Rocket French Review: Our Personal Experience

When it comes to learning a new language on your own it can be difficult to select a language learning software program to use. One excellent program that many people haven’t even heard of is the Rocket Languages series. This series, published by Libros Media, is a very high quality and intensive language learning program. In fact it is fast becoming recognized as one of the best language learning software series on the market.

Rocket French is one of their most popular titles, and in terms of complete French language study courses it’s our top choice.

The program has been updated for 2017, and includes a clean new interface, phone apps, and more!  Check out what’s new in our review below.

Features Of The Rocket French Program

Rocket French has a bunch of different features making it a very all inclusive program.

The Audio Lessons

The meat of Rocket French is contained in the interactive audio lessons. Each lesson covers a different general category, and they build off of each other. I found the lessons to be quite well done and clear. The speakers in the lessons are very articulate and easy to understand. I also thought that the pace of each lesson was very well done; not too slow and not too fast. It was just right to keep me interested yet not too fast that I couldn’t follow it. To get the most out of the course you are prompted to speak aloud at certain points. I definitely think that this is a must for learning a language as well as a must for getting the most out of the Rocket Language program in general.

The great part about the audio lessons is that while they are always available to you online, they are also available to you as a downloadable MP3 so you can store them in your phone or other audio player and take them with you on your commute or a walk around the block. This is a great strategy for spending more time with the language which in turn means you’ll learn faster and retain more.  However now that Rocket Languages has rolled out all-new apps for 2017, it will probably be much easier to use the app.  But the download functionality is still there.

All the audio lessons come with a transcript below the lesson so that you can follow along and actually see the words in print and how they are spelled. This is quite helpful when it comes time to read and write in French.

All in all I learned quite a bit from the audio lessons.

Language and Culture Lessons

These lessons get into some of the more nitty gritty aspects of French, including past tenses and word order in descriptions. These will require more time and study since they aren’t so “obvious” all the time. However, in order to correctly learn French you definitely have to spend some time on these things. I found these lessons to be technical enough to grasp the concepts but not so technical that it was difficult to follow and boring.

Obviously you’ll probably have to go over these lessons a few times for them to really sink in – but that’s just the process of learning.

Tracking Your Progress

Rocket French (and all the Rocket Languages series) has a great interface where you can keep track of the sections that you complete.  This helps you to stay on task and track your progress.  When you start filling in the squares you’ll be even more motivated to continue!  The goal is to get them all filled in with “green” and you’ll know you have room to improve on a particular lesson if it’s in orange or red.

I really like this because it’s so easy to lose track of where you are when you’re learning at home.  It’s hard enough to motivate yourself to learn a language at home on your own, but it’s

Rocket Record

Rocket Record is a feature that allows you to record yourself saying a French word or phrase, and you can then match the recorded audio wave form to that of the native speaker in the course, thus allowing you to correct your pronunciation. This is a cool feature of the course, and can definitely help you to learn the proper way of saying the word. I think the do-it-yourself approach is also helpful in terms of making it easier to remember the phrases.

Games

Rocket French has an interactive flashcard game that helps to assist in learning new vocabulary words and remembering old ones.  This is fun and helps to cement words in your mind.  You can play it anytime to get a quick practice round of French in when you want to keep things fresh.

Forums

This section allows for users to interact with one another through an online forum. Users can ask questions about lessons or specific language translation issues. This part of the course is not as great as I’d like, but it’s not really a detriment to the course itself. The problem here is that the forums aren’t really super active. However, it’s hard to cultivate an online forum, and there are other online forums around the internet focused on languages that are well populated. So I wouldn’t let the lack of this deter you from Rocket French.

Survival Kit

This part of the course gives you lessons in French that would be very helpful for people who are going to travel to a French speaking place. They are touted as bonus lessons, although it seems like just another part of the course that should be there anyway. The lessons revolve around teaching you vocabulary that is super helpful for traveling, such as places in the city, asking for directions, and other related subjects. This part of the course is very helpful, and is similar to the other audio parts of the course. The focus is more on vocabulary.

Customer Service

The team at the Rocket Langauges program is extremely friendly and responsive.  If you ever have a problem you can be assured that they will respond promptly.  I was surprised when I posted a question about the programs on the online message board in the members area, and quickly got a personal email from the support team to answer my question more specifically.

Conclusion

Rocket French is an excellent course for people who want to start learning French on their own. Commitment is key – the course won’t learn French for you, you will have to put in the effort. However, I think that this course is a perfect start for someone who is serious about beginning fluency in French. I’m not sure that you’ll be speaking like a native French speaker in a few weeks, but with time you’ll really get a great start. I suggest that you supplement your lessons by watching French movies and reading easy to read French books and magazines. This will really speed up the learning and retention process.

Overall we definitely recommend Rocket French. It’s not perfect, but it’s one of the best courses out there on the market, and our top recommendation in terms of French language courses.