Rosetta Stone: Learn Languages 4+

Best Methodology for Languages

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

Good for vocab - Horrible for grammar

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.

Developer Response ,

Hello,

Thank you for your review. We are always looking for ways to improve our products, so feedback like yours helps us to get a perspective on things we can do better. If you would like to do so, please send us a feedback email through in-app settings to follow up with you. Open Rosetta Stone > tap the Menu (3 horizontal lines) > Settings > Feedback. Thank you.

Not perfect, but still the best

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.