Babbel Review
Babbel – two years after 2.0
Two years ago we broke new ground with the release of Babbel 2.0. This was a significant step forward. Instead of Babbel being a platform almost entirely financed by advertisements (with some additional products on the side) we decided to create a high-quality learning portal that would be financed solely through user subscription fees. You [...]
Babbel helps train conductors to fight “Denglish”
The ticket collectors and guards on German trains are notorious for their English pronunciation so we decided to produce a course for them: “Train English”. We offered this for free. One of the big German rail companies was interested at first, but then decided that their staff didn’t need any help after all..! Read more [...]
Durchsagen-Englisch: Hilfe zur Selbsthilfe für Bahnbeamte!
Englische Durchsagen in deutschen Zügen sind oft Anlaß für Verwirrung bei internationalen Reisenden. Darum haben wir einen speziellen Sprachkurs für „Train English“ produziert – den wollten wir sämtlichen deutschen Zugbegleitern schenken. Aber nicht alle Unternehmen wollen ihren Mitarbeitern helfen!
Von Plänen und Typen: Ergebnisse der Umfrage zum Sprachenlernen
Von Ende Mai bis Juli lief hier im Babbel-Blog unsere große Umfrage zu Annes Lerntipps. 1774 Personen haben daran teilgenommen – auf Deutsch, Englisch, Spanisch, Französisch und Italienisch. Das Feedback war überwältigend: allein die ausgedruckten Freitext-Kommentare umfassen weit über 100 Seiten. Wir haben sie alle gelesen. Wir haben gezählt, sortiert und ausgewertet. Jetzt können wir [...]
Distinguished Learning: Babbel Gives Certificates for Completed Courses
While gold stars might be for kids, no one grows out of appreciating a little pat on the back. So in response to demand among our dedicated users, we at Babbel have started to award certificates for completed courses. Whether the goal is to pump up your next job application or simply to have an [...]
Anne’s Language Learning Tips
Anne Matthies is head of the Babbel Support Team. Since 1997 she’s been addicted to self-directed learning, and by now she’s reached advanced levels in Italian, English, French, Russian and Chinese. Here she’s gathered together eleven tips that have proven especially helpful in her language learning experience. 1. Set a plan and don’t stick to [...]
Babbel Wins at eureleA 2011
The European Award for Technology Supported Learning (eureleA) is a prize awarded once a year for “outstanding examples of teaching and learning through digital media”. The jury had more than 70 submitted projects to choose from – and we’ve won. The eureleA prize for the “Best Technical Implementation” has gone to Babbel. Technical implementation doesn’t just refer to technology. Emphasis [...]
Germany’s Best iPhone App
We’re proud to announce that the magazine Mac Developer, INTERNET WORLD Business and iPhone & Co. have named the Babbel App as Germany’s best in the Business to Customer category! Lufthansa and Floop made the second and third positions. At last week’s iPhone Developer Conference in Cologne, a jury of four tech journalists was impressed [...]
Learning with Babbel: Interview with Miriam Plieninger
Miriam Plieninger is the Head of Content Production at Babbel. Over the years she’s edited courses and taught languages in classrooms in Germany and the UK. German is her mother tongue, but she also speaks English, French, Norwegian and Latin, not to mention the languages she’s learned at Babbel: Spanish, Swedish, Portuguese and — as [...]
Tech Background: Babbel Speech Recognition
Interview with Technical Director Thomas Holl Speech recognition is the exciting new feature at Babbel. It’s not only fun – it’s also amazingly efficient for learning a new language. But how does it work? I got the low down from our Technical Director Thomas. Crisi: What does the new speech recognition tool do? Thomas: [...]