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New Rosetta Stone V4 reviews

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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes Post Reply
30 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3
Chris
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 6961 days ago

287 posts - 452 votes 
Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian

 
 Message 25 of 30
26 September 2010 at 5:10am | IP Logged 
Cainntear wrote:
zekecoma wrote:
One aspect it does correct, is to make you think in
the language rather than seeing a different of the word and matching it. But, in the
end that's all the use it does have. I learned how to say more in German from a
textbook than I did in RS.

I don't even think it guarantees that. The phrases it comes up with are sematically pretty complicated, and I always end up analysing it consciously... in terms of English.

I'm against the "no translation", because it always seems to me that the most successful students in a no-translation class actually do translate.


Quite so! Your native language is going to get in the way no matter what you do, so you might as well use it instead of trying to ignore it. Furthermore, adults need explanations!

From the other side, the obsession with teaching all in the target language is an impediment to learning in my experience, unless the students are at a suitably advanced level of expertise. What really happens is that one student finally catches on to what you're trying to get across, and then explains it to the other students in their native language. The idea that some amazing, innate understanding of the target language has gone on is absolute nonsense!
1 person has voted this message useful



Chris
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 6961 days ago

287 posts - 452 votes 
Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian

 
 Message 26 of 30
26 September 2010 at 5:16am | IP Logged 
[QUOTE=Bill_Sage667]
Someone should set up a site that informs people that RS is good only for the bare
basics.
QUOTE]

You would have to be careful how you worded it, and also, you couldn't use 'Rosetta Stone' in the URL or they'd be on to you straight away.

In my opnion RS isn't good for the basics either. To me the basics of a language include an understanding of its grammatical structure, which RS doesn't provide. Learn it explicitly...understand it...apply it = accuray. Not apply it and then try and guess how to put it together in other situations. The more I think about it, the more awful I think the program is!
3 persons have voted this message useful



Juаn
Senior Member
Colombia
Joined 5185 days ago

727 posts - 1830 votes 
Speaks: Spanish*

 
 Message 27 of 30
26 September 2010 at 5:51pm | IP Logged 
Chris wrote:
In my opnion RS isn't good for the basics either. To me the basics of a language include an understanding of its grammatical structure, which RS doesn't provide. Learn it explicitly...understand it...apply it = accuray. Not apply it and then try and guess how to put it together in other situations. The more I think about it, the more awful I think the program is!


Not everyone learns the same way. Rosetta Stone V2 enabled me to jump straight into monolingual German textbooks with no difficulty, so it did its job of providing me with the basic structures of the language.
2 persons have voted this message useful



Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 5851 days ago

4399 posts - 7687 votes 
Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

 
 Message 28 of 30
26 September 2010 at 8:08pm | IP Logged 
Juаn wrote:
Chris wrote:
In my opnion RS isn't good for the basics either. To me the basics of a language include an understanding of its grammatical structure, which RS doesn't provide. Learn it explicitly...understand it...apply it = accuray. Not apply it and then try and guess how to put it together in other situations. The more I think about it, the more awful I think the program is!


Not everyone learns the same way. Rosetta Stone V2 enabled me to jump straight into monolingual German textbooks with no difficulty, so it did its job of providing me with the basic structures of the language.

You might want to fill in your language profile, then. It's quite hard to evaluate what you're saying without knowing what other languages you speak.

I suspect this wasn't your first language learning experience.
2 persons have voted this message useful



BellaLuna
Diglot
Newbie
United States
Joined 5034 days ago

21 posts - 37 votes
Speaks: Korean*, English
Studies: Spanish

 
 Message 29 of 30
27 September 2010 at 5:51am | IP Logged 
I think I created a thread that'll cause RS's income ><
2 persons have voted this message useful



Chris
Heptaglot
Senior Member
Japan
Joined 6961 days ago

287 posts - 452 votes 
Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish
Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian

 
 Message 30 of 30
27 September 2010 at 1:39pm | IP Logged 
BellaLuna wrote:
I think I created a thread that'll cause RS's income ><


On this site, I doubt it. It takes a lot of effort and convincing to get someone to part with $1000, and seeds of doubt sown here would give anyone pause for thought.

RS must be selling a lot of their courses though, to be able to advertise so much. They have positioned themselves as a household name in personal language learning with one of the worst products on the market, so kudos to their martketing division! They could sell freezers to Eskimos and combs to bald folk, and send them away with a smile.

It's a shame that people don't realise they are being hoodwinked by some very clever marketing. Imagine how much really good language stuff you could get for $1000! Instead it's click on the pic, bells, whistles and grunts and, 'Hang on, what's that picture supposed to be anyway?'


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