What is busuu.com?
How can I improve my language skills with busuu.com?
What languages can I learn with busuu.com?
Do I have to pay to use busuu.com?
How can I join busuu.com?
What is 'my Language Garden'?
What can I do in my Language Garden?
What is the ranking?
What is a course?
What is the Catalogue?
What is a Learning Unit?
What can I do within my learning units?
What is a grammar unit?
What is "My Vocabulary"?
What are my "Mistakes"?
How can I chat with other users?
Can I speak or even video-chat with another user?
How do I add friends?
Why should I add friends on busuu.com?
How can I be sure that my exercises will be corrected?
How does the comment rating function work?
What are busuu-berries?
How can I earn busuu-berries?
What can I do with my busuu-berries?
What is my busuu.com status?
What are the busuu-badges?
Why didn't I receive the confirmation email after registration?
Why does the chat application not work for me?
Why can't I upload or change my profile picture?
What can I do, if I have forgotten my password?
How can I introduce special characters?
How do I change the language interface of the page?
How can I change the languages I am learning?
How do I delete my account?
Why should I become a Premium Member?
What different types of subscriptions do you offer?
How much does it cost?
How can I pay?
Where can I see my Premium Membership information?
How do I renew my subscription?
How can I cancel my Premium Membership?
What is busuu.com?
busuu.com is an online community for learning languages! Instead of studying alone at home with your uninspiring grammar book, you can learn directly from native speakers around the world. In addition to learning directly from other members, you can use our highly interactive learning material completely free of charge. Additionally, by paying a minimal monthly fee, you can become a Premium Member 
and have access to even more functionalities and learning material.
How can I improve my language skills with busuu.com?
There are two ways to improve your language skills with busuu.com:
- Learn directly from a native speaker: you can connect to native speakers in the busuu.com community by using our video-chat application in order to practice your language skills.
- Learn with the busuu.com learning content: we have prepared over 150 learning units covering diverse topic areas and grammar units covering the most important grammar points. The content is image and sound-based; you can listen to key vocabulary, example phrases and dialogues pronounced by professional voice artists speaking in their own language.
What languages can I learn with busuu.com?
Our learning material is currently available in English, German, French, Italian and Spanish but we are working hard to include many more languages in the near future!
By being part of this diverse online learning community, however, you have access to native speakers speaking all the different languages around the world.
Do I have to pay to use busuu.com?
busuu.com can be used by all users for free! However, you have the option to pay a minimal monthly fee to become a Premium Member. With that Premium account you gain access to additional functionalities and more material which make your language learning easier and more efficient. Find out more about the Premium Membership
How can I join busuu.com?
Just go to the registration page of busuu.com and follow the instructions.
What is 'my Language Garden'?
The Language Garden is a snapshot of your language skills. It shows the languages you are learning and those you teach. The size of each tree indicates your learning progress in that language. By clicking on a particular tree you can access the learning material of the language concerned.
What can I do in my Language Garden?
1. Let your trees grow!
The more learning units you have finished and the more active you are within the community, the bigger your language tree will be. Your learning effort will be thereby directly compared to the average learning effort of the busuu.com-community.
2. Get gifts for your Language Garden!
Of course you will be rewarded for your efforts! While finishing units within your courses and passing a test related to them, you will receive a funny animated gift for your Language Garden.
3. Fight the bugs!
Whenever you make mistakes within the review session of a unit or a test within a course, nasty bugs will attack your trees. If you don't study your vocabulary properly, your trees will be slowly eaten up…
4. Make friends and teach other users!
For every 10 writing exercises you correct, you will receive one apple as a gift for your Language Garden. Additionally, you can teach your native language to other users by clicking on the language signs in the “I teach” area. There you will see a list of people who are learning the language you are able to teach. Add them as your friends and start practicing your new languages with them via busuu-talk.
What is the ranking?
The ranking shows your absolute position within the busuu.com community. It is measured as a combination of your learning progress and your activity within the community. This is calculated continuously and the arrows indicate whether you are moving up or down.
What is a course?
busuu.com offers the possibility to do courses based on the recommended levels of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEF). The courses are organized into 4 levels. A1-Beginner 1, A2-Beginner 2, B1-Intermediate 1 and B2-Intermediate 2. Each course consists of learning units, grammar units and tests. When you are on your home page, click on the tree in your Language Garden that represents the language you want to learn or on the “Go” button in the “Next Steps” area. Here you enter the language area of the language you have chosen.You will see a board game-like table under the Language Garden. At the top of the table you can see the names of the 4 different courses we offer: A1, A2, B1 and B2. Click on the course that you think most suits your ability. By clicking on the images you can enter each learning unit. The courses also contain tests, testing you on the units studied previous to the test, gifts for your Language Garden and printable busuu.com Certificates at the end of each successfully completed course.
If you feel that the level doesn´t suit your ability, you can change the course at any time by clicking on another course. It is not obligatory to follow the course structure. All the learning material can also be accessed from the “Catalogue” button.
What is the Catalogue?
The Catalogue is a list of all the learning and grammar units, arranged into levels and categories, available on busuu.com. The Catalogue can be accessed by clicking on the Catalogue tab located next to the Courses tab in the language area.
What is a Learning Unit?
A learning unit contains the most important vocabulary and phrases of a certain topic (e.g. “in the hotel”, “the job interview”). At busuu.com, we currently offer more than 100 learning units in Spanish, French, German, Italian and English.
What can I do within my learning units?
Within each unit, you can practice your language skills in the following areas:
Vocabulary: Firstly you will find the important phrases and vocabulary that you need to know. If you are a Premium Member , you can also listen to the key phrases.
Dialogue: Then you can do a reading comprehension in the form of a dialogue and answer questions to check your understanding. If you are a Premium Member , you can also listen to the audio of the dialogue.
Writing exercise: You then write a short text and let other users correct you.
busuu-talk: You can practice your language skills by connecting with native speakers of our community. We offer an integrated video-chat-application which allows you to chat or even speak with other users. If you access the busuu-talk from a learning unit you will find a question related to the unit which you can discuss with your busuu-talk partner.
Review: Finally, do a short review to check what you have learned.
PDF: You can print out a PDF-transcript of all the grammar and learning units to study even while you are not online.This function is only available if you are a Premium Member
Podcast: You can listen to podcasts (audio-files) of all the vocabulary, example sentences and dialogues of all the grammar and learning units. This function is only available if you are a Premium Member
What is a grammar unit?
A grammar unit contains examples of the grammar usage of the most important points in grammar in each language. The grammar units are supported by images, example phrases and dialogues pronounced by professional voice artists speaking in their own language. They also contain PDF’s and Podcasts. Grammar units are only available for Premium Members
What is "My Vocabulary"?
Once you are in the Vocabulary section of a unit, you will find a small star next to the picture of the vocabulary. By clicking on the yellow star you can mark all the vocabulary you would like to learn in specific. Thereby, you are able to create your individual vocabulary pool. Then they will be automatically saved to the section “My vocabulary” which you can review under “Marked”:
Whenever you make a mistake during the review session, this vocabulary will be automatically added to “Mistakes”. Once you go to this area (on the language area page) you have the possibility to study only the words you didn’t know. As soon as you get them right the next time, they will automatically disappear from the mistakes list.
How can I chat with other users?
Just click on the button marked "busuu-talk" 
, These appear in several areas of the site, for example, within the profile of another user. The busuu-talk window will pop-up and you can write something. The other user will get a notification that you would like to chat with them. Once the other user accepts your invitation, you will be able to begin communicating with them.
On the right-hand side, you have 3 areas including a range of key words you can use in the conversation, a translator, and the special characters needed in the different languages.
Can I speak or even video-chat with another user?
YES! Once the "busuu-talk" window is open, just click on the button "send a/v" (below the "send" button) and then start talking! In addition to a micro-phone you may also use a standard webcam to see and further interact with your learning partner.
How do I add friends?
Go to "search" on the top right-hand side of the home page. Here you can do a search according to different criteria such as the languages the other user speaks, is learning, to the country they are living in etc... Once you have done the search, you can invite the user you want by clicking on the icon "add a friend" 
. Then the user will receive a friend request and as soon as he/she accepts it, you have a new friend at busuu.com.
Why should I add friends on busuu.com?
You should add friends to your profile to let them correct your posts, chat with them and practice the language you are learning, and finally teach them your own language.
How can I be sure that my exercises will be corrected?
Once you have written a text in the writing exercise, click on “Submit and notify friends”. Then you can choose up to three busuu.com friends to send your writing exercise to. They will receive a notification in their busuu.com inbox to correct your posts.
How does the comment rating function work?
With this function you can rate the quality of comments of other users of the community. You find the function on the right hand side of each comment below a writing post.
Click on the 
button in case you agree or the 
button in case you disagree with the comment. This gives the other user who is learning the language an indication about the quality of the corrections he/she receives.
What are busuu-berries?
busuu-berries reward your language learning efforts and your participation to help others of our language learning community. So whenever you do a learning activity (e.g. finishing a unit) or teach others (e.g. by correcting their writing posts) you will receive busuu-berries.
When you register for the first time on www.busuu.com, you are granted 10 busuu-berries as a welcome gift!
How can I earn busuu-berries?
You receive busuu-berries for the following learning activities:
• 5 busuu-berries: finishing one part of a learning unit (i.e. vocabulary, dialogue, writing-exercise, busuu-talk, review)
• 20 busuu-berries: finishing an entire learning unit
• 50 busuu-berries: completing a course-test
• 250 busuu-berries: finishing one complete course (i.e. A1, A2, B1 or B2)
You receive as well busuu-berries for the following activities:
• 1 busuu-berry: inviting one of your friends to busuu.com via www.busuu.com/invite
• 5 busuu-berries: correcting one writing exercise of another user
What can I do with my busuu-berries?
Your busuu-berries show your activity and learning progress on busuu.com to other users of our community. The more berries you have, the more active you are within our community.
But you can also use busuu-berries to motivate your busuu.com friends! Each time you press the button “send busuu-berries” 
to one of your friend, 1 of your busuu-berries will be transferred to your friend and he/she will receive a motivational email. So you shouldn’t keep all these delicious berries for yourself, share them as well with your friends!
What is my busuu.com status?
Your “busuu status” is based on the number of busuu-berries you have collected.
| If you have … | You get … |
| More than 20 000 busuu-berries: | |
| From 10 000 to 19 999 busuu-berries: | |
| From 5 000 to 9 999 busuu-berries: | |
| From 1 000 to 4 999 busuu-berries: | |
| From 500 to 999 busuu-berries: | |
| From 50 to 499 busuu-berries: | |
What are the busuu-badges?
busuu-badges reward specific activities you have done within our community:
You have commented on more than 100 posts
You have commented on more than 500 posts
You have commented on more than 1000 posts
You have more than 50 friends on busuu.com
You are a busuu-translator
You had a brilliant idea to improve www.busuu.com
You have successfully finished an A1 course
You have successfully finished an A2 course
You have successfully finished a B1 course
You have successfully finished a B2 course
Why didn't I receive the confirmation email after registration?
Your confirmation email might have arrived in your spam folder, especially if you are a hotmail or msn user. If, after checking your junk/spam folder, you still haven't received confirmation, please contact us at info[@]busuu.com and we will re-send your confirmation message.
Why does the chat application not work for me?
You need to enable pop-ups in your browser in order to be able to use our chat-application.
Why can't I upload or change my profile picture?
Your picture needs to be uploaded in the correct file format: either .jpg or .gif and the file-size should not exceed 1 MB. Please do not use spaces or special characters when naming your picture. If the new picture still does not appear, press “Ctrl F5” to update the page.
What can I do, if I have forgotten my password?
Click on the link in the log-in field and enter the email address you used for registration. A message enabling you to reset your password will be sent to your account.
How can I introduce special characters?
When you are writing your message, click on the keyboard icon 
on the left of your text. Here you can choose the special characters you need.
How do I change the language interface of the page?
Go to "Settings" on the top right-hand side of your personal home page and there you can change the "user interface language".
How can I change the languages I am learning?
You have to go to "add a new language" just on the opposite side of "my busuu.com Language Garden" on your personal page. You can also go to "settings" on the top right-hand side of the home page and then to the section "languages".
How do I delete my account?
Go to "Settings" on the top right-hand side of your personal home page and then click on the last section "Remove account". Here please, select the reasons for doing so as a feedback and then click on "Confirm Account Removal".
Why should I become a Premium Member?
As a Premium Member you get access to additional functionalities and new material. The Premium functions are designed in such a way as to make your language learning with busuu.com even easier and more efficient. Please follow the link to see a detailed description of the Premium Functions
What different types of subscriptions do you offer?
We currently offer 1 month, 3 months and 6 months subscription plans. You can choose the one which best fits your needs and your pocket. Find here an overview of the Subscription Plans
How much does it cost?
We offer the Premium Membership at a very competitive price. Here you find the current prices of the different
Subscription Plans
How can I pay?
You can currently pay via Visa, Mastercard or American Express. Additionally you can pay with PayPal or via bank transfer. We will continuously extend the payment methods we offer you. Please send us an email at info[@]busuu.com in case you want us to include a certain payment method we don’t offer yet.
Where can I see my Premium Membership information?You can find all the relevant information (price of subscription, length of subscription plan etc..) in your Subscription page
How do I renew my subscription?
For your convenience, we will renew your subscription automatically. If you have for example a monthly subscription, we will renew your subscription every month. If you have a 3 month subscription, we will renew your subscription every 3 months for another 3 months etc..You can cancel your subscription at any time on your Subscription page
How can I cancel my Premium Membership?
You can cancel your Premium Membership at any time on your Subscription page . Please note that you have to cancel your subscription at least 7 days before the automatic renewal date, otherwise the cancellation will only take effect at the end date of your renewed subscription.