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Yabla Review: Learn Languages Through Real Videos

Yabla Cover

Cover image: © Depositphotos.com/baranq

Video language courses are rare and, above all, usually expensive. Yabla changes this, albeit not without one limitation. You’ll find out what that is here in our detailed Yabla review.


Table of Contents

Overview: Yabla in Review

Pros

  • Large number of videos
  • Many exercises and great dictation feature
  • Excellent value for money
  • Diverse range of topics
  • Very authentic material

Cons

  • No guidance for the learner
  • Hardly any learning content for beginners
  • No possibility for own input
  • Inaccurate dictionary entries
  • Annoying language settings

Quick Summary: The Netflix of Language Learning is Awesome

My Yabla experiences are (almost) entirely positive, and I consider the portal a very good system for learning a language in a truly practical way. Admittedly, I was initially somewhat overwhelmed by the offering of nearly 2000 videos. However, thanks to a sensible filter function, this is actually an advantage, as Yabla is a language learning portal that convinces with its provided authentic video material and many additional features.

It is particularly suitable for learners with basic or prior knowledge of the language. And so, it also secured the top spot in our review in the “Advanced Learning” category.

Saving Tip! I noticed that the prices in the app are higher. Therefore, be sure to go through this page here and save money! You can find more information in our comprehensive Yabla Guide!

🡳 Yabla In-Depth Review 🡳

Yabla – a strange name at first glance… It comes from the Spanish “habla,” which already brings us to the Yabla language learning portal and its objective. Yabla advertises that you can learn languages with videos – and I’ll report here in this detailed review on my Yabla experiences over several weeks.

Yabla Logo

Yabla Experiences: What Was Tested?

I knew Yabla before this multi-week review, but not for Spanish. This time I chose Spanish because I have been learning this language for four years anyway and can thus also use the content for advanced learners. A previous learning attempt with Yabla was with Italian, but the platform is structured the same for all languages. Right off the bat, the portal is hardly suitable for beginners.

So, I signed up again on the portal for the Yabla review and looked around the website. Immediately afterwards, I looked for the app to also learn on my smartphone – I use the Android system. The most important features can now also be used on mobile, this also applies to Apple devices. Great!

Video snippet at Yabla
The main screen when playing a video – minimum distractions

So I learn on the computer. The website has very useful features, but before using it, you must not forget to change the language to native language – learning language (in my case German – Spanish), otherwise, the vocabulary cards will show you the most adventurous language combinations.

I approached this portal during the Yabla review like a normal language learner. Of course, I had the small advantage of having used Yabla in the past, but that was probably 15 years ago. Since then, much has changed, of course, and the website has also undergone a comprehensive renewal. So I didn’t read any instructions and relied on my intuition while learning.

First Experiences with Yabla in Review

I have been using the portal for several weeks now and have already gained many experiences with Yabla. I chose Spanish because it’s a language that can be learned with Yabla starting from German, and because I am already advanced in this language. I wanted to test the full range of the offering and not just the material for the lower learning level.

I only used the content on my laptop, as there was no app for Android at the time of the review (but it is in development). The videos run smoothly on my laptop. This is an important point, as I don’t always have to wait for the videos to load. This makes learning much more relaxed.

The audio quality is mostly very good, as is the video quality. I wrote “mostly” because poorer audio and video quality, which I also encountered during the Yabla review, is due to the authentic material. If someone is standing on a central square in a city and explaining something, the traffic noise and other background noises cannot simply be filtered out.


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However, in my opinion, this is not a disadvantage, because when you converse with native speakers or consume television or radio programs, the background noises are also part of it. Best example: a Spanish bar where you sometimes can’t understand your own words. That was also an insight from my Yabla experiences.

Scope and Features: What Does Yabla Offer in Review?

Yabla focuses entirely on learning a foreign language with the help of videos. There is a multitude of subject areas:

Action, Documentaries, Drama, Leisure, Gastronomy, History, Society, Interviews, Comedies, Art/Culture, Lessons, People, Musicians, Music Videos, News, Beginner, Travel, Students, Sports, Environment, World, Advertising, Economy/Business, Science, Yabla Info, and Cartoons are available. Great, so everyone can find something that interests them.

Available Languages on Yabla

There is a different number of videos for each language, but there are always so many that you will be busy for months, if not years. The Yabla review for this article was a little too short to watch all the videos. Although I learned with the video language course for several weeks to really gather many Yabla experiences.

The videos are distributed among the following available learning languages as follows:

  • English: more than 3029 videos
  • Italian: more than 2759 videos
  • German: more than 1950 videos (here German is always combined with English)
  • French: more than 1734 videos
  • Spanish: more than 3466 videos
  • Chinese: more than 1600 videos

(As of Jan. 2025)

These databases are continuously expanded. You will be regularly informed about new contributions via newsletter if you wish.

Yablas Video Selection
Yablas video selection – sheer endlessness

All languages can be learned starting from German – with one exception: Chinese. Chinese must be learned with English as the source language, but you can choose between simplified or traditional source script in Chinese.

Yabla Exercise Example

Exemplary for the different languages, I will now focus on Spanish, also based on my Yabla experiences during the review.

The Filter Function ‒ A Blessing for All Yabla Learners

In addition to the subject areas mentioned above, you can also filter the videos by other criteria. Among other things, Yabla offers a country filter. For the Spanish language, you can accordingly select by Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Spain, Uruguay, and Venezuela.

If that’s too detailed for you, there’s also the filter option Latin America/Spain/Mexico. However, I find the country filtering very useful because the accents of the countries differ greatly from each other. And why should you learn Chilean Spanish if you want to go on vacation to Spain?

VocAbulary Exercise in Yabla

Of course, the videos can also be filtered by difficulty level: Beginner, Intermediate, and Advanced. In the video description, you can see the difficulty level by the number of filled-in small televisions. One filled-in television means “Newcomer.” The increments are then: Beginner, Intermediate, Intermediate to Advanced, and Advanced.

However, there is one limitation: Yabla is by no means suitable for absolute beginners. You should already have some basic knowledge of the language. The videos, depending on the difficulty level and topic, generally have a length of about two to six minutes.


Frau und Mann freuen sich über Sprachkurs-Rabatte

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Your Yabla Profile and Other Areas of the Learning Software

You can also access your personal profile on the homepage. There you will find a ranking list and results, information about your subscription, and the option to translate the page into different languages. It’s a bit unfortunate that this translation is not saved and has to be changed again each time you log in. The default setting is English, but I want to learn Spanish with German as the source language, so I have to change the page language every time.

At least this is the case if you go through the Yabla.com homepage. However, if you bookmark the homepage of the learning language, for example https://spanish.yabla.com/ then the correct language selection is automatically preset: Spanish – German. The “Courses” section, which can also be found in the profile, is only intended for teachers and students of schools.

Yabla has another section: the lessons. However, I had to search a bit until I understood that you don’t have access to them with German as the source language. You have to change the page language to English. This is, in my opinion, a small drawback. In the free version, you have access to some test videos. You can use all features, but there are only a few free videos. If you want to learn seriously, you should buy the full version.

Another section is called “Games.” There you will find the exercises for the videos. More on this in the didactic concept. You can also learn and review vocabulary with Yabla. There is a special tool for this: the vocabulary test. This is a very useful approach, but the program determines which vocabulary you should review.


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There is also a vocabulary quiz. This is composed of the vocabulary that you clicked on while watching the videos and thus marked as “not known.” Vocabulary quizzes are then created from these words.

Didactic Concept: How Well Do You Learn with Yabla?

How good is the learning method used? And how well is the content presented? Can you really learn a language with it? These are the questions I investigate in the didactics section. During the Yabla review, I found out the following: The portal has positive and negative aspects in its concept.

Yabla is Great for Kinesthetic and Auditory Learners!

Yabla, in my experience, provides you with an incredible number of videos. As mentioned above, these are very well sorted by content and cover more than just classic school material. So you can freely choose among the topics and pick out what interests you. There is more than enough choice.

If you click on the “Games” section, you will find the exercises for the respective video. You can also check your results and progress here. The exercise types in the videos are very varied and cover both reading comprehension and writing skills. Listening comprehension is already trained by the video itself, but there are also listening passages from the videos in the exercises.

Exercise Selection Menu

Vocabulary can also be practiced; the exercise types are different and change constantly. You can even set whether accents must be entered correctly and whether you want to play/practice against time. Most voices are pleasant, one I personally didn’t like – but that’s probably a matter of taste. An exercise session with a video can be easily completed in 30 to 45 minutes, but this depends very much on the difficulty level and the length of the video.

The exercises themselves are sometimes relatively short, but sometimes longer, especially if you have to write something. One exercise type, for example, is “Scribe.” Here, sentences from the video are dictated to you, which can take a few minutes. Fortunately, the sentences are divided into different sets, so you can do a part of them each day. Since some of the videos are authentic, the content is generally practical and suitable for everyday use.

Multiple choice with Yabla
A typical multiple choice question

My recommendation here, inspired by my personal experiences with Yabla: Watch the videos that appeal to you. Only what interests you in your native language will also captivate you in your learning language. Learning content doesn’t automatically become interesting just because it’s presented in another language.

Disadvantages I Noticed in the Yabla Review

Unfortunately, I also discovered some minor disadvantages. The dictionary sometimes offers an incorrect or inaccurate translation. This is annoying on the one hand, as you need another dictionary for reference. On the other hand, it always leaves a bad taste, making you question the quality of the entire offering. Yabla should definitely improve this.

If you want to work through a video completely, you will certainly be busy for 30 to 45 minutes, if not longer, which makes it difficult to integrate the learning unit into your daily routine.


Frau und Mann freuen sich über Sprachkurs-Rabatte

‒ Learn Languages for Free? ‒

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Additionally, I find it unappealing that the lessons (i.e., the written texts) are only available with English as the source language. Especially on this topic of setting the source language, Yabla still has room for improvement in the review.

No Further Learning Concepts and No Speech Recognition

The portal has no speech recognition, which means everything has to be written. Also, your own content cannot be entered, which would be interesting regarding vocabulary. Or for our transREAL method, Yabla would be a great basis for 1:1 translation. Unfortunately, Yabla makes it a bit difficult for us here in the review. However, you can download the texts and then apply the transREAL translations yourself.

Learning Tip! If transREAL doesn’t mean anything to you yet, then feel free to look here. We have also dedicated an entire course to this learning method, which you can find here.(Paid offer)

Furthermore, although there are leaderboards where you can see how other learners are progressing in their learning process, you cannot network with them.

Gamification – Collecting Streaks

The exercises in Yabla are referred to as “games.” Some are indeed playful, but mostly they are classic online exercises. So, gamification is not entirely accurate here, but for me, this was perfect, as I don’t need games for language learning. However, I find the leaderboard a good feature. It shows you how much other learners have already learned. Perhaps it’s an incentive for you to move up a place now and then or to improve your streak.

Yabla Review: Interim Conclusion on Didactics

The features are almost unrivaled and very well implemented. Networking with other learners would be desirable in my view, as well as a permanent setting for my native language.

The lack of speech recognition is not a problem for me – if I want to practice orally, I can play the videos with subtitles and read along aloud at the same time. This way, I also quickly notice whether I have pronounced the words correctly or not. 

Didactically, Yabla does a lot right and supports learning a new language authentically and sustainably. I noticed this myself during my review. And the great thing is, this also applies to already advanced language skills, which is hard to find in online courses, excellent!


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However, there is no concept regarding the learning sequence. The learner must set their own goals and decide what they want to learn and what not. Yabla is therefore primarily aimed at independent learners who do not require verification by a second person.

User-Friendliness: How Easy is Yabla to Use?

The website is relatively intuitively designed. Before my Yabla review, I didn’t read any instructions and didn’t consult any “Frequently Asked Questions” before I started learning. So you’ll find your way around well. There is also a tutorial on the homepage that explains how the Yabla player works.

When you then open the video, you will find several sections. In the bottom left, you can give feedback and select which player you want to use. In the video itself, you will find the start button; directly below the video, you will see many small vertical lines. These vertical lines mark the individual sentences in the video.

Additionally, you can turn subtitles on and off, adjust the volume, rewind and fast-forward, play certain passages on a loop, and switch to turtle mode, which means the video plays slower. Theater and full-screen modes are also possible.

To the right of the video, you can open the text for reading along, download it, and/or print it. You will also see the integrated dictionary here (set the language to your preference beforehand).

A small drawback is also evident here: The translations are sometimes incorrect, and inflected forms are often not found. This is a bit unfortunate because you then have to consult a second dictionary repeatedly.


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‒ Learn Languages for Free? ‒

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Find the best discounts and exclusive coupons for top
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The conclusion for Yabla’s usability is therefore: very intuitive and simple, with the limitations of changing the source language and providing “Lessons” only in the English-language program.

Target Audience: Who is Yabla Suitable For?

In my experience, Yabla is suitable for anyone who enjoys learning a language by seeing and hearing, as well as for advanced learners who otherwise have difficulty finding material. The videos with transcriptions are also suitable for shadowing, especially because you can regulate the speaking speed. I find this a great feature.

Learning Tip! This is, by the way, a learning strategy that we present in detail in our ShadowHACK. One of over 30 language learning tips on our HACKlist.

Transcript in Yabla
Peek into a Yabla transcript

However: Yabla is not suitable for beginners. Even though some videos are designated as newcomer or beginner videos, in my opinion, they are too difficult for absolute beginners.

You won’t need many other linguistic activities to learn your desired language. The only thing I would add is having conversations with native speakers, for example, via Skype or at foreign language meetups.


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We’ve tested dozens of language courses…
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You can also find out exactly how to proceed with this in our Language Learning HACKS, including step-by-step instructions.

Price/Value: Is Yabla Worth Buying?

The prices are extremely clear. There are three pricing models for Yabla: for one month, for six months, and for one year. The currency can be set​. However, as Yabla experiences show, the prices in the app are also more expensive here than on the website. Anyone who goes through this page here saves real money.

Of course, you can then also learn with your smartphone. Only the purchase should be made via the website. There is also the option to buy gift vouchers. This is a good way to finance someone’s language course as a gift for Christmas or a birthday.

The current Yabla prices (Jan. 2025) are structured as follows:

One month currently costs €12.95 on the website, six months €54.95, and one year €99.95. If you are not satisfied with the services, you can cancel your subscription within the first 15 days of the subscription, and no charge will be made. This is a kind of trial period. 

Many learners will also see it positively that the bank transfer account has a German account number. Pretty much all payment methods are accepted, PayPal is also possible.

Try Yabla for Free

One more word about the two-week trial period. During my Yabla review, the provider sent me an email two days before the end of the trial period with a reminder that it was now ending and a paid subscription would start. 

The necessary steps to cancel the Yabla subscription were also clearly shown if one decides against the offer. This is very customer-friendly and strong. It demonstrates, not least, Yabla’s self-confidence. Communication is transparent here. Other providers could take a leaf out of their book.

Alternatives: Are There Better Options Than Yabla?

Yabla is a very well-implemented video course that few providers can compete with. LinguaTV and Rosetta Stone, which also rely on (moving) images, are probably the closest in this quality category and can thus be considered Yabla alternatives.

Lingopie – A Modern Take on Video Lessons

If you like Yablas video lesson approach, but are not the biggest fan of their content or surface, you might wanna take a look at Lingopie! Fairly new to the market, it combines a platform with a wide range of content with a browser extension for Netflix. That makes them not only able to offer their own high-quality videos, but lets you study while (re-)watching your favorite movies or series!

Lingopie also includes a basic, built-in vocabulary trainer and has a great, intuitive surface. Though we do still have some critique, the app clearly has a ton of potential and is already quite good. Prices start from around 6$ a month – they do not offer a free trial, however.

LinguaTV – For Beginners and Business Content

Want to learn a new language with videos? Then LinguaTV is a top recommendation, especially if you are new to the language. The focus here is also on job-related vocabulary and content – great for anyone who needs to interact bilingually for work.

In fact, we see LinguaTV as a good starting point, and once you have worked through the courses, you can then further expand your language level with Yabla. Only the user interface is somewhat outdated, but this does not diminish the quality of the content.

Rosetta Stone – Success with the Learning Suite

Instead of videos, Rosetta Stone uses images. However, these are professionally produced. And so, the conclusion in the review at the time was that no other language course uses images as well as Rosetta Stone.

That is still the case, and at the same time, Rosetta Stone also offers the possibility to use lessons in a virtual classroom. This way, you also apply the language immediately.


talkREAL Tip! In our comprehensive Yabla Guide, you’ll also find many direct comparisons between Yabla and other language courses. Read now!


Conclusion: Yabla in Review

‒ The perfect “language course” for advanced learners ‒

Video language courses are generally rare. A scope like Yabla’s is found nowhere else. However, you should already have basic knowledge of the language, and Yabla is a top recommendation especially for advanced learners. Anyone with a higher language level knows how difficult it can be to find good learning content. Yabla is ideally suited here. 

I can overlook the occasional incorrect translation because I find so much authentic material. And above all, material that interests me, thanks to the very good filter function. For under €12 per month, Yabla is a clear buy recommendation for me.

Didactics:
9 / 10

Usability:
8 / 10

Value for Money:
8.5 / 10

Overall Rating: 8.5 / 10

2 thoughts on “Yabla Review: Learn Languages Through Real Videos”

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