Rosetta Stone

I was wondering if anyone had some experience with this software, and what they thought of it? I've never been able to learn a foreign language, and I was picking up German surrisingly quickly in the online demo. The only problem for me is the $200 price tag.

I'm about half way through a Spanish course -- I do a few lessons then get bored with clicking on photos of happy smiley people in variously coloured shirts and have to lay it aside for a few weeks, so I don't know if I'll ever finish it. But because the new content of each lesson is so small, you do remember it, even if there are lengthy interruptions.

I suspect that it could be a very good way to get started in a language you don't know at all, but it's frustratingly slow if you already know a bit, or know analogous languages. You'd need to back it up with some grammar from a book if you wanted to learn formal written language rather than just basic communication.

If you have the option, it's almost certainly better value for money to spend the $200 on evening classes with a human teacher, though.

I am a librarian in California, and my library recently bought a subscription to Rosetta Stone for the patrons in our zip code area. They can use Rosetta Stone for free from home by going through the library gateway. It is similar to using library databases from home.

Our patrons love it. You might check with your local library to see if they have it, and if they don't, ask them to think about purchasing a subscription.

I did the mistake to purchase the Rosetta Stone Japanesse Level 1 & 2 and English 1,2 & 3 for my nephew. Very bad decision almost $700.00

If you buy separetly is more expensive. I thoug that I was saving some money the opposite happen.

I found out the program is very dumb. The first problem is that is optional to log in with your user name, and that requiremente is a must in other training programs like typing tutors. How the program is going to know what is your progress if it does not log you in? With rosetta stone even if I log in, I don´t see any diference. In how the program guide me so I do not get bored.

I complained to the rosetta stone office here in Panamá central america, about several issues like that, The main one is that I got bored because the program keeps repeating what I already know. And there is no way to know what is your progress.

I have tried to return the courses. but they say they are not going to return my money.

I am going to learn the hard way the language I want (japannesee) because I cant return it. They are forcing me to create a tutorial on how to use the program (incredible!) but I am planning to publish in the internet a full report of a very bad designed program that is selling well because of a very cleaver way to advertise.

Maybe these program is good if you are in a language lab with a profesor theaching the second language you want to learn. Or if you get it for free in a library. But it is the worst investment I have done in learning material. I just wanted to learn a new language. I dont wanted to learn how to create my own curriculum on how to learn a new language with rosetta stone. I am a technician with computers with 15 years of experiencie.

I will keep updating these post. Really people need to know about these program. before they purchase it.

my local library has it available for free so I've checked it out for a few languages I know and a few I don't.

I do not think it is worth $200! They have a great advertising campaign, and presence in a number of airports, but I really don't think you'd get very far in a language with it. There are some good critiques of the program out on the internet. For example, no where are there basic phrases like hello, how are you, what is your name, etc. They start right off with "the boy is under the airplane" or "the woman is in the car".

If you can get it for free, it's maybe one part of learning a language, and since all you have to lose is your time, you can check it out and see if it works at all for you. But you shouldn't count on it getting you very far.

I also tried it out for free from my public library and was very disappointed. It is very unsophisticated. I looked at the lessons for German, French, Indonesian, and Japanese (I know the first three pretty well and am learning Japanese) and was shocked to discover that they offer exactly the same lessons for the each language. This makes no sense! In German and French it's important to have lessons that cover gender right away, but in Indonesian and Japanese, there is no gender, so the lesson was odd. Meanwhile, they focus in the elementary lesson on words for "under" "over" etc which, again, are important in languages that have accusative case, but not in Japanese, which uses a totally different grammatical form to express this. Lastly, the word choice in some cases was odd, I found, and there was no connection of the language to local culture, which would seem pretty obvious (i.e. in Indonesian and Japanese you rarely use pronouns when addressing someone - you use indirect forms or other terms, while in French and German, you must learn to distinguish the formal from the informal). Summary: a bad choice.

No idea, but they are missing in their collection my language (mother´s tongue as so called), which is Czech. But best way to learn is either by moving to the country, which speaks language (like I do), or find in the area where you live someone who comes from the country of your interest.

I have the German V3 Level 1,2 & 3 and absolutely love it. No complaints here at all. The new version 3 covers grammar very well whereas the version 2 does not.

:)

I have the Korean version. It's interesting because you can chose different ways to drill--audio, visual, or written. But as another person pointed out, the content doesn't make much sense. There is no way to search for particular phrases if you want to review them. Also, it is sometimes hard to tell what word they are trying to teach you from the picture. In a still picture, walk doesn't look that different from run.

The best thing about it is it has more content than most of the cheaper programs. But I don't think you could actually learn the language this way. How useful is "The boy is under the plane. The girl is on the table."?

Now it seems that Rosetta Stone has stopped making agreements with public libraries. I don't know why, but it is (at least in the US) no longer available except by individual purchase.

Well, I just got mine today! I've only done the first lesson but I don't have any complaints so far. While I would agree that nothing is better than a real live tutor, that isn't always possible and this looks to me, so far, like a great substitute or add-on. I did several years of Greek with a real tutor but had to leave for health reasons. Now I can no longer attend classes and didn't manage to get to Greece this year I'm starting to feel decidedly rusty and this is the perfect way for me to brush up on what I know and, hopefully, learn a bit more too. Of course, I may feel differently after a few weeks but I'll let you all now if that is the case.

I think Rosetta Stone is a good way to be introduced to a language, but I cannot see how a person would truly learn a language doing it. You get to hear the words spoken properly, see the word itself, and see a picture of the word. There is a lot of repetition, so you learn those words well, but you don't build a very large vocabulary. Unless you are a prodigy in picking up languages, there is no easy way to learn a language, I don't care what the commercials say. With that said, I still think its a worthwhile software to aid in learning a language.

I would agree with what you say there, mattaggie, but I also think that's true of any language learning method (and I've tried quite a few). I'm using the RS level 1 right now to revise and brush up on things I've done before and I'm still learning bits of vocab I didn't cover in 6 years of classes and private lessons - no two systems teach to exactly the same script. There are really only two efficient ways of aquiring a good vocabulary and both involve speaking the language regularly - either in the classroom with 'conversation' lessons, or by spending time in the country of your choice, speaking the language every day with native speakers. The beauty (as I see it so far) of RS is that you can use it every day (unlike classes, which are usually once a week) and I am finding it much more enjoyable (and am therefore much more likely to keep up the habit) than I have found learning with books/tapes etc. A combination of different methods is probably the ideal, next to moving abroad, but that can be expensive. I wouldn't suggest RS is cheap by any means, but I certainly think it's as good as other methods of comparable prices. The most important thing to consider when learning a language is that you have to practise every day; I would recommend that people use whichever method they feel is most likely to encourage them to do that.

The Michel Thomas courses (available for most languages) are much cheaper and very effective