Rosetta Stone

[joannqn]

Is this a waste of money and time?

 

DS wants to learn Korean? I don't want to learn Korean, and the only viable curriculum I could find was Rosetta Stone. He's been working on Level 1 and is almost done with the first unit, which has 4 lessons. According to the report, he's going through the different sections of the lessons and doing them with 100% accuracy. He works through a section until all the little squares representing each page are green (passed with 100%).

 

However, he seems to be retaining very little. He can tell us a few words that he learned but certainly not all of the things it has covered. Even without sitting through the lessons, I can tell that he's retaining very little of the lesson. And he seems to be understanding very little of it.

 

Just this morning he said to me, "Mom, I have to say two whole sentences in Korean!" When I asked what the sentences were in English, he said he didn't know. I asked him if he knew any of the words in the sentences and he said the middle one. He listened to the computer say the words and repeated the one he knew. I asked him what that word meant and he told me he didn't know. The only thing I know was that there was a picture of a horse standing in what looked like sand/dirt.

 

Is he really going to learn and understand Korean eventually? It's not looking very promising at this point. He seems like all he is learning is to parrot back unknown words.

Edited September 23, 2010 by joannqn

[Mom22ns]

My experience with RS has been different with each child. I will tell you that we are all using it, so we can all try to speak the language together, which I think helps.

 

That said, my ds took to RS like a fish to water. He instantly understood what to do and understood everything. If I have a problem or can't figure out how to say something, I ask him.

 

My dd on the other hand got very little from RS at first. When she started, I had to sit with her and help her translate and understand what they were asking and answering. She wasn't just "picking it up". With the addition of the homeschool worksheets, she is learning, but it is not as easy for her.

 

Is RS a waste of time/money? I think that depends a lot on your student. My ds is learning so much so fast. He really gets it. He can do the worksheets without batting an eye. He sounds great in conversation! RS is working for him. On the other hand, I know it doesn't work for everyone. If your son is like my daughter, he may not get anything out of it if you aren't interested in learning it too so you can help him.

 

Just like all the other curriculum I've considered. It works for some, not others - sigh. Sometimes I wish there was a curriculum that always worked for everyone so it wouldn't be so hard!

[Guest Cheryl in SoCal]

I think there are hints he can use if he doesn't know the word/words, do you know if he's using them? If so, that could explain getting 100% on everything but not really knowing it. Also, has he learned the Korean alphabet? It's very easy to learn and something I'd do prior before continuing or the writing on the screen will make no sense to him. That said, Korean is a very difficult language to learn because the structure is sooooo different from English and I doubt he will be able to achieve any kind of fluency without outside help. Many Korean churches have language classes if you have any in your area. I'm hoping by the time my younger children are old enough to learn Korean that the Korean churches in my area will have language classes. My ideal would be to use Rosetta Stone with Korean language classes.

 

ETA that RS also doesn't have as many years available for Korean (I think 3) as they languages like Spanish (5) so that is limiting as well.

[ColoradoMom]

I like it - it works for me learning Japanese. My son doesn't care for it BUT it also works for him learning Japanese. I think he's tired of Japanese really, and not the program. It has been almost 3 years and now he wishes for German.

 

HOWEVER - if you are looking for good customer service you won't find it with RS. And God forbid your hard drive crashes or want to change computers. You get two chances then you have to call up and pretty much beg them to reactivate your key.

 

I find this absurd when a homeschooling family buys 3-5 levels of a language and expects to use it for many years, yet they are continually harassed when they upgrade computers.

 

And you cannot resell RS. No matter what people tell you. Whoever buys it will have to have orginal purchase information before they will activate it.

 

We will probably get German for next year but I am not sure if I will buy RS or Tell Me More. I will research a lot more this time around.

 

And edited to add - immersion learning is not fast - especially when you have no one to talk to.

Edited September 23, 2010 by ColoradoMom

[ktgrok]

Do you know of a way to purchase the worksheets separately?

[joannqn]

Korean doesn't have worksheets.

 

We don't have to worry about hard drives crashing because we are using the online version which is purchased by our virtual academy.

 

I haven't seen the hints. I'll have to look for them.

 

 

I just got off the phone with our advisory teacher at the virtual academy. We figured out that I could probably do the lessons after he's done them so I could help him with it. By doing them after him, I won't be messing up his progress. The reports would show he's spent more time than he has, but we discussed that those reports aren't all that helpful anyway.

 

I hadn't thought of the Korean churches. Once we figure out where we are living, I'll look into that.

[OlgaLA]

I think it is great for pronunciation and getting used to often used sentence constructions. My daughter did fine with RS Spanish until about the middle of the level 1. Then she admitted that she was guessing a lot of meanings. I checked and found out that she was guessing wrong. So now we are working with some other materials and will return to RS when she understands what she is saying/doing.

[joannqn]

Well, I just tried going through part of it to see how it worked better and DS was correcting me and explaining everything like he got it. :glare:

 

I'll have to find time in my schedule to go through it so I can keep up on it better. My original plan was to let him do it completely on his own. This was his idea, his goal, his desire...not mine.