Any Letsrunners have success with Rosetta Stone or other language-learning software? Seems fairly expensive and don't want to blow that much unless it's really a quality system. (Considering French by the way.)
Any Letsrunners have success with Rosetta Stone or other language-learning software? Seems fairly expensive and don't want to blow that much unless it's really a quality system. (Considering French by the way.)
je ne sais pas
Way too expensive. You are just paying for advertisements.
Duolingo is free and very good on IOS and Android.
Do they have Mandarin?
Honestly, it helps incredibly less than almost any other method. I'd have a very difficult time learning any language from Rosetta, but I can fairly comfortably learn in a class or using other software.
eBay
I've been pleased with the Pimsleur comprehensive courses with, typically, 90 x thirty-minute lessons and, though a reading booklet may be included, which are almost entirely an audio method. You listen and repeat.
I have the Ultimate version, which was passed on to me while taking foreign language classes in college. It is crap, especially for the price tag. I've gone through it in 4 languages I have at least a basic knowledge. It's promoted as the best option because they market it more than anything else out there.
My version may be outdated, since it's about 4-6 years old. Nothing is taught, they give you a picture/word/phrase and you have to click the correct option out of 4. Grammar rules have to be assumed because there aren't any lessons to show proper uses. If you are buying it for something like Chinese/Japanese, they literally give you the phrase in their written languages and speech. You just click around until you are hear the correct "ding". No explanation at any point.
Depending on what you are learning, duolingo is a decent free option. Check out the Unilang forums for resources too.
My Dad is from Japan. My Mom is from Norway. My parents never speak home languages at all to us. (I hate that). I'm learning Japanese 'ahead style'. I.E. most everything before the community college class begins, to get A's. Here's what I do (based on advice from others):
1. Get a FREE PDF book and study one chapter (or 2 or 3) learning it as well as you can using the exercises in the book.
2. Use FREE
to re-enforce what you learned, going back and forth from English to the learning language, listening to the sounds, trying out variations in grammar (always a bitch).
3. Log into the FREE
, find a real live breatheing human language native language partner to practice with real-time. It's hit or miss. Once you find a good partner, make advanced dates to practice again with the same person.
I gained fluency in two languages (one European, one Asian) as an adult, and would never use Rosetta Stone because it bores me to death. I learned through a combination of self study (with good textbooks and reading newspapers/watching tv), language study in the country, and interacting with native speakers.
Shocked at the strongly negative consensus thus far. I used Rosetta Stone to study Portuguese in advance of a trip to Brazil, and found RS to be not only more helpful than any other foreign language-learning program/class I'd been exposed to before, but also genuinely just short of miraculous in its effectiveness.
Other posters are correct to point out that vocabulary and grammar aren't taught explicitly; that's because Rosetta Stone's philosophy is that the best way to learn a second language is the same way we learned our first: intuitively.
As with anything that's difficult to master, this technology is only a tool. I found that I had to be both extremely disciplined in my study (I strove to complete one hour a day and eventually finished the entire program) and extremely humble and resilient in the face of failure--some lessons I barely made it through, and some foundational precepts I wouldn't absorb until much later.
That brings me to another key point about Rosetta Stone: not every completed level will result in your immediately enlightenment. Sometimes it takes repetition after repetition, throughout various ostensibly unrelated exercises, until you really get what is being taught. Sometimes they'll introduce words and concepts only fleetingly, and it's not until ten lessons on that you've actually nailed what they're about.
Success with Rosetta Stone is contingent upon a lot of hard work in addition to faith in the system, but it can be an incredibly helpful program.
Flo'da boy wrote:
Do they have Mandarin?
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Yes - they have mandarin. There is a special offer now for levels 1 to 5 for $274 total or 3 months on-line for $99. I did a trial of it and not sure if it is that good. I learned one language super fast by studying vocabulary intensively for one week then printing out 100s of sentences and just going over those again and again.
Hipsterpotomus wrote:
Duolingo is free and very good on IOS and Android.
Hey, thanks for this info. I got it for my Android last night and went through several Spanish lessons. Cool way to brush up on a language long ago learned. I could see how you could learn from nothing with that too.
ace of base wrote:
Shocked at the strongly negative consensus thus far. I used Rosetta Stone to study Portuguese in advance of a trip to Brazil, and found RS to be not only more helpful than any other foreign language-learning program/class I'd been exposed to before, but also genuinely just short of miraculous in its effectiveness.
Other posters are correct to point out that vocabulary and grammar aren't taught explicitly; that's because Rosetta Stone's philosophy is that the best way to learn a second language is the same way we learned our first: intuitively.
As with anything that's difficult to master, this technology is only a tool. I found that I had to be both extremely disciplined in my study (I strove to complete one hour a day and eventually finished the entire program) and extremely humble and resilient in the face of failure--some lessons I barely made it through, and some foundational precepts I wouldn't absorb until much later.
That brings me to another key point about Rosetta Stone: not every completed level will result in your immediately enlightenment. Sometimes it takes repetition after repetition, throughout various ostensibly unrelated exercises, until you really get what is being taught. Sometimes they'll introduce words and concepts only fleetingly, and it's not until ten lessons on that you've actually nailed what they're about.
Success with Rosetta Stone is contingent upon a lot of hard work in addition to faith in the system, but it can be an incredibly helpful program.
I agree with this post. I have learned a lot from Rosetta Stone. I suppose it depends on what your goals are, though. I'm not looking to be fluent, but just to be able to have casual conversations. My wife has a lot of family from Italy and many of her relatives there speak no English at all. Because of Rosetta Stone, I was able to have casual conversations with her relatives. I was also able to express my needs and show my gratitude. Using Rosetta Stone before visiting changed my trip greatly for the better.
In terms of price, when you compare it to the cost of classes, it's actually pretty cheap. I also got a lot more out of Rosetta Stone than I ever would from a class.
I learned Mandarin using Rosetta Stone.Worked great.
Flo'da boy wrote:
Do they have Mandarin?
With any language, the key is repetition and exposure. I don't know about Rosetta Stone, but if you are trying to pick up a language start going to websites in that language, listening to online radio, watching subtitled movies, buying magazines in that language, getting involved in a local conversation group, and generally immerse yourself in it as much a possible. Especially with the internet there's all sorts of resources out there. You need to do that sort of thing in addition to whatever "formal" study you are doing (classes, Rosetta Stone, etc).
After a while, your brain starts to pick things up and make sense of things just like you picked up English or whatever your native language is.
I bought the Mandarin Rosetta Stone CDs (all levels) for 50 yuan in Shanghai, which is like $8. Works fine, the normal price is a ripoff.
I am currently learning espanol. I first purchased total immersion at Costco for 25 bucks and got bored quickly. I then started watching Destinos online for free (a spanish learning series). I then started using Duolingo. Once or twice a week I pay a Spanish tutor 30 bucks for 90 minutes of lesson. Having iTranslate on my phone has been handy. Once I get a little better I will Skype with Spanish tutors for $10 an hour.
Spanish was very hard for me because I didn't understand English grammar and sentence structure very well. For someone like me you have to be involved pretty much every day. You may go weeks and get frustrated you aren't learning but you will see that things do stick.
Everyone is different. I have a friend who I would consider book smart, Rosetta Stone was good for him.
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