Before today, Busuu was just an app that I saw on my phone when I was looking for games to download; I never gave it much thought. I didn’t even know there was a website for it! So for this review, I’m basically going in with a clean slate. I don’t know what to expect with this website, but I hope it’s good!
Price
Technically, Busuu is a freemium service. You don’t have to pay in order to use their lessons, but if you don’t, you kinda miss out on a lot of features. You don’t even get full access to their courses without a subscription. So even though you aren’t required to pay, you’re missing out on a lot if you don’t. Down below is a chart of all the features that come with the premium service compared to the free one:
So, if you’re like me and realizing that a subscription is probably a solid option, there are four(ish) different payment plans that you can choose from, two of which are the same price, oddly enough: $8.33/month for three months, $8.33/month for six months, $5.83/month for twelve months, and $5.41/month for twenty-four months. I don’t really know why the price for three- and six-month subscriptions are the same, but they are. But ultimately, the prices aren’t that expensive and the two-year subscription is one that I haven’t seen as an option before. So you’ve got options.
Languages
Busuu has a total of 12 language courses available for learning- English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese, Japanese, Polish, Turkish, Russian, and Arabic. I’m not sure if they plan on adding more courses in the future, or if they’re sticking with the twelve for a while, but they do have a special course that’s the namesake of their website: the nearly-extinct Busuu language. According to Busuu.com (yup, can already see how this will get confusing), the Busuu language is only spoken by eight people in the entire world, so they offer a special course on the website that encourages other people to learn it so it won’t go extinct.
So, if you’re not interested in learning any of the twelve languages listed above, you can always learn a highly endangered language. Think about how cool it would be to say that you speak a language that only eight other people can? Not to mention the fact that one more speaker means one less chance that Busuu will go extinct. All positives here.
Courses
Busuu, like the other websites, has one main course that you learn on, which is broken up into four different levels: Beginner A1, Elementary A2, Intermediate B1, and Upper Intermediate B2. Each level has a varying amount of lessons, but aren’t more than 25 in any of them, plus there are a couple review sessions sprinkled throughout to make sure you’re retaining everything. And every lesson is made up of four different parts: Vocabulary, Quizzes, Dialogue, and Conversation. These four parts can appear in any random order, but all four are usually there, along with the occasional grammar lesson on top of them, so you get a lot of material to choose from when learning.
It’s important to note that free members don’t get access to every part of every lesson- some of them, like the grammar portions, are reserved only for subscription holders, so if you’re a fan of grammar (or at least want to learn it) this might be a downer for you. But regardless of your subscription status, you can pick any lesson at any level to learn at any time; it’s a totally customizable learning system, so you can pick and choose what content you want to learn and when.
Features
There are a few features on Busuu that, for the most part, are available to both free and premium users. If there are any special circumstances for these features, I’ll be sure to let you know in the descriptions
- Exercise Corrections: With this feature, you can send little snippets of what you’ve learned in your target language (via a picture or video) to native speakers, where they can offer you tips and corrections to help you learn. Other people will send you things, too, so it’s a neat way to give back to the community, and also have them give back to you. Everyone wins!
- Travel courses: This feature is great if you’re looking to travel and want to learn the language of the country you’re going to, but aren’t really interested in fluency. The Travel courses on Busuu are right where all the other levels are, so they’re easy to find, and only focus on the essential phrases for, well, travelers.
- As a side note, free members only get access to the first lesson of this feature; if you want all of them, you have to get a subscription.
- Language Exchange: This is slightly similar to the exercise corrections, but instead of just sending out your corrections to one person in particular, you can post it up for all Busuu users to see and correct as a whole- and they can do the same! So you can see posts of other people learning your target language, as well as people trying to learn your native language, and you can give them advice at your leisure. Or they can give you advice- whatever works.
- Vocabulary Trainer: This is pretty much what it sounds like- a list of all the words and phrases and whatnot that you’ve learned on Busuu. You can see your weakest and strongest words and have a practice session or two. There’s also the option to take a quiz to see how well you’ve improved your weak words, which is pretty neat.
- Tips: For every lesson on Busuu, there’s a neat little Tips button on the side that basically gives you little hints and tricks and whatnot that can help you in that lesson. I think it’s just a cool feature that can really help during lessons. The picture down below is an example of what types of tips you’ll get- it’s also what the beginning of every lesson looks like, so it’s a two-for-one deal here.
- Certificates: If you’re a premium member, you earn certificates for every level of any course that you complete, from Beginner to Upper Intermediate. They come straight from McGraw-Hill, and it’s a fancy little diddy to put on your resume. It’s also a great goal to work towards in your learning!
- Mobile App: Yup, Busuu has an app! Available for android, apple, and all phones that support apps in general! So go forth and download if you wish.
How it Works
Busuu’s lessons incorporate a whole bunch of stuff, which is awesome because it gives a little something for everyone. But their basic structure is learn words/phrases, use them in real context, take a quiz, and then have your work corrected by native speakers- the last two, however, are usually only available to premium members. So if you like quizzes (does anyone? I’m curious), you probably won’t get to take a lot of them without paying.
The actual learning itself features first being introduced to all the things you’ll be learning in each lesson, which are then reinforced through different techniques like true and false (“is it true that x means y?” kinda thing), listening and matching, fill in the blank, and cross-matching. So lots of fun stuff to help you really get those words down pat. After that, there’s a Dialogue section, where you use all the vocabulary you learned in a simulated conversation to help you get to use them in a real situation. Then there’s the quiz that you may/may not be able to take, and the ability to respond to a prompt in your target language (which is related to the lesson) and send it off to native speakers in order to see how well you’re really learning.
Busuu’s whole thing is that you can learn a language with just ten minutes of practice and learning a day- it’s meant to be quick and simple for people who are busy and can’t spend a whole lot of time in front of a computer screen (or cell phone). They equate 22 hours of learning to 1 semester in college, which, when you’re only learning in ten-minute increments, is a lot, but if you’re someone who’s got school or work or a family or whatever, 22 hours isn’t a huge amount of time you’ll have to dedicate to studying, even if you do it over an extended period of time. And lessons are meant to be less than fifteen minutes a pop, so you can do your thing and get back to your life right after. However, whether or not it fits your lifestyle is totally up to you. If you’d rather a more in-depth study program, you might find Busuu a little lacking, but if quick and efficient is your style, then I would definitely give it a try.
Final Thoughts
Honestly, I think that Busuu is a pretty neat site. I really enjoy the lesson style; moving quick through things just kinda fits my lifestyle right now. And I really enjoy the community interaction- you’re really encouraged to interact with other learners and actual speakers of your target language, which means you get a feel for the language in real situations and not just in simulated lessons. A big portion of the whole learning process on Busuu is about human connection, which is something I don’t think you see on other language sites- it’s a pretty neat change.
I also think that, compared to a lot of other freemium sites, you really do get a lot without signing up for a subscription. Yeah, it’s not as much as Duolingo or Memrise, but you can get a feel for Busuu’s lessons as a whole and see what they have to offer. I mean, if you don’t want to pay at all, you can still learn every bit of vocabulary they have on their website without any issues- you just can’t always take quizzes on them, or speak with natives, or learn some bits and pieces of grammar. Which is kind of a bummer, but if you aren’t super interested in language learning and just want to pursue it as a type of hobby, then you really don’t need that stuff on top of the individual lessons. And if you’re a more serious learner, the prices really aren’t extreme, so that’s a bonus right there. Overall, if you’re on the fence about Busuu, give their free lessons a try, see what they bring to the table before you make a commitment- it’s an easy way to find out if it fits your learning style or not.
Bilingual on a Budget 