Rosetta Stone: Learn Languages 4+

Uses patterns - conveyed by clever series of pictures with overlapping themes - so that one quickly works out what the verbs, nouns etc mean. No English is used - so not based on translation. The lessons seem short - which is less intimidating. I have been using it regularly for a few months and my positive impression persists.
A few minor things could perhaps be improved. Occasionally the voice recognition seems to fail ones very best efforts when the student needs to repeat a phrase. This is even when one is saying it exactly as required whilst at other times it is incredibly forgiving of a distinctly sub-standard efforts. Also, periodic end of section review exercises have proved too difficult to be useful for me - as much because you have to guess what person X would say or do in a given situation. This is then not a linguistic but more a predictive logic challenge. Finally, the system that is supposed to keep track of where you are often seems to reset if you switch away from RS to some other app. No problem - you can get back to where you need to be via the Learn button at the bottom of the main page for the language you are learning.
Overall though, it seems to be effective and - having tried out a few of them - it is the best on-line system for language learning that I have come across: this is why I have given 5 stars.

I’ve moved over to Rosetta Stone after using Duolingo for quite a few years and I’ve been impressed. It’s more expensive in the short term but I think it’s worth it, and the option for a life subscription to a specific language is quite attractive too. The lack of constant adverts, passive-aggressive reminders and upselling of different plans is so refreshing.

The pronunciation practice is really useful, it offers a wider selection of languages and whilst the approach to learning new alphabets can feel a bit intimidating at first, it is actually very clever and accessible once you get into it.

The only criticism I have is that the speech recognition isn’t quite as good as the owl app’s but is still pretty solid (and to be fair, I have quite a strong Scottish accent which most voice recognition platforms really struggle with!)

One thing to be aware of is that Rosetta Stone feels a bit harder to dip in and out of than its rival and you probably need to properly concentrate on it for a period to get the most out of it (albeit most lessons are still only about 10 minutes). It’s not as gameified and comes across as more serious- but this is really a matter of taste rather than a criticism of either app.

I’m finding the teaching method pretty effective to learn words and understand phrases. It would better if the lessons remained on screen so that the phrases could be reviewed. When you pause it, the screen is hidden so it is hard to review the spelling or read the phrase formulation. I’m finding it difficult to learn the grammar and it has taken a while to figure out the pronouns and I have had to search elsewhere to confirm the meaning of some words such as what, why, and is / are, etc, understanding plural forms has been especially difficult mainly due to not being able to review the page before it moves onto the next one. The time window for answers can be too quick for the spoken answers, it’s hard when you are trying to think and then speak and after one attempt it moves on to the next question, it would be good to have a bit more time. Also, the speech recognition could be improved as someone else has mentioned. However overall, this is a great app and after 3 hours starting a language I feel I have picked up a lot more than I would have expected at this point. The way the vocabulary is built up and the way in which you are led to understand new words is very good.