Knowing many languages can be a very valuable tool. By knocking down those speech borders, you can interact with others from across the world. However there is just one issue: learning languages is super hard. Despite taking language classes in high school I can barely speak anything but English. And even my English is pretty questionable. So, maybe it’s time to change my ways and learn a new language. Let’s take a look at Babbel for Android devices.

What Is Babbel?

Like my opening paragraph kind of alluded to, Babbel is an app that teaches you a variety of languages. Everything from Danish, Dutch, Swedish, and much more were available on the app. After choosing which language you’d like to learn, you are prompted to answer a series of questions about how you discovered the Babbel app. I’m guessing you didn’t really have to know that, I’m just trying to fill out the paragraph.

How Does Babbel Teach?

The app mainly shows you your new language through a series of quizzes and exercises. It begins by seeing if you are a beginner or advanced language studier. From there you are placed right into a number of exercises. I chose beginner (obviously) and started learning the basics of Italian, such as hello, yes and congratulations. So if I were to go to Italy tomorrow I could greet, agree, and congratulate somebody. It’s like I know the entire language already.

Does It Work?

I must say, I did feel like I was starting to get the hang of the very basics of the language. While it began as only basic phrases, we got a little further into more diverse words as well. However, not everything is available. If you’d like to get further into the lessons, you will have to (*gasp*) pay money. There are a number of different subscriptions available, but you can still learn a good amount without registering. All I wanted to learn was how to say curse words in Swedish. If that is one of the lessons available in the future, I’ll subscribe in a heartbeat.

The Bottom Line

From what I saw, Babbel is a great app for learning different languages. While you will have to pay in order to get deeper into it, the free content available is a great start. So if you’re on the fence, just try out the free version. Whether you’re just looking to learn something new or heading to whatever country they speak Danish, Babbel is definitely worth a shot.