Recommendation and feedback of Busuu

 

This is my second week of befriending German, so glad that I don't give up on learning German! After watching the video introduced to German last week, I gained more general background about German, such as the main structure of German sentences. This action definitely brings me into another world of German, not the only greeting sentence, “Guten Tag!” any more. Nevertheless, an intriguing incident happened last week. Professor CC asked our group whether all of us want to learn a new language, because another group told her that German was too difficult for them to acquire. “They abandoned German since German is so difficult that they couldn’t handle it. Do you want to revise your project? This week is the final week to do so!” That’s all I remembered what she said last week, but we all responded “No, we don’t, thanks.” to her. All of us think German is no longer mysterious for us; we accustom ourselves to it as if we are good friends. Want to know how we reach our goal step by step? We not only search for online resources such as videos on Youtube, but also our another new friend, a language-acquiring application which is called Buusu.

  　Before starting introducing essential part of Buusu, let me tell you some background of it! This application is named after the endangered language Busuu, which is spoken in Cameroon. According to an ethnological study conducted in the 1980s, only eight people at that time were still able to speak this language. In 2010, Busuu created a short language course to encourage people to learn the Busuu language by using Busuu the application.

 Each language course on Busuu is developed using the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), an internationally recognised standard for creating language lessons. The CEFR is broken down into six stages, ranging from complete beginner to completely fluent. Busuu’s courses cover the first four stages of the CEFR, from A1 to B2 level. This is one of the beneficial part of Busuu; it offers criteria for learners to choose how much they want to improve. For instance, if someone completes Upper Intermediate B2 it means you are capable of discussing important issues, understanding the main point and important details in the news, having extended conversations on familiar and new topics, or writing a story. Another benefit of Busuu is background survey. Busuu will ask you some questions about language learning, like “What’s your goal in language learning?” and “What level do you want to achieve?”. In the end, you can choose “When would you like to learn” and set a notification to remind you. I am fascinated with this function, because I am going to teach the part of “how to travel in Germany”. This platform provides me so ample resources that I will be able to teach others by using the information and it makes learners to rethink about the purpose of step into the learning journey, because acquiring a new language requires patience and perseverance.