesa on 21 January 2015 at 3:52pm

2 persons have voted this message useful



carlyd
Groupie
United States
Joined 3989 days ago

94 posts - 138 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish

 
 Message 7 of 9
22 January 2015 at 12:37am | IP Logged 
I went back to GermanPod101 using my other email address to try for the 7-day again just so I could look at what they offer. They offered me 30 days of Premium for $1, so I did that.

So far all I'm seeing are audio lessons--not my favorite. Stuff to download to MP3 but I have no iPad or such to download them to. I will go there as often as I can during the next 30 days and give it a try.
2 persons have voted this message useful



tristano
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 4047 days ago

905 posts - 1262 votes 
Speaks: Italian*, Spanish, French, English
Studies: Dutch

 
 Message 8 of 9
22 January 2015 at 4:09pm | IP Logged 
You actually have also the pdf with the transcript and several very useful notes.


2 persons have voted this message useful



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