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Rosetta Stone revisited | ||
Tags: Rosetta Stone | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Juаn Senior Member Colombia Joined 5141 days ago 727 posts - 1830 votes  Speaks: Spanish* | Message 33 of 51 06 May 2013 at 4:23am | IP Logged | ||
I can. Large institutions -specially those operating on public funds- are notorious for making poor decisions. How many of the officials making the decision whether to use Rosetta Stone at a public school you believe have taught themselves a foreign language successfully? I'd give much greater weight to the informed opinion of an interested and experienced member of this forum over that of a senseless bureaucracy. As for people liking it - I like it too. Only I'm well aware of what Rosetta Stone actually provides you and what the program is worth. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6699 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 34 of 51 06 May 2013 at 4:37am | IP Logged | ||
I didn't use Rosetta Stone for a long time but yes, I'm one of those people - I did like it. I used version 2, so there weren't that many blows and whistles (which would rather annoy me than make learning more pleasant, I suppose) but I did have fun with RS, trying to figure out what the words mean, how the language works etc. I don't remember my impressions all that clearly any more but I thought I must have posted something here on HTLAL - and voila, let me quote a couple of sentences from my previous posts: "About a month ago I've started using Rosetta Stone - Dutch, version 2 (there's no version 3 for this language), I've done almost 4 units (about 40 lessons) so far. To tell you the truth, I expected the worst after having read all opinions about RS. I wouldn't have bought it (and I still think it's way too expensive) but when I was able to borrow it I decided to give it a try. I don't regret. It's not perfect, it isn't enough as the only source of language (maybe V3 is better), it wouldn't probably teach me an exotic language (Dutch and its structure are easy, and even easier if you already know both English and German), it may be irritating for some people who like being perfectly sure about meanings of words and how the grammar works. And, as I've already written, it definitely costs too much. As you see, I do realize what the disadvantages of this method are. But I still really enjoy using it for my Dutch studies. I have a lot of fun with it, it's kind of "discovering" a new language, I can "invent" the rules by myself and adjust them to what I see in the next lesson. Some pictures seem to be ambiguous but mostly they aren't, as their meaning depends on the meaning of three other pictures in the particular set. It may be annoying for someone that the same picture keep appearing in the later lessons with other captions, but that's what makes the whole thing authentic - if you see something in the real world you're able to say different statements about it, depending on what you want to say." And one year later: "I tried Rosetta Stone (version 2) for Dutch. I can't really say anything about the effects as I stopped learning Dutch because of going abroad for an immersion, but I enjoyed RS quite a lot. I used it together with Assimil, for me it was just a pleasant break (I like using software to learn languages, and most of the programmes are just crap - Rosetta is not). I was able to borrow RS, otherwise I would never buy it as I don't think it's worth its price. But it's not that bad, especially as a supplement to other materials." I wonder what my opinion would be now if I had finished the course back in 2008. I didn't give up on it because I was unhappy with it, though, it was my language priorities that changed suddendly. All in all, RS is not a great learning software, that's sure. But I don't think we do it justice, when comparing it to the content of thematic vocabulary books or a simple SRS database with pictures. From what I remember after all these years ;), the biggest advantage of RS was that the lessons were constructed logically and it felt kind of like every lesson, you would get new building bricks (or puzzles) for the language. You don't have the big picture but you do know where to put them so that they fit what you've already learned. Edited by Julie on 06 May 2013 at 4:39am 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6393 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 35 of 51 06 May 2013 at 9:53am | IP Logged | ||
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Every new word in a book or every new SRS card is also a new building block:)
Also, a problem with this is that if some of the vocabulary is irrelevant for you, you can't skip it (even temporarily). 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4503 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish | Message 36 of 51 06 May 2013 at 11:25am | IP Logged | ||
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I think the real problem with RS might be (apart from those pictures) is that the price
is so steep. For me, I've had good success in languages and it came much cheaper - I used FSI Swedish which was free!!!! and I attained a very good level of Swedish within 6 months. Even if it's a good methodology, it's not worth breaking the bank for when with a bit more trial and error you'll learn roundabout as quickly for not even half the price. I've spent money on several textbooks. (no software except Anki) and the most I've paid is €80 or so for an Assimil including the mp3s, and I have been using French Assimil books at that (not even close to my native language) and it's worked for me. That is no judgement on whether RS works or not, but if you don't have 500 dollars to spend, it's worth checking out other places first. If you can deal with old-school textbooks in the vein of FSI, you will learn a lot, for example. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 4805 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 37 of 51 06 May 2013 at 2:54pm | IP Logged | ||
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Well, if there is a pdf with the content and comparison to cefr levels, id love to see it. Why isnt it on the official
website? I never buy a product i have so little information about, i wonder why it doesnt bother rs clients. If you still have a link or could post thhe pdf somewhere, id appreciate it. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Julie Heptaglot Senior Member PolandRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6699 days ago 1251 posts - 1733 votes 5 sounds Speaks: Polish*, EnglishB2, GermanC2, SpanishB2, Dutch, Swedish, French | Message 38 of 51 06 May 2013 at 5:44pm | IP Logged | ||
Because they've never heard of CEFR? ;) I'm afraid most people are not that inquiring and aware of what they need as we are here on this forum... which is actually a pity because it lowers the overall quality of available language learning materials. Edited by Julie on 06 May 2013 at 5:44pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6705 days ago 4250 posts - 5710 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 39 of 51 06 May 2013 at 7:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Who knows, maybe they don't give out that information because that would be... well, not so informative?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Elexi Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5361 days ago 938 posts - 1839 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 40 of 51 06 May 2013 at 8:13pm | IP Logged | ||
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Having a CEFR rating on a product doesn't mean much - I mean Teach Yourself make wild
claims of taking a student up to C1 in two slim books and even Assimil inflate the level their courses will take you. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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