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This is just my personal experience with their Mandarin Chinese software (disclosure: offered free through my college language lab, otherwise I never would have

This is just my personal experience with their Mandarin Chinese software (disclosure: offered free through my college language lab, otherwise I never would have touched it): I hated it. I understand the idea of immersion behind the software, but I found it incredibly hard to grasp any real working knowledge of grammar and cultural aspects/differences, it just feels a lot more like a super expensive flashcard app with a few gimmicks. Plus the whole immersion thing was supposed to avoid you "translating" into a language you are comfortable with and then translating that into the new language...I didn't find myself skipping that "bridge" with Rosetta Stone. I gave up on the software after being bored out of my mind in a couple weeks before my Chinese class started, and just went back to textbooks and resources like chinesepod.com, where after a couple weeks of that I started to feel more comfortable about doing the very thing Rosetta Stone seeks to skip, a lot in part because Rosetta Stone was incredibly unhelpful with grammar and such. Then the class started, and being able to converse with and get tips from native speakers helped immensely. On the other hand, I found Pimsleur and similar methods of learning languages to be semi-helpful and possibly worth spending money on. No replacement for memorizing things and total immersion via traveling/marrying someone/studying abroad, but when you're stuck in traffic in the car, listening and practicing speaking can do volumes to help. In the end, I just got a flashcard app for my iPhone, stocked up on MP3s and videos to watch and listen to, and I think that was more helpful than Rosetta Stone ever could be. I'm not sure if there's any research or studies behind language acquisition via Rosetta Stone, but when I'm an adult, I don't see the benefit in learning a language as if I was a toddler again. I had learned French in high school and learning Spanish afterwards was ridiculously easier because I had already had "basics" like grammar down pretty well, as well as an easier time learning vocabulary as there are many cognates. Not that I remember much of either language anymore, but there are some times when taking advantage of what an adult already knows is faster and more helpful than learning like a baby.

furyg3 17y ago
>On the other hand, I found Pimsleur and similar methods of learning languages to be semi-helpful and possibly worth spending money on. Arg. Sorry but I have to disagree. I used Pimsleur to get up and running quickly with Dutch, and later realized that (other than for practicing basic pronunciation) it's worthless. That was two/three years ago, and now that I'm at a much higher level, I've gone back and listened to the phrases they wanted me to learn. Junk. Some phrases were severely antiquated, words were mis-translated so you may be saying a phrase and you actually don't know what you're saying, etc. The only thing it's good for is listen/read/repeat pronunciation, and that's not so good when driving. Rosetta Stone's a bit better since you're listening/reading/repeating, and learning some real vocabulary, but you're spot on: it feels like it's for kids. As far as language learning software goes, I only found one that was worth anything, and it came with a Dutch textbook (CODE series... Dutch only). It has movies/audio/text with quizzes afterward, vocabulary/grammar exercises, and listen/repeat/playback feature. Pro-tip for the OP: Languages are living things, you can't learn them by yourself. Any native speaker, no matter how unprofessional or unskilled at language teaching, is much more help then some software tool. Your office cleaning lady (who's probably better at Spanish then you'll ever be) earns less than $10/hour. For the same price of Rosetta Stone Spanish 1-5 ($700) you could have 70 hours of speaking time with a really interesting person. I found a Berkeley exchange grad student who was teaching Dutch for $15/hour on the side, learned a lot, and we ended up falling in love with each other. Not saying that will happen for you, but it reinforces my 'find a native speaker' method. :)
- silencio 17y ago
  Well, they're fairly useless on their own, it's mostly using them in conjunction with other methods of learning (i.e. a good textbook or two, a few movies, podcasts, games, talking to native speakers) that makes them helpful because you get a little practice where you might not otherwise. Not sure if the quality of these language learning tools depend on the language being taught and perhaps with individual learning preferences as well. I thought Pimsleur for Mandarin was acceptable and similar to the texts I was using, and since I had the most trouble listening and speaking Mandarin (as opposed to reading/writing), it was helpful to me. But again, disclosure: most of the language programs and resources I've tried were free through school, which was immensely helpful in deciding what I liked and didn't like. I'm not entirely sure I'd buy Pimsleur either ;)

furyg3 17y ago

>On the other hand, I found Pimsleur and similar methods of learning languages to be semi-helpful and possibly worth spending money on. Arg. Sorry but I have to disagree. I used Pimsleur to get up and running quickly with Dutch, and later realized that (other than for practicing basic pronunciation) it's worthless. That was two/three years ago, and now that I'm at a much higher level, I've gone back and listened to the phrases they wanted me to learn. Junk. Some phrases were severely antiquated, words were mis-translated so you may be saying a phrase and you actually don't know what you're saying, etc. The only thing it's good for is listen/read/repeat pronunciation, and that's not so good when driving. Rosetta Stone's a bit better since you're listening/reading/repeating, and learning some real vocabulary, but you're spot on: it feels like it's for kids. As far as language learning software goes, I only found one that was worth anything, and it came with a Dutch textbook (CODE series... Dutch only). It has movies/audio/text with quizzes afterward, vocabulary/grammar exercises, and listen/repeat/playback feature. Pro-tip for the OP: Languages are living things, you can't learn them by yourself. Any native speaker, no matter how unprofessional or unskilled at language teaching, is much more help then some software tool. Your office cleaning lady (who's probably better at Spanish then you'll ever be) earns less than $10/hour. For the same price of Rosetta Stone Spanish 1-5 ($700) you could have 70 hours of speaking time with a really interesting person. I found a Berkeley exchange grad student who was teaching Dutch for $15/hour on the side, learned a lot, and we ended up falling in love with each other. Not saying that will happen for you, but it reinforces my 'find a native speaker' method. :)

silencio 17y ago
Well, they're fairly useless on their own, it's mostly using them in conjunction with other methods of learning (i.e. a good textbook or two, a few movies, podcasts, games, talking to native speakers) that makes them helpful because you get a little practice where you might not otherwise. Not sure if the quality of these language learning tools depend on the language being taught and perhaps with individual learning preferences as well. I thought Pimsleur for Mandarin was acceptable and similar to the texts I was using, and since I had the most trouble listening and speaking Mandarin (as opposed to reading/writing), it was helpful to me. But again, disclosure: most of the language programs and resources I've tried were free through school, which was immensely helpful in deciding what I liked and didn't like. I'm not entirely sure I'd buy Pimsleur either ;)