FAQ
-- General--
What’s new at Babbel 2.0?
We’ve got tons more content
Babbel 2.0 contains a completely new Vocabulary (around 150 Vocabulary Packages, 3000 words), tons more grammar exercises, and how to put it all into practice. Whether you want to learn the basics or are looking for special exercises for travel or for work, in our extensive collection of learning material you’ll find lots of interesting and high quality content.
New, flexible types of exercises
You can learn and refresh your knowledge in ever more diverse ways with new exercises and improved technology. Passive learning will become gradually more active: once you've studied something you'll gradually be prompted to use it. Words and phrases will be broken down and you’ll be made to practice them using different kinds of exercises. New: every word will be illustrated for you with an example sentence.
Feel better guided through your learning
Babbel has developed a comprehensive learning system that leads you step by step to help you reach your goals quickly and effectively. You choose a course that is consistent with your level and topics that interest you. So you don’t lose sight of the bigger picture among so much content, every time you come back to Babbel the best next step will be suggested for you.
Exceptionally accessible units
Babbel prepares all its content – even more difficult subjects – in bite-sized portions. These lessons can almost always be done individually or in a different order. But within the courses, we’ve put together a sequence that makes sense for the most effective learning.
What can you learn at Babbel 2.0?
You can begin a new language or freshen up on what you already know. You can also focus on travel, your career, or concentrate on a special theme. Babbel 2.0 brings together all aspects of learning – vocabulary, grammar, themes and situations (i.e., how to put it all into practice), comprehension and speaking.
Who is Babbel 2.0 for?
Babbel 2.0 is perfect for beginners and continuing learners who are looking for a fun and easy, but effective, way to learn. Whether you want a low-stress introduction to a new language, or you’d like to work on what you already know in vocabulary, grammar, comprehension or practical application – you're bound to find what you’re looking for in our extensive high quality learning material .
What happens if I’ve already signed up for the “Practise the Basics” English course?
You can still use the content. We’ll let you know the details directly by email.
What happens if I’ve already purchased the Spanish Course?
You still have access to the “Spanish – Get Started” course. The other Spanish content is available to you for a nominal monthly price. You’ll see the price in the Price Overview.
Can I learn more than one language?
Yes. You can change your learning language at any time. You’ll find the price for full access to each language on the navigation bar. You can always try it out for free without any obligation. If you do switch, all of your settings remain so you can always change back.
-- New Learning System --
How does the new course system work?
Courses are at the core of Babbel 2.0. They consist of a sequence of 5 to 30 steps. Each step takes 10-15 minutes, making it an ideal daily dose of learning. Every time you open Babbel, you’ll see the next step on your personal homepage. You shouldn’t have to think too much about what’s best to study next – our language teachers have already put together a bunch of suggestions for you. Of course, you don’t have to take us up on our suggestions, you’re welcome to skip that step if you like.
When you finish a course or if you want to change course, it’s easy: the course bar on the bottom of the homepage will take you to a Course Overview. There you can “set” a course. Of course you can also start individual exercises straight from the Course Overview if you want to work on something in between.
Do I have to choose a course?
Yes. The learning system is based on the idea that you choose a course at the beginning. You can however choose other learning materials and do other exercises that don’t necessarily belong to your active course, “a la carte”. Or you can simply “set” another course as active. Your homepage will always show you the next step according to the course you’ve set.
Can I change my course?
Yes. At Babbel 2.0 you can learn what you like and as much as you like. You can set a course as active at any time, or select individual exercises from the content overview. You can find the tab for the Course Overview on the bar on the homepage.
Can I choose myself what I want to learn next?
Yes. The course system makes a suggestion for you, but it’s always possible to learn something else. Since all the themes at Babbel are divided into small portions, you can always do an individual exercise without having to do the whole course. You can start any exercise directly from the course overview. Then you’ll come to the course bar on the homepage. However, in order to learn in the easiest and most effective way, we do recommend the courses that our language teachers have developed.
What’s changed with the refresher system?
Your personal vocabulary contains all the words and phrases that you’ve learned up until now. In the new version, we’ve significantly enlarged and improved the complicated automatic refresher system so that it’s easier for the user to understand.
How does the refresher work?
Your personal vocabulary is classified into six levels: in the first one you’ll find the newest vocabulary; in the second, words and phrases that you’ve already seen once; in the third, words that you already know to some extent. By the sixth level it’s vocabulary that you’ve learned for good, and which should by now be firmly anchored in your long-term memory. Every time you work with a word, it is bumped up or down a level. If you make a mistake with it, that word or phrase will be brought to your attention the next time you visit Babbel. Otherwise, the intervals between the next refresh grow from level to level. At the beginning you’ll refresh a word every three days, but by the time that word reaches the fifth or sixth level you’ll only be refreshing it every 120 days.
How does the new vocabulary trainer work?
The vocabulary trainers now go faster and more easily. You can learn or refresh more vocabulary in a shorter time. Just like before, we present images and pronunciation examples to help you. But what's different from the old version is that words and phrases will no longer be mixed together. In the vocabulary trainer you learn individual words, and there will be example sentences to clarify it all.
As far as the order you learn vocabulary is concerned, first of all we present three new words to study with text, images and pronunciation. In the second part we test how well you’ve learned them: you’ll match all the words with their English translation. Afterwards, you’ll immediately have to type the word out. But don’t worry: we show you some letters as a hint. It’s also not a big deal if you have to cheat a little. What’s most important is that you’ve written out the new word yourself.
Finally, we’ll show you an example sentence for all the vocabulary words and their translations. You'll have to choose which of three new words fits in the sentence. Then come the next three words. At the end you see all six words again in an overview in order to make it all clear.
Can I also learn phrases?
Yes. At Babbel 2.0 you can still learn set phrases for specific situations – for travel, for the restaurant, for shopping or going out. What’s new is that these types of trainers work entirely independently from vocabulary trainers; words and phrases are no longer mixed. So you can decide at any given time if you want to build up your vocabulary or if you would rather learn set phrases for specific situations. In some courses these two kinds of Trainers might be combined - but only when it makes sense to do so.
You’ll learn phrases with fun multimedia exercises. First of all the phrase will be spoken aloud and shown to you. There will always be a corresponding image and English translation. Then you can test yourself to see if you can match the words with their translation. For the third step, we’ll show you the individual words, and you’ll have to build the sentence yourself. Then three more phrases come along. At the end you’ll play a little memory game to make your learning more practical.
What kind of exercises will I find on Babbel 2.0?
Babbel 2.0 offers many different kinds of exercises that are combined in our courses for optimal effect. There are vocabulary trainers with different kinds of exercises and sentence trainers in four different forms. These exercises are accordingly integrated with multi-leveled units so that you won’t see new content only once, but repeat it several times. Then there is conjugation training, grammar exercises, listening comprehension units and writing exercises. All the different kinds of exercises use multimedia material together with the text. In contrast with learning systems that try to teach all different kinds of content using very few, uniform types of exercises, Babbel 2.0 presents a richly diverse programme of activities strategically designed for where you are in your learning process. This makes for learning techniques that are especially varied – and thereby effective.
-- New Content --
What’s the new content?
For this new version, we’ve added tons of new content. Comprehensive basic and advanced vocabulary now replace the old word and phrase packages. The entire vocabulary then consists of 3000 words covering all the essentials, making for a complete, solid foundation for language proficiency. For every word there is an example sentence – including a translation – that shows you the word in context. So that you don’t have to learn everything at once. We’ve also developed handy-sized courses on particular themes of interest.
For Spanish, French and German there are beginner courses, where you will learn the basics of the new language. We’ll soon add similar courses for English and Italian. In numerous grammar units you’ll also find, along with conjugation exercises, important rules for how to put it all into use. Depending on which language you’re learning, there are also listening comprehension exercises or short 10-minute trainers.
Within these extensive offerings there is a lot for both beginners and continuing learners to discover, and even advanced learners will find engaging exercises that speak to their interests.
Who has developed and reviewed the learning material?
All the content at Babbel has been developed by our team of foreign language teachers and native speakers. Experienced language teaching experts have designed the exercises and content. In places, there is also content based on learning material we have licensed from renowned (print) publishers.
Afterwards the material is reviewed several times and optimized. Our team’s biggest job, however, is adapting often complex didactic material to make it understandable and interactive for online learning.
How big is the basic and advanced Vocabulary?
The basic and advanced vocabulary on Babbel 2.0 contains around 3000 words and about the same number of example sentences. Every word has a corresponding image to help you memorize it. Our native speakers add their voices to the entire vocabulary along with all the phrases.
What kind of grammar content is there?
With Babbel 2.0 you can also learn grammar. There are numerous conjugation exercises for regular and irregular verbs, as well as tutorials on grammar-related topics. Those who are just starting out will find grammar embedded in our integrated beginner courses.
What do you mean by practical or situation training?
There are two of these kinds of exercises: the "1000 Useful Sentences", in which you learn set, directly applicable phrases for specific situations; and writing exercises in which you write, on your own, some sentences about one of more than 50 suggested themes. These exercises are then corrected by other users. Beyond that, of course, you can also get in contact with native speakers and other learners from all over the world to try out your new skills. Among more than half a million users there are certainly people with whom you can learn and who share your interests.
Where can I get an overview of everything available on Babbel?
Right on your personal homepage you will find a bar with the selection of Courses. With just one click you can get to the course overview, where you can take a look over the entire selection of Courses and browse through them. From there you can start any individual lesson. In any case however, we recommend that you set a course as active and then follow the lessons in order.
-- Settings/ Help --
How can I change the language I am learning?
Below on your personal homepage you can change your learning language. The change is effective immediately, and you can go back at any time. Your personal vocabulary, your points, and choice of Course remain. When you set a learning language at first, you’ll have to choose a first course for it.
I used to be able to see the Babbel interface in either my learning language or my reference language, now it's only in my reference language. Why?
To simplify Babbel, we’ve decided to not show the interface using the learning language. A lot of users didn’t like this option and it was rarely used. So that you can learn at Babbel most efficiently, it makes sense for you to see all the instructions and settings in a language that you already know.
How can I access the vocabulary that I have already learned?
All the words and phrases that you learned in the former version of Babbel are saved in your personal vocabulary. You can access them anytime using the refresher tool.
-- Payment and Prices --
Why do I have to pay to use Babbel?
Babbel 2.0 is professionally produced by foreign language experts. A team of more than 30 people make sure that you have access to the highest quality material and that the system works as easily and smoothly as possible. Babbel is completely ad-free, and your personal data or user habits will never be used for profit. In order to maintain this high standard of security and quality of the learning experience, Babbel has to charge for use.
Why isn’t Babbel 2.0 financed by advertising?
Online services that are financed by ads have to adjust everything to the needs of their customers, who are really the advertisement providers. Learning at Babbel, however, should be optimized for our users. That’s why we think of language learners as our customers, not the advertising industry. Also, from the expert point of view, advertising mixed in with education can be detrimental. You should be able to concentrate on what you’re learning, and advertising is specifically designed to interrupt and distract. Ads and learning don’t work together very well.
Am I automatically going to be made a paying user?
No. There is no automatic crossover from the free registration to a paying membership. You will never be switched to a paid subscription without knowing. You will have to explicitly choose the paid version and give specific payment details such as a credit card number before you will be charged and the account becomes active.
How much does Babbel 2.0 cost?
It depends for how many months you join. The longer the period you join for, the cheaper the monthly price will be. If you only join for one month, you get unlimited access for $11.95, while a membership of three months goes for $6.65 a month. There is also a special offer for users who registered before November 10th. You can take a look at the details at any time in the price overview.
How will I be charged?
At the beginning, you’ll decide the amount of time you’d like to join for, as well as give your payment details. You’ll pay at the beginning of the term and will have immediate, unlimited access to all content. Your access will renew itself automatically at the end of term, and the same package will be charged again. Of course you can simply email at any time to cancel within that term, in which case your access will simply expire at the end of the term.
You can also change your package, for example, from a three-month package to a monthly or a 6 month one. This will become effective at the end of your current package term.
What is available to do without paying?
As before, registering with Babbel is free. Then you can choose any course and try out the first lesson for free. Everything in your personal vocabulary can be reviewed with the automatic refresher. Also, all the communication functions at Babbel, like internal messaging, as well as the Board and Live-Chat, are still available. In order to access the extensive new content on Babbel 2.0 and its efficient organization under the new course system, you’ll however need full access.
How and when can I cancel my membership?
You can simply cancel your membership by email at any time by writing to sales@babbel.com. The cancellation will become effective at the end of the term of the package you chose. We’ll confirm that we've received your cancellation email within three working days.
In which cases does the money-back guarantee apply?
The money back guarantee applies unconditionally without any restrictions for twenty days. If the product isn’t what you expected, or if for other reasons you’d rather not take part, you can simply cancel your membership with an email message to sales@babbel.com. We’ll send you a confirmation at once and credit the full price back to you.
What happens if I’ve already signed up for the “Practise the Basics” English course?
You can still use the content. We’ll let you know the details directly by email.
What happens if I’ve already purchased the Spanish Course?
You still have access to the “Spanish – Get Started” course. The other Spanish content is available to you for a nominal monthly price. You’ll see the price in the Price Overview.
Can I learn more than one language?
Yes. You can change your learning language at any time. You’ll find the price for full access to each language on the navigation bar. You can always try it out for free without any obligation. If you do switch, all of your settings remain, so you can always change back.
What kind of payment options are there on Babbel 2.0?
You can pay with your credit card (Mastercard, Visa, American Express).
The payment will be transacted by our partner Adyen B.V., offering the highest standard of online payment security.
If I cancel, when will I no longer be able to access the learning material?
You will have access until the end of the term that you purchased. Then the access will simply expire. You can continue to use the communication functions and the refresher with your personal vocabulary.
