Rosetta Stone Warning (Language Programs, Books & Tapes) Language Learning Forum

Rosetta Stone Warning
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Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes

53 messages over 7 pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Next >>

Slacker
Diglot
Pro Member
United States
Joined 5266 days ago
62 posts - 99 votes

Speaks: Spanish, English
Studies: German, Italian, Russian, Portuguese, Arabic (classical)
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Message 41 of 53

08 February 2011 at 3:12am | IP Logged

zekecoma wrote:

Rosetta Stone is just a cheap expensive marketing gimmick to get unsuspecting victims
to shell out insane amount of money for something that will never get you too far. Even
if you manage to complete everything they offer. You barely even scratch the level of
A2 to even see the benefits of it.

I had to look up what "A2" meant, but according to Wikipedia, it means "Waystage or Elementary" Basic Speaker.
which would mean that you:
"Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g.
very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in
simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters.
Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of
immediate need."

...I'm good with that.

zekecoma wrote:

Naive people (the ones who do buy it), feel that as soon as they complete it that it
will give them fluency that a native would have. Which it never will. Let alone, RS's
bad programming job they did on the software. That it's speech recognition is horrible
at best.

If there are actually people that think completing Rosetta Stone will give them the same fluency as a native, I
wouldn't call them naive, I'd call them stupid. They'd be better off spending a few hundred dollars on NASCAR
gear, Larry The Cable Guy tickets, and "Mubarak '12" campaign posters. As for the software: the only problems
I've had are with slow connections to their server. I don't use the speech recognition because I think it's
inappropriate to talk to my computer.

zekecoma wrote:

It is very slow and very boring. How will I learn how to ask a supermodel that I want
to bang her brains out on a cliff in some desert country land in some state? Oh right
it doesn't teach you that. How you suppose to learn that from pictures? Sure pictures
are worth a 1000 words and that's the problem with RS. Say a pencil is sitting on a
table. How you suppose to guess if it's talking about a pencil, the table itself, if
they are asking if it's silver, etc.

Actually, they work through the picking up a supermodel in Level 1 (well, she's not a supermodel, she's a 20-
something on vacation with her brother... but just the fact that she's in RS pictures means that she is,
technically, a model.) In the scenario, your part starts out with juggling fruit on a bus to get her attention.
Honestly, I think your "I want to bang your brains out on a cliff" line would be more effective, and less
embarrassing.

How do you know what the pictures are supposed to represent? Simple: it's multiple choice. Also, using your
argument that pictures are worth 1000 words, and since RS probably has at least 1000 distinct pictures, one
could logically conclude that after I finish, I'll have the equivalent of a one-million word vocabulary. Sweet!

zekecoma wrote:

All the stuff is too ambiguous at best.RS people could careless if you learn it or not.
All they truly care about is the profits they are making for a less than honest
product.

So I just finished Italian Level 1 and Level 2. The only ambiguity (well, thing that I didn't understand at first) was
in the 3rd person indirect object pronouns. One time in approximately 32 hours of study that I had to spend 5
minutes consulting an outside resource to clarify a tricky grammar point.

zekecoma wrote:

Also how do they expect us to learn a language like we are a baby? I'm sorry, I do not
think like a baby, I never will ever again think like a baby. A baby will pick up
something quicker than an adult. With an adult mind, we always ask why.

You have to keep an open mind on this one. I fitted myself with Depends(tm) undergarments, put all my food
through a blender, and started teething again. It was smelly, gross, and painful, but now I speak like Silvio
Burlusconi and sing like Andrea Bocelli.

zekecoma wrote:

Look at this also. Each language is not the same like Rosetta Stone makes it out to be.
German is easy for me to pick up due to English being a Germanic language. But for
people who's native language isn't of an Germanic language it would probably be more
difficult.

I know this was an issue with the old versions, but I think this has been worked out in the newer versions. For
example, in the Italian version, there is a lesson to teach that you use "a" for cities and "in" for countries. "vado
a parigi" but "vado in francia". I doubt (but don't know, because I haven't done them) that they have the same
lessons for Chinese or Japanese, because it just wouldn't make any sense. If they do, let me know and I'll mock
them.

zekecoma wrote:

It's hard for me to learn French due to it's insane pronunciation. Now if you take a
Spanish or an Italian person, it would be much easier for them to pick it up than me.
Because of their languages being of the Romantic language tree.

Touche! (too-shay). Actually, I've been thinking about that as I flew through the first two Italian levels. Since I
already know Spanish, it made it a lot easier. So I really don't think I can give it a fair shake. So with this in
mind, I'm going to try Arabic next, of which I have no knowledge. This should be good times...

Keepin' it real,
-Slacker

==============================
TAC '11 - Slacker's Rosetta Stone Game
Current: Arabic-1
Done: Italian-1, Italian-2
Total Hours: 33
==============================
3 persons have voted this message useful

mr_chinnery
Senior Member
England
Joined 5570 days ago
202 posts - 297 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: French

Message 42 of 53

08 February 2011 at 4:19pm | IP Logged

I saw a someone selling Pimsleur French and Russian on SD card on ebay.co.uk, so I put a
bid on, and it was pulled within a day.
1 person has voted this message useful

hrhenry
Octoglot
Senior Member
United States
languagehopper.blogs
Joined 4943 days ago
1871 posts - 3642 votes

Speaks: English*, Spanish^C2, Italian^C2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese
Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe

Message 43 of 53

08 February 2011 at 5:25pm | IP Logged

mr_chinnery wrote:

I saw a someone selling Pimsleur French and Russian on SD card on ebay.co.uk, so I put a
bid on, and it was pulled within a day.

Curious to know what they were asking...

You can now purchase downloadable courses directly from Pimsleur for 1/3 the cost of the CD versions.

R.
==
1 person has voted this message useful

Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 5824 days ago
4399 posts - 7687 votes

Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

Message 44 of 53

08 February 2011 at 6:37pm | IP Logged

mr_chinnery wrote:

I saw a someone selling Pimsleur French and Russian on SD card on ebay.co.uk, so I put a
bid on, and it was pulled within a day.

It's hard to understand why someone would pay for a pirated copy of something. Wouldn't it be simpler just to download it, if you don't care about whether it's legitimate or not...?
1 person has voted this message useful

mr_chinnery
Senior Member
England
Joined 5570 days ago
202 posts - 297 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: French

Message 45 of 53

08 February 2011 at 11:34pm | IP Logged

Cainntear wrote:

mr_chinnery wrote:

I saw a someone selling Pimsleur French and
Russian on SD card on ebay.co.uk, so I put a
bid on, and it was pulled within a day.

It's hard to understand why someone would pay for a pirated copy of something. Wouldn't
it be simpler just to download it, if you don't care about whether it's legitimate or
not...?

Not if it's not being seeded.
2 persons have voted this message useful

crystal.yang
Newbie
United Kingdom
Joined 4724 days ago
25 posts - 39 votes
Speaks: Mandarin

Message 46 of 53

21 June 2011 at 9:07am | IP Logged

I think every program has its own focus. As for rosetta stone, it concentrates on language speaking and listening. So it is useful for the people who have the basic knowledge of one foreign language and want to improve the listening and speaking ability in a short time.
So we can not negate it totally.
3 persons have voted this message useful

Cainntear
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Scotland
linguafrankly.blogsp
Joined 5824 days ago
4399 posts - 7687 votes

Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic
Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh

Message 47 of 53

21 June 2011 at 1:48pm | IP Logged

Speaking is not simply the act of moving the mouth and making sounds come out. Rosetta Stone does not help you practice speaking.
1 person has voted this message useful

Leurre
Bilingual Pentaglot
Senior Member
United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name
Joined 5238 days ago
219 posts - 372 votes

Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, Spanish^C2
Studies: Japanese

Message 48 of 53

21 June 2011 at 5:16pm | IP Logged

Cainntear wrote:

Speaking is not simply the act of moving the mouth and making sounds
come out. Rosetta Stone does not help you practice speaking.

I'd be interested in hearing a little more on this idea, Cainntear. Would you mind
elaborating?

1 person has voted this message useful

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