I listen once, read and save words and phrases at LingQ, then continue listening, many times as a beginner and only once or twice when I am more advanced. Then I review my words and phrases, again at LingQ. I listen to the whole meaning. I choose content of interest, and that is important. I want to understand the language before I try to say too much. Mostly I listen. It is easy to do and effective.
I'm a polyglot who loves to learn languages and I have a lot of experience with both programs. LingQ is all in all a far superior program. I spent three months with Rosetta Stone--every day for two hours, learning German, and made quite little progress. Learning felt like a damn chore, besides, because I was taught by repeating asinine phrases over and over again. Indeed, if you spend an hour learning with Rosetta Stone, you'll essentially be repeating 10 minutes of exactly the same meaningless content, over and over again, until you're nauseated by it. (We're talking things like "The boy throws the ball, his mom catches the ball, the house is orange.") When you learn with LingQ, you're immediately exposed to authentic content (like podcasts and books) that is both a) 100% more interesting and b) actually more effective as a teaching tool because it shows you the natural language right from the get go, instead of keeping you immersed in artificially constructed, simple content that doesn't reflect what people actually say. What I do appreciate about Rosetta Stone--but this is a trait shared by LingQ--is that it doesn't make the mistake of trying to teach you grammar rules, but rather expects you to learn through absorption. Rosetta Stone's downfall, however, is that it insists on using visualization to teach every part of the language--this is ultimately an unnecessary gimmick. The idea behind it is that supposedly, babies learn to speak by associating pictures, sounds, smells and what-have-you with spoken language. Rosetta Stone thereby wants you to believe that in order to become a native speaker, you have to learn the same way that babies do. Here's the problem with that--You are an adult and you have already learned the concept of language. Expecting you to relearn simple noun-object associations is essentially reinventing the wheel. Better than associating words with pictures is associating language with ACTUAL MEANINGFUL CONTENT--that's what LingQ does. I used to recommend Rosetta Stone because at least it provides a framework for language exercise--much like a gym program. But I've found a much better trainer in LingQ--I now would never recommend Rosetta Stone because its cost is exorbitant. I spent three months, two hours a day with LingQ learning German and became conversationally fluent, able to both speak and understand. This for the cost of THIRTY DOLLARS as opposed to the hundreds of dollars you fork out for Rosetta Stone. Steve Kaufmann is THE language guru. Also, for everyone's info, I have literally nothing to do with the LingQ staff, I'm just offering my honest opinion to fellow language learners.
Youre such a smart guy!!! love you encouragement and your views on learning a language and what to me sounds like the very obvious best way to do it. Thanks a lot for taking your time sharing your experience! Much love
Rosetta Stone is actually a great way to start learning a new language that you have just about no knowledge of yet. It teaches you vocabulary quickly, which is obviously the first step towards learning any language. If you forget the words, just repeat the lessons. You can use it even if you are tired, because of how interactive and simple it is, where you´d zone out reading or just listening when you are in a tired state. Then constant feedback is very useful. After you complete Rosetta Stone however, you will have to move on to other ways of learning. It will not get you anywhere near fluency.
I used RS several years ago as I was starting to study Russian. A friend gave me the CDs. At the same time I was using Russian Accelerator, which I had purchased. I preferred RA. RS showed a picture of a yellow flower against a dessert backdrop and the speaker said one word. I didn’t know if he was saying yellow, flower, dessert, etc. I am glad I took RA, as it gave me a good foundation in Russian, but I am now using LingQ and am telling others to check it out.
Yes. Listening is the best way to learn. I sometimes read before listening, but mostly I listen first. Listening also helps with writing. It gets the brain going in the language.
I've been fascinated with learning languages all my life. I've used Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, Fluenz, and so many others. I've never turned the corner on actually being even functional in a language. I am now an avid LingQ user, and have read Krashen's work. I feel like I'm finally on the right path, and I never would have stood a chance at succeeding without having found The Steves. It seems to me that LingQ embodies Krashen's findings far more than any other system.
Rosetta Stone is amazing when combined with something else, only as a review tool.. The best way is to combine a few methods (In my case, Ive started korean) 1- I do a textbook called (Korean from Zero) 2- Pimsleur/Michel Thomas/ Glossika Korean Listening during my dead time. 3- Vocabulary lists (Frequency words) 4- Koreanpod 101 or Easy Languages Street Korean 5- I google the most important grammar that I need (Modal verbs, Passive, conditionals etc..) 6- Rosetta Stone as a Review of the Vocab.. Rosetta Works very well, if combined with other methods.. but not alone..
the new pricing structure changes everything I bought it for a lifetime under 200. My favorite feature is setting the Speech Software to sensitivity 10 and have to speak the clearest pronunciations of Korean that I have ever done in my life. Rosetta Stone took forever to accept my 요. I just changed the sound of it to mimic the recording more and you have to do that at a high sensitivity. Ohh and I just noticed this weekend that it makes you sound out each part of the word so you learn the pronunciation rules nicely too. I liked Duolingo then I got to Verbs 1 and it gave me like 20 verbs in one lesson. Madness. Like you I work from many sources. I like using TTMIK's grammar website to check off all the grammar I encounter in the wild.
I found it decent enough, but the cost makes it worthless compared to its equal free options. Like duolingo; which is basically rosetta stone for free.
In my experience, Rosetta Stone is not only a point-and-click on the picture type software. There are situations where you need to speak. Also, rather than using simple words or phrases alone, Rosetta Stone uses complete sentences. Throughout the lessons the sentence structure and different words are repeated and applied in different manners. For me, this works relatively well.
I loved what you said during point #6 which I think sums up why most people excitedly make the decision to learn a language, yet the most never get very far. No matter what system you use, even if you could be totally immersed all day in the target language, it is still a LONG road to be able to understand the real language. Every method seems to promote some kind a "get fluent fast" secret, when in reality there is no secret. It just takes (which Steve often says) perseverance and time.
I'm a poliglota, native speaker in spanish and fluent in 4 languages. Personally I would disagree with Steves' opinions as I am a user of RS. I found the program very useful & practical because I use it in my off at work, the point is try to combine all kind of extra activities with the rs app. It requieres plenty of listening practice, use the music, read along with lirycs. Join to comversation clubs, watch films. in summary get in touch with the full life experience in the language. This is how I acquired the fluency I got with out spending money. suerte, good luck!!, au revoir;)
i'm definitely not a rosetta stone fan. a friend of mine took a long time to complete the entire spanish course, and still could not have a decent spontaneous conversation with our mexican co-workers, where as i listened to the michel thomas course in a weekend, and was able to converse wayyyy better than my friend. i understand that immersion is ideal, but it doesn't mean shit if there's no one there to explain why certain things are said the way they are said. great stuff, steve.
In addition to Rosetta stone I'm now using Hugo learn spanish in 3 months, Pimsleur, Spanish Raio, Podcasts, Music, and reading. Also I have a few spanish friend online that are willing to help out soon when I can feel like I can communicate better. I'm only 1 month into my learning of spanish and love it. Everyday It feels like I've learned much, I have no doubt Rosetta stone has helped.
@gruntnick My channel, I say what I like. You are free to visit or not. My son bought and used RS for Japanese. I went over it with him. I also had a presentation by a salesman for RS. Now where is the shame or shamelessness in saying what I think on my own youtube channel?
I had access to Rosetta Stone for around two years for a very low price (through school). I used it when I was starting out with Spanish. The course, not through Rosetta Stone, (I was in high school) provided some written materials which helped. I didn't stick with it for too long, mainly because the software was clumsy on my Mac when I switched from PC. So around 2-3 years later (now) I remember some things (colors) but my best Spanish learning has come from watching Spanish TV/native materials
Good points. A RS package was going 'cheap' so I was enticed into taking the opportunity to learn a new language. I try to engage with it as much as possible and do more speaking, reading and cross-reference than is required to complete the course. I still find it difficult on occasion and try not to resort to Google but it's mostly steady in how it loads on the work with a decent repetition/challenge mix. I hope to diversify my learning more in time and get into the habit of doing that as I think a 'keep-learning attitude' is always important no matter how you chose to start to learn. I haven't learned a language before to any decent level as school wasn't engaging and while language tuition did engage a lot more, 6 week course material was quickly forgotten about when other matters took over my mind. This isn't propaganda for RS but if you have the money it's a solid-enough option especially since there's a lot of rubbish out there. There is good and weaker aspects RS, naturally, but that depends on whether you see a language course as your 'lingual raison d'etre' or as simply 'one of your tools'. If the latter applies and you have the money and the time, then I'd give it 4/5. Again, Steve, big fan of your videos (I started with the way I'm learning before I knew of LingQ).
i have RS italian and i speak english and Spanish and this program help me alot to speak better that language im looking at italian tv channels and radio and now i can understand the topic and what they are talking about in the italian radio and tv .....you only need to practice each day beside taking the RS classes and it works
I find that RS is quite good, very easy to use and I think helps give you a good foundation for the language. I'm currently on Level 2 and have noticed that 2-3 hours of using it every day has really made me remember things so well. It's great for vocab because it sticks, whereas pimsleur I was trying to remember a word but kept on forgetting. When rosetta stone come to that word, I remembered it within 1 session. When I finish with RS I'll message here again and tell you more
Rosetta Stone's effectiveness depends on how close the language is to your own language. For example, if you speak english and you with to learn spanish or french, it may be challenging, but will ultimately teach you the basic concepts. However, trying to learn something such as latin, it's quite different. It goes over NO grammatical rules and does not teach you to effectively conjugate verbs. The latin program is good for vocabulary, but ultimately it's not a stand alone product as advertised.
I teach with RS using a wireless mic with the pronunciation and speaking parts. In addition, I also use a wireless keyboard and use the typing portion, which really improves the students' comprehension of spelling and sentence structure in a tactile manner.
And what did you like about it, buddy? By the way I am going to try RS for Arabic and will report on my experience. However, I stand by what I said in terms of my reaction to the reviews and descriptions of the program. I will see how I react when I use it.
I ordered free demo and I loved it because it had about 8 or so languages in it including Arabic and Russian. I tried it out on Arabic and everytime they introduce new word or phrase they ask to say it into the microphone and if pronunciation doesn't match, you can't go on to the next level. So that is good for pronunciation. However that was only a demo and I don't know how far they go with flashcards. I would buy it if it was 4 times cheaper.
I am learning Spanish through RS. I agree with you. Not enough vocabulary especially in the current version. (v4). Two levels in v2 of the product taught as me as much vocabulary as four levels in the current version. I find I am actually learning much more watching dramas on Mun2. I enjoy your videos Keep it up
Having used first installment of RS for German, I can say the program helps a lot with pronunciation of a language, as well as introducing some basic vocabulary and key phrases. That being said, RS has its faults. The Pimsleur and TYS series can take you much further down the "path" of language learning in a fraction of the time. It might not be my favorite program, but for users who enjoy learning soley through their computer and have plenty of time, RS could be the ideal platform.
As a visual learner, I like Rosetta Stone since you see what you are learning and not just hear it, which really helps me to recall it later. However, it really needs to be supplemented with other materials. Because of this, it's outrageously overpriced. Overall, I would say that it is best for the beginner, who might feel overwhelmed by traditional learning methods. It makes it very easy to learn the basics and to keep pushing on. For dedicated learners, there are better methods out there.
My local library has Rosetta Stone so I get to use it for free. I think it is good for learning basic vocabulary, but that is about it. I just started using your website ling and I love it.
hey steve... just want to give an update on what I think of rosetta stone as I now approach the 3rd level. I find that what I learn from this program really sticks well in my mind, there have however been instances where i've misunderstood or missed things which I had to pick up from books or other resources on the net. So RS in my opinion although it's an 'excellent' program, it really needs to be in addition to other sources of study. I have been able to use what i've learned from rosetta and
@jasonUKbristol You can simply generate the pinyin separately.Many sites offer this service. It is true however that you can create LingQs with pinyin.
Definitely. Rosetta Stone seeks to mainly create pictorial and graphological links (words with pictures), but restricts itself too much to basic phraseology. Also, while it is an active mode of learning, there is too much isolation where the vocabulary is concerned. As you say, the contextualisation is restricted and lacks realism or memorability. As regards listening and speaking, these skills are more extensively put into practice using other resources, as you say. Carl Lingua Genesis
Rosetta Stone in my opinion is good on some level. It's good to get your feet wet. Your obivously not going to learn from taking a project and become fluent. But in the long run you can do alright with the program.
@lingosteve I mean what should I be ashamed of. I am not ashamed of LingQ and not ashamed of the fact that I have sat through Rosetta Stone presentations and have watched my son use and am not impressed.
Though you may forget the word you just learned from Rosetta Stone, it will leave you a very strong impression of this word. and with its audio companion, you can reinforce the impression.
I love rosetta stone and I think its quite effective and fun to do. BUT it should not at all be the only thing you do to learn that language. the levels 1-3 dont actually teach you all that much. DEFINITELY study way more, as much as you can, on your own. BUT rosetta stone is amazing for beginners.
I have always felt that too much emphasis is placed on the "basic phrases" etc. which we will eventually pick up, and probably forget a few times along the way. Language learning is not about building blocks but is more like a jig-saw puzzle made of jelly.
(cont'd) and grammar books and lessons in moderation. I think Rosetta Stone helps with the basics, but that's it. I guess deep down I didn't think it would make me 'fluent' so I didn't have much motivation to use it. Now, however, I know I can improve everyday and get closer to where I want to be through listening, watching things I actually want to watch, using SRS, and just having fun in the language. Now I can watch Spanish TV and really get something from it.
I've tried mandarin rosetta stone, it really helps with tones because of the clear and abundant audio, but I found the pace dreadfully slow to a point where I would stop mid-exercise. The key is cramming the same one-liner sentences and like you said, fails to put it in a greater context. You will see the same pictures and phrases associated at least 20 times during the course! Even though it does work to an extent, it feels quite robotic rather than immersive.
I have RS for German and Spanish (Spain) right now. I will say it is definitely not the only way to learn a new language, but a great stepping stone for those who get frustrated when learning new things such a language. The instant gratification you mention, Steve, I would think is a good motivator and encouragement to continue learning the language. The actual speaking comes from actually going out there and speaking the language to others. RS does provide an option nowadays that will schedule a date and time where you can have a 20 to 30 minute practice conversation with a native speaker. All in all, I cannot say my full opinion of RS since I am only on the first level, unit 2. There are four units for each of the five levels of RS. So there is still a long way to go! I will keep posted in a couple years once I finish and will tell the world what RS did and/or did not do for me.
@TheHighlanderGeneral I am not a fan. I prefer to focus only on the target language and to accumulate words through lots of listening and reading. I am not so keen on being prompted to speak. To each his own.
I'm using rosetta stone to learn french as my 3rd language, it has wasted a lot of my time and still no improvement on my french skills, as a learning program, it shouldn't be this boring, a language learning app should make it interesting to go along the way. I'm searching to find a new method
Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve i have started lingQ , just one question !! is it only a online website or it has a software to try when i don't have access to the internet ??
+Eulayses Perry I find Pimsleur very slow and the content is too limited for the price you're paying. Not to mention plenty of other faults like no written language, too polite, too English, etc. If you're willing to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to speak a language at a beginner level - by all means, buy it.
I'm a Rosetta Stone user and I agree some points of your view abou t it. Rosetta Stone is quite boring to use because it doesn't have a whole content or story. So don't use it for your whole periods of language learning. It is very effective for the first period of language learning which only requires listening and guess. But the success of the first period contributes a lot to the rest and the whole success of your language learning.
I've used both old and new RS so I feel I'm qualified to comment. I used the old RS to learn some Italian vocab and I did but the phrase that stays in my head longest "the boy is on the table" not useful on my holiday to Rome! But learning the numbers and basic vegetable vocab was good! New RS is much improved and I used it for German. They still have the vocab but they have much more useful phrases and sentences like "how are you?" etc... Summary: I'd recommend RS version 3 not 2.
The most interesant point of this video is "dead time" I also do the same I use dead time to listen as much as possible and it really works ! Do you also agree that we should listen before reading and writting? I think it's the best way to learn
I also agree with Steve. I tried to learn english with Rosetta two years ago and was doing it for two months. It was really too boring. More than enything I missed stories. There is also a speaking recognition part in RS, but it doesn't work. It more matters sentence intonation than english vowels and consonants. No one can get a good pronunciation in that way.
@GriffenJC I could never figure out why he is so popular, but he is. I have listened to him and lose focus. Too much English and too little vocabulary.
By the way I've now studied for around 230 hours in 5 weeks. This is without other things like listening to spanish music and radio, and watching cartoons in spanish.
I love Rosetta Stone, it's the most effective method I've used for learning and my Russian is coming along great! I'm only past level 1 and I almost feel as comfortable as I do in French, which I've been taking in school for over 3 years.
Rosetta Stone is definitely not the godsend that they advertise it to be, but in my opinion it is one of THE BEST ways to learn a language provided 3 conditions are met: 1) you are not just learning the language for travel purposes. Rosetta Stone focuses on vocabulary that would be used in every day *civilian* life, not tourist life. 2) you augment your study with books that explain the grammatical mechanics of the target language, as this is Rosetta Stone's biggest weakness. 3) you do not ha
The big apartment. There are many people in the big apartment. The big apartment is across the street. The big apartment across the street has green walls. IF DOING HOURS OF THIS CRAP IS ANYONE'S IDEA OF LEARNING A LANGUAGE THEN GO FOR IT. But I threw mine in the trash after a few hours of this torture. Thankfully, I had purchased my Rosetta Stone as a used edition in a Salvation Army store.
Tried RS portuguese and I didn't get on with it either. It was kind of fun, like little puzzles wordgames etc, but nothing stuck and I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you're not communicating while doing it. So it's all out of context. But I suppose it would work for some.
I liked your stressing of context above learning isolated words. My main problem with Rosetta Stone, which I fortunately could try at the local library, is the lack of translation and grammar. It is also sometimes difficult to understand what the pictures illustrate. Is it an Indian boy under an aeroplane or an aeroplane above a boy? I guarantee that you guess wrong if your L1 is one without postpositions. Is the Chinese kid a boy or a girl? Guess wrong, and you are marked down.
I remember words from other languages when they are encountered as lyrics in a song. For example "Feliz Navidad" and the Russian words in the "Cheburashka Song". Perhaps this works for me because I am a musician.
i have tried Rosetta stone briefly for Italian and Russian and it was absolutely horrible. When using the Italian version, I was bored out of my mind at every session. Maybe this is because I hate flash cards, but I could not stand the constant repetition of such a limited vocabulary which seemed to be leading nowhere and which I was not even 100% sure of the meaning. The time I tried Russian, I did not fully know the Russian alphabet and had to guess the letter sounds based on the speech.
When I started investigating different language methods Rosetta stone was mentioned quite often. I had a look at it and saw the point-and-click graphics and multiple choice format and dismissed it. I thought it was aimed at children. I'm all for making things easily digestible but even as a rank beginner at languages it seemed more dumbed-down than approachable. Perhaps it gets better as one progress through the system? It seemed an expensive way of giving a false impression of progress.
I agree. Rosetta Stone has a small vocabulary. It's very boring. It's not natural...I'd even say that u can use Rosetta Stona in ur sparetime, like a little boring game. Otherwise, i don't recommend Rosetta. And I recommend Lingq.com. There are a huge vocabulary that u can learn there.
you should review Michel Thomas method best method I have found so far very much revolutionary Michel was a pure genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@lingosteve I checked out your site. Really good site. The only problem was that i'm learning mandarin and the lingq doesn't use pinyin. otherwise i would have been interested.
I don't see how you can review Rosetta without even trying it. I read a lot of negative comments from people regarding RS but I actually quite like it. the problem is that there is a massive difference between RS V2 and RS V3. RS V2 is total rubbish and you get lots of comments on the web that refer to V2. I think RS marketing would have better if they distanced themselves away from V2.
talk to a spanish girl that I met on the internet. Although at the moment I can only type and do some basic things, I feel that rosetta has really helped me progress a lot. I find that watching cartoons in spanish also very helpful. I've watched bambi 2 many times already and everytime i go back to it i realize how much more I understand.... very enjoyable! What do you think about using cartoons in addition to studying as helping people learn their new language?
Hey, Steve! I'm a language lover as well, I would like to know your opinion about "Tell Me More" language learning softwares, I usually gather as much information as I can... Even though I usually find many difficulties trying to organize these materials so they can eventually help me brushing up my language skills. I've been doing some reseach on online language learning tools but I'm not really sure which could be suitable for correct studying. I'm now learning german by the way.
Hi Steve! How long did it take for you to learn French? I'm trying to learn it myself because I find the language so beautiful but it also seems really hard. Thank you! Greetings from Norway! :)
I had French in school in Montreal, then got really keen, read newspapers, watched movies and then went to France to attend university for 3 years. You need to do a lot of listening and reading and build up your vocabulary and comprehension ability. Then the speaking will come, as you speak more and more. I suggest you visit LingQ to see the resources there.
Hello, Steve, I've glimpse thru rosetta stone. I think is overrated. You know many years ago I had an idea. It occured to me that, wouldn't it be great if there was a world contest of language learning/teaching? That way we could put all of our theories to the test.
I agree that they have increased language interest but I agree with your son, its very boring and all multiple choice. I don't like it because if you're learning Chinese it doesn't describe tones, or what certain radicals are. You have to figure out the grammar yourself if you want to learn a little faster. Basic point of Rosetta, learning words in another language and not learning the language and make new sentences yourself.
I think Rosetta Stone is really expensive for what it does. There are some flaws, I would not use it as the only resource, but it does many things right. It should just be way cheaper imho.
I don't approve of any program that charges monthly for online language lessons (LingQ, Babbel, etc.) - it's like the mentality of gym membership owners whereby they make more money from people who sign up and then quit than from those who continue to use the gym. Rosetta Stone is good for those people who want to get a "Boot Camp" language base before taking courses at the local community college, or just pick up some conversational ability.
peasblossom1973 Why? It's a service, and a damn useful one at that. If someone offers you something useful you reward him in a free market based society by paying him. I find the rates acceptable and all in all totally fair. I found one can make tremendous progress at LingQ in a few days, more then with any other method I tried thus far. That's worth a bit of money. If you attend a course they gonna charge you heavily without providing such great results...
peasblossom1973 Except that unlike a gym, the variable costs for a website are almost negligable. And why would you not "approve" of a service that people may or may not get tired of? It's the equivalent of saying that "I don't approve of haircuts because some people regret getting them". Dafuuuu......?
I can understand LingQ for garching monthly (as it has to pay for storage of your data and such, however Rosetta could work perfectly well offlien and there certainly is not need to charge for each language separately, you can learn one language a day or ten languages 10th of the time, so why to pay ten times the money. I prefer lifetime/one time payments though and would love that option with LingQ.
I found Rosetta Stone Russian, Korean and Thai to be mind-numbingly boring and completely separated from the cultures of the languages themselves. The pictures used in all 3 versions of the software were identical stock photos of things like horses running, a little white boy under the wing of a prop plane, etc. I've had much more success using Pimsleur as a stepping stone to starting a new language.
I tried RS for Japanese for a few weeks, sometime last year. It wore on me and seriously bored me, so I ditched it like a bad habit. For what it's worth, I did learn (and retain) a couple dozen words from it, so perhaps if I had continued using it, I would have seen some real benefit. However, considering how dull and monotonous the entire application is, chances are I wouldn't have gotten very far even if I had kept at it. Zzzzzz.
if you're an independent language learner trying to learn spanish, chances are you type 'how to learn spanish' into google. there, you will probably get a rosetta stone advert. i get them on youtube too, because i look up language videos. when you hear from language learners though, they always seem to say how bad rosetta stone is. i used it in the beginning and also found it to be pretty poor. so, if it works for you them keep going but frankly i always advise friends to stay away from it.
sorry steve but you should try it before judge it for example when you mentioned that you can't remember the word by this way ...you missed something in rosetta stone when you learn word it use mechanism that make you don't forget it for example it use the word in different contexts and repeat them in different lessons and units and levels in different phrases I have to mention it couldn't make you fluent . but it could be very useful for learn vocabulary in context and use them in simple phrases . that means rosetta stone is good but it isn't enough and there is another problem that you mentioned it needs lots off time and it's very boring it needs patient sorry for my bad english and I hope that message reach
hey there! i actually have level 1 for portuguese and i see no reason to buy levels 2 or 3...i just dont see myself continuing something that i find so brain numbing and boring...dont get me wrong, it is a great program for internalizing "nouns" that r learned as a child but...my goal is to express myself...i guess it depends on the goals of the learner...for someone who is trying to obtain a near-native speaking level, i would not recommend this program...
@lingosteve Yes it is true that there is little vocabulary but you see for someone like me has been "collecting" so to speak German vocabulary since I was 8 I just needed grammar this is what Michel Thomas gave me. I also found it fun and engaging . However there is no one approach that works for everyone I think though that everyone should try it it is a free app on the ipod. As far as I am concerned tho rossetta stone is pretty overpriced and there are cheaper and better ones out there.
You really should have used it before doing a review on it. You were so far off on things. I still don't think you would like it, but you certainly shouldn't be talking bad about a program you have never used. This seemed more like a video talking down on companies, just to promote your own.
I truly look up to you in my language learning and to each their own with the style. It doesn't matter which route someone takes to get to the end result. I didn't mean to be ignorant and I hope you can forgive me for that. I was just pretty disappointed with this review. I use the program for multiple languages every day. Maybe newer versions are better than the one you happened to see. I don't know which one you saw. I do agree with you that it is not the fastest way out there to learn, but it does not give you a single word like "car" and have you click the picture of it. That is like saying in basketball you put a ball in the hoop. I suppose that is correct, but there is much more to it than that. Like I said before, I don't think you would like the program due to your method of learning, but if you were to actually use the program and get a little in depth with it, you would see that it is a rather good program, like it or hate it. My exchange friends are amazed with some of the things that I say and it's from this program. But like anything, Rosetta Stone is a tool, not a magic potion. Advertising makes it seem that way though. Anyways, I respect your opinion, I just think you should have used it more and gotten more in depth with it before a review.
Rosetta Stone is a time-waster! It is ineffective and an extremely overpriced vocabulary training software. There are lots of strange sentences like "The cat is sitting on the roof." and there are no substantial dialogues.
![กิโลเมตรที่ 0 เดินทางรอบโลกไม่ใช้เครื่องบิน [Around The World Ep. 1]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/toJG9oofLFY/mqdefault.jpg)
I listen once, read and save words and phrases at LingQ, then continue listening, many times as a beginner and only once or twice when I am more advanced. Then I review my words and phrases, again at LingQ. I listen to the whole meaning. I choose content of interest, and that is important. I want to understand the language before I try to say too much. Mostly I listen. It is easy to do and effective.
Was just about to comment how sharp Steve is looking and realized this video is 10 Years old!
How time flies
I'm a polyglot who loves to learn languages and I have a lot of experience with both programs. LingQ is all in all a far superior program. I spent three months with Rosetta Stone--every day for two hours, learning German, and made quite little progress. Learning felt like a damn chore, besides, because I was taught by repeating asinine phrases over and over again. Indeed, if you spend an hour learning with Rosetta Stone, you'll essentially be repeating 10 minutes of exactly the same meaningless content, over and over again, until you're nauseated by it. (We're talking things like "The boy throws the ball, his mom catches the ball, the house is orange.")
When you learn with LingQ, you're immediately exposed to authentic content (like podcasts and books) that is both a) 100% more interesting and b) actually more effective as a teaching tool because it shows you the natural language right from the get go, instead of keeping you immersed in artificially constructed, simple content that doesn't reflect what people actually say.
What I do appreciate about Rosetta Stone--but this is a trait shared by LingQ--is that it doesn't make the mistake of trying to teach you grammar rules, but rather expects you to learn through absorption. Rosetta Stone's downfall, however, is that it insists on using visualization to teach every part of the language--this is ultimately an unnecessary gimmick. The idea behind it is that supposedly, babies learn to speak by associating pictures, sounds, smells and what-have-you with spoken language. Rosetta Stone thereby wants you to believe that in order to become a native speaker, you have to learn the same way that babies do. Here's the problem with that--You are an adult and you have already learned the concept of language. Expecting you to relearn simple noun-object associations is essentially reinventing the wheel. Better than associating words with pictures is associating language with ACTUAL MEANINGFUL CONTENT--that's what LingQ does.
I used to recommend Rosetta Stone because at least it provides a framework for language exercise--much like a gym program. But I've found a much better trainer in LingQ--I now would never recommend Rosetta Stone because its cost is exorbitant.
I spent three months, two hours a day with LingQ learning German and became conversationally fluent, able to both speak and understand. This for the cost of THIRTY DOLLARS as opposed to the hundreds of dollars you fork out for Rosetta Stone. Steve Kaufmann is THE language guru. Also, for everyone's info, I have literally nothing to do with the LingQ staff, I'm just offering my honest opinion to fellow language learners.
Youre such a smart guy!!! love you encouragement and your views on learning a language and what to me sounds like the very obvious best way to do it. Thanks a lot for taking your time sharing your experience! Much love
Rosetta Stone is actually a great way to start learning a new language that you have just about no knowledge of yet. It teaches you vocabulary quickly, which is obviously the first step towards learning any language. If you forget the words, just repeat the lessons. You can use it even if you are tired, because of how interactive and simple it is, where you´d zone out reading or just listening when you are in a tired state. Then constant feedback is very useful. After you complete Rosetta Stone however, you will have to move on to other ways of learning. It will not get you anywhere near fluency.
I used RS several years ago as I was starting to study Russian. A friend gave me the CDs. At the same time I was using Russian Accelerator, which I had purchased. I preferred RA. RS showed a picture of a yellow flower against a dessert backdrop and the speaker said one word. I didn’t know if he was saying yellow, flower, dessert, etc.
I am glad I took RA, as it gave me a good foundation in Russian, but I am now using LingQ and am telling others to check it out.
Yes. Listening is the best way to learn. I sometimes read before listening, but mostly I listen first. Listening also helps with writing. It gets the brain going in the language.
I've been fascinated with learning languages all my life. I've used Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, Fluenz, and so many others. I've never turned the corner on actually being even functional in a language. I am now an avid LingQ user, and have read Krashen's work. I feel like I'm finally on the right path, and I never would have stood a chance at succeeding without having found The Steves. It seems to me that LingQ embodies Krashen's findings far more than any other system.
Rosetta Stone is amazing when combined with something else, only as a review tool..
The best way is to combine a few methods (In my case, Ive started korean)
1- I do a textbook called (Korean from Zero)
2- Pimsleur/Michel Thomas/ Glossika Korean Listening during my dead time.
3- Vocabulary lists (Frequency words)
4- Koreanpod 101 or Easy Languages Street Korean
5- I google the most important grammar that I need (Modal verbs, Passive, conditionals etc..)
6- Rosetta Stone as a Review of the Vocab..
Rosetta Works very well, if combined with other methods.. but not alone..
the new pricing structure changes everything I bought it for a lifetime under 200. My favorite feature is setting the Speech Software to sensitivity 10 and have to speak the clearest pronunciations of Korean that I have ever done in my life. Rosetta Stone took forever to accept my 요. I just changed the sound of it to mimic the recording more and you have to do that at a high sensitivity.
Ohh and I just noticed this weekend that it makes you sound out each part of the word so you learn the pronunciation rules nicely too.
I liked Duolingo then I got to Verbs 1 and it gave me like 20 verbs in one lesson. Madness.
Like you I work from many sources. I like using TTMIK's grammar website to check off all the grammar I encounter in the wild.
I found it decent enough, but the cost makes it worthless compared to its equal free options.
Like duolingo; which is basically rosetta stone for free.
Duolingo stories puts Duo miles ahead of R.S., i use Pimsleur in the car and really enjoy Duo.
In my experience, Rosetta Stone is not only a point-and-click on the picture type software. There are situations where you need to speak. Also, rather than using simple words or phrases alone, Rosetta Stone uses complete sentences. Throughout the lessons the sentence structure and different words are repeated and applied in different manners. For me, this works relatively well.
I loved what you said during point #6 which I think sums up why most people excitedly make the decision to learn a language, yet the most never get very far. No matter what system you use, even if you could be totally immersed all day in the target language, it is still a LONG road to be able to understand the real language. Every method seems to promote some kind a "get fluent fast" secret, when in reality there is no secret. It just takes (which Steve often says) perseverance and time.
I'm a poliglota, native speaker in spanish and fluent in 4 languages. Personally I would disagree with Steves' opinions as I am a user of RS. I found the program very useful & practical because I use it in my off at work, the point is try to combine all kind of extra activities with the rs app. It requieres plenty of listening practice, use the music, read along with lirycs. Join to comversation clubs, watch films. in summary get in touch with the full life experience in the language. This is how I acquired the fluency I got with out spending money. suerte, good luck!!, au revoir;)
i'm definitely not a rosetta stone fan. a friend of mine took a long time to complete the entire spanish course, and still could not have a decent spontaneous conversation with our mexican co-workers, where as i listened to the michel thomas course in a weekend, and was able to converse wayyyy better than my friend. i understand that immersion is ideal, but it doesn't mean shit if there's no one there to explain why certain things are said the way they are said. great stuff, steve.
In addition to Rosetta stone I'm now using Hugo learn spanish in 3 months, Pimsleur, Spanish Raio, Podcasts, Music, and reading. Also I have a few spanish friend online that are willing to help out soon when I can feel like I can communicate better. I'm only 1 month into my learning of spanish and love it. Everyday It feels like I've learned much, I have no doubt Rosetta stone has helped.
@gruntnick My channel, I say what I like. You are free to visit or not. My son bought and used RS for Japanese. I went over it with him. I also had a presentation by a salesman for RS. Now where is the shame or shamelessness in saying what I think on my own youtube channel?
I had access to Rosetta Stone for around two years for a very low price (through school). I used it when I was starting out with Spanish. The course, not through Rosetta Stone, (I was in high school) provided some written materials which helped. I didn't stick with it for too long, mainly because the software was clumsy on my Mac when I switched from PC. So around 2-3 years later (now) I remember some things (colors) but my best Spanish learning has come from watching Spanish TV/native materials
Good points. A RS package was going 'cheap' so I was enticed into taking the opportunity to learn a new language. I try to engage with it as much as possible and do more speaking, reading and cross-reference than is required to complete the course. I still find it difficult on occasion and try not to resort to Google but it's mostly steady in how it loads on the work with a decent repetition/challenge mix. I hope to diversify my learning more in time and get into the habit of doing that as I think a 'keep-learning attitude' is always important no matter how you chose to start to learn. I haven't learned a language before to any decent level as school wasn't engaging and while language tuition did engage a lot more, 6 week course material was quickly forgotten about when other matters took over my mind. This isn't propaganda for RS but if you have the money it's a solid-enough option especially since there's a lot of rubbish out there. There is good and weaker aspects RS, naturally, but that depends on whether you see a language course as your 'lingual raison d'etre' or as simply 'one of your tools'. If the latter applies and you have the money and the time, then I'd give it 4/5. Again, Steve, big fan of your videos (I started with the way I'm learning before I knew of LingQ).
i have RS italian and i speak english and Spanish and this program help me alot to speak better that language im looking at italian tv channels and radio and now i can understand the topic and what they are talking about in the italian radio and tv .....you only need to practice each day beside taking the RS classes and it works
I find that RS is quite good, very easy to use and I think helps give you a good foundation for the language. I'm currently on Level 2 and have noticed that 2-3 hours of using it every day has really made me remember things so well. It's great for vocab because it sticks, whereas pimsleur I was trying to remember a word but kept on forgetting. When rosetta stone come to that word, I remembered it within 1 session.
When I finish with RS I'll message here again and tell you more
Rosetta Stone's effectiveness depends on how close the language is to your own language. For example, if you speak english and you with to learn spanish or french, it may be challenging, but will ultimately teach you the basic concepts. However, trying to learn something such as latin, it's quite different. It goes over NO grammatical rules and does not teach you to effectively conjugate verbs. The latin program is good for vocabulary, but ultimately it's not a stand alone product as advertised.
I teach with RS using a wireless mic with the pronunciation and speaking parts. In addition, I also use a wireless keyboard and use the typing portion, which really improves the students' comprehension of spelling and sentence structure in a tactile manner.
I used it and the program helped me learned Spanish. No cap OG
And what did you like about it, buddy?
By the way I am going to try RS for Arabic and will report on my experience.
However, I stand by what I said in terms of my reaction to the reviews and descriptions of the program. I will see how I react when I use it.
I ordered free demo and I loved it because it had about 8 or so languages in it including Arabic and Russian.
I tried it out on Arabic and everytime they introduce new word or phrase they ask to say it into the microphone and if pronunciation doesn't match, you can't go on to the next level. So that is good for pronunciation. However that was only a demo and I don't know how far they go with flashcards. I would buy it if it was 4 times cheaper.
I am learning Spanish through RS. I agree with you. Not enough vocabulary especially in the current version. (v4). Two levels in v2 of the product taught as me as much vocabulary as four levels in the current version. I find I am actually learning much more watching dramas on Mun2. I enjoy your videos Keep it up
Having used first installment of RS for German, I can say the program helps a lot with pronunciation of a language, as well as introducing some basic vocabulary and key phrases. That being said, RS has its faults. The Pimsleur and TYS series can take you much further down the "path" of language learning in a fraction of the time. It might not be my favorite program, but for users who enjoy learning soley through their computer and have plenty of time, RS could be the ideal platform.
As a visual learner, I like Rosetta Stone since you see what you are learning and not just hear it, which really helps me to recall it later. However, it really needs to be supplemented with other materials. Because of this, it's outrageously overpriced.
Overall, I would say that it is best for the beginner, who might feel overwhelmed by traditional learning methods. It makes it very easy to learn the basics and to keep pushing on. For dedicated learners, there are better methods out there.
I do not know what language you are learning, but if it is one of the ones we offer at LingQ, I suggest you give it a try. Let me know how things go.
Thanks for giving your opinion on Rosetta Stone. I have no experience with it and I would like to stay with LingQ.
My local library has Rosetta Stone so I get to use it for free. I think it is good for learning basic vocabulary, but that is about it. I just started using your website ling and I love it.
Which language?
Russian.
удачи
hey steve... just want to give an update on what I think of rosetta stone as I now approach the 3rd level. I find that what I learn from this program really sticks well in my mind, there have however been instances where i've misunderstood or missed things which I had to pick up from books or other resources on the net. So RS in my opinion although it's an 'excellent' program, it really needs to be in addition to other sources of study. I have been able to use what i've learned from rosetta and
@jasonUKbristol You can simply generate the pinyin separately.Many sites offer this service. It is true however that you can create LingQs with pinyin.
Definitely. Rosetta Stone seeks to mainly create pictorial and graphological links (words with pictures), but restricts itself too much to basic phraseology. Also, while it is an active mode of learning, there is too much isolation where the vocabulary is concerned. As you say, the contextualisation is restricted and lacks realism or memorability. As regards listening and speaking, these skills are more extensively put into practice using other resources, as you say.
Carl
Lingua Genesis
Rosetta Stone in my opinion is good on some level. It's good to get your feet wet. Your obivously not going to learn from taking a project and become fluent. But in the long run you can do alright with the program.
@lingosteve I mean what should I be ashamed of. I am not ashamed of LingQ and not ashamed of the fact that I have sat through Rosetta Stone presentations and have watched my son use and am not impressed.
Though you may forget the word you just learned from Rosetta Stone, it will leave you a very strong impression of this word. and with its audio companion, you can reinforce the impression.
I love rosetta stone and I think its quite effective and fun to do. BUT it should not at all be the only thing you do to learn that language. the levels 1-3 dont actually teach you all that much. DEFINITELY study way more, as much as you can, on your own. BUT rosetta stone is amazing for beginners.
I have always felt that too much emphasis is placed on the "basic phrases" etc. which we will eventually pick up, and probably forget a few times along the way. Language learning is not about building blocks but is more like a jig-saw puzzle made of jelly.
(cont'd) and grammar books and lessons in moderation. I think Rosetta Stone helps with the basics, but that's it. I guess deep down I didn't think it would make me 'fluent' so I didn't have much motivation to use it. Now, however, I know I can improve everyday and get closer to where I want to be through listening, watching things I actually want to watch, using SRS, and just having fun in the language. Now I can watch Spanish TV and really get something from it.
I've tried mandarin rosetta stone, it really helps with tones because of the clear and abundant audio, but I found the pace dreadfully slow to a point where I would stop mid-exercise. The key is cramming the same one-liner sentences and like you said, fails to put it in a greater context. You will see the same pictures and phrases associated at least 20 times during the course! Even though it does work to an extent, it feels quite robotic rather than immersive.
I have RS for German and Spanish (Spain) right now. I will say it is definitely not the only way to learn a new language, but a great stepping stone for those who get frustrated when learning new things such a language. The instant gratification you mention, Steve, I would think is a good motivator and encouragement to continue learning the language.
The actual speaking comes from actually going out there and speaking the language to others. RS does provide an option nowadays that will schedule a date and time where you can have a 20 to 30 minute practice conversation with a native speaker.
All in all, I cannot say my full opinion of RS since I am only on the first level, unit 2. There are four units for each of the five levels of RS. So there is still a long way to go!
I will keep posted in a couple years once I finish and will tell the world what RS did and/or did not do for me.
@TheHighlanderGeneral I am not a fan. I prefer to focus only on the target language and to accumulate words through lots of listening and reading. I am not so keen on being prompted to speak. To each his own.
I'm using rosetta stone to learn french as my 3rd language, it has wasted a lot of my time and still no improvement on my french skills, as a learning program, it shouldn't be this boring, a language learning app should make it interesting to go along the way. I'm searching to find a new method
Try LingQ.
Steve Kaufmann - lingosteve i have started lingQ , just one question !! is it only a online website or it has a software to try when i don't have access to the internet ??
There is a mobile app that I use off line. Mostly, I listen on my iPod, though.
Try Pimsleur, you'll get better results
+Eulayses Perry I find Pimsleur very slow and the content is too limited for the price you're paying. Not to mention plenty of other faults like no written language, too polite, too English, etc. If you're willing to pay hundreds and hundreds of dollars to speak a language at a beginner level - by all means, buy it.
@lucianobenjamin1706 I know little about this method but it is based on the classroom. I am more interested in independent learning.
I'm a Rosetta Stone user and I agree some points of your view abou t it. Rosetta Stone is quite boring to use because it doesn't have a whole content or story. So don't use it for your whole periods of language learning. It is very effective for the first period of language learning which only requires listening and guess. But the success of the first period contributes a lot to the rest and the whole success of your language learning.
I've used both old and new RS so I feel I'm qualified to comment. I used the old RS to learn some Italian vocab and I did but the phrase that stays in my head longest "the boy is on the table" not useful on my holiday to Rome! But learning the numbers and basic vegetable vocab was good!
New RS is much improved and I used it for German. They still have the vocab but they have much more useful phrases and sentences like "how are you?" etc...
Summary: I'd recommend RS version 3 not 2.
@AndysLanguageBlog no they get famous by spending hundreds of millions of dollars on promotion. Some like, most I have heard from don't.
@cfernandomaciel absolutely. Echo Moskvi was a real treasure of interviews and transcripts that I imported to LingQ.
@gruntnick Why shameless?
Learning a language is a marathon not a sprint ( not my quote ) . In our day and age people want everything yesterday. Nobody has enough patience !
@cfernandomaciel You need a lot of words to really be able to speak and understand. Try LingQ.
The most interesant point of this video is "dead time" I also do the same I use dead time to listen as much as possible and it really works !
Do you also agree that we should listen before reading and writting? I think it's the best way to learn
I also agree with Steve. I tried to learn english with Rosetta two years ago and was doing it for two months. It was really too boring. More than enything I missed stories. There is also a speaking recognition part in RS, but it doesn't work. It more matters sentence intonation than english vowels and consonants. No one can get a good pronunciation in that way.
@jasonUKbristol I have tried it, even had a sales person walk me through it. It is just not how I learn. Sorry.
@GriffenJC I could never figure out why he is so popular, but he is. I have listened to him and lose focus. Too much English and too little vocabulary.
Hey again Steve !
Just wanted to ask:
What's your favorite language? Which one do you like to speak the most? :)
Jonne from Finland
oh boy
By the way I've now studied for around 230 hours in 5 weeks. This is without other things like listening to spanish music and radio, and watching cartoons in spanish.
I love Rosetta Stone, it's the most effective method I've used for learning and my Russian is coming along great! I'm only past level 1 and I almost feel as comfortable as I do in French, which I've been taking in school for over 3 years.
Rosetta Stone is definitely not the godsend that they advertise it to be, but in my opinion it is one of THE BEST ways to learn a language provided 3 conditions are met: 1) you are not just learning the language for travel purposes. Rosetta Stone focuses on vocabulary that would be used in every day *civilian* life, not tourist life. 2) you augment your study with books that explain the grammatical mechanics of the target language, as this is Rosetta Stone's biggest weakness. 3) you do not ha
No favourite..the one I am speaking at the time.
The big apartment. There are many people in the big apartment. The big apartment is across the street. The big apartment across the street has green walls. IF DOING HOURS OF THIS CRAP IS ANYONE'S IDEA OF LEARNING A LANGUAGE THEN GO FOR IT. But I threw mine in the trash after a few hours of this torture. Thankfully, I had purchased my Rosetta Stone as a used edition in a Salvation Army store.
@lingosteve Oops I guess I already replied some while ago!
Tried RS portuguese and I didn't get on with it either. It was kind of fun, like little puzzles wordgames etc, but nothing stuck and I think you hit the nail on the head when you said you're not communicating while doing it. So it's all out of context. But I suppose it would work for some.
I made an account on LingQ and can't figure out how the fuc
i agree with thelanguagelearners perspective on it
你好，我想使用LINGQ，但是为什么在中国不能使用你的网站了？
因为被屏蔽了，得翻墙
I liked your stressing of context above learning isolated words. My main problem with Rosetta Stone, which I fortunately could try at the local library, is the lack of translation and grammar. It is also sometimes difficult to understand what the pictures illustrate. Is it an Indian boy under an aeroplane or an aeroplane above a boy? I guarantee that you guess wrong if your L1 is one without postpositions. Is the Chinese kid a boy or a girl? Guess wrong, and you are marked down.
I remember words from other languages when they are encountered as lyrics in a song. For example "Feliz Navidad" and the Russian words in the "Cheburashka Song". Perhaps this works for me because I am a musician.
i have tried Rosetta stone briefly for Italian and Russian and it was absolutely horrible. When using the Italian version, I was bored out of my mind at every session. Maybe this is because I hate flash cards, but I could not stand the constant repetition of such a limited vocabulary which seemed to be leading nowhere and which I was not even 100% sure of the meaning. The time I tried Russian, I did not fully know the Russian alphabet and had to guess the letter sounds based on the speech.
When I started investigating different language methods Rosetta stone was mentioned quite often. I had a look at it and saw the point-and-click graphics and multiple choice format and dismissed it. I thought it was aimed at children. I'm all for making things easily digestible but even as a rank beginner at languages it seemed more dumbed-down than approachable. Perhaps it gets better as one progress through the system?
It seemed an expensive way of giving a false impression of progress.
I agree. Rosetta Stone has a small vocabulary. It's very boring. It's not natural...I'd even say that u can use Rosetta Stona in ur sparetime, like a little boring game. Otherwise, i don't recommend Rosetta. And I recommend Lingq.com. There are a huge vocabulary that u can learn there.
you should review Michel Thomas method best method I have found so far very much revolutionary Michel was a pure genius!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@lingosteve I checked out your site. Really good site. The only problem was that i'm learning mandarin and the lingq doesn't use pinyin. otherwise i would have been interested.
I don't see how you can review Rosetta without even trying it. I read a lot of negative comments from people regarding RS but I actually quite like it. the problem is that there is a massive difference between RS V2 and RS V3. RS V2 is total rubbish and you get lots of comments on the web that refer to V2. I think RS marketing would have better if they distanced themselves away from V2.
talk to a spanish girl that I met on the internet. Although at the moment I can only type and do some basic things, I feel that rosetta has really helped me progress a lot. I find that watching cartoons in spanish also very helpful. I've watched bambi 2 many times already and everytime i go back to it i realize how much more I understand.... very enjoyable! What do you think about using cartoons in addition to studying as helping people learn their new language?
Hey, Steve! I'm a language lover as well, I would like to know your opinion about "Tell Me More" language learning softwares, I usually gather as much information as I can... Even though I usually find many difficulties trying to organize these materials so they can eventually help me brushing up my language skills. I've been doing some reseach on online language learning tools but I'm not really sure which could be suitable for correct studying. I'm now learning german by the way.
@UNR3S7 Try LingQ for Russian.
Hi Steve! How long did it take for you to learn French? I'm trying to learn it myself because I find the language so beautiful but it also seems really hard. Thank you! Greetings from Norway! :)
I had French in school in Montreal, then got really keen, read newspapers, watched movies and then went to France to attend university for 3 years. You need to do a lot of listening and reading and build up your vocabulary and comprehension ability. Then the speaking will come, as you speak more and more. I suggest you visit LingQ to see the resources there.
Thank you! I will do that.
Hello, Steve, I've glimpse thru rosetta stone. I think is overrated.
You know many years ago I had an idea. It occured to me that, wouldn't it be great if there was a world contest of language learning/teaching? That way we could put all of our theories to the test.
I agree that they have increased language interest but I agree with your son, its very boring and all multiple choice. I don't like it because if you're learning Chinese it doesn't describe tones, or what certain radicals are. You have to figure out the grammar yourself if you want to learn a little faster. Basic point of Rosetta, learning words in another language and not learning the language and make new sentences yourself.
What do you listen to in that off time?
I think Rosetta Stone is really expensive for what it does. There are some flaws, I would not use it as the only resource, but it does many things right. It should just be way cheaper imho.
I don't approve of any program that charges monthly for online language lessons (LingQ, Babbel, etc.) - it's like the mentality of gym membership owners whereby they make more money from people who sign up and then quit than from those who continue to use the gym. Rosetta Stone is good for those people who want to get a "Boot Camp" language base before taking courses at the local community college, or just pick up some conversational ability.
peasblossom1973 Why? It's a service, and a damn useful one at that. If someone offers you something useful you reward him in a free market based society by paying him. I find the rates acceptable and all in all totally fair. I found one can make tremendous progress at LingQ in a few days, more then with any other method I tried thus far. That's worth a bit of money. If you attend a course they gonna charge you heavily without providing such great results...
peasblossom1973 Except that unlike a gym, the variable costs for a website are almost negligable. And why would you not "approve" of a service that people may or may not get tired of?
It's the equivalent of saying that "I don't approve of haircuts because some people regret getting them". Dafuuuu......?
I can understand LingQ for garching monthly (as it has to pay for storage of your data and such, however Rosetta could work perfectly well offlien and there certainly is not need to charge for each language separately, you can learn one language a day or ten languages 10th of the time, so why to pay ten times the money. I prefer lifetime/one time payments though and would love that option with LingQ.
I found Rosetta Stone Russian, Korean and Thai to be mind-numbingly boring and completely separated from the cultures of the languages themselves. The pictures used in all 3 versions of the software were identical stock photos of things like horses running, a little white boy under the wing of a prop plane, etc. I've had much more success using Pimsleur as a stepping stone to starting a new language.
Rosetta Stone rocks
I tried RS for Japanese for a few weeks, sometime last year. It wore on me and seriously bored me, so I ditched it like a bad habit. For what it's worth, I did learn (and retain) a couple dozen words from it, so perhaps if I had continued using it, I would have seen some real benefit.
However, considering how dull and monotonous the entire application is, chances are I wouldn't have gotten very far even if I had kept at it. Zzzzzz.
if you're an independent language learner trying to learn spanish, chances are you type 'how to learn spanish' into google. there, you will probably get a rosetta stone advert. i get them on youtube too, because i look up language videos.
when you hear from language learners though, they always seem to say how bad rosetta stone is. i used it in the beginning and also found it to be pretty poor.
so, if it works for you them keep going but frankly i always advise friends to stay away from it.
sorry steve but you should try it before judge it
for example when you mentioned that you can't remember the word by this way ...you missed something
in rosetta stone when you learn word it use mechanism that make you don't forget it for example it use the word in different contexts and repeat them in different lessons and units and levels in different phrases I have to mention it couldn't make you fluent . but it could be very useful for learn vocabulary in context and use them in simple phrases .
that means rosetta stone is good but it isn't enough
and there is another problem that you mentioned it needs lots off time and it's very boring it needs patient
sorry for my bad english and I hope that message reach
"Cachaça" é provavelmente a bebida hahahahahaha
❤️❤️👍❤️
İts improve some how the grammar structures so İ say its good like the A1 level.
hey there! i actually have level 1 for portuguese and i see no reason to buy levels 2 or 3...i just dont see myself continuing something that i find so brain numbing and boring...dont get me wrong, it is a great program for internalizing "nouns" that r learned as a child but...my goal is to express myself...i guess it depends on the goals of the learner...for someone who is trying to obtain a near-native speaking level, i would not recommend this program...
Rosetta stone deserves to be torrented.
@lingosteve Yes it is true that there is little vocabulary but you see for someone like me has been "collecting" so to speak German vocabulary since I was 8 I just needed grammar this is what Michel Thomas gave me. I also found it fun and engaging . However there is no one approach that works for everyone I think though that everyone should try it it is a free app on the ipod. As far as I am concerned tho rossetta stone is pretty overpriced and there are cheaper and better ones out there.
Shameless promotion for your family owned business by knocking another style of learning without even trying it.
You really should have used it before doing a review on it. You were so far off on things. I still don't think you would like it, but you certainly shouldn't be talking bad about a program you have never used. This seemed more like a video talking down on companies, just to promote your own.
My son used it, and I had a lengthy presentation of it. All of this a few years ago. That is all I spoke about.
I truly look up to you in my language learning and to each their own with the style. It doesn't matter which route someone takes to get to the end result. I didn't mean to be ignorant and I hope you can forgive me for that. I was just pretty disappointed with this review. I use the program for multiple languages every day. Maybe newer versions are better than the one you happened to see. I don't know which one you saw. I do agree with you that it is not the fastest way out there to learn, but it does not give you a single word like "car" and have you click the picture of it. That is like saying in basketball you put a ball in the hoop. I suppose that is correct, but there is much more to it than that. Like I said before, I don't think you would like the program due to your method of learning, but if you were to actually use the program and get a little in depth with it, you would see that it is a rather good program, like it or hate it. My exchange friends are amazed with some of the things that I say and it's from this program. But like anything, Rosetta Stone is a tool, not a magic potion. Advertising makes it seem that way though. Anyways, I respect your opinion, I just think you should have used it more and gotten more in depth with it before a review.
this guy is a copy of Steve Martin- )
Rosetta Stone is a time-waster! It is ineffective and an extremely overpriced vocabulary training software.
There are lots of strange sentences like "The cat is sitting on the roof." and there are no substantial dialogues.
Rosetta Stone is overpriced piece of junk. €350 for that kind of overly simplified material is way too much.