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 interactively with other members, you can use our highly interactive learning material, completely free of charge.

How can I improve my language skills with busuu.com?

There are 2 ways to improve your language skills with busuu.com:

1. 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.
2. Learn with the busuu.com learning content: we have prepared hundreds of learning units covering diverse topic areas. Within each unit you will find the most important phrases and vocabulary that you need to know. The content is image and sound-based; you can listen to key vocabulary 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 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 completely for free! In the near future, we will additionally offer premium functionalities for a small amount per month. Nevertheless, you will always have free access to busuu.com as a regular user.

How can I join busuu.com?

Just click on this link and follow the instructions on the registration page.

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 level 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! For every five learning units you successfully complete, you will receive a funny gift for your language garden.

3. Fight the bugs!

Whenever you make mistakes within the review session, 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 a Learning Unit?

A learning unit contains the vocabulary and phrases of a certain topic (e.g. “in the hotel”, “the job interview”) along with the busuu.com writing, listening and speaking exercises.

How can I add a learning unit?

When you are on your home page, click on the tree in your Language Garden that represents the language you want to learn. Now you will enter the language area of the language you have chosen. Now, click on “Manage your units” in the section “Your Current Units”.

Here, you will find a range of 10 different categories (“About me”, “Daily life” etc..). Each category contains several units which are related to the overall topic.

Click on the “plus” sign on the right-hand side so that you can add it to the units you would like to study at the moment. It will be included in your own pool and you can start learning by clicking on “save”.

You can study up to 5 learning units at a time, which will appear on your unit browser:

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.

Dialogue: Then you can do a reading comprehension in the form of a dialogue and answer questions to check your understanding.

Writing exercise: You then write a short text and let other users correct you.

busuu-talk: You can connect with native speakers in the busuu.com community or use our chat application in order to practice your language skills.

Review: Finally, do a short review to check what you have learned.

You can enter each of the areas by clicking on the corresponding icons. Once you have finished them successfully, the icon will turn from red to green.

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”:

What are my "Mistakes"?

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.

What are my "Finished units"?

Once you complete all 5 parts (vocabulary, writing, dialogue, busuu-talk and review) of a learning unit, it will be automatically added to “your finished units”. If you successfully complete 5 learning units, you will receive a gift for your language garden.

You can still access the material of a finished unit by hovering over the picture and clicking directly on the icon of the part (vocabulary, dialogue etc…) you would like to study again.

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.

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 team@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".