Literally every time I get something wrong I'm like *gasp*
Okay, I feel like I'm not being as effective because I'm recording. Stop looking at me.
Two new accessories: two new holes in my face and a colony of pimples between my eyebrows.
Today I wanna talk about uncharted territory, I wanna talk about apps.
I don't know, if I use an app, I want it to make my life easier. I feel like in the past apps have always scared me away
a little bit because of certain apps that send you like a million reminders, or like... I'm not beefing with any green-colored owl today.
Anyways, I just like to keep everything streamlined. Which is why when I tell you that today we're doing an app review,
you're gonna be like, "Elysse, have you lost your f**king marbles?" Maybe, but corona has starved me
so hard for new experiences that I'm willing to do anything for a thrill, so here we are today
October 28th, and I'm doing an app review. So let's talk about Busuu. These shits are swingin'.
Busuu is a language app that I heard about a loooong time ago, I think I used it a little bit when I was just starting out in language learning,
when I was like 13, so they definitely, definitely have been in the game for a while now.
So from my understanding, it's like a crossover between social interaction in language learning and also building a study plan.
Cause I know they have some study plan function and they also have features where you can interact and get corrections and help
from native speakers, which is always a big plus.
I don't know, that's really the only thing I got out of it from my research because this video is going to be a first impressions.
Because I haven't used it literally since 13 years old so I don't know how it works, I don't know the interface
of the app, I don't know what features they have or anything. So I'm going into this completely unknowing.
Full disclosure, this is a sponsored review, but Busuu asked me to do an honest review about things that I end up liking, maybe
things that I think they could improve. You know, they're not giving me a billion dollars just to say, like,
"Oh, this is so great, this is so great." I don't do that. I'm very selective, I'm very picky, my standards are very high especially for language apps since I don't use them that often.
So you can trust me.
Okay, so I'm gonna take a placement test. It says that I can choose my level or take a placement test,
I think... well, I don't know, you know? I could take a placement test.
Write the correct article in the BLANK... oh my god, so it'd be "the woman"..
*correct sound* This is going great already.
I liked the movie but my girlfriend fell asleep during it.
*shocked* drama!
*incorrect sound* Literally every time I get something wrong, I'm like *gasp*
Okay, I feel like I'm not being as effective because I'm recording, okay. Stop looking at me.
So, they have put me in B1... I don't know how I feel about that.
I'm starting to get to know what is under the membership and what is not, because this appears to be a freemium app. I did not know dat.
Well then I can just get into this right off the bat, I don't even have to buy a prescription (???) subscription.
Okay, I think I'm going to switch to my laptop. Okay, I'm just going to address the elephant in the room.
Yes, I have almost 20 tabs open. But I evaluate them every single day, constantly. "Do I need this tab? Do I need this tab?"
And yes I need 4 dictionaries open, yes I need Quizlet open, yes I need 4 YouTube videos at a time open.
Because they're things that I want to watch later and I know that I'm going to forget them if I put them in the "Watch Later" list on YouTube.
So just please let me have this. You know what? I don't have to explain myself to you guys, whatever.
And it says that I should start with "Lektion 1: I would like to book a trip."
"Would you like a package trip, which includes everything? Or would you like a tour trip better?"
"the cruise!" there are some words in German that are just never gonna stop sounding ridiculous.
Okay, so they give you the question again if you don't get it right the first time, which is good.
Something I like better is when they give you the same word but they put it in a different question.
Because you can see the word in a different context and maybe you'll understand it better in a different question.
Kreuzfaaahhrrrtt... can i get a KreuzfahrtUH
Okay, so I just finished my first Busuu lesson. I wanna talk about a couple different things.
I like the dialog activities because it goes pretty slow and you can follow along with it, and it's really helpful (especially with German)
to start matching the words and the spelling to the sounds.
and I really liked that because I just went through it all in one go, and it was very slow and it was
kind of easy-paced. Um, so I could match the words with what they were saying and just fill in the blanks. That was cool.
And with the vocab, they just made you pick it and then the second exercise you had to type it out.
So yeah, that was a good first impression. I don't really have anything to reference it to because
the last time I used it like I said was literally 7 years ago.
But I'm likin it so far. Any chance I get to say the word "Kreuzfahrt" is like, optimal. Alright, let's see what tomorrow brings.
Good evening everyone.So two of the features I tried today were the study plan, I
actually implemented the study plan, and it told me that I will be able to reach my goal by 2021.
And I was like euuugghh? Because that's assuming that I only use the app, y'know? So right now I have it set for 20
minutes a day. I feel like-- for me, going through a lesson, I breeze through those lessons
so I think I might change the study plan to be a little bit less, because for me I kind of finish up all I need to do within the app within like 10 minutes.
Another part of the premium plan that I used today was the community tab. I will admit, it was a little
bit confusing but I think I'm getting used to it more and more, because okay let me tell y'all the situation. So when I tried to use the community tab, as soon as I
got into it, it just told me that there was no exercises available for me to do, and I was like... okay, but
Of course I went to Spanish to see if there was anybody who needed corrections and if there was anything I could do in that language
and of course there was because it's a more common language. I think I should also explore it on my laptop because I only used it on my phone.
German learners, where you at? Pleaaaase. So when you post something on the community tab, it's
either a video-- sorry, and audio, or a text. You can write a short text.
And then people can rate it overall and they can give you comments and corrections.
So I did that a couple times. I thought it's interesting cause it also gives you notifications-- you can like other peoples' corrections
It's kind of like Facebook, it's interesting. Because I remember after I gave someone a correction, I got a notification that someone liked my correction.
And then I got another notification when someone else commented on that same post.
So I think it's really interesting because it's not like one and done, you know? It's not just between you and that person, it's literally a community thing.
So that was pretty sick. I would recommend it. I hope that it actually starts working for German, though. I'm gonna check it out on my laptop tomorrow.
I'm in general such a grandma when it comes to this, so if it's not working it's probably my fault.
Anyways, I think that's all I have for today, so I'll see you tomorrow. Sweet dreams!
So last night I finally got on my laptop, so I got a chance to try out the community tab, which is a little bit more confusing on the phone. I'm gonna confess.
Because I didn't know how it worked in general. And I really liked it because they give you either a photo or a video
and you either write about it or you make a voice memo about it, and that's what you get corrections from.
It wasn't very clear to me until I pulled it up on the laptop, so now going back to the app it's a little bit clearer.
But if you try it first on the app, it's like "Wait, what's happening?" So I left both. I made a little note, and then I left a voice note. And I'm
still waiting for corrections, that's not something that Busuu can really control, like
how many people are using the app for a certain language, so of course German speakers are not on there as much.
I look so much smarter with my glasses, I think.
Well, we're gonna keep waiting for corrections because I still have none unfortunately. But I will reconnect at the end of the day.
So it is currently 12:30 in the morning. I know, I know. Today I learned about coordinating conjunctions.
So that would be und, oder, aber, sondern, denn...
One thing I didn't know is that before coordinating conjunctions you gotta use a comma.
Not before all of them, just before denn and sondern.
For example "She doesn't go to school on her bike, but rather on the bus."
So the thing is, I already knew about these coordinating conjunctions, but I didn't know everything about how to use them, or
the stuff about punctuation. I never ever studied that, nor did my teacher tell me about it in high school.
I'm finding a pattern this week with Busuu, that I'm filling in gaps about
stuff that I already knew or thought that I knew. No one has responded to my German community post yet, I'm really sad about it.
and it's not because I'm a grandma, I swear to God. I'm checking the notifications and it's only giving me notifications for the posts that I corrected in Spanish.
Maybe someone will respond to me. Here's to hoping.
My bags are freakin' huge, I'm so sorry in advance y'all. It is ... 1:47 in the morning!
That is student life. Which is also something I wanted to incorporate into this video, because I feel like
even in just a couple days, I'm already seeing a little bit of a difference. Something that I have found so difficult in the past, especially with German, is discipline.
A lot of the time I can't bring myself to study without like, a huge influx of motivation, and that's really hard to come by.
So it's not the most predictable foundation for my German learning.
My life and my schedule is very sporadic, especially as a student right now, so-- okay, here's the deal.
I don't like doing anything when someone tells me to, so when a language app is like "Hey, you should come over and study for five minutes," I'm like *sucks teeth*
I don't know, I feel like the study plan actually makes it really easy to implement it
into my everyday life. Because given that I only use the app, like my study plan is reduced to just 5 minutes per day. I don't have to.. it's not such a big commitment. It actually gets me excited
Because as I'm doing the exercises and as I'm reviewing the vocabulary and stuff, I'm speaking out loud to myself, I'm reading all of the material in German
SO it's like every part of my German speaking is warmed up.
And then if I have a book that I'm gonna study with or I'm gonna do anything else in German, I guess it's like a perfect way to start it.
So today I did a vocabulary lesson, and hm.. what did I learn?
check in, check out, but I already knew that.
uuhhh.. half-board, full-board, whenever I go abroad, I always stay in hostels.
So I think maybe it's not the most useful material for me.
I should probably suggest to them, like "Can y'all get some more hostel vocab up in there?" cause I always stay in hostels or like AirBNBs when I go abroad.
Anyways, I'm gonna go to bed now.
Today's studies are sponsored by AHA. NOT the 80's band, but rather this delicious brand of sparkling water that my school has.
Who makes this? *gasp* the Coca-Cola company. Goddamn it, like just when I think I've escaped Coca-Cola, somehow they always find me.
You know what? Speaking of A-ha...
["Take on Me" by A-ha playing]
So let's just get this ball rollin'. I got angry because the room was really small. [repeats it]
So we still learning travel vocabulary.
"Select the feeling words" okay so gets mad, to get mad,
"We were really happy with the service." [repeats it]
I don't know why that feels so weird, "Service". That's an English word, right? French?
I know there are so many French words in German, like "restaurant", "chance", "nuance"..
*correct sound* boom.
So. It is judgement day, today is final thoughts, because including today that is exactly 7 days that I've been using
Busuu, and I-- *voice gurgles* EUGHEU-- whew child
If you wanna learn Spanish, French, English, German, Polish, Arabic, Turkish, there are so many languages I can't remember. Portuguese, Russian, Italian.
If you wanna learn any of those languages, you should really, really try Busuu.
I think Busuu is a really comprehensive app that is best for someone who doesn't know how to start learning languages in general.
they literally consolidate the whole process of learning materials, getting corrections, and online lessons,
which I did not try out, but the option is still there if you were curious about it.
I will say that I wish I tried out the live lesson feature just to have a review on that front or just an idea.
But as for the other features like the content and the material, it's very good.
And the exercises that come after are engaging and diverse, they kind of keep you on your toes and keep you guessing which is good.
The only thing that I would change is making the community tab a bit easier to understand, because that was completely new for me and
as I was looking at it on my phone I was like "Ok, Imma have to look at this on my laptop to get the full picture",
but that shouldn't need to happen because not everybody has a computer to do that.
But I really liked the format from what I DID see, when I went and gave corrections in Spanish, that's when I really got to see how it works.
It's a good idea, I just wish we could force people to use it (respond) to make it a little more interactive, so. I think I'm gonna
use it for the rest of the month that I paid for it, so if you wanna see further updates, if you wanna stay on the case of whether I ever get my community corrections or not,
you can follow me on Instagram, that's @elyssespeaks, that's e-l-y-s-se-- *clapping is off* ooh, oh my god.
I did it wrong! That's the first time that's ever happened. Elysse Speaks, e-l-y-s-s-e-s-p-e-a-k-s.
I'm losin' my touch, y'all. Out of practice, I'd say.
I will leave links in the description if you wanna check it out for yourself, you can go to the website or the app.
Whether you pay for the subscription or not, there IS stuff for you to do because it is a freemium app, so
there's gonna be stuff for you to discover either way. If you have any questions, comments, concerns, inquiries, insults-- actually
keep your insults-- you can comment down below and I will be answering.
Everyone keep staying safe because we are having a 2nd coronavirus wave in my dear state of Florida. I don't know about you guys, but that's pretty scary.
Anyways, love you guys so much, take care. Bye!