I work for the federal governemt and learning languages is critical to my job. Our agency provides us with a free subscritption to Mango which I have. It doesnt compare to Rosetta Stone. Its based on endless repitition and it is not effective. I have used Rosetta Stone since way back when - when they were still on CD rom and I was buying them one language at a time. I learned or greatly improved on a few languages. You may not be able to speak the langauge fluently at the completion of a language program but havinbg learned a few languages Rosetta Stone gives you everything you need. Take that and apply it and you have a beginners degree of fluency. So it puts you right at the doorstep. I did the RS Hindi a number of years ago ( being in the US govt critical language list) and I still remeber the basiscs. I've taken language fluency tests for the government and I use language sin my official capaciity. I have used alot of language learning software and boooks over the years. All respurces ultimately help one learn a new language but if you are going to invest yourself in learningf the language - Roseatta Stone is the only ways to go Its methodolgy works. When you compare it to otehr methodologies - there is no comparion

I have a love-hate relationship with Rosetta Stone. I've used it to learn German and Italian and am now using it to learn Spanish and Irish. Let me be perfectly clear, I am not fluent in German nor Italian even though I have completed the 5-level course. While RS will help you learn lots of words, the grammar portion is hideous...especially for languages with complex grammar (like Irish). As an example, Irish changes the spelling of nouns..not just the endings but the beginnings. The word Woman might be Bean, Bhean, or Mbean (those are just the singular versions)...but at no point do you actually learn when or why to use the different spellings. You just guess, get it wrong, guess again, get it wrong, guess again, finally get it right...but have no idea why it's right or wrong. I might be able to remember the right spelling the next time it comes up but have no idea why. And don't even get me started on the ridiculous Milestone section...at least I've found the workaround (click help tips on each screen and you'll get the desired response instead of trying to guess what they want you to say). It is incredibly frustrating at times. That being said, no language learning software really does the trick for me so I'm sticking with RS even with it's terrible grammar. At least I can learn some vocabulary and hear how the words are pronounced. It's something, which is better than nothing.

The fact is that Rosetta Stone is not a perfect learning system and the app itself is a little on the clunky side. However, when compared to other methods (besides, say, taking a university class) it really remains the best personal learning tool. I have been using Rosetta Stone for 15 years and it does what exactly what I need it to do: teaches me new vocabulary, keep my grammar sharp, and allows me to explore new languages when I have downtime. There are, of course, other options, such as Duolingo, but I find the others sometimes have errors which need reporting, and they do not always teach formal language. To date, I have never found an error on Rosetta Stone, and they teach you how to speak formally, rather than how to simply pretend you are a native speaker. Overall, I think it is the best choice for anyone who either (a) wants to formally learn a new language or (b) anyone who knows a second or third language and wants to keep it in practice.

I've been learning spanish for a few weeks now in order to be able to speak to my wife and her family in their native language and so far I've slowly been able to pick up the language with my plan. The methods for teaching provided with rosetta stone are honestly second to none and are easily my new preffered way of learning a language as other language apps have failed to do so. My only real problem with the mac app store version is that it doesn't have the translate feature that the iOS version has. When on my phone, I find this feature to be really helpful when I'm trying to recall a particular words meaning and I would like to see it added to this version as I prefer to use my macbook over my phone. The other problem I have is that occasionally, the speech recognition system will bug and I cannot progress through the lessons, but this could also be an issue with my headset mic. All in all, I am a very happy customer of rosetta stone and I will continue to recommend it to my friends and family.