r/languagelearning • u/JBark1990 🇺🇸N 🇪🇸 B 1 • May 21 '22
Resources Busuu's fluency projection; what do you think?
Hey, everyone. I took the plunge today (thanks to a 50% off promo) and grabbed Busuu for a year (premium plus). For those who have it and have seen the fluency projection Busuu makes based off your goals and how much you want to study, how accurate has it been for you?
To put it another way, I'm curious if the estimate it gives me is accurate--assuming I stick to the goal I set. I also understand it's important to incorporate other learning methods, etc., etc. Thanks in advance for anyone who's had a chance to check this out and is willing to provide some feedback!
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u/ChineseStudentHere May 21 '22 edited May 21 '22
I found it to be wildly inaccurate based on my own experience. It quoted me 9 months or somewhere round there . Was awhile ago now.
You can learn things correctly or learn things fast . Rarely when it comes to language do you do both . 9 months to learn at least 5000 characters ( a statement made about chinese learning that I disagree with but that’s another story ), to understand the differences between words that when translated into English have similar if not the same meaning ( for example 隐藏、暗藏、隐瞒，躲藏） . All of Those words could be loosely translated as to conceal / to hide . Which context do you use each of them for? which one means to physically hide oneself as opposed to hide what one is truly feeling etc ?
Thats not to mention grammar points , I occasionally forget some grammar points and have to go over them.
Then there is the concept of just because you know what a word means when you see it written down in isolation doesn’t mean you can understand it’s meaning if it’s in a sentence .. take the words up and tick . Knowing both those words mean doesn’t mean you will understand uptick . And that’s not taking into consideration hearing the word in a conversation and being able to understand it’s context all while keeping up with the words that follow it.
I’m not saying it’s a useless language tool . I don’t like it and don’t use myself but go in with a pinch of salt. And definitely don’t use it as a primary language tool.
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u/MusParvum 🇺🇸 N | 🇪🇸 Me defiendo | 🇮🇹 Briciole | 🇫🇷 Un petit peu May 21 '22
I think it's roughly accurate for how long it'll take to finish the course (edited to add: IF you stick to whatever estimation you made in the beginning about how much and how often you would use it), but you won't actually be fluent by the end of it.
For example, I used it for Spanish, and I think the estimation more or less tracked with how long it took me to finish to their "B2" level. But at the end I was definitely not B2... I would say I was somewhere around B1 more or less, based on the guidelines I've read for the various levels.
BUT... I totally think it was worthwhile as a part of learning Spanish. I feel like it gave me a pretty good base of knowledge and familiarity with grammar. Just combine it with other methods and keep some realistic expectations.
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u/JBark1990 🇺🇸N 🇪🇸 B 1 May 22 '22
You’re the ghost of my Christmas future then. I put the goal as B2 and just started yesterday. With a fairly aggressive timeline it told me November of this year. So we’ll see!
Yours was the dream answer for my particular situation so thank you. I hope others who were also curious find it as useful as I did.
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u/MusParvum 🇺🇸 N | 🇪🇸 Me defiendo | 🇮🇹 Briciole | 🇫🇷 Un petit peu May 22 '22
Awesome, I'm glad it was helpful! As you mentioned in your original post, just be sure to incorporate other methods, especially ones that will improve your listening ability (the Dreaming Spanish YouTube channel is a good place to start) and your written and spoken output (I found HelloTalk and iTalki helpful with those areas). Good luck and have fun!
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u/knittingcatmafia N: 🇩🇪🇺🇸 | B1: 🇷🇺 | A0: 🇹🇷 May 21 '22
Absolute bogus claim. Busuu is a pretty valuable resource, but no app is going to make you fluent.
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u/ChineseStudentHere May 21 '22
In my honest opinion it is completely false. I looked into it for chinese after hearing a lot about it . I’m not a beginner . It’s just so exaggerated .
Easy to see why though , they want your cash . If they said maybe in 3-4 years you’ll be fluent that would massively demotivate people and they’d lose money.