Busuu Review: 6 Amazing Features For Learners

Do you like planning your language learning lessons? With the Busuu app, you’ll not just be motivated with your studying; you’ll actually start planning carefully. Look no further for one of the best free language learning apps in this Busuu review.

Suppose to say you’re hoping to learn a new skill soon. But, with a bunch of tasks to juggle, it’s inevitable to be too busy to find something you love doing. If you’re learning languages, there might be too much to think about, mainly if you aim to become fluent fast.

Distraction is another problem that you might be familiar with. Have you ever tried to learn a language while working, raising a family, or traveling worldwide? Especially with too many options for learning new languages, you may need to decide which one really works.

Want a greatly optimized app that includes exercises for all language skills? Find out how you’ll learn a language that follows a framework with this Busuu review.

What Is Busuu?

Is Busuu an actual word? The meaning of Busuu came from the endangered language of the Southern Bantoid language of Cameroon. Founded in 2008, Busuu aims to be one of the best solutions for individuals and companies that require learning foreign languages for work or school.

However, it has since become one of the favorite language apps for the hobby of opening eyes to a different world. Busuu has complete lessons for popular languages such as German, Spanish, and French. Moreover, Busuu offers courses with an organized language learning experience packed with 120 million native speakers that will help you along the way.

Busuu has complete lessons that follow the framework of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), an internationally known standard of reference for learning languages globally. But how does Busuu really help you learn more about grammar tips and strengthen your language skills?

Want to know more about Busuu? Let’s get an overview of the Busuu Language app in this comprehensive Busuu review.

What is it for? A language learning app captivates students to become native speakers through tailored language lessons.

Languages offered: 14 languages

Languages Available On Busuu

  • English
  • German
  • French
  • Spanish
  • Japanese
  • Italian
  • Dutch
  • Russian
  • Chinese
  • Arabic
  • Turkish
  • Portuguese
  • Polish
  • Korean

Level: For Beginners, Intermediate Level, and Advanced Level (C1) For English

Who Is It For? People that don’t have the time to practice speaking a particular language will benefit greatly from Busuu’s lessons.

Pros:

  • Corrections from native speakers
  • Creates language and cultural awareness with short tips
  • Encourages you to practice speaking exercises
  • Uses AI technology for your language learning journey

Cons:

  • Gaps in some of the language lessons
  • Corrections from users are not accurate
  • Limited grammar lessons for Busuu free version
  • It doesn’t fit advanced learners

How Does Busuu Work?

A great language learning app should include all language skills to improve. That means you’ll need a platform that will teach you vocabulary through memorization and how to learn it daily. Self-learning is a must for every student who wants to become a native speaker naturally.

With the Busuu app, you’ll not only develop an exciting routine for your language lessons; you’ll get a detailed framework starting from the beginner’s level.

You can also choose to learn a language from these levels:

A1 Beginner Level

The aim of completing the A1 or Beginner level is to learn how to speak that target language to make new acquaintances. You’ll also know how to purchase drinks and food and engage with basic questions and answers about daily conversations.

A2 Elementary Level

At the A2 Elementary level, you’ll learn how to describe your friends and loved ones and create longer sentences. You’ll also have the chance to express your personal experiences.

B1 Intermediate Level

You can start talking about your favorite movies and songs. B1 students will learn how to describe their feelings. You’ll also engage more in sophisticated discussions about your thoughts and how to agree and disagree with your speaking partners.

B2 Upper Intermediate Level

Completing the Upper Intermediate B2 means you can discuss significant issues that influence your life. You’ll also learn how to interact with news concerning headlines and events worldwide. You can also engage in detailed book reviews and movies. It’s easy for you to recognize many vocabulary words without having to grab a dictionary.

Signing up for an account is easy with Busuu. You’ll just need an email address to access the free features of Busuu. Once you’re inside the app, you can start learning away. At the end of every topic, you can access a table of learning vocabulary offline by downloading the lesson summary.

How Does Busuu Look Like?

Busuu Review Desktop version

Busuu has a desktop and mobile app version, so you can access your favorite language anytime. The Busuu app doesn’t look too different from the desktop version. Conveniently, you’ll find their dashboard very organized and has the list of the lessons arranged according to your language level.

The learning process for your language curriculum is spread out with the percentage of how much you’ve learned.

The desktop version consists of the “Learn,” “Review,” and “Community” tabs for accessing the lessons quickly. You can also change your target language by clicking on the flag icon next to your display picture.

When opening the Busuu app version after finishing a previous lesson, it will focus on the next grammar lesson right away. You can also access your study planner and see your progress for the same platforms on the “Learn” tab.

Who Is Busuu For?

The Busuu language app is perfect for individuals who want to plan their way to fluency. Don’t have three to four hours a day to learn French? You can set how many minutes you’ll use Busuu and which days you are available.

You’ll have the opportunity to correct your study habits and plan days for your grammar review, memorizing vocabulary flashcards, and listening to corrections from native speakers. Busuu allows you to set up your schedule and motivate you to follow your plan zealously.

Busuu is meant for every learner who wants to start learning their target language or for intermediate learners who need to brush up on previous lessons and skills.

Best Features Of Busuu

Busuu offers many exciting features for those who want to skip learning from a language school and study from a free app instead. Especially if they lack the features that you really need to make yourself focus on studying.

What makes Busuu stand out from the plethora of language apps like Tandem, Drops, or HelloTalk today? Here are the best features of Busuu that will surely boost your language learning.

Active Language Skill Exercises Rolled Into One language course

Which feature do you first look for when improving your language skill? Is it the vocabulary words? Or do you like to speak like the locals in a few months? Busuu knows how important it is to follow a structured outline to avoid confusing new language students.

To make the lessons more user-focused, Busuu has fill-in-the-gap exercises for helping you develop spaced repetition method, an effective memorization technique. You can also learn the writing system, listen to how native speakers pronounce words and test yourself with fun and interactive puzzles.

Unlike Duolingo, Busuu allows you to skip to other topics if you already have basic knowledge of some lessons. But, you’ll have to finish the A1 lesson format to move on to the next language level.

State-Of-The-Art Speech Recognition

Busuu Review App version

Perhaps Busuu’s most remarkable feature among many language apps is its speech recognition AI technology. It helps develop speaking skills for those who don’t have a big budget to enroll in a private language class. 

You’ll get immediate feedback on your pronunciation and

This feature works great for those learning Chinese, Arabic, French, and other languages with different tones or similar sounding cognates. What’s more exciting about this feature is it’s completely available on the free version of Busuu.

Visually Appealing Flashcards For Vocabulary Review

Vocabulary flashcards aren’t new, and seeing them in writing exercises and memorizing foreign words is prevalent. However, Busuu took it to the next level by including visually appealing pictures of scenarios related to the topic. It even includes an audio file for hearing how that word is pronounced.

Although, users may find it easier to use Busuu when on the go or having a vacation in their dream destination. Busuu includes a language lesson specific to memorizing traveling phrases, making it a quick vocabulary app for travelers. You can always download the vocabulary list for practice after you’ve finished your current lesson.

Find friends and other language learners through Premium Plus

If you subscribe to Busuu’s Premium subscription, you’ll unlock additional features and more languages to learn simultaneously. A daily question encourages learners to answer in their target language. You can add friends and start speaking with them and discuss the daily question or other topics for languages you’re a native speaker of or learning.

Offers A Placement Test And A Certificate For Completing

Since Busuu is a partner of McGraw-Hill education (2015), you can get a language certificate after finishing a course. Premium Plan subscribers will get certificates in English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian through this collaboration.

Even if it doesn’t amount to an official language certificate, it will be a great addition to your resume for better job opportunities.

One-On-One Tutoring

Another exclusive feature uncommon from language apps is their live tutoring sessions. Busuu Live aims to enhance your learning by talking to a private tutor. You can choose to attend small group sessions.

On the other hand, there are one-on-one language course sessions if you want to focus better. However, the only available online language courses for Busuu Live are Spanish, English, German, and French.

Busuu Pricing: How Much Does Busuu Cost?

Busuu Free

Is Busuu Free? Yes, you can unlock some of the amazing features of Busuu without paying a single cent. With the first lessons, you can start learning a foreign language with the vocabulary flashcard and boost your listening skills.

Busuu Premium

Busuu Review Premium Plus

The real fun starts with the Busuu premium subscription. With their Premium Plus plan, you’ll unlock more grammar tips, exercises, and even feedback from native speakers.

Also, if you’re planning to learn offline, you can download lessons directly to your phone or desktop. They also offer a 14-day money-back guarantee after your first purchase. You can request a refund if you don’t feel happy about their services or just want to try and test their app.
Be careful, though! You’ll have to cancel your subscription before the subscription renewal date.

How much does Busuu cost? Is Busuu worth its pricing plans? Check out this table below to compare prices for monthly, yearly, and getting a 2-year plan:

TimePremium PlusPremium
1 Month$13.95/month$12.95/month
12 Months$6.95/month billed annually$5.95/month billed annually
24 Months$6.45/month billed every two years$5.45/month billed every two years

However, the good thing about using Busuu is that you’ll learn the basic lessons of the 14 languages available for free.

Busuu Review: Should You Use Busuu As Your Language Learning Platform?

It’s just fair to think how you’ll benefit from using a language app to enhance your skills and be critical of the features it lacks. As I started trying to learn Korean and Chinese, I decided to use Busuu as another supporting app to speak with native speakers. Before getting into your first lesson, Busuu offers a placement test according to your target language.

Busuu Review Features

Apart from the social community that I think is the most beneficial in this app, there are many other features that you’ll enjoy. Ready to learn your next language courses? Here are other advantages of using the Busuu app.

Why Should You Use Busuu For Learning A Language? Benefits Of Busuu

You’ll Get Corrections From Native Speakers

Practice exercises are great for learning alone, but you will need native speakers to teach you how to say nǐ hǎo (你好 or hello in English) correctly.

As mentioned earlier, Busuu Premium and Premium Plus include a feature where you can talk to people that speak the foreign language you want to learn. Apart from adding them as friends, you can also answer daily topics from the community.

The social community will also guide you with the correct pronunciation of a word you’re trying to learn. If you’re a native speaker of another language, you can also take part in correcting their answers as well.

Creates Language And Cultural Awareness With Short Tips

What’s better than learning vocabulary with the proper context? It’s best to know the meaning behind every word you’ll understand. You’ll also learn when to use polite or formal words and avoid misunderstandings while speaking that language.

Tailored content according to how you’re learning

Busuu Schedule Planner

Another reason why many people choose Busuu for their language learning program is its technology. You’ll notice how people naturally improve throughout their lesson plans. Since the lessons come with new and improved data, you’ll learn better as you learn the language course daily.

Which Parts Should Busuu Improve In? Busuu Cons

Gaps in some of the language lessons

Many users mention that Busuu still has a long way to go regarding very detailed language lessons. Some parts of the lessons focus more on Romanization instead of the correct writing system. It also lacks videos to teach grammar lessons for specific languages like Chinese.

Not all corrections From Speakers are also correct

Since the corrections are from the Busuu users, there will be some mistakes when giving corrections. Hence, it’s still a great choice to find a language expert or teacher to provide appropriate lessons for your speaking skills.

Too many words to memorize in one lesson

Learning with Busuu is fun and has lots of features to enjoy. But, if you’re a beginner who still needs to develop their study methods, you might feel their lessons overwhelming. There are too many words to memorize that may not help you in your study habits. However, I believe they continue developing their language courses to fit their appropriate level.

Busuu doesn’t fit advanced language learners

Learning more than one language is excellent since it boosts your brain power and familiarizes you with memorization techniques. However, Busuu is designed for beginner to intermediate learners in all their available languages.

You’ll feel the lack of advancement to fluency as you repeat the same lessons repeatedly. Busuu still lacks a separate page for speaking alone without needing to subscribe to a premium subscription.

Want To Practice Your Social Skills? Communicate Through The Busuu App

Effective speaking practice is crucial for training yourself to think directly in that language. Of course, many gaps still need to be addressed, such as the lack of speaking practice and stuffing too much information in just one grammar lesson.

Where it lacks, such as audio controls for pausing the audio, it can be bearable and suggested to their support team.

But, if you’re looking for fluency and need to improve your advanced lessons, it’s best to get formal language courses from a school or a private tutor.

Overall, Busuu is one of your user-friendly and free language learning apps where you will learn how to communicate with others and practice writing and speaking simultaneously.

Learning Other Languages At The Same Time? Use Ling!

Busuu Review by Ling App

Languages have attracted over 30 million new aspirants to become native speakers, according to Duolingo’s report. However, many apps have too many distractions or lack the language you want to learn.

Perhaps, you’re not just there to learn one new language but two? You’ll have tons of options for an alternative app for Busuu. With Ling, you can start learning from your native language or even try switching the language interface to a new language. There are 60+ languages to choose both from the free and paid subscription grammar lessons.

Are you tired of looking for different language learning apps that promise fluency? Ling offers not just lessons about new vocabulary; you’ll also enjoy well-researched lessons from native speakers themselves. 

Get Ling on the Play Store or the App Store today and expand your horizons for different languages. What are you waiting for? Learn languages now!

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