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How far can Rosetta Stone v3 take you? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Maladyets Groupie Ukraine Joined 6447 days ago 40 posts - 42 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 1 of 88 20 April 2008 at 1:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Out of curiosity, how far along in the language learning process can Rosetta Stone version3 volumes 1,2 and 3 take you? Does anybody know from experience or have any ideas? Are we looking at and intermediate level,or beginning-intermediate?
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| digitlhand Triglot Groupie United States ryanslrblog.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6032 days ago 77 posts - 108 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, Swedish Studies: German, Arabic (Written), Japanese, Greek, French | Message 2 of 88 20 April 2008 at 3:55pm | IP Logged | ||
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Not far really, I've used both v3 and v2 in many languages. They are a great intro to a language... It'll take you
to a mid-level beginner ... Or to put it better you won't be able to have conversations or read any authentic material at all... But its a good way to get you going before you start listening and reading. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5898 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 3 of 88 20 April 2008 at 4:33pm | IP Logged | ||
I'd say it would DEFINITELY take you past "mid-level beginner". Perhaps volume 1 would take you to mid-level beginner, but if you went through the entire course, you'd have thousands of words of vocabulary, and know how to discuss/describe most things you encounter in daily life. The problem is a complete lack of grammar instruction, and the fact that it doesn't develop conversational language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| BGreco Senior Member Joined 6204 days ago 211 posts - 222 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 4 of 88 20 April 2008 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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But those thousand words consist of things like "The elephant is jumping." There's no reason to spend hundreds of hours on something that will take you to a level that you could get to much quicker (even in as few as 8 hours for more popular languages-Michel Thomas) by using other methods.
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| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5898 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 5 of 88 20 April 2008 at 4:49pm | IP Logged | ||
Those thousands of words are all random phrases like "The elephant is jumping"? A program can teach you thousands of words of vocabulary and phrases in 8 hours? I'll let you rethink what you wrote before I reply, because...well, what you wrote is just flat-out false. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| BGreco Senior Member Joined 6204 days ago 211 posts - 222 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: French, Spanish | Message 6 of 88 20 April 2008 at 5:03pm | IP Logged | ||
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1. That is what most of the lessons near the beginning teach. If you could point out something useful that RS teaches you besides a whole bunch of random vocab, I'd like to hear it.
2. You would have a better command of French after finishing Michel Thomas's 8 hour courses than by using all 3 levels of RS. If you used the extra 5 hours of his advanced course, there would be no comparison. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| chelovek Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5898 days ago 413 posts - 461 votes 5 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Russian | Message 7 of 88 20 April 2008 at 5:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Maladyets, I just realized that you were learning Russian. I can give you my opinion on RS Russian, as I've been studying Russian for about 8 months, and have RS as well.
Well, when I first began, I tried to use RS Russian. I went through a few lessons, but felt bored, and often very confused about the grammar and constructions. So, for the most part I abandoned the program and used my university course, Pimsleur, and this book "Penguin Russian Course For Beginners". As of now, I'm nearing what I'd consider the intermediate level. I know most of the major grammar rules (ie. declensions), I can read without any difficulty, and my vocabulary is starting to get strong. I recently tried RS again, and I felt a noticeable difference. I understand why various changes are made to sentence structure and words, and thus I find that using the program is much easier. I plan on going through a lesson everyday so I can keep building my vocabulary. So, bottom line: I find that RS Russian is difficult to make progress unless you are already comfortable with grammar. Once you are comfortable with the various grammatical cases, I think the program is a great way to improve your vocab. There's just so many words and situations covered in the program, that once you get through it you'll be able to talk about almost anything you encounter in your daily life. The problem with the program (I think this is what BGreco was saying) is that early on you'll find yourself learning "random" words and verbs that simply aren't going to be immediately useful. That's a valid criticism. In early lessons, you learn things like "the dog jumps", "the elephant is big", "the girl is under the table". These aren't things that you can run outside and use with friends, but once you are making progress with the language, the words and constructions will be vital. The program won't help you very much when you want to order in a restaurant or make small talk, but as far as expanding your range of language knowledge (ie. giving you the vocab you need to be fluent), it's great. So, use it, but use it in conjunction with other things... Last thing: I personally wouldn't want to shell out the several hundred dollars for it. If you're a beginner, you'd be better off investing 25 bucks in that Penguin book I mentioned and a Harper-Collins dictionary, and then borrowing Pimsleur from the library. Edited by chelovek on 20 April 2008 at 5:27pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Leopejo Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Italy Joined 5920 days ago 675 posts - 724 votes Speaks: Italian*, Finnish*, English Studies: French, Russian | Message 8 of 88 21 April 2008 at 2:38am | IP Logged | ||
Chelovek, do you use the new Version 3 Rosetta Stone, or the older V2? I heard that the V3 one is more "traditional" than V2: it introduces greetings soon and so on, but haven't been able to check by myself. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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