Anyone used Rosetta Stone language software?

I've played with their software for about 45 minutes, so I'm by no means even a novice with it.

I tried out the Japanese track, and you basicly get four pictures and a voice saying the word. If you pick the right picture that corresponds with the word, you move on. That's pretty much it for the novice software. It might get more complex as you move on, but I didn't do more than that. I may venture farther in the future, but can't really attest to more than that now.

 

Do you use Luelinks? >_>

 

I haven't looked at Rosetta Stone, but the Pimsleur audio series (for Italian in my case) was very, very good.

P.S. - if you dig around il internto, I bet you could find the Rosetta Stone stuff for free.

P.S.S. - but probably not legally.

 

I used the novice version to learn French. With the pictures, it was helpful in memorizing the vocab and short sentences. If price isn't a concern, it's a nice supplement to the conventional books.

 

hahaha, I've wanted to post a thread about the stupid commerical they have.

" My friends laughed at me when I said i could speak french. But, when the waiter came, I just smiled and said, "Shiboo tway e la pui.""

 

The ESL kids at my school use that software. It taught mainly rudimentary vocab - "the red car is parked," "the yellow bird is flying." I'm not sure how it would translate for older users for business purposes, but for kids, it's allright.

 

I've used all the lessons in the Spanish sequence (including the advanced lessons)...it is extremely helpful if you are persistent like anything else. I've taken Spanish before but if you don't use it you don't retain everything. Rosetta gave me that commitment to know more. What I learned helped me converse and advanced learning was accelerated during native conversation. I expect difficult languages like Mandarin or Russian to be easier to learn due to the way the program is presented. In my opinion it is very beneficial and I would use it again, of course I used it for my job with the Gov't.


Dave

P.S. It is set up like a class with lessons and review sessions to follow, as well as workbook assignments. Not sure if Mandarin is as technical.

 

The only way to learn a language is to have regular practice. You may need to put yourself in situations that require you to use the language regularly. I'd recommend taking a community college class or finding chinese people to converse with on a weekly basis.

 

Can you say more about this (or email me?)

My daughter is headed to Italy next spring. She has a Spanish-language background. I thought about getting her the Rosetta stone software when I heard/saw the commercials... but didn't.