Rosetta Stone

[theSHAH]

I am very interested in learning a new language and heard many good things about this program and how well it works. Has anyone here actually learned a language from this program? How difficult was it (yes I am aware the difficulty mostly lies in the language at hand)?

 

[Amethyst Wind]

Like all language programs, it's a complimentary tool to actually talking to people in the language you want to learn.

I used it for Mandarin Chinese (which I've now mostly forgotten) and I'll tell you that if you're going to use it, pace yourself. I studied 3 hours a day and forgot most of it by the time it got to the more difficult exercises (yes, Rosetta Stone becomes quite thorough and difficult as you progress), so no more than 1 hour a day would be your best bet, probably in two half-hour parts.

It teaches pronunciation, reading, writing, speaking and listening, doesn't tend to explain much in terms of grammar, more relies on you to pick up the patterns.

The end of module exercises simulate a conversation that you must fill in the blanks to, which are sometimes whole (long) sentences.


It's definitely useful but there are cheaper alternatives available, as you're looking at anywhere from $500 upwards for the full language set.

 

[Martin05]

Rocket Languages makes good courses too if you want an online course. They're a little cheaper than Rosetta too which was the deciding factor for me. They've got a great feature that I used a lot called Rocket Record. It allows you to listen to a phrase and record yourself saying it at the same time, so you can compare your pronunciation to the native speaker.