unlocked87 Groupie United States Joined 6621 days ago 42 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese
| Message 1 of 24 10 October 2006 at 4:39pm | IP Logged |
I just got Rosetta Stone and was wondering if it's possible to become fluent in a language with just that?
If not how far can you get with just Rosetta? How far have any of you gotten with it?
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patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map
| Message 2 of 24 10 October 2006 at 4:51pm | IP Logged |
You can't get fluent just with the Rosetta Stone despite what the manufacturers claim. It might be useful for vocabulary acquisition but not much else.
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lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German
| Message 3 of 24 10 October 2006 at 5:40pm | IP Logged |
I agree with Patuco. The course seems capable of teaching vocabulary, but you could do the same with a dictionary, an online newspaper, and fifteen minutes a day. And it would be a lot cheaper!
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Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7105 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds
| Message 4 of 24 10 October 2006 at 6:34pm | IP Logged |
Short answer: no.
Although I think the program is very good for practice with the language's writing system and pronunciation. It really helped me with French.
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Transvaal Newbie United States Joined 6728 days ago 31 posts - 31 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 5 of 24 10 October 2006 at 7:12pm | IP Logged |
What about Pimsleur?
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neo Diglot Groupie IndiaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6807 days ago 81 posts - 83 votes Speaks: Hindi*, English Studies: German, Italian
| Message 6 of 24 10 October 2006 at 8:31pm | IP Logged |
Rosetta Stone (or Pimsleur or Michel Thomas or whatever ) ALONE can not help entirely;you have to *Mix'n'Match* all learning aids (books,programmes ...) from time to time to get holistic learning...and have fun along the way as well. (and we have not counted films/radio as learning aids yet! )
For those struggling with this concept....Barry Farber's Book "How to learn any language" or Graham Fuller's "Spymaster's secret of learning foreign languages" are good introduction to language learning in general...
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neo
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lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German
| Message 7 of 24 17 October 2006 at 11:30pm | IP Logged |
As neo noted, no single program can take you all the way. It's most efficient to be a dilettante - to develop a learning style that works for you, utilizing audio programs as one part of a multiple-approach effort to learning. Figure out how you learn most efficiently, and get at it, modifying your approach along the way.
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owshawng Senior Member United States Joined 6887 days ago 202 posts - 217 votes Speaks: English*
| Message 8 of 24 18 October 2006 at 7:53am | IP Logged |
I tried Rosetta stone for Mandarin and did not like it at all. I found it very frustrating. My wife and sister-in-law, both native mandarin speakers who are trilingual, tried it and thought it didn't make much sense either.
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