Review – RocketLanguages in German

November 11, 2009

Guten Tag! Ich heisse Jennifer. Ich komme aus Florida.

There! How’s that for learning some German!

I am very excited to share this review with you – if you are American (like me), I know you need this one! I say that because it has become a shameful byword that Americans don’t speak anything other than English. So many people in other countries know 2, 3 and 4 other languages. My husband, who was born and raised in Germany, had 12 years of Russian, learned Latin and British English in grade school.

(I know what you are thinking right now. You are thinking, “If her husband grew up in Germany, doesn’t he know some German? Then, why does she need to use and review this product?” in whispered and hushed tones. Apparently, ‘German language tutor’ is not in the husband-ly job description. If you want more than that, you’ll have to take it up with him!)

Learning another language or two has been proven time and again to be utterly beneficial for children as their brains develop. You just give your children one more tool to use as they go out there and make something of themselves in this world. Unlock the door to a whole other world of literature by learning another language! Did you know that many of the classic stories, such as Hanzel and Gretel originated in the German language?

Okay, I’m off my little “you-really-need-to-learn-another-language” pedestal. And now, on with the review! Check out this free report to learn more about learning another language – fast!

A little bit of background regarding RocketLanguages.

Aside from German, you can also learn Arabic, Chinese, French, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Spanish and even Sign Language!
TONS of audio! 31 interactive audio lessons
Reviews and quizzes
A forum to talk with other learners and their team of teachers and native speakers
Learn about the grammar and culture as well as the language – 31 grammar and culture lessons
Games based on what you see (MegaVocab) or what you hear (MegaAudio)
A video tour of the whole site to get you acclimated quickly
Teaches you over 1200 words

Here is a quote from their website:

Learn a language with Rocket Languages on your own terms and in your own time! … Do you want to speak that second language confidently and naturally in the shortest time possible – AND take all the frustration, difficulty, and headache out of YOUR practice time? … With Rocket German Premium, you are going to learn German rapidly, effectively, and easily. You are going to be able to speak at a restaurant, at an airport, with new friends… in basically every situation you can think of!

My first reaction when I logged on to the RocketLanguages German website was that it was a very bright and open website. It is easy to navigate and understand where you are supposed to go first. (You know how some websites are – can’t even figure out where to click first or what to do next!)

RocketLanguages German

“Your Course” is where you will spend most of your time as this is where all the audios are located. “Your Practice” is the test taking area – do not be afraid of the tests! This really seems to help my retension and helps the proverbial *lightbulb* to actually go on sometimes. Finally, “Your Community” is design as a forum to give you a place to interact with others that are learning and the experts that already know. There aren’t as many people posting as I would like to see but I am sure if I got ambitious and started posting, the moderators would be responsive.

If you ever get lost on the site, just hover your mouse over any area and a description of the area will pop up!

They’ve broken down the learning into two stages. The first stage covers Greeting / Meeting / Food / Drink, Travel, Getting Around Town, and All About Food (I’m going to this section first!) while the second stage covers Retail Therapy, Family and Friends, Activities and Hobbies, Rocket Review and Games.

RocketLanguages German

Each blue heading opens up to your individual lessons. Go as quickly or slowly as you would like! Your progress is shown to motivate you to keep on learning.

The games look like they will really interest my kids! Matching pictures to German words, picking the right photo when a German word is spoken and a memory-type game are all included in the German Premium package.

I thought it was interesting to note that they have a print area all set up for you. Within each lesson, you can click the print link and a preformatted page with the German conversation and the English translation pops up, all ready to print off. This would be great for any kind of note-taking, to quiz each other later or take with you on the go.

My in-laws all live in Germany. Thankfully, my mother-in-law speaks very fluent English but no one else does. I would LOVE to call up my father-in-law and have a real conversation with him. They would all love for my kids to be able to call them and talk about their day! So, my kids and I are going to take a real stab at learning German this school year. We’ve been sitting down with some of the German kids books that they send us (of course, that’s after my husband and I sit down and translate it to English!) but my pronounciation is so terrible that I get very nervous about speaking with them. I do not want to teach them incorrectly.

But, with Rocket German, I don’t have to worry about the accent and proper pronounciation! Four days a week, every week, my kids and I will be sitting down with Rocket German for about 30 minutes each session. In two months, I’ll report back and tell you how we are doing! Paul Weber, the creator of Rocket German, said that it takes about 2 to 3 months of study at a foreign service institute for an adult to learn another language. He set out to create a program that would allow a person to become a proficient German speaker in less than two months and Rocket German is what he came up with!

If you want to join us, you can download their free 6 day German course to test it out.

After that, if you like it, you can purchase the entire program for $99.95. RocketLanguages offers a 60-day, 100% money back guarantee for any reason.