BaseLangReviews of baselang.com

Hard to navigate. Base Lang is not beginner friendly. Most of their teachers are Spanish only. They don’t care that I have learned nothing.

I signed up for a class but i have no idea where to go when it is time for the class. My intro to laselang was not o great both of us had cellular issues and it was very frustrating. Can someone reach out to me to help me get started?

I think the introduction of the tip jar or 'gift money' is a clear indication of what further research characterizes as a failing 'gym membership' business model. Student-customers should not have to subsidize what BaseLang is responsible for paying as a business; it should not be treated as a gig-economy job. Without a low-wage country like Venezuela, BaseLang would not even exist at their $2.00 per hour slave-labor wage. While these teachers are nice at heart, many of them lack enthusiasm or personality, and there is an extreme lack of options to choose from—sometimes there is no one available at all. Everyone should know that the $1,200 'Grammarless' or 'BootCamp' packages are just a scam designed to inject immediate cash, hopefully capturing the New Year's rush and beyond. It is the exact same program for more money, which makes absolutely no sense. The best thing that ever happened to BaseLang was its failure to secure seed capital; venture money would have made no sense and would have merely propped up a mathematically flawed concept. I have not read the platform guidelines regarding review rules. Here are mine: I am an attorney with a First Amendment right, at least in the United States.

They dont honor their commitments or when they make mistakes on the corporate side. Teachers are hit and miss but leave often due to extremely low pay. Looking around for other options.

I would not recommend this so called “academy” to anyone. The curriculum is extremely poor and feels completely unstructured, like they just throw things together at the last minute. The teachers are unprofessional, and most of them can’t even explain things properly in English. Communication is frustrating because of their heavy accents and lack of clarity, and it makes the whole learning process confusing. Instead of helping, they make it harder to understand. It quickly becomes obvious why this place is so cheap it’s because the quality is just as low. If you’re serious about learning Spanish, save yourself the time and money and look elsewhere.

Yes, I admit it. For more than 4 years I have been using this platform to improve my Spanish, above all because I was enjoying varied, sincere, relaxed and respectful conversations and debates ranging from the very complex and global to the very mundane and sometimes very personal topics. The exact relaxed and private environmet combined with being able to have classes with real people, each with their own personality, interests, teaching mehods and humanity was for me the main factor to continue my Spanish journey with this platform. And I believe that precisely because of this my Spanish has significantly improved. But unfortunately, those days are gone. Recently, Baselang announced that from 1 Semptember all the classes will be recorded all the time without any option to opt out. To me, this seemes a flagrant intrusion of privacy and I belive it will significantly worsen the experience for students and professors alike. As a result, it will have have a significantly negative effect on the learning process, especially where stress-free conversation is crucial for long-term improvement. On their landing page among other things they say „That’s why we created BaseLang. Our unlimited one-on-one classes make you feel like you’re living with a native speaker. According Forbes, it’s “the closest thing to immersion you can get without moving to a Spanish-speaking country.” As a citizen of The European Union as far as I know my voice and video in not being recorded when I speak to the people I know, my friends etc. And to me, this is one of the basic liberties and rights. So, unfortunately, despite some really great teachers, I do not see any other option than to stop paying the subcription and continue with other alternatives that more value students' opinion and their privacy unless the company very quickly changes their mind. I believe that if the high quality of education and security were indeed their main concern, as they claim, there would be many other, less intrusive and more respectful options that also take the needs of students and teachers into account. For example, the reviews in written or similar form of clasees could be necessary to fill up for each student at least every now or then. And in the case of repited reports of problematic behaviour of a student or a teacher, it may be requiered that the clases with this particular individuals are recorded for a limited time frame, etc. Also the teaching methods could be reviewed in workshops for teachers without recording. Perhaps a very limited number of classes could be recorded on an optional basis, with just a few studens who have trully and freely agreed to participate in the programme and the company giving them some form of compensation, such as discounts. Of course, they, as professionals, should be aware of many other options, probably much better ones, than I am. But if instead of „Real World“, as their main programe is called, you would like to experience something probably much closer to the „Orwellian world“ and you are even willing to pay something close to 200 USD per month for it, than good luck!

This is completely arbitrary and outrageous. BaseLang wants to record every single class with every teacher, no exceptions, as if we’re part of a constant surveillance experiment. It’s BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING YOU, where every word, every mistake, and every conversation is logged. The comfort and trust students need to actually learn completely disappear. They say it’s “to ensure quality,” but that’s hard to believe. There’s no real reason to record every class—just occasional observations would be enough to ensure teaching quality. This feels like a way to keep teachers under constant scrutiny, not to improve learning. Knowing that everything you say could be recorded makes it stressful to participate in conversations, practice freely, or make mistakes—which is exactly what language learning is about. Honestly, if this policy continues, I’m not sure I’d want to keep using BaseLang, because learning under constant surveillance just isn’t comfortable or effective.

First, I’ll say that I have been using Baselang for several years and think that this model of virtual immersion is an extremely effective means of learning a language; unfortunately, the company itself has gotten progressively less transparent over the years and has acted in ways that are certainly not in the best interest of students. Most recently, they introduced a policy of recording every class you take, and did not formally notify students of this policy - instead, it’s buried within their terms and conditions. It’s mandatory. For a service that encourages students to hold “conversation classes” with its teachers (during which any topic could conceivably arise), it’s really concerning that they would record without first truly obtaining students’ informed consent. They say the recording is to ensure quality, but that seems unlikely - there is no reason to record every single class, for every single student, with every single teacher - they could just have periodic observations if quality was the motive. When conversation is a key part of language learning, who wants to have to worry that whatever they say will be recorded (it could be an embarrassing slip up in Spanish, or your thoughts on the conversation topic)? Who knows who will have access to the videos? I’ve recommended Baselang many times over the years, but will no longer. I’m canceling my subscription (there are good alternatives out there).