Rosetta stone will not make you fluent in a foreign language. Each unit is split into manageable 5 to 10 minute lessons, and each lesson uses. Some people greatly prefer the course, while others want nothing to do with it. The trouble started in the fall and snowballed from there. Ideal for beginner to advanced learners. On average, it takes approximately: At this pace, each level will take about three months to complete the exact time may vary depending on the language and how different it is from your native language.
The focused learning process ensures that you can become fluent in spanish according to your purpose. Book a trial lesson today! Is rosetta stone easy to use? Using rosetta stone, you will reach a very basic proficiency. Rosetta stone, duolingo, and babbel have all funded their own studies claiming that their app can help you cover the requirements of one college semester of spanish.
Tl:dr it is a nice way to get you talking in conversations, and drills essential structures well. Some people learn new languages much faster than others. Download a unit and knock it out on the train or a flight. The company and their courses get a lot of love and hate. Drill and kill mode of learning:. Filipino Tagalog. Persian Farsi. Portuguese Brazil. Spanish Spain.
For Enterprise. For Schools. How Rosetta Stone Can Help. Try Our Award-Winning App. Learn Languages. Best Language Learning Apps. Accent vs Dialect. Learn Language. What Does Bilingual Mean. Most Spoken Language in the World. Therefore, learning Spanish in your sleep can be a helpful way to supplement your Spanish education. So check out these resources that could help you improve your vocabulary while you catch some Zs.
For most people, around 30 minutes of active study and 1 hour of language exposure a day is a schedule that will give you great results.
But of course, it all depends on your goals and expectations. Table of Contents. We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie Settings Accept. Manage consent. Close Privacy Overview This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Yes, I realize that figuring something out is a stronger learning method than hearing or reading it. Korean does have a plural suffix, but it is normally used only to show contrast. There are free online Korean courses that work much better.
A Korean told me that many of the sentences used are not what a Korean would ever use. So what's the point of chunking if the the chunks are never going to be used? On the positive side, even though for ease I would have preferred the grammatical forms used with kids since it's easier, starting with the formal is better for learning Korean since using formal to your lover might be funny but using informal or familiar with your boss can be catastrophic.
So that aspect of RS I agree with. I was so upset with my RS Korean course that I tried, within the specified time, to get my money back.
I got stonewalled and still have the stuff lying around somewhere. While we all might learn our first language regardless of what it is pretty much the same way and, unless there is a special problem, succeed in getting the basics in a couple of years after hearing thousands of hours; learning a second language does not always follow the same path or have the same ease.
Thus, it can well be that RS is good for certain mixes of some languages and some people. Let me give two short examples to explain. I bought my Korean RS at full price.
Psychologically, this is important; I was quite poor, and the price had am impact on my basic living condition. That meant that I felt the company owed me a good product, but it also meant that I was determined to get my money's worth from it. An acquaintance had a stolen or pirated copy of RS for Portuguese. That is, he had no financial investment in it.
He raved about RS. In addition to the financial-psychological difference, there was a linguistic one. I had had no background in Korean; he spoke Spanish, and his mother tongue was German. That meant that the vocabulary and grammar of his target language were not far from his base, whereas other than European loan words which, though not rare in Korean, are not common in the RS course , I was totally in the dark. Interestingly, when I looked at RS free snooper course for Indonesian, a language I had had a couple of courses in years earlier, I breezed through material and actually discovered the meaning of one or two Korean pictures that had stumped me.
I have been told that the Russian RS program does not take into consideration the gender of the speaker and other aspects of the language, which means it is either confusing or wrong. Ok so I read this review a couple days ago after having already started a German Rosetta Stone. I had something just happen that I thought was hilarious and made me think about this, so I had to post it. I was just doing a Core Lesson and eating at the same time. A talky bit came up when I wasn't expecting it and I was slurping spaghetti, and it accepted my spaghetti slurp as a correct answer XD.
I know this is old, but I'm currently working on RS Korean in preparation for an internship in Korea in a few weeks. I have to say I completely disagree with your contention that it is a good thing to completely exclude explicit grammar instruction.
It may be true that it is possible to learn grammar inductively, but SLA research indicates that it takes children YEARS to master the grammar of their language. Even if an adult had that much time, adult brains do not function in the same way as those of children. For example, I'm about halfway through Level 1 of Korean and I was getting frustrated by the lack of explanation so I bought a Korean workbook from Barnes and Noble.
I opened it up and the first thing I discovered was an explanation of the -ga and -reul endings, which I wasn't adequately made aware of after the first unit. Things retrospectively made significantly more sense to me and I wondered what I had missed by not understanding that. How long would it have taken for RS to make explicitly clear that -ga is the subject ending and -reul is the object ending? Maybe a minute? The amount of input I would have needed to figure that out myself would be absolutely staggering i.
My point is that even though grammar CAN be learned implicitly doesn't mean it SHOULD be done that way, especially when RS is a product clearly designed and marketed with the purpose of providing an efficient program.
In general SLA research indicates that while implicit learning can be effective it should always be supplemented by explicit instruction, especially when there is little transfer between languages as with Korean and English, or really Korean and any other language. Paul Nation has a lot to say on this subject if you're interested. You link to your other post where you describe how important it is to make mistakes, but you can't make these mistakes in a program like RS because you have no feedback.
That's another important issue in terms of child language acquisition: not only do you not have the same amount of time as a child but you also don't have the resource of someone who knows the language who can give you unlimited amounts of input and correct you when you make a mistake. In my opinion RS tries to take an "innovative" approach by being immersion-only but in the process makes itself less efficient and less authentic.
I majored in French and minored in Spanish years ago. I make a major effort to continue to improve. When planning a trip to Italy I went through the whole Pimsleur program and wanted more. A Rosetta Stone offer came up on Craigslist so I jumped on it. When it would not work in my computer I contacted the company and was told that these programs are "leased" not "purchased" so you cannot buy it secondhand.
I argued that my box was new, still in shrink wrap, I was told that Rosetta Stone does not use shrink wrap and that someone perhaps out of China, has made tons of fake copies. So I learned something, I guess, but I would still like to know, if it was a genuine RS product, would it now work on any computer or is it still restricted?
The happy ending to this event was that i found I could use the companion CDs because of my solid language background. Thanks for you very comprehensive review and suggestions.
Still looking for an advanced program to further my French but have found some great podcasts like News in Slow French, that you can speed up to normal speed. If you're going to ding Rosetta Stone for improper grammar, you should look at your own first and correct it. You mean, "Have become more ignorant". People aren't getting anymore stupid, they conveniently ignore the facts and anything that is difficult, for which is the reason why I used, "ignorant" instead of, "stupid".
I have a simple question, I hope you can help me. I need to improve my vocabulary in english, I understand many words and also conversations but Im really short in my own speaking because of my short vocabulary. Im a visual man, so the best way to learnd for my is by watching, Rosetta Stone is good in that area. I need to know if the teach vocabulary and how much grammar do they teach. I have others programs to speak and also to listen english but Im looking for one to learnd and improve my vocabulary.
As always great review. I have been studying Arabic Iraqi dialect and French with Rosetta Stone and it's really a great product. In my opinion also a great supplement There is no one source solution for language learning except to always study, listen and speak when you get the chance.
I also highly recommend glossika. Again, great review because it is really the most balanced I read. The 6 moth auto renewal is not stated at the time of purchase it is in fine print on the followup email confirmation I was ripped off and cant get my first 6 moth charge reversed you have to catch it at the time!! I wish I had read this review before I bought Rosetta Stone. Fortunately I didn't pay full price. Thanks very much. It really is an excellent, balanced review.
I used Rosetta Stone to learn Spanish as a beginner and then I returned to it more recently for revision. There are different kinds of learners and Rosetta Stone suits some. I can't learn vocabulary unless I can see or visualise the words. Rosetta Stone is helpful to me because it allows me to see the spelling of the words I'm learning. I have used Pimsleur and that was its main limitation for me. My main problem with RS is its inflexibility. I can't pause to think and process what I'm learning and I have to continue at the pace of the program to the end of the lesson without knowing how long it will take.
Other problems include the failure of the headset soon after I started using RS and my difficulty in working out what some of the diagrams are supposed to show.
It's not a program that I would recommend. Thank you, this is VERY helpful and thorough. I have wondered if I am missing something by not using RS, and am relieved to see that this is not necessarily the case. You should be updating your review, because the online subscription now includes up to 4 Video chat group lessons 25min each with a native speaker per month, which is a total of 20 hours of! Although they are supposed to be group lessons, most of the times I was alone with the teacher and they are very well trained and I felt like really learning something.
I bought the subscription for eur during a christmas time offer, so alltogether this is a huge value for that money. I recently started teaching myself Japanese, using YouTube, Flash Games, and just some written articles on the subject. I haven't spent much more than a few days on it yet, but I wanted to "try" rosetta stone out because I know someone who has the version I want. In short I really like the lack of explanation. I haven't gone more than a few minutes in yet but I really like what I'm learning.
I have been using Rosetta Stone for a couple of weeks not to learn Swedish and have found it very helpful. However, I would like to point out a couple of things that have changed since the article was written or was not available at the time. The subscription pricing as dropped significantly. However, with their Rosetta Stone Language Learning program now, the program remains active even after the online subscription expires.
So if you choose not to renew the online subscription, you still have access to the regular program on your computer along with all the standard lessons; you just no longer have access to the online tutoring, games, mobile app, etc. So even after purchasing the online subscription, you still have the product for a lifetime.
One other thing that I think is useful with their Rosetta Stone Language Learning program is that the license allows you to install it on two computers. I find this helpful as I have installed on my desktop at home and my work compute to do some lesson on my work break at lunch. The computer software also allows up to 5 learns per computer, so if my wife, or son, wanted to start using it, I wouldn't need to purchase additional licenses.
They can use the software already installed. The also have the option of deactivating it on an installed computer so you can install it on a different one e. I am not sure if the other products you mentioned offer similar options, but I did find these to be very appealing. I would like to point out that I am in no way affiliated with Rosetta Stone. I did find your article very fair and balanced and have started checking out some of your other articles all of which I have liked so far.
Keep up the great work! Where Rosetta Stone fails: inaccurate and boring! That being said, as long as its not used alone, it's not totally worthless in its educational value. That's a good summary -- but pretty much any year old can write up software that does pretty much the exact same thing in about a couple of hours. I work at it 5 days a week. All I can do is recognize certain words but have no idea how to put them together into sentences I am a college graduate, but this program has made me feel like the worlds biggest idiot.
Donovan - Thank you for your very balanced and thought out review of RS. You asked if other RS languages have an issue with "honorifics. I think get away with using "du" syntax because I am an American, but is has taken some older people by surprise.
It is generally not ideal to walk up to someone you don't know and address them with "du;" something RS doesn't address. I had already taught myself some Dutch years ago. I bought textbooks, phrase books, cassette courses, and a great dictionary. For teaching myself, I learned a great deal. The only thing is that I didn't have anyone to speak Dutch with.
I like the idea of being taught by a native speaker and repeating phrases back. I also like the feature of reading and recording a story and getting immediate feedback.
There are some instances where there will be something thrown at me and I have to figure out what I am supposed to do. Thank you for your review. I will check out the other options you mentioned before I commit.
My daughter and son in law bought Rosetta Stone for me to continue my French study after completing the DuoLingo tree free! I wanted to progress further with French but instead I feel I have gone into remedial education and it is moving very slowly. I had assumed I could move quickly to the place where I need more work.
It is moving very slowly with repetition of what I already know, yet I get dinged in pronunciation that makes no sense at all. It seems to not be able to consistently pick up my voice, using a microphone headset I purchased just for this. I can say the exact same thing several times when it counts it wrong.
There is no explanation to show what it sees as wrong so I keep saying the same thing in exactly the same way and after a couple of tries, nearly shouting into the mic it counts it as correct.
I swear there is no change at all because I know I am saying it correctly, so there is no reason to change it. I feel very badly that my kids, who really can't afford this, gave a well-meaning gift with the best of intentions. I consider it a waste of money and I have gone far enough in the program to see this is going to be a long, tedious year - not the best use of time and resources but I feel I must for the sake of their sacrifice.
I must say, I thought for the price, it would do more than free language programs. I hope I get to new material sooner than it appears it will happen; otherwise it is really a waste. I am german and got the RS French course as download software last Christmas 5 weeks ago. I have started to learn french 4 weeks before by meeting a french teacher one hour a week. I did 6 Units out of 20 total in that time spending 1hour a day.
So I am able to complete a Unit in a week, perhaps the full course in 20 weeks. Lessons that drive me to speak french are much more usefull and the writing lessons are the hardest, here I need 2 or 3 repetitions to accomplish the lesson. I complement the RS by hearing to french audio books every day and still continuing the real life teacher sessions once a week.
That feels very efficient. Doing only the RS course would be far too less to grasp the language for real communication. At the bottom line, I am happy with the RS course as one component of learning french. I am happy with 'unclear' sentences and can accept to understand it later, but my partner cannot learn in that way and is unhappy with the lack of grammar and translations I'm not sure if every library offers this, but through San Diego Library we have access to Rosetta Stone online for free.
Just click on the Education and Languages Databases link and sign up and voila there you go! Totally free. Thanks for a great review of its features. It worked very well for me and I'm curious to see if Rosetta works as well. There is definitely nothing like immersion in the local culture for language learning, but most of us don't have that option before we land somewhere! For Japanese and Korean , I find that none of the big names cover that well.
Also loving idea that you should wait until you understand. I find that in the school system there is a big focus on understanding immediately.
I think it actually hurts us in the long run, because we end up THINKING the language through logically, which means we produce and produce much more slowly. Every linguist is different, but for me, I feel in control of a language when I can leave English at the door. For me, the way to get good at foreign languages is to separate them from your native language. With RS, you can do that from the start.
Are there programs you recommend for learning Welsh? Rosetta Stone discontinued it and I can't even seem to find a used copy to purchase. Not finding much online. Thank you, this review was the first I found to go beyond the question, "Is it worth it? I already purchased it and I am 2 lessons into unit 4 of RS Spanish.
What I wanted to know was is it worth the time I'm investing in it. I wasn't sure if it was working or if my additional side work of reading articles. I think I'll stick with the RS. If nothing else it's good practice. I find it to be balanced, and it's pretty accurate. I haven't studied all yet, but I hoarded them when prices go on sale.
My first course was Latin American Spanish. That was a little difficult because it was hard to figure out the point that RS was trying to make. While the use of the same pictures and formats might cause boredom for some people, I think this speeds things up since I'm not puzzled about the point they're trying to get across.
I have a subscription for Dutch to Rosetta Stone. It turns out there are only 12 units and this covers a tiny proportion of what would be needed for even basic conversation. I did all the units and associated activities When I enquired about the fact that I had done everything, Rosetta Stone told me I could just do the games from now on until the end of my subscription in several months!!!
I agree with you that it is extremely expensive for what it offers, and not exactly honest about the product! Bought the Rosett Stone download version. Or did I buy the marketing? YES Worked great for about 6 months. Took a break. A year later it crashed. RS sent another serial number and rather involved instructions for getting it off my machine. A year later it crashed again an wouldn't reboot.
Tried yet another install. Worked for a day and crashed. Contacted the company. When done that way, it may seem harder initially, but that is a misleading perception, and eventually the learner will start THINKING in such new language.
It is noticed because at such time, the learning may know how to say something in the NEW language but NOT in the native one for a particular word or idea. That moment represents an inflexion point, from which learning explodes in a positive exponential way.
Then, learning the new language accelerates very significantly and even becomes a joy! It is really amazing! That is also the natural way in which kids learn their mother language, and my own experience when I started learning English non native for me as a year-old adult. The best language course that I have found is this. It is a real pedagogic jewel, and probably the best ever produced, since it uses no translation to other language and a natural approach to learn, including humorous stories, fantastic songs that could be considered as commercial and drills in which the students listen, speak and correct themselves.
It is even better than having a personal English teacher! Currently, the best that I have found working that way is Rosetta Stone. Is it expensive? Maybe for some people, but not for me, taking into account what if offers, as explained above. Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with them in any way. Rosetta Stone and other language apps are now available to use from home if you belong to a local library that has it. Through my family and their local libraries in many US states I have found Rosetta Stone, Mango language, And transparent language including a kids version.
I saw my library also offers some romance languages through a tutoring app for students, and foreign language books, movies, music and magazines. AND depending on your state, there might be statewide resources available. This is the defenitive Roseta stone review, thank you very much for this, I would like to learn a bit of Esperanto and might start that way, of course that it would just be a hobby in a sense it is a dead language but again I am more than happy to do my bit to help the language survive.
It is expensive no doubt, I will look into the alternatives and might do a routine to learn 2 or more languages. Thank you for all the reviews you've taken the time to put together. I found your site today while looking for real reviews of the best language learning tool available.
I have signed up to be in the "guild" and look forward to reading more here on the site. I wanted to share with you and your readers that The black Friday sales are great depending on which one you choose. By the way, I do not work for them and I am a real person who's taking a family trip to France next year so we are trying to learn the language before we go. I am curious to know which system you think would work best for us.
We are a family of 5 with the youngest being 11 years old. This review highlights faults in Rosetta Stone without significantly comparing it to other products I feel that other products struggle with many of the same challenges as Rosetta Stone.
You could improve this by highlighting the differences vs. What's the best value vs. Second, you tend to focus on how it teaches languages that are more difficult for native english speakers to learn arabic, japanese, korean.
Some treatment of easier languages that have larger population of learners would be nice. Using the RS free trias l or 1st level was the first time i ever thought in spanish.
Having taken 2 yrs of spanish in high school, and 4 semesters in university, earning As and Bs, but i not once thought in spanish. Id think in english and translate internally to spanish. Because RS makes you "work" to figure out each translation intuitively like people got impatient about, you wind up thinking in the language I SAW juevos in my fridge.
The spanish word came immediately. For the first time. This was maybe the 2nd lesson -definitely within the first hour-, and by the end i was thinking in their spanish vocabulary as if immersed.
Maybe it helped i already passed intermiate college spanish and therefore could already write a several paragraph story using the infinitivo or preterit tense, or play a role in a 10 min quasi-improv sketch en espanol.
Maybe it helped that i quickly "got" the missing words. What would be your recommendation if I am already quite strong in the language French but would like to improve Especially conversationally?
How would you say they compare in amount and difficulty of content? I'm particularly interested in the "level cap", so to speak, of each program. In my experience, there are loads of resources to help with the very basics, but especially with free stuff the tutorial ends with the student at a mid-beginner level, leaving the student to continue independently even though they're still struggling to read a newspaper.
Thank you so much for this in depth analysis. I would like to share my comments as a nobody with an opinion lol. And you can pay ot over 3 month. For me this was a selling point. Now I'm learning french and mandarin and i use it every day so i find it a great investment. I agree with you it is important to learn without direct translation.
For me again this is a huge selling point. It is frustrating sometimes but i go with it and usually i have it by the review. I also agree you should use multiple avenues of learning. I do rs, pimsleur, duolingo, and i have a textbook and a workbook.
Each gives their own take on education and i find it very helpful. I also use index card to study vocab. That's my ultimate question. I just recently cancelled my RS subscription as in 47 min ago. I had bought the 3-pay lifetime subscription plan, and I had been using it at least five days a week for a month to learn Japanese and some Spanish. I was initially drawn to RS because of the endless marketing and that I could learn multiple languages for life for one fee.
I was fairly satisfied with what I was learning, but something changed immediately once I tried a sample of Pimsleur not advocating for Pimsleur.
0コメント