Has anyone used Rosetta Stone to learn a new language? They are expensive so I'm not sure I want to try it or not.

Has anyone used Rosetta Stone to learn a new language? They are expensive so I'm not sure I want to try it or not.

I haven't personally but my sister has used the French and the Spanish programs and loves the course. She has done very well with them.

I'm thinking about buying Rosetta Stone also. Interested in learning Spanish (Latin America version). The best price I've seen so far is at Amazon.com, $450 for levels 1,2 and 3. If you find another (legitimate) seller with a good deal, please share the info.

Re: your original question, the reviews on Amazon are mostly very positive.

Thanks, I mean gracias!

I'm thinking about buying Rosetta Stone also. Interested in learning Spanish (Latin America version). The best price I've seen so far is at Amazon.com, $450 for levels 1,2 and 3. If you find another (legitimate) seller with a good deal, please share the info.

Re: your original question, the reviews on Amazon are mostly very positive.

Thanks, I mean gracias!

Is Amazon the cheapest place you've found? $450 still seems a little high for this.

Some libraries offer it free online.

We get it free (I am a DOD employee) and I think it is wonderful! Learned alot more through Rosetta then I did in High School! lol

http://www.hottestwalls.com/img5.jpgSome libraries offer it free online.

yaa..you'll find many for free.
just be patient and do some research before you spend that huge amount...

I was thinking about getting this as well...(spanish). Living in s. california makes learning spanish almost essential!

I was thinking about getting this as well...(spanish). Living in s. california makes learning spanish almost essential!

i found it impossible to learn anything... one of its mode is it gives you a sentence and four pictures and reads it out in spanish or whatever. except if you've never learned spanish before then you have no idea which it is referring to. So you guess and move on if you get it correct. the idea is eventually you will figure out what it means, which is like impossible for me. I gave up after two weeks.

Some libraries offer it free online.
really? where ?

really? where ?

You didn't say what language you are learning. It would be cheaper to just take a class in College or Adult school or even your local Recreation center. $450 is insane amount of money. I took Chinese class from my local community college and I got three books (text book, practice book, and workbook) and a CD and tuition cost me less than $450. Now that the class is over, I can use the CD and text books and work on it at home. Plus there may be online tutorials that can teach you phrases and words. Learning a language is very difficult. Chances are high you will buy the program and not even use it after a few weeks.

i believe you can get a free demo cd from rosetta.
i used it but never got too into it b/c i was taking it a french class at school.
i would recommend trying before buying(its a huge investment)

like the commercial say, you don't memorize but you learn the langauge

i found it impossible to learn anything... one of its mode is it gives you a sentence and four pictures and reads it out in spanish or whatever. except if you've never learned spanish before then you have no idea which it is referring to. So you guess and move on if you get it correct. the idea is eventually you will figure out what it means, which is like impossible for me. I gave up after two weeks.

I agree! I tried learning Chinese and it was just ridiculous. How are you expected to follow that if you've never learned the language before?! But I know that was V2, now they have V3. I wonder if they have improved that at all :/.

I have bought rosetta stone to practice my spanish. It was decent nothing special i would recommend googleing around and looking for a site to help you learn.

I actually bought a Rosetta Stone a few years ago and I found it completely useless. Lots of flashy graphics, bells and whistles but that doesn't make a good language learning tool in my experience. I've since tried a Pimsleur course and that has had a much more positive outcome. Pimsleur is about as hip as a pastel yellow cardigan but I'm actually learning. :lol:

I bought the Rosetta Stone for German (I think it's V3? I only bought it a couple months ago so it has to be one of the newer versions) and I thought it was a good product. I really liked the integrated mic component, where they also check your pronunciation. Basically, you start off with something really basic - they'd show you a picture of a girl, and say "Das Mädchen" and a lot of the times you'll see the text as well. Then they'll show you the girl drinking water, and there'll be a sentence again, and since you already know that girl is mädchen, you can pretty much figure out the rest of the sentence. Nothing is ever explicitly spelled out (i.e. which part of the sentence refers to which part of the picture), but they give you enough combinations that I didn't find it difficult to figure out at all.

That said, I'm having a lot of trouble imagining that approach for something like Chinese, where the grammatical structure is different enough to make figuring out which parts of the sentence corresponds to which parts of the picture more difficult. Not to mention, the Chinese calligraphy won't help you with pronunciation at all (unless they feature pingyin in the course).

I've heard it works wonders but for someone likes me who needs to interact with someone in order to learn a language i think i'm going to try the berlitz programs. its a class that teaches you how to SPEAK instead of the grammar of it. In HS we learn everything about the language except how to speak it which is totally backwards if you think about it. When learning your native language you learned how to speak it before learning how to read and write so why shouldn't we do the same for learning a new language?

Anyways good luck learning the new language.

Allison
http://poorcollegestudentneedsmoney.blogspot.com/

I've tried using Rosetta Stone to learn Arabic before going to Morocco. It was pretty much useless. It would've been quite helpful if they had some sort of primer to look over the characters (and how they vary depending on where they appear in the word), but it just went right into the lessons.

It depends on the language that you are trying to learn.

If you are looking at something like German (easy to learn), Spanish (easy to learn), Swahili (so simple to learn; anyone can pick up Swahili), or French (easy enough to learn), then the Rosetta Stone software can help you out.

If it is Mandarin, Arabic. Polish, Farsi, Russian, Korean, Japanese (especially Japanese), or even Welch though then I would advise an intro class at a local college or through your school district if they offer it before moving on to the product. Especially for Asian languages (except Malay/Indonesian), Farsi, Hindi, Arabic, Greek, and Russian. The use of a different writing system without a similar sounds or characters makes learning writing and reading hard. Even something like Welch is removed enough from English to be easily able to be learned without some previous knowledge.

Having studied (in a classroom setting) several languages I had little problems with the Rosetta Stone programs, but I had the basics down. I knew the sounds and writing systems/alphabets (I am fairly limited in Mandarin, but I flew through the basics). I knew the nouns and was able to review the first few lessons. But starting fresh is hard. I do not know any Hindi or Arabic and while I was able to learn some through the program (with Chinese I know enough pinyin and characters to write it, but Arabic I do not know where to start), I did not learn anything about the writing system. I tried Malay and had no problems. Same with German and related tongues. (I did not finish through the entirety of the program, but I do not know how much the grammar and any changes of spelling and usage are taught.)

I would advise one to take a course and use Rosetta Stone as a complementary approach for the most part. Even if it is only for a semester or a few months. Unless it is a language that is a closer to English (or at least uses Latin characters)

Anybody had any experience with French? We currently have the Michel Thomas 8 CD package but want to experience more and saw the Rosetta Stone at the Philadelphia airport Kiosk and it was slick. I don't care about the slickness but if it works I'm there!!!

I think it depends on the person since everyone learns differently.. i find it hard to believe that I could learn that way but then I'm horrible with languages