Rosetta Stone users, may I have your advice?

[LuvingLife]

I am trying to decide which version of Rosetta Stone I should buy, if I should buy it at all. I have had a bad experience with Rosetta Stone Spanish, I didn't learn anything. I can't look at a photo and try to guess the words they mean. I need a photo, the foreign word, and then the english translation for it. There is no other way for me to do it, this is just how I work and I have been having great difficulty with it. Now I want to learn Italian and eventually move onto Latin, but I don't want to waste my money on something that won't teach me how to read it, write it, and speak it. I am going to be using RS as a spine and I am trying to obtain another book to use as a supplement.

 

I used the Rosetta Stone Homeschool version, and it didn't do much for me. Is this the version you use? Any other ones that will teach not only how to read and speak it, but write it too?

[Julie in MN]

I can only share how it works at our house. I do have experience doing French 2 at home with a dd who went all the way to French 4 in the public schools. Now my youngest wants to learn French.

 

Last year, he did Rosetta Stone 1, the newest homeschool version. He followed the MFW schedule, which utilizes all of the components for high schoolers except the workbooks. That did include some writing, speaking, etc. MFW also schedules "cultural" activities to be done regularly, and my son did some of their ideas and also did a lot of French In Action videos online, which to me gave some cultural exposure, too.

 

My ds liked using RS, so that was a huge selling point. And at the end of year 1, he felt he learned an introductory level of French, as most French I students I have known would say. There was a vocab base and some pronunciation success (was able to communicate a bit with my older dd in French) and some grammar understanding.

 

This year, he's using RS level 2 plus a workbook (Barron's E-Z French). He actually liked adding the workbook, because he wanted as you say more visuals to make sure he was interpreting words correctly and using grammar correctly. I do think he could have picked all of this up with just RS but he wasn't enthusiastically delving in enough to get there on his own (e.g. I would have had a dictionary on hand and pursued my questions more). So for a workbook, we could have tried the Rosetta workbook but I'd already had experience with older dd using the Barron's so I am using what I'm comfy with. Cheap & answers in the back work for me, too. He also does the regular "cultural" activities (using the MFW guide again), which include lots of choices from easy to more involved.

 

That's all the further we are.

Julie

Edited September 14, 2011 by Julie in MN

[LuvingLife]

I can only share how it works at our house. I do have experience doing French 2 at home with a dd who went all the way to French 4 in the public schools. Now my youngest wants to learn French.

 

Last year, he did Rosetta Stone 1, the newest homeschool version. He followed the MFW schedule, which utilizes all of the components for high schoolers except the workbooks. That did include some writing, speaking, etc. MFW also schedules "cultural" activities to be done regularly, and my son did some of their ideas and also did a lot of French In Action videos online, which to me gave some cultural exposure, too.

 

My ds liked using RS, so that was a huge selling point. And at the end of year 1, he felt he learned an introductory level of French, as most French I students I have known would say. There was a vocab base and some pronunciation success (was able to communicate a bit with my older dd in French) and some grammar understanding.

 

This year, he's using RS level 2 plus a workbook (Barron's E-Z French). He actually liked adding the workbook, because he wanted as you say more visuals to make sure he was interpreting words correctly and using grammar correctly. I do think he could have picked all of this up with just RS but he wasn't enthusiastically delving in enough to get there on his own (e.g. I would have had a dictionary on hand and pursued my questions more). So for a workbook, we could have tried the Rosetta workbook but I'd already had experience with older dd using the Barron's so I am using what I'm comfy with. Cheap & answers in the back work for me, too. He also does the regular "cultural" activities (using the MFW guide again), which include lots of choices from easy to more involved.

 

That's all the further we are.

Julie

 

 

Julie, does Barron's have a book for those who want to add more to their Italian course? I would love to have RS and do lots of workbooks and writing on the side. Does RS come with workbooks?

[Julie in MN]

Julie, does Barron's have a book for those who want to add more to their Italian course? I would love to have RS and do lots of workbooks and writing on the side. Does RS come with workbooks?

 

It looks like it?

http://www.amazon.com/Z-Italian-Barrons/dp/0764144545

 

RS does have printable workbooks of some kind, but we haven't really ventured into them at all. The feedback I heard from MFW (where I bought my RS & lesson plans) was that the workbooks don't really match up. So I figured the Barron's doesn't match up either, and will be fine. Cheaper for me to spend $11 than to print out a whole workbook & try to figure out something new :)

 

If you're willing to do a lot of writing on the side, I've always read that great men of the past took a book and translated it by hand, as a way to learn a language. You could try that, as well. I know in 3rd year French, classrooms typically work a lot with The Little Prince, so you could start with something fairly easy like that.

 

Hopefully an Italian expert will chime in, too!

 

Julie

Edited September 15, 2011 by Julie in MN

[xoxotiffany]

I use Rosetta Stone Italian and a text and workbook I found online. I will post links at the bottom of this post. Personally, I don't like Rosetta Stone very much. I can't stay focused on it. If you have a Barnes and Noble near you they have a few shelves of Italian resources.

 

Here is the link: http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/biblio?inkey=1-9780072561319-5

[spannymom]

My 9th grader is using the latest RS homeschool version for German has been very successful at it so far. I print off the worksheets for him, including the quizzes and we are following the 36 week lesson plan. If anything, he wants to move at a faster rate, and I have been completely shocked at how fast he has picked up the language. His brain obviously works well with the way RS teaches, and he is doing equally well with speaking, writing, reading and the grammar portion. He has not scored less than 94% on any of the lessons, but I did make a rule that he would have to make at least a 92% to move forward with each lesson. Maybe German is just his thing ;)

I would like to point out that this is his first year homeschooling, and took Spanish 1 and 2 in public middle school. He barely scraped through, and I mean BARELY, so traditional textbook learning of language didn't work for him at all. He retained virtually nothing, other than counting and basic skills.

[LuvingLife]

Thank you Julie and thank you also to the other posters as well, I think I might do Rosetta Stone again along with Barron's E-Z Italian, the worksheets from RS, translating a book by hand and hopefully being able to find an Italian class.

 

These are all wonderful suggestions!:001_smile:

[Julie in MN]

and hopefully being able to find an Italian class.

 

If you live near a University, you might even be able to find a native speaker to chat with one-on-one. I once hired a couple to babysit who were fresh from China. They were anxious to get to know Americans. You'd have to set ground rules about not talking in English all the time :)

 

And one year, I hired a teacher from a small school to chat with my dd in French for several sessions. I waited until the teacher's school year was done, and it worked out well for both of us.

 

And there's always the exchange student option, although your parents would have to be into that :) Our experience, though, is that exchange students vary a lot and you can't be sure it will be a great language experience.

 

Julie

[LuvingLife]

If you live near a University, you might even be able to find a native speaker to chat with one-on-one. I once hired a couple to babysit who were fresh from China. They were anxious to get to know Americans. You'd have to set ground rules about not talking in English all the time :)

 

And one year, I hired a teacher from a small school to chat with my dd in French for several sessions. I waited until the teacher's school year was done, and it worked out well for both of us.

 

And there's always the exchange student option, although your parents would have to be into that :) Our experience, though, is that exchange students vary a lot and you can't be sure it will be a great language experience.

 

Julie

 

These are all very neat and some very exciting ideas Julie, and I like the one-on-one tutor option the most, I like working with teachers alone and not being crowded into a huge class.

 

Thank you for these and I will definietly be looking into them more!

[Mandowife]

We are using the Instant Immersion German and LOVE it!! It is also a fraction on the price!

[StephanieZ]

How much did you use Rosetta Stone?

 

There is a preview mode for every lesson in which they give you the words on top of the picture.

 

If you've explored what you have fairly well, then I would say the format is NOT for you, and you should find something else altogther and drop RS.

 

I don't think the versions vary substantially in the general way the program works. The HS version just offers the parent/teacher an ability to track work done and/or set various pass-levels to move on, sequence the lessons, etc.

[Alyce]

Many people here have recommended it for German but it does other languages as well. It is an on-line self paced course and cost about the same as RS. It uses a computer to teach words, grammar, writing etc and then you call the school to talk with a teacher to actually use what you have learned. My don used their German program and loved it. He had tried RS and the Learnables and failed with both. This program was great. It's not an immersion program so he's actually learning things he can understand, read and write and it has video's so you can hear how it should sound and with the phone help it really is a great program.

[LuvingLife]

How much did you use Rosetta Stone?

 

There is a preview mode for every lesson in which they give you the words on top of the picture.

 

If you've explored what you have fairly well, then I would say the format is NOT for you, and you should find something else altogther and drop RS.

 

I don't think the versions vary substantially in the general way the program works. The HS version just offers the parent/teacher an ability to track work done and/or set various pass-levels to move on, sequence the lessons, etc.

 

Yes I was considering doing this since I can't seem to get the hang of it, but this program seems to be the only good one around for homeschoolers that I know of.

 

Many people here have recommended it for German but it does other languages as well. It is an on-line self paced course and cost about the same as RS. It uses a computer to teach words, grammar, writing etc and then you call the school to talk with a teacher to actually use what you have learned. My don used their German program and loved it. He had tried RS and the Learnables and failed with both. This program was great. It's not an immersion program so he's actually learning things he can understand, read and write and it has video's so you can hear how it should sound and with the phone help it really is a great program.

 

Really, I had no idea!? How much would this program cost though...??:bigear: