Now that we have an idea about what to expect regarding Rosetta Stone let us now draw our attention to why many are saying that they love Rosetta Stone. Millions have already downloaded it since it has amazing language learning content that you surely do not want to miss! Get to know more about this app here.
Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. October 11, Genine Torres. Let's get to know more about this app in the section below. Rosetta Stone's Language Package Planning to get a Rosetta Stone course but unsure of whether it covers your target language? Rosetta Stone's courses are pretty solid in the sense that it comes complete with a core lesson, learning modules, and practice exercises.
Therefore, the whole app takes on a holistic approach, and you can expect to improve, especially in areas like pronunciation, reading, listening, and grammar. The app is viewed as a trailblazer one of the first language platforms ever as it has been in the industry for almost 29 years now, and they are consistently improving its features. The Rosetta Stone has bonus content and built-in games, but there are still some that will need adobe flash installed on your device, so be sure to take note of that before you try it out.
The Platform is simple but may seem repetitive at times, so this will work best with learners who enjoy structure. But, I think its a pretty great supplemental resource as long as you don't pay full price!!
Thanks for the review. I am right now learning spanish latin america with Rosetta Stone. I started two weeks ago and I'm already very good. I speak better Spanish than in 7 years french at school lol. I gotta say that I'm fluent in Croatian, German and Croatian. I can manage French as well.. This may be an advantage for me using Rosetta Stone as I already have a feeling for languages.
For me the whole school system never worked. What I like about RS is that they don't just force you to learn conjugation at the beginning. They just throw random sentences and words at you and day by day you just get a feeling for the language. I can imagine learning Mandarin or Arabic is very difficult with a software but lets be honest, why would you do that?
I would never try to learn any asian language with a software. Simply because it's a total different world to me : What I really enjoy is the voice recognition, the games with other people and the live sessions. A big dislike for me are the countless repetitions. I often skip steps because its a bit annoying at least the spanish one. I recommend this program to everybody who is easy going with languages and who already speaks a second language :. Here is an inconsiderate comment about endangered language programs I have to say this was the most balanced review I found of the software.
I do also agree that it is probably best as one part of a whole for learning. I am currently learning Japanese using it, but I am not learning with only Rosetta stone. I also watch a large amount of Japanese Anime, and sporting events like Sumo wrestling so I have developed an ear for the language and I have started turning off the subtitles and am finding it easier to follow and know what is being said.
My biggest issue with Rosetta stone is that there are a number of languages that are not offered that are still spoken by a large number of people. Also that there are more than just Native American languages that are dying. Yiddish, one very colorful and culturally relevant language to many people is dying out and that would be another good one for them to attempt to create a program for.
I had a friend who was from Germany and had asked him to teach me the language. I learned by going to his house and his family would speak in German to me, and only if I was really lost I'd ask for translation. But it was all about intuition and repetition. I also picked up Rosetta Stone German Volume 1 from a friend, and how 6 years later I haven't spoke a lick of German but I remember everything from that volume 1 and only some of what I learned from my friend.
Although, what I learned wasn't particularly useful it was family stuff, started boy, girl, bread, water, drink, eat, then sentences the boy ate bread, the girl drank water, the man read the newspaper etc but I bet if I completed all the sessions, it would get more practical and a good way to learn. But the important thing is to practice.
They constantly are having sales. So my advice is research before you buy. Also beware of any article that says they are going to give a fair review but starts off in the very first line saying you should buy this other product.
They will always undersell not necessarily be negative the competition. Every person learns at different rates and through different methods. So look for companies that offer a free trial so you can experience their program before you buy Once you get the free trials then sit back and try them all out. If one works better than the others get that one, if they all work about the same then go for the best value. I agree about the cost, but there's no need to pay full price.
I'm not sure if there's any pattern to the sales, but they certainly drop the price around Christmas. Hi I enjoyed reading your review. Very well Put. I got the german. I do believe that Pimsleur is a better programme and gives you better sentence structures and real world country specific situations. Cheers Brett. Just want to toss in my two cents here. I was lucky enough to get to try the Russian edition.
To me it has been a great experience. I actually recommend the Russian version, if you have a knack for languages, and are good at intuitively figuring out sentence structures and grammar, this product is actually very decent. My friend has tried Japanese, which seemed to be a more bitter experience, so I think the review are very thorough.
However, if I were to buy it as opposed to getting it free from work like I did, I don't think the product is worth more than USD. I bet they'd sell like crazy if they dropped the price down to this.
I liked your review. I was wondering have you ever heard of or tried Fluenz? I was wondering if that might be really good to use. Thank you!!! I don't know if this has been said already, but there is a current sale on RS. I'm using it to learn Filipino Tagalog and many of the cheaper options don't have this language.
I purchased the latest version total package for USD broken up over 3 months. This was a much more affordable option and still comes with all of the bells and whistles of the new packages.
I love it. I also have friends from the Philippines that I communicate regularly with, but this program is amazing in my opinion. I would never have bought it at full price, but if you catch the sale it's well worth it.
It was on a holiday special, for Christmas. So I suggest waiting for them to have one of these deals for what I paid was less than half the price. I am just beginning my journey so I feel It is a good start speaking for myself anyway. I have downloaded a few podcasts from other sources on I-tunes just for a reinforcement excersizes. Here's my two cents.
I have been using Rosetta Stone French and Korean for a while; while I haven't gotten too far as of yet, I have found that Rosetta Stone actually works very well for me. I am a very visual person, and seeing pictures paired with the words written in the language has helped what I learn stick. I figured out pretty quickly that it really helps to have a notebook and a pen or pencil nearby while you're using the software.
I write down any new words I learn, their definitions, and their gender. I have categorized them by type basic, food, animals, colors, ect so that I have to really focus on the word and what it is used for; I have found that writing the word down helps me memorize it, and as soon as you memorize the word and don't have to work so hard to recall it, figuring out the grammar gets pretty easy.
Once you get pretty good at listening for the words, watching Korean TV with subtitles is actually pretty useful because A. You have a plethora of native speakers to listen to, some with different dialects and accents. I would say the same with any of the other languages as well; immerse yourself in their media and you'll pick up on it quicker. I am one of those people who are strongly dissatisfied with RS. I tried to soldier on through the Korean lessons, ignoring my lack of comprehension.
It got to the point where I could give all the right answers but had no idea what I was saying e. Falling, riding, holding on? There were simply not enough contrastive sets. When I was learning my first language, my mother would guide me when I didn't understand. Linguistic research clearly shows that repetition is only part of the way people learn their first language. While figuring things out is a good learning strategy, NOT figuring things out is a bad one.
Research in second-language learning has found that an affective barrier is a serious problem for many people learning a language. It can lead to not recognizing what is already known, avoiding studying, and other counterproductive behaviors. Donovan favors speaking early, but teaching a foreign language using a silent period has been found to be quite effective. Korean has two counting systems. This is not told to the learner. Yes, I realize that figuring something out is a stronger learning method than hearing or reading it.
Korean does have a plural suffix, but it is normally used only to show contrast. There are free online Korean courses that work much better. A Korean told me that many of the sentences used are not what a Korean would ever use.
So what's the point of chunking if the the chunks are never going to be used? On the positive side, even though for ease I would have preferred the grammatical forms used with kids since it's easier, starting with the formal is better for learning Korean since using formal to your lover might be funny but using informal or familiar with your boss can be catastrophic.
So that aspect of RS I agree with. I was so upset with my RS Korean course that I tried, within the specified time, to get my money back. I got stonewalled and still have the stuff lying around somewhere. While we all might learn our first language regardless of what it is pretty much the same way and, unless there is a special problem, succeed in getting the basics in a couple of years after hearing thousands of hours; learning a second language does not always follow the same path or have the same ease.
Thus, it can well be that RS is good for certain mixes of some languages and some people. Let me give two short examples to explain. I bought my Korean RS at full price.
Psychologically, this is important; I was quite poor, and the price had am impact on my basic living condition. That meant that I felt the company owed me a good product, but it also meant that I was determined to get my money's worth from it. An acquaintance had a stolen or pirated copy of RS for Portuguese. That is, he had no financial investment in it. He raved about RS. In addition to the financial-psychological difference, there was a linguistic one. I had had no background in Korean; he spoke Spanish, and his mother tongue was German.
That meant that the vocabulary and grammar of his target language were not far from his base, whereas other than European loan words which, though not rare in Korean, are not common in the RS course , I was totally in the dark. Interestingly, when I looked at RS free snooper course for Indonesian, a language I had had a couple of courses in years earlier, I breezed through material and actually discovered the meaning of one or two Korean pictures that had stumped me.
I have been told that the Russian RS program does not take into consideration the gender of the speaker and other aspects of the language, which means it is either confusing or wrong. Ok so I read this review a couple days ago after having already started a German Rosetta Stone. I had something just happen that I thought was hilarious and made me think about this, so I had to post it.
I was just doing a Core Lesson and eating at the same time. A talky bit came up when I wasn't expecting it and I was slurping spaghetti, and it accepted my spaghetti slurp as a correct answer XD. I know this is old, but I'm currently working on RS Korean in preparation for an internship in Korea in a few weeks.
I have to say I completely disagree with your contention that it is a good thing to completely exclude explicit grammar instruction. It may be true that it is possible to learn grammar inductively, but SLA research indicates that it takes children YEARS to master the grammar of their language. Even if an adult had that much time, adult brains do not function in the same way as those of children.
For example, I'm about halfway through Level 1 of Korean and I was getting frustrated by the lack of explanation so I bought a Korean workbook from Barnes and Noble.
I opened it up and the first thing I discovered was an explanation of the -ga and -reul endings, which I wasn't adequately made aware of after the first unit. Things retrospectively made significantly more sense to me and I wondered what I had missed by not understanding that. How long would it have taken for RS to make explicitly clear that -ga is the subject ending and -reul is the object ending?
Maybe a minute? The amount of input I would have needed to figure that out myself would be absolutely staggering i. My point is that even though grammar CAN be learned implicitly doesn't mean it SHOULD be done that way, especially when RS is a product clearly designed and marketed with the purpose of providing an efficient program.
In general SLA research indicates that while implicit learning can be effective it should always be supplemented by explicit instruction, especially when there is little transfer between languages as with Korean and English, or really Korean and any other language. Paul Nation has a lot to say on this subject if you're interested. You link to your other post where you describe how important it is to make mistakes, but you can't make these mistakes in a program like RS because you have no feedback.
That's another important issue in terms of child language acquisition: not only do you not have the same amount of time as a child but you also don't have the resource of someone who knows the language who can give you unlimited amounts of input and correct you when you make a mistake.
In my opinion RS tries to take an "innovative" approach by being immersion-only but in the process makes itself less efficient and less authentic. I majored in French and minored in Spanish years ago. I make a major effort to continue to improve. When planning a trip to Italy I went through the whole Pimsleur program and wanted more.
A Rosetta Stone offer came up on Craigslist so I jumped on it. When it would not work in my computer I contacted the company and was told that these programs are "leased" not "purchased" so you cannot buy it secondhand.
I argued that my box was new, still in shrink wrap, I was told that Rosetta Stone does not use shrink wrap and that someone perhaps out of China, has made tons of fake copies.
So I learned something, I guess, but I would still like to know, if it was a genuine RS product, would it now work on any computer or is it still restricted? The happy ending to this event was that i found I could use the companion CDs because of my solid language background.
Thanks for you very comprehensive review and suggestions. Still looking for an advanced program to further my French but have found some great podcasts like News in Slow French, that you can speed up to normal speed.
If you're going to ding Rosetta Stone for improper grammar, you should look at your own first and correct it. You mean, "Have become more ignorant". People aren't getting anymore stupid, they conveniently ignore the facts and anything that is difficult, for which is the reason why I used, "ignorant" instead of, "stupid".
I have a simple question, I hope you can help me. I need to improve my vocabulary in english, I understand many words and also conversations but Im really short in my own speaking because of my short vocabulary.
Im a visual man, so the best way to learnd for my is by watching, Rosetta Stone is good in that area. I need to know if the teach vocabulary and how much grammar do they teach. I have others programs to speak and also to listen english but Im looking for one to learnd and improve my vocabulary.
As always great review. I have been studying Arabic Iraqi dialect and French with Rosetta Stone and it's really a great product. In my opinion also a great supplement There is no one source solution for language learning except to always study, listen and speak when you get the chance. I also highly recommend glossika. Again, great review because it is really the most balanced I read.
The 6 moth auto renewal is not stated at the time of purchase it is in fine print on the followup email confirmation I was ripped off and cant get my first 6 moth charge reversed you have to catch it at the time!! I wish I had read this review before I bought Rosetta Stone. Fortunately I didn't pay full price. Thanks very much. It really is an excellent, balanced review. I used Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish as a beginner and then I returned to it more recently for revision.
There are different kinds of learners and Rosetta Stone suits some. I can't learn vocabulary unless I can see or visualise the words. Rosetta Stone is helpful to me because it allows me to see the spelling of the words I'm learning. I have used Pimsleur and that was its main limitation for me.
My main problem with RS is its inflexibility. I can't pause to think and process what I'm learning and I have to continue at the pace of the program to the end of the lesson without knowing how long it will take. Other problems include the failure of the headset soon after I started using RS and my difficulty in working out what some of the diagrams are supposed to show.
It's not a program that I would recommend. Thank you, this is VERY helpful and thorough. I have wondered if I am missing something by not using RS, and am relieved to see that this is not necessarily the case. You should be updating your review, because the online subscription now includes up to 4 Video chat group lessons 25min each with a native speaker per month, which is a total of 20 hours of!
Although they are supposed to be group lessons, most of the times I was alone with the teacher and they are very well trained and I felt like really learning something. I bought the subscription for eur during a christmas time offer, so alltogether this is a huge value for that money. I recently started teaching myself Japanese, using YouTube, Flash Games, and just some written articles on the subject.
I haven't spent much more than a few days on it yet, but I wanted to "try" rosetta stone out because I know someone who has the version I want. In short I really like the lack of explanation.
I haven't gone more than a few minutes in yet but I really like what I'm learning. I have been using Rosetta Stone for a couple of weeks not to learn Swedish and have found it very helpful. However, I would like to point out a couple of things that have changed since the article was written or was not available at the time.
The subscription pricing as dropped significantly. However, with their Rosetta Stone Language Learning program now, the program remains active even after the online subscription expires. So if you choose not to renew the online subscription, you still have access to the regular program on your computer along with all the standard lessons; you just no longer have access to the online tutoring, games, mobile app, etc.
So even after purchasing the online subscription, you still have the product for a lifetime. One other thing that I think is useful with their Rosetta Stone Language Learning program is that the license allows you to install it on two computers. I find this helpful as I have installed on my desktop at home and my work compute to do some lesson on my work break at lunch. The computer software also allows up to 5 learns per computer, so if my wife, or son, wanted to start using it, I wouldn't need to purchase additional licenses.
They can use the software already installed. The also have the option of deactivating it on an installed computer so you can install it on a different one e. I am not sure if the other products you mentioned offer similar options, but I did find these to be very appealing. I would like to point out that I am in no way affiliated with Rosetta Stone. I did find your article very fair and balanced and have started checking out some of your other articles all of which I have liked so far.
Keep up the great work! Where Rosetta Stone fails: inaccurate and boring! That being said, as long as its not used alone, it's not totally worthless in its educational value. That's a good summary -- but pretty much any year old can write up software that does pretty much the exact same thing in about a couple of hours.
I work at it 5 days a week. All I can do is recognize certain words but have no idea how to put them together into sentences I am a college graduate, but this program has made me feel like the worlds biggest idiot. Donovan - Thank you for your very balanced and thought out review of RS.
You asked if other RS languages have an issue with "honorifics. I think get away with using "du" syntax because I am an American, but is has taken some older people by surprise. It is generally not ideal to walk up to someone you don't know and address them with "du;" something RS doesn't address.
I had already taught myself some Dutch years ago. I bought textbooks, phrase books, cassette courses, and a great dictionary. For teaching myself, I learned a great deal. The only thing is that I didn't have anyone to speak Dutch with. I like the idea of being taught by a native speaker and repeating phrases back. I also like the feature of reading and recording a story and getting immediate feedback. There are some instances where there will be something thrown at me and I have to figure out what I am supposed to do.
Thank you for your review. I will check out the other options you mentioned before I commit. My daughter and son in law bought Rosetta Stone for me to continue my French study after completing the DuoLingo tree free! I wanted to progress further with French but instead I feel I have gone into remedial education and it is moving very slowly.
I had assumed I could move quickly to the place where I need more work. It is moving very slowly with repetition of what I already know, yet I get dinged in pronunciation that makes no sense at all. It seems to not be able to consistently pick up my voice, using a microphone headset I purchased just for this. I can say the exact same thing several times when it counts it wrong. There is no explanation to show what it sees as wrong so I keep saying the same thing in exactly the same way and after a couple of tries, nearly shouting into the mic it counts it as correct.
I swear there is no change at all because I know I am saying it correctly, so there is no reason to change it. I feel very badly that my kids, who really can't afford this, gave a well-meaning gift with the best of intentions. I consider it a waste of money and I have gone far enough in the program to see this is going to be a long, tedious year - not the best use of time and resources but I feel I must for the sake of their sacrifice.
I must say, I thought for the price, it would do more than free language programs. I hope I get to new material sooner than it appears it will happen; otherwise it is really a waste. I am german and got the RS French course as download software last Christmas 5 weeks ago. I have started to learn french 4 weeks before by meeting a french teacher one hour a week. I did 6 Units out of 20 total in that time spending 1hour a day. So I am able to complete a Unit in a week, perhaps the full course in 20 weeks.
Lessons that drive me to speak french are much more usefull and the writing lessons are the hardest, here I need 2 or 3 repetitions to accomplish the lesson. I complement the RS by hearing to french audio books every day and still continuing the real life teacher sessions once a week. That feels very efficient. Doing only the RS course would be far too less to grasp the language for real communication. At the bottom line, I am happy with the RS course as one component of learning french.
I am happy with 'unclear' sentences and can accept to understand it later, but my partner cannot learn in that way and is unhappy with the lack of grammar and translations I'm not sure if every library offers this, but through San Diego Library we have access to Rosetta Stone online for free.
Just click on the Education and Languages Databases link and sign up and voila there you go! Totally free. Thanks for a great review of its features. It worked very well for me and I'm curious to see if Rosetta works as well. There is definitely nothing like immersion in the local culture for language learning, but most of us don't have that option before we land somewhere!
For Japanese and Korean , I find that none of the big names cover that well. Also loving idea that you should wait until you understand. I find that in the school system there is a big focus on understanding immediately. I think it actually hurts us in the long run, because we end up THINKING the language through logically, which means we produce and produce much more slowly. Every linguist is different, but for me, I feel in control of a language when I can leave English at the door.
For me, the way to get good at foreign languages is to separate them from your native language. With RS, you can do that from the start. Are there programs you recommend for learning Welsh? Rosetta Stone discontinued it and I can't even seem to find a used copy to purchase. Overall, the Rosetta Stone Spanish course is an excellent resource to build a strong foundation in the language. The Rosetta Stone French course helps you learn how to navigate everyday situations in French.
The speech recognition technology can help improve your pronunciation, but the most useful feature for this is Stories. Rosetta Stone lets you follow along as a native speaker reads a story, then lets you record yourself reading it. This feature alone makes Rosetta Stone stand out from other French learning apps. You can also compare Rosetta Stone to other apps to learn French. Using Rosetta Stone to learn Japanese will help you understand the language a little more, but the Japanese course has quite a few limitations.
More popular languages like Spanish and French have 20 units of content, but Rosetta Stone Japanese only has Compared to other Rosetta Stone language courses, the Korean course is pretty basic. You can also check out other Korean learning apps. The Rosetta Stone Arabic course has 12 units that help you learn some general vocabulary and grammar. Other apps like Pimsleur offer more common dialects like Egyptian and Eastern Arabic. The Rosetta Stone Mandarin course has 20 units that can help you build a decent foundation in the language.
This is the main drawback of the Rosetta Stone Mandarin course. If your goal is to learn basic Mandarin Chinese though, Rosetta Stone could be a good start. These Chinese apps can help you become more fluent though. In addition to its individual language courses, Rosetta Stone offers an unlimited languages subscription. This gives you access to all of its language courses for one price. This is especially true if you want to learn more popular languages like Spanish and French.
I actually really enjoyed the immersive lessons, and this is what made Rosetta Stone stand out most from other language apps in my opinion. It has become a common trend for language learning apps to show you new words and phrases and teach you to translate them. This really slows down the learning process in my opinion. Rosetta Stone takes a completely different approach though.
It forces you to figure out what news words mean by looking at pictures. The lessons are easy to follow and the fact that you can access the courses online or on different devices makes it a convenient choice. Rosetta Stone is a solid app in some ways, but it definitely also has a few areas of improvement. What the app does really well is simulate situations that force you to speak on the spot.
The actual conversations could be improved though. Rosetta Stone tends to use more formal language as opposed to teaching you how people speak in daily life. This has value for some, but I personally prefer to learn more casual ways to speak. The pace of the courses could also improve. This could be a little unmotivating for people who want to learn quickly. The final area of improvement I want to mention is how Rosetta Stone teaches languages with different writing systems.
Adding some lessons that teach this would be a huge improvement. When it comes to price, Rosetta Stone has a few different choices and choosing the right one can be a little confusing. In general, the cost of Rosetta Stone tends to be a little more expensive than other major language learning apps like Babbel and Mondly. The table below shows the different Rosetta Stone price options you can choose from on the website or in the app.
You can try Rosetta Stone free for 3 days if you sign up online. If you sign up in the Rosetta Stone app, you can try the first lesson of each language course for free. There is no free version of the Rosetta Stone program. If you plan to use Rosetta Stone long-term or want to study multiple languages with the app, you should consider an upgrade to lifetime unlimited access.
Rosetta Stone has some sales and deals throughout the year, usually around major shopping days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Rosetta Stone and Duolingo are two of the most popular choices, but they each have their own perks and quirks. This language learning showdown is truly a battle of two generations and two ideals. In one corner we have a company that has been around since the early 90s, selling effective language learning software to people for 25 years.
In the other corner is the new kid on the block, championing the belief that learning language should be freely available to everyone. Both options can also be used in-browser, depending on what services you choose to use. Relax and be free from anxiety Take back good sleep and help alleviate pain. As you can see, Duolingo has a nice set of popular languages. But do you notice anything when you compare the two? Duolingo has almost no Asian languages, save for Vietnamese.
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