Has anyone used Tell Me More for foreign language?

[Sumiller]

I've read through most of the posts regarding Rosetta Stone and have tentatively put it on my 'to buy' list for next year. The only thing making me hesitate is the price tag. Tell Me More looks similar but costs less.

 

Is it a good program?

[Susan C.]

Tell me More is available for free from the website of the library in Arlington, Texas. I tried it at the beginning of the year, and didn't think if would suit us. I'll try to explain it..... it kind of is all there, and you click this and that, and you do all sorts of activities. It didn't seem very organized. I think it would be good for reinforcement, not teaching, at least for us.

[jananc]

Susan, do you have a link for the free software from Arlington? Is it free to anyone, or do you have to be a registered patron at that library?

[MamaT]

I'm not Susan, but here is the link. It is very easy to sign up.

 

http://arlingtonlibrary.org/research/tellmemore.aspx

[Mynyel]

We also tried Tell Me More and didn't like it either. It seemed rather disjointed and was not for people who had no (as in nada, zip, negative) knowledge in the language (well at least Spanish). We returned it for a refund. We want Rosetta as well but like you the price tag is steep.

 

You can get free demo's on the respective websites and the Tell Me More demo is exactly how the regular programs works. I am assuming (and we know what that does) that the Rosetta demo is like the regular as well.

 

Hope this helps!

[Ester Maria]

My advice is to stay away from that, AND from Rosetta Stone. I don't sympathize either of them and I don't know a single person that has learned a foreign language well using those approaches.

[MIch elle]

My advice is to stay away from that, AND from Rosetta Stone. I don't sympathize either of them and I don't know a single person that has learned a foreign language well using those approaches.

 

That's the question! We need to use something - WHAT?? :confused:

 

I need Spanish for grade 8 because most 7/8th graders in my area DO take Spanish/French and my dc NEEDS to know some Spanish before attending high school.

 

Thanks!! :001_smile:

[emubird]

We're using Pimsleur and Destinos. We get Pimsleur from the library. Our library also has Destinos, but it's free on the Annenberg/CPB site.

 

We got the text for Destinos, so we can also incorporate some reading and writing. We have the workbook as well, but you probably need the tapes for that (the audio is on the web somewhere, for free - just not sure where)

 

My daughter did about half of each of these and placed into the 4th semester of college Spanish. For whatever that's worth. (Course, she did one semester of college French and then placed into the 3rd semester of college French.)

 

We used Rosetta Stone for awhile, but it seemed to mostly be vocabulary without much focus on actually saying anything useful. It's fun for a bit, but my kids got bored quickly. I've heard the new Rosetta Stone is different and better, but I'm not willing to fork over the money to find out it's the same old thing. Actually, I'm not ready to fork over the money even if it's improved, because the two programs I mentioned above are much cheaper and have worked fine for us.

 

Tell Me More -- I keep trying to get to it, but I never seem to have the time. It doesn't really draw me in. Maybe if it was all I had, I'd use it. However, I find these computer based, interactive programs to be a little annoying. They don't allow me to do anything else with my hands, and I get bored having to continually be clicking on things. That might be a good thing for someone else who had trouble staying on task, though.

[Susan C.]

Here is what we did this year (hoping I don't see this post in a year and want to take it back, LOL).

 

Dd did these two dvds first: These are by Standard Deviants, their website is sdlearn.com. I bought mine from Amazon, but I can't find them now. They are also sold in a set. I'll do the link because I don't know how to type in Spanish...

 

http://www.sdlearn.com/product_p/001050573.htm

 

And now she is working on the first half of this workbook (the other half is Spanish 2 material):

 

http://www.amazon.com/Practice-Makes-Perfect-Basic-Spanish/dp/0071458050/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1274037135&sr=8-1

 

She facebooks some of her friends in Spanish, and I have plans to get with a Spanish speaking friend for her to speak it. I was going to get Breaking the Barrier, but the Practice Makes Perfect workbook above is similar and under $10.

 

Time will tell if we are doing enough, but ds took Spanish 1 and 2 in college this year, and he says were are doing close to what he did in class, except we are lacking some conversation.

[Sumiller]

Thank you ladies!

 

Well, it looks like I've got some more researching to do. Perhaps I need to go at this from a different angle.

 

Susan C. ~ I like your idea of using Standard Deviants then Practice Makes Perfect. I checked both to see it they also offer Italian and they do!

 

emubird ~ I'm also going to check to see if my library carries Pimsleur.

 

It's probably a good thing I don't need to make a final decision until August.