Any one have success using Rosetta Stone?

[z1ggy]

Trying to learn some new languages. It seems sort of tough to feel like I am actually going to learn the language, especially ones like Russian that don't even use the same alphabet as ours.

Also, if I was doing multiple languages at once, would it be better to try and complete one language and then move to another, or try to slowly learn a few at the same time?

Currently, I am working on german, italian, and russian. I might give up on russian though, that shit is hard. I have mandarin and portuguese, too. Might try those also.

 

[teh_pwnerer]

First off you have no idea what are you doing.

Learning 10 languages at once is one of the worst things you can do. Do you just want to say hello and learn the first 10 numbers?

Rosetta Stone does not work. It uses pictures and teaches useless phrases. You learn stupid words that won't help you in a conversation or speaking the language at all.

Rosetta Stone is a money grab.

There are only 2 options to seriously learn another language.

1. Have a friend or a partner from another country who speaks the language. Let them teach you 1on1.

2. Move to another country and immerse yourself with the people. You will be forced to learn a language to survive.

There is a third option, a method called Pimsleur. It's better than Rosetta stone but it's not perfect.

All these language programs don't teach you proper grammar, writing, or useful words.

 

[luv2liv]

i learned Mandarin with Pimsleur. works great!
Rosetta felt so useless, i gave up after 30 mins

 

[tommo123]

i second pimsleur above (for italian, try michel thomas too - although stop about halfway through - he starts yelling at his students more)

i personally would do 1 language at a time. say italian, do the 1st set of 30 (3 sets of 30 and 1 bonus set of 10) then use rosetta to kinda go over what you've already done. should complement the pimsleur course.

once you've done both - you're not ready to speak it really. you can recite pre conceived phrases and with time can create your own but you're not really there. that's the point where you hire a 1on1 session with an italian. just to force you to actively have a real conversation and get you used to it.

i'm going over italian now (done pims italian before, french, spanish and 10 lesson of the japanese). this time instead of a group class (me, teacher and 10 students) i'm paying for 1on1 lessons instead. more useful

 

[Fritzo]

Me llamo Fritzo.

 

[IronWing]

Me llamo Fritzo.

You llamo? Me llama, handsome.

 

[Perknose]

Just read a great article about what our Armed Services are looking at. It was not kind to Rosetta Stone. I'll see if I can find it.

Ahhhh, here it is. It persuasively touts the LinguaStep-type method. Imho, it's worth a read, OP.

 

[tommo123]

i found a page a while ago with some government made mp3 lessons (free to download) for spanish, french etc. not very good though. had random sentences and would be no use if you had no understanding to begin with.

 

[Fritzo]

You llamo? Me llama, handsome.

No, que llamo llama?

 

[mugs]

I briefly tried Rosetta Stone (German) but was not impressed at all. They say their method of teaching is similar to how you learn your first language, so clearly it must be the best way to learn a language. The reality is that they chose that method because it allows them to very easily replicate it for many languages.

 

[WaTaGuMp]

I see no reason to learn another language, everyone here already speaks Spanish.

 

[SheHateMe]

I used Rosetta Stone 6 years ago when I started self teaching Japanese. It sucks....bad. Since then, I have taken Japanese at the College level but have also had opportunities to do language exchange so my comprehension and speaking skills are much better.

Rosetta Stone just isnt worth the money...It is if you like to play the matching game or if you like learning random phrases which are useless if you don't know the structure of the language.

 

[Farang]

I used Rosetta stone briefly while living in Thailand. It taught me stuff like "The child sits on the horse" and other useless phrases. Then when I tried them on my drinking buddies, they had no clue what I was trying to say.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

http://radiolingua.com/

Coffee Break series are excellent.

I think the teaching method is superior as it is like classroom learning. You hear a student learning the language, making mistakes and being corrected/guided by the host. I've been really pleased with their Spanish product. Paid for the full version. They have the free product, and the paid one has additional content.

 

[sjwaste]

IMHO, Rosetta Stone (and similar) do a pretty good job of teaching you grammar and vocabulary. They fall short of really teaching you a proper accent and colloquialisms that would actually let you fit in somewhere else. To me, learning a language means you speak with a proper accent. Otherwise, you're just saying the words.

If you can't do some kind of immersion, Rosetta Stone is pretty good. But seriously consider supplementing with some sort of immersion. It doesn't mean you have to move to another country. Join a local cultural club (at least with Italians, we're everywhere), take a live class, whatever.

Last time I was in Italy, I overheard a lot of tourists who probably had better vocabularies than I did, but accents that really would make a native speaker cringe, at least if Italians weren't so accommodating of anyone willing to try. Other than Parisians and the employees at YYZ, I think a lot of native non-English speaking groups are very encouraging of people trying to learn their language. See who you can approach and try to get some additional practice.

I suppose if I were to take my own advice, I'd need to work on my English. My Italian is spoken with a proper Florentine accent. My English is Philadelphian

 

[Imp]

I am actually loving Rosetta Stone... but the trick may be that I've taken a shit ton of French classes (6 years of it) throughout elementary and secondary school. I've also done some self-studying using grammar books and tried learning by reading books. So, my expectations are different. What I wanted was a new way to learn because I didn't want to pay $350 for classes (and I hate classes for languages), and reading got tiring having to look up every other word in the dictionary.

The best part of Rosetta Stone, I'd say, is that it "speaks" the language along with written words in an intuitive way. You'd need a book and tape or MP3 player that you'd have to manually sync to do that alone. In a classroom, you'd get your ass kicked for asking the teacher to repeat the word 10 times to check the pronunciation. With RS, you can just replay it. For me, it's more about an extra tool and cleaning up what I already know.

Overall, languages are bitches to learn and it takes immersion and continuous use. I'm over twenty years into English and pick stuff up every day with things I still am not completely clear on. French is also my third language, and I'm illiterate with the second one despite immersion at home and classes.

 

[Charlie98]

You llamo? Me llama, handsome.

Bad llama!

 

[Svnla]

As a person who can speak and write a few languages, here is my own experience.

You can read all the books you can and use things like RS but you will not able to listen and understand if you do not practice (speak and listen) with native speakers.

I spent a few years to learn English but when I arrived in the US, I was like "WTH those folks are talking about? Why are they talking with a funny accent and so fast"?