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New Rosetta Stone V4 reviews | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| BellaLuna Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5033 days ago 21 posts - 37 votes Speaks: Korean*, English Studies: Spanish | Message 1 of 30 16 September 2010 at 3:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hola todos,
I just got an email from barnes and noble saying the new version of Rosetta Stone V4 just arrived. I was curious to see the reviews on Amazon.com, and to me more than half of them looks so fake. Has anyone tried the new version? I'm not interested in Rosetta stone at all, I like reading good reviews not fakies. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Liface Triglot Senior Member United States youtube.com/user/Lif Joined 5697 days ago 150 posts - 237 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Spanish Studies: Dutch, French | Message 3 of 30 17 September 2010 at 3:43am | IP Logged | ||
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Here's my review of V4 (Totale)
Rosetta Stone is a visual program. For those who have never used it, a typical screen looks like this: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/96456/rosettastone.jpg You are presented with four pictures. Depending on the mode, you may be asked to repeat audio describing the picture, type text describing the picture, match pictures with text, or match pictures with audio. The new version, TOTALe, adds multiple things: after each lesson, you may schedule a video chat session with a native speaker, who walks you through the lesson, reviewing key terms, just like in a classroom. There are also six different games: one of them based on Concentration, some based on chatting, some based on describing pictures. You can play games solo or with partners. I found the program woefully inadequate. Three reasons: Theory The theory of Rosetta Stone is based on how children learn their native language. They get no grammar lessons, there are no flash cards, they just learn. This is all true; the gap, however, comes when one applies this theory to adults. We are simply not capable of learning languages like children. Our brains are too advanced, too stuck in our native languages, and too developed. It is possible for us to learn this way, it's just slow. This theory was the most frustrating part of my Rosetta Stone experience. It is incredibly laborious to learn grammatical concepts through pictures and limited text. Often, when learning a new concept, I asked myself "Okay, I understand that this is correct - but WHY?" Just taking one glance at a grammar textbook could have given me the answer I needed in less than a minute, yet learning a grammatical concept (like adjective endings in German) could take up to two hours of intense study in Rosetta Stone. For example in Dutch, "zullen" is a conditional marker for verbs (would be, would do, etc.) but also means should. I was able to figure this out by referring to a Dutch grammar website, but I don't know if I ever would have gotten it if I had just used Rosetta Stone to try and learn it. Introduction of grammatical concepts inside Rosetta Stone often leads to frustration at not being able to learn the theory behind why a language feature exists. The program itself Not only is the theory fundamentally flawed, the program is so simplistic that I can't believe the company employs as many people as it does. The stock photography (mostly taken near the company headquarters in Virginia) is used across the board in every language. This means you can be learning what a house looks like in Chinese and be seeing an American house. In a critical review, a learner using the Russian version remarked that one of the pictures prominently featured paper towels as part of a concept, but noted that in Russia, no one would know what a paper towel was. It is difficult to make semantic connections in other languages when a fat African-American man, an asian woman, and a white teenager are smiling in a soccer field, "speaking" in Gaelic. The program is also incredibly repetitive and simplistic. I often found myself reviewing flash cards in another window, because the interface takes too long to switch between scenes. At the start and end of every lesson, the program makes you repeat the word for goodbye TWICE, something which is completely unnecessary. I only need to learn the word for goodbye once, and I'll know it forever. But if you're going at the program's pace, you're going to need to repeat it every thirty minutes. One time, I completed a set of cards, and the next screen was the same set of cards, as a "review". Additionally, I found that 90% of the time when I got an answer wrong, it was because I was unsure of what the picture should represent. For example, when the person inside the picture is talking, a small speech bubble is drawn to the text. When not, the same text stays, but without the speech bubble. This leads to confusion as to whether you should use the first or third person when responding to the program's query. There are also situations where multiple answers are possible, but the program only accepts one. The price tag $999. For basically a couple thousand screens with pictures and audio. Plus, this only grants you access to the program for one year. The bottom line Rosetta Stone have created a brand name. When you think of language learning, you think of Rosetta Stone first. The brand has such incredible equity that people don't even realize that they just spent $400 for something they'll likely use for three weeks, get bored, and quit. It is possible to learn languages with Rosetta Stone. But for the price, it's not worth it. Anyone could learn a language in half the time with a grammar reference, flash card program, YouTube videos, and a web forum. If you would like suggestions for any of these things, that might be a Facebook note for another time. If after reading all this, you still want to try it out, please don't pay for it. Just use LiveMocha. It's pretty much the same thing, but free. Until the company can deliver a quality product, they don't deserve your money. 11 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zekecoma Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5183 days ago 561 posts - 655 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish | Message 4 of 30 17 September 2010 at 6:34am | IP Logged | ||
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I totally agree with your review. Rosetta Stone promises you so much but fails to deliver
them.I don't know how that company is honestly still around.It's like all those computer language programs you see in Wal-Mart or whatever. They try to throw so many languages in it, they leave out all the rest. There is only so much you can teach in a computer program. But, I honestly see the ones who do give it of good reviews are the ones who lacks the knowledge of learning languages. But, that is just my opinion. Sorry if I offended anyone. I honestly think people should go for Assimil, since it's exactly like RS, but it's in a book and teaches everything you need to know except it's in a book and not a computer program. Of course, you will need other books to advance in it. But, it's much cheaper and delivers much more. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| CommanderK Bilingual Triglot Newbie Israel melearninglanguages. Joined 5028 days ago 24 posts - 25 votes Speaks: Modern Hebrew*, Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 5 of 30 17 September 2010 at 9:42am | IP Logged | ||
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I can't understand why people are so crazy about Rosseta Stone, it doesn't teach you
anything. Just for comparison: Rosseta Stone German Level 1 - 224$ Teach Yourself Beginner's German (wich is not the best course for my opinion) - 10$ Edited by CommanderK on 17 September 2010 at 9:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6960 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 6 of 30 17 September 2010 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
I know! It's their marketing they excel at: the promises of effortless language learning, and all the emotive and cheeky/charming TV adverts. They have put an idea into people's minds (non-linguistic Muggle-people) that their carp courses are the best thing since sliced bread, and psychologically, with the TV spots, the glossy full-page magazine advertising and what have you, they have placed themselves at the forefront. Well, they must be good if they can afford to advertise everywhere, mustn't they? People must be conned into buying them because the adverts must cost a fortune! But any improvements made to the courses are cosmetic (one Amazon reviewer referred to RS, amusingly, as 'lipstick on a pig'). It's still just the same old click on a vague picture and try and guess the meaning. OK, so they have added MP3s..er, what? You mean there is now English on the courses too? But surely, the method 'works' because no English is used because it gets in the way! Well, that was the premise for this amazing new method back in the day, wasn't it? There was a very negative review on a Berkely University site for RS for years. I posted a link to it on here and it suddenly disappeared. So, I can only conclude that something underhanded has gone on. Talking of TV adverts, heck, check out the original 'Walk-in Fridge' commercial (youtube) for a certain, well-known Dutch beer! It's side-splitting...and it has a bit of Dutch in it too, so it's educational too. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 5850 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 30 17 September 2010 at 1:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I doubt the article disappeared for any reason more sinister than an old server being switched off.
You can still read the cached page on archive.org. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 6960 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 8 of 30 17 September 2010 at 2:53pm | IP Logged | ||
Oh yes, there it is. Maybe it disappeared and came back in a different place. Still doesn't explain why. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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