iPod App: Babbel Swedish by Babbel

Can’t Recommend This Highly Enough.

Match the word with the correct photo.

If Babbel decided to make this a paid app it would still be brilliant value when you consider the amount of content it features.  The fact that it is actually free therefore makes it an absolute must have app for anyone currently learning Swedish or who would like to learn Swedish.  Twenty seven categories of vocabulary, each with a further twelve sub-categories (split between six basic and six advanced sub-categories) means there’s enough content to keep the Swedish student going for quite a considerable length of time.

To add even further to the depth of content, once you have selected your vocabulary category and sub-category, you then have three sections within each sub-category to work through and help you learn.

Section one is ‘Learn And Remember.’  This breaks you in gently and involves basic tasks such as matching a Swedish word to the correct photo or simply identifying the correct first letter of the Swedish translation of a selected word.

Section two is ‘Deepen Your Knowledge’ and here the tasks become a little more tricky such as spelling out an entire word or choosing the correct word to complete a sentence.

Section three is ‘Vocabulary’ and this provides a handy reference point for all the words you’ve just learnt.

Work through the sections within each sub-category.

As you can see it’s aimed at beginners and the learning curve is perfect as it introduces you to a selection of similarly themed Swedish words via simple learning tasks and then gradually builds up the difficulty level as you become more familiar with each word.  From personal experience I would say that the use of images also helped greatly in the learning process, as did the fact that you get to hear each word spoken out loud by native Swedish speakers.  This factor in particular gives the app a significant edge over the old-fashioned alternative of learning a language from a text book.

On top of vast amount of content you get, an additional feature is the review manager which allows you to review from time to time the words you have learnt to ensure the vocabulary is cemented to your memory and not just quickly passed over.  The app uses a clever system which is designed to ensure that the words you struggle with the most are repeated more regularly and from using the app myself I would say that the programmers have done a perfect job on this feature.  Words which I regularly stumbled upon and therefore needed the most practice with seemed to crop up more often, whereas words I learnt quickly would only come up occasionally.

The slogan on the title page reads ‘Enjoy Learning Languages’ and whilst using this app perhaps still has a long way to go before it rivals a game of FIFA or Call To Duty in the fun stakes, Babbel Swedish nevertheless makes learning Swedish far less of a chore than studying from a text book.

All in all this is an excellent piece of software that would out-rival most paid apps so the fact that it is free makes this an absolutely essential download for anyone who is currently learning or who wants to learn Swedish.

Ladda ner det nu!  (Download it now!)

Check out Babbel on the internet:

Babbel's Website

Follow Babbel on twitter:

@babbel

Worthy Of A Bigger Audience is also on twitter:
@WoabaBlog

Find more iPod App recommendations at the following link:
iPod Apps on 'Worthy Of A Bigger Audience'


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Please note, all promotional images used on this blog remain the copyright of the respective publishers and are used in accordance with 'Fair Use' legislation for review purposes.