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Rosetta Stone Warning | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Chris Heptaglot Senior Member Japan Joined 7119 days ago 287 posts - 452 votes  Speaks: English*, Russian, Indonesian, French, Malay, Japanese, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Korean, Mongolian | Message 9 of 53 02 February 2010 at 7:16am | IP Logged | ||
That's useful to know about Fluentz too. I have a lot to say about Rosetta Stone, and none of it positive, but that would take a longer post than I currently have time for. I think that prospective buyers need to know the terms when they buy. Obviously, it will be in the small print, but let's be honest, who really reads it? If you do a search for Rocket Languages and Libros Media in relation to Rosetta Stone, you'll also find that Rosetta has initiated legal action against both Rocket and Google, for using trademarked terms. I suspect, however, that the Rosetta Stone people are just annoyed that they have such fierce competation from Rocket, for what is a far cheaper and better product. Rocket's courses include software similar to Rosetta's only with Rocket it actually tells you what the picture is supposed to represent. Rosetta is 15 years old now, and it shows! Fancy new packaging and high-cost TV and magazine advertising are all that is hiding a shoddy product. Look at the one-star reviews of RS Korean on Amazon. Thay are enlightening. This review is also very interesting: Rosetta Stone Russian Review This quote from the above review says it all: "The entire package lacks any pedagogical foundation. Rather, it utilizes the glitz of the multimedia capabilities of the computer, a dearth of quality foreign language software, and clever marketing to create an economically successful product. It is precisely economics which is driving this product - it is relatively inexpensive to take a database of English phrases and translate them into a dozen or so languages, record a native speaker, and insert the media and text into a shell. Textbooks are not created this way, and good software cannot be either." I remain entirely unimpressed! Edited by Chris on 02 February 2010 at 7:20am 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| translator2 Senior Member United States Joined 6917 days ago 848 posts - 1862 votes Speaks: English* | Message 10 of 53 02 February 2010 at 3:23pm | IP Logged | ||
Thank you for this link. It expresses exactly what I was trying to say. They just translated English words and phrases into other languages without references to the difficulties inherent in each individual language. You probably could learn the Russian case endings intuitively, but you would need a program specifically designed for Russian in order to do that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gusutafu Senior Member Sweden Joined 5519 days ago 655 posts - 1039 votes Speaks: Swedish* | Message 11 of 53 02 February 2010 at 4:18pm | IP Logged | ||
It's not really fair to say that Rosetta Stone is 15 years old. The new version 3 is only a few years old, and is much better than the previous versions. It used to be completely useless in the way it was organised, and this has improved considerably. The method is the same, and just as mindnumbingly boring as before... Edited by Gusutafu on 02 February 2010 at 4:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BaldOldWhiteGuy Newbie United States Joined 5776 days ago 5 posts - 15 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, French | Message 12 of 53 06 February 2010 at 9:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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To be fair, I went back to Ebay and there are now used Fluenz sets on there. So maybe it is just a Rosetta Stone thing.
My brother bought the German and the Spanish Rosetta stone, and he has had fits working with those people. When he bought them, he put them on his laptop and his pc. He just updated his laptop, and now they won't load on the new one. The customer service people told him that if he had gone to the website and read the legal details, he would have seen that the user is limited to putting the program on two machines. When he asked to speak to a supervisor he got disconnected. I would rather spend my money on programs that actually cater to the customers. I sent the Assimil people an email once, and had an appropriate and helpful response the next morning. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Frenchpro Triglot Newbie United States francetravelandfood. Joined 5400 days ago 29 posts - 38 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Korean | Message 13 of 53 09 February 2010 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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On top of all this, Rosetta Stone think a bit much of themsleves. I am an internet marketing besides being a language lover and I have built a great site about tips on the French language... I then wanted to add some links to sell some language progams, and I tried to promote Rosetta Stone which I thaught was a good progam.
Well, regardless of my knowledge in both languages and Internet marketing. They didn't not even accepted my application on CJ to promote them. Their loss really :) Another bad point for this them, I guess. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5428 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 14 of 53 12 February 2010 at 12:29am | IP Logged | ||
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O.K., most people on this site don't like Rosetta Stone. It's overpriced, overhyped and doesn't work that well. But it
does have some slick marketing. I think the vast majority of people who buy it give up after a while and figure that they really can't learn a language. But that can be said about all, and I mean all, consumer language learning products. Some people like Michel Thomas, others Assimil or FSI. Whatever works for you. But the plain and painful truth is that to become fluent in a world language at an adult age is very, very difficult and time-consuming. Does anybody really believe that you can speak language X like a native in two months? Give me a break. How many people are really fluent after two years without total immersion? And even when one lives in the country, it takes a lot of time. Get real, people. Edited by s_allard on 12 February 2010 at 12:31am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| habadzi Super Polyglot Senior Member Greece Joined 5572 days ago 70 posts - 106 votes Speaks: Greek*, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, Hindi, French, German, Italian, Ancient Greek, Modern Hebrew, Arabic (classical), Indonesian, Bengali, Albanian, Nepali | Message 15 of 53 16 February 2010 at 3:35am | IP Logged | ||
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On ebay there are now several Rosetta Stone sets for sale, though the official site also advertises.
It's comforting that everyone here agrees on Rosetta Stone. have successfully talked people out of buying it in airports. People can't learn specific information by looking at a vague scene. I saw the beginning of Turkish: "Adam icior" and 4 people drinking,including a man. Ok, drinking must be icior. But what is Adam? Not a turkish man's name, so you can't choose the man's picture. Furthermore in Hebrew there Ben-Adam and in Urdu there is admi, so this extra knowledge ensures that the silly example does not work. And after paying $500 people don't own the program??? Wow! Edited by habadzi on 16 February 2010 at 3:47am 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| rbbrum110 Newbie United States Joined 5340 days ago 16 posts - 18 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 16 of 53 12 April 2010 at 8:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I bought Rosetta Stone around January of 2010 after I spent a month in Mexico practicing Spanish and speaking it with natives. Before Rosetta Stone I completed 2 audio/book courses from Living Languages (levels 1 & 2) at the library. I did every lession and listened to the audio tapes. They didn't prepare me for every verb tense though and luckily I had 501 Spanish verbs book with me to help. I completed all of their exercises at the back of the book as well and that really helped. I bought Rosetta Stone version 3 and the only complaint I have is I think it's too easy. I spoke with someone else and he really struggled with it though. It's not $500, but around $300. Just recently I purchased a book called Correct 99% of errors English speakers make and that is really valuable too. It also helps to go to meetups from meetup.com or chat online with skype with natives!
And if you don't know a word, keep a huge list and write it down so you can increase your vocabulary and use it. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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