FAQ - The Courses
No, If you take out a subscription with us, you gain access to all courses in your chosen language and can change course whenever you like. The different courses can be accessed via the "Courses" menu at the top of your Babbel homepage.
To change course, click on "Courses" in the menu at the top of your Babbel homepage, choose a new one and then click on "Set as course". The new course will then be the one that shows on your Babbel homepage.
You are able to repeat any course or lesson as often as you like.
To repeat a lesson, use the progress bar in the active course window on your Babbel homepage: the green sections indicate lessons already accessed. Click on the relevant section and then click "Start".
To repeat an already completed course, select the course from "Courses" at the top of your Babbel homepage and work through the individual lessons there.
It is difficult to answer this question as so much depends upon the individual learner. You should study at a pace that feels right for you and ensure that you use the Review Manager regularly to consolidate what you are learning in the courses.
When you first access a lesson that features speech recognition, you will be asked whether you want to use the tool or not. If you choose to do so, you will be guided through the following procedure:
1/ You will first see a message stating "You have not configured your microphone". Select "Enable", then "Set up microphone".
2/ You will then see a small message asking you to allow www.babbel.com to access your computer. You should select "Allow" and "Remember" then "Close".
3/ You will now see a screen asking you to adjust the sensitivity of the Babbel microphone. Simply follow the instructions here.
4/ Speech recognition is now ready to use and you need only select "Continue" on the next screen.
If an appropriate version of Adobe Flash Player is not installed on your computer (version 10.3 or above), you will see a message informing you of this and a link where it can be downloaded free of charge. Please note that after downloading Flash Player, you will need to log out of Babbel and close your browser before the new version is installed.
The speech recognition measures how well your pronunciation matches that of the audio track you are hearing. The tool will give you a rating of 1-100 but you will only see ratings of 50 and above.
If you don't see any rating, it may be that the microphone sensitivity needs adjusting. Try speaking either louder or quieter and, if that does the trick, adjust the sensitivity accordingly. It may also be the case that you are starting to speak too soon: only speak after the green dot appears in the microphone icon.
The vocabulary courses on Babbel an be found in the "Words and Sentences" category. There are more than 3000 words with example sentences for each of the following learning languages:
English, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.
The following learning languages have more than 2000 words with example sentences:
Dutch, Indonesian, Polish and Turkish.
English is the only language on Babbel that has monolingual courses. This means that you are able to learn English when English is also set as your interface language. However, you will have access to a far greater range of English courses if you choose one of our other languages as the interface language.
To reset your interface language, go to "Profile" and then to "Settings" where the changes can be made. The "Reference Language" you choose will be the interface language. Don't forget to click on "Save" before exiting the "Settings" page. Having followed this procedure, the complete range of English courses will become available to you.
Even if you don't speak one of our other languages, the benefits of choosing one as the interface language far outweigh the disadvantages simply because of the number of English courses that will then become available to you. You will find that the layout of Babbel remains the same and you shouldn't have any problems navigating within the site. Much of our material is image-based and the meaning will be clear to you despite not understanding the interface language. Though the titles of courses will be in the interface language, you will find that most courses also include a title or description in English.
If ever you have any difficulties, you can always write us a message using the "Feedback" option or by email to support@babbel.com.
You can change your learning language at any time but standard subscription fees give access to one language only. You can, of course, learn more than one language but this would mean paying an additional subscription fee for each additional language.
If you're interested in two or more languages, write to us via "Feedback" or at our support@en.babbel.com address to see if we have any offers available.
