Rosetta stone...worth the money/hype?

[threebears]

Anyone learned a new language with Rosetta Stone or see kids doing well with it?

[threebears]

Ok, now I see some reviews and comments! Still getting used to this forum!!:blushing:

[chirowife]

It did not work at all for us BUT I still would still recommend them. After six months I was able to return it for a 100% refund! The company absolutely stands behind their guarantee.

[tvaleri]

Hola!

 

We had access to a free Rosetta Stone trial through the local library. All I learned was how to use process of elimination =P

 

The best ways I've found thus far to learn Spanish is immersion, where possible, or being your student's study buddy. My brother married a hispanic gal and they have a 1 yo boy. Whew! I've learned lots of Spanish in the last year =) Though I've tried for years to get my kids to learn Spanish b/c it's practical in our part of the world, they balked. Now that they need to communicate with their primo (cousin), there is motivation =)

 

Dd who attends cc, took Spanish 101. Helping her study did wonders for my vocab as well as hers. We also can communicate un poco (a bit). Fun when there is someone else to practice with.

 

I looked at and really liked Visual Link:

http://www.spanishprograms.com/

 

JMHO,

Teresa

[NittanyJen]

My kids are doing pretty well with it!

 

I find the keys are:

 

*You have to use it every day

*Don't wreck the way it is used-- don't stop and explain it to them in English!

*If one of the languages you choose comes with the workbook option, go ahead and use it, but maybe use it behind, and if they are young, go ahead and help them use it

*Do it with them, so you can all practice it around the dinner table. Ours came with practice audio CD's for the car, too. My kids love practicing their new speaking skills at the dinner table and when out and about, and they are still in the first year out of 5 that we bought, and they can already have some mini-conversations.

*Use the vocabulary lists supplied to label some things in your house so they get used to automaticity with associating objects with words.

*Don't be afraid to have them go back and re-do units where they obtained less than stellar scores the first time through. On the Homeschool edition, it is easy to see exactly how everyone is doing on each unit. I prioritize mastery over getting it done in a certain amount of time.

*I sometimes let them watch each other go through a unit. They like the group aspect of doing it that way.

*We sometimes find an buy children's books in German, or download a Pokemon video that they know well, dubbed in German, or find other inexpensive supplements-- not often, but often enough that they get some fun reinforcement.

 

They are getting the grammar, the spelling, the vocabulary, and the audio discernment pretty well so far for beginning speakers. We are studying Latin through another conduit at the same time, so I don't know if learning another language is helping them learn-how-to-learn languages or not.

[redsquirrel]

Before you purchase Rosetta Stone, make sure your public library doesn't carry Mango. Rosetta Stone used to license to public libraries and allow access via the library's website. They stopped that license agreement. Mango, a small company stepped into that void. Many libraries have started offering Mango. We have now used both and they are very, very similar. My dh runs into the Mango guys at conferences and they tell him they are working on a Latin version. I've been hearing that for a while now.

 

If you don't have Mango, well... I am not sure Rosetta stone is worth the money. It is really expensive. There are lots of other great options out there. What language are you looking for?

 

Anyway, I think those audio programs are great supplements. Immersion is the best option, but not always available. My goal with Spanish is to get a kid who can understand enough Spanish for an SAT subject test. Without an immersion program available to me I have to cobble together a couple different options. Mango or other audio program can help with that.

[threebears]

If you don't have Mango, well... I am not sure Rosetta stone is worth the money. It is really expensive. There are lots of other great options out there. What language are you looking for?

 

I think we'll be doing spanish. I took four years myself in high school public school. We do have a neighbor who is chinese but I don't know how often she will be available if she goes back to work. And chinese is one of the hardest to learn I've read.

 

Perhaps more research is in order here:001_smile:

[amsunshine]

We love Mango and have heard it's very similar to Rosetta Stone. If you have more than one library system in your area or surrounding areas, make sure you check all of them to see if they have Mango. Where I live, the city and county libraries don't have it, but I happened to call a nearby city where I was willing to drive, and they had it! It was totally worth the 45 minute drive to that library to get a library card -- now we have free online access to a wonderful foreign language supplement. So, don't give up if your local library doesn't carry it -- keep hunting!

[FiveOaksAcademy]

No, I don't think it is worth the money at all. I made the sad decision of purchasing two levels of it, and I regret it. We tried doing the worksheets with it, and they never seemed to coincide with the lesson. Not a wise choice, financially, for a foreign language, IMO. Others may have learned to make it work but we did not.

[Embassy]

Waste of money for us.

[Heather in WI]

No, I don't think it is worth the money at all. I made the sad decision of purchasing two levels of it, and I regret it.

 

:iagree: We purchased all three levels of the Homeschool French a few years ago. Both of my oldest boys found the lack of grammar/rules frustrating. I took French in high school & college and could help somewhat, but ultimately we put it back on the shelf. I really wish I had only purchased one level, but at the time it seemed like too good of a deal to pass up. :tongue_smilie:

[cowildflower]

All my kiddos (ages 12, 10 and 6) use French Level 1 and love it. Not only have the enjoyed it but they have really, really learned a lot. I know some Spanish but I can't help them with French at all so anything they learned they got from the program. They like the computer-based format better than worksheets or just audio programs.

 

I definitely think it is worth the money. If you watch for a sale from different companies, you can get a better price. I bought all 5 levels for less than $400.

 

Mandy

[HollyDay]

we chose Fluenz because it includes grammar and spelling. I'm also using Alpha Omega LifePacs.

 

Dh and I just had a discussion today about Spanish. The LifePacs are hard. It is traditional verb conjugations and vocab. It moves at a pretty good pace too. Dd is not "language gifted" so it is coming harder for her.

 

Fluenz is nice because it is on a computer and interactive. The pace is gentle and I do think it is a good program for what it does.

[KAM]

I loved it at first, but it got shelved b/c dd got too frustrated with the microphone. It didn't always work correctly and I was forever fidgeting with it. Then we got a message saying we needed to update something or other-and it wouldn't let us open the program. I need to dig out the original install CD I think and fix it. So far, it's more of a pain than it's worth!

[NittanyJen]

I loved it at first, but it got shelved b/c dd got too frustrated with the microphone. It didn't always work correctly and I was forever fidgeting with it. Then we got a message saying we needed to update something or other-and it wouldn't let us open the program. I need to dig out the original install CD I think and fix it. So far, it's more of a pain than it's worth!

 

Spend $20 on a Logitech headset microphone. Beautifully comfortable, padded earphones, wonderful microphone, top quality, great speech recognition, problem solved. PC and Mac compatible.

[Susie in CA]

I agree with a previous poster! It IS worth the money. BUT you need to stick with it. This is true for foreign language in general. Even if you do only one exercise a day it will pay off in the long run. BTW, I recommend you use lots of resources anyway.

 

We use Rosetta Stone as our spine (so to speak), but we also practice speaking, watch movies, read German books, use other programs in-between etc. I do not try to correlate those things at all. We have used Rosetta Stone for 3 years now. That's worth the money to us. All other things we use are either free or cost very little.

 

I hope this makes sense. :001_smile:

[Tenaj]

I'll vote for Rosetta Stone. I bought five levels of French about three years ago and my olders are using it for their foreign language requirement - for us it's a "just get it done" subject" and Rosetta has been relatively painless for us. I would like to find a grammar supplement but haven't found the right one yet. I've purchased a few from Rainbow or Amazon but always find them a bit too sketchy in their descriptions to be really helpful. I wish that Rosetta would just improve their worksheets but that's probably too much to ask.

 

My youngers also love to do Rosetta Stone. My 7 yods last year made it all the way through the first two levels (just the speaking and recognition, not writing). He viewed it as a computer game which was fine with me. In fact, I need to add that into our summer schedule again :)

[Alte Veste Academy]

I agree with a previous poster! It IS worth the money. BUT you need to stick with it. This is true for foreign language in general. Even if you do only one exercise a day it will pay off in the long run. BTW, I recommend you use lots of resources anyway.

 

We use Rosetta Stone as our spine (so to speak), but we also practice speaking, watch movies, read German books, use other programs in-between etc. I do not try to correlate those things at all. We have used Rosetta Stone for 3 years now. That's worth the money to us. All other things we use are either free or cost very little.

 

I hope this makes sense. :001_smile:

 

My kids are doing pretty well with it!

 

I find the keys are:

 

*You have to use it every day

*Don't wreck the way it is used-- don't stop and explain it to them in English!

*If one of the languages you choose comes with the workbook option, go ahead and use it, but maybe use it behind, and if they are young, go ahead and help them use it

*Do it with them, so you can all practice it around the dinner table. Ours came with practice audio CD's for the car, too. My kids love practicing their new speaking skills at the dinner table and when out and about, and they are still in the first year out of 5 that we bought, and they can already have some mini-conversations.

*Use the vocabulary lists supplied to label some things in your house so they get used to automaticity with associating objects with words.

*Don't be afraid to have them go back and re-do units where they obtained less than stellar scores the first time through. On the Homeschool edition, it is easy to see exactly how everyone is doing on each unit. I prioritize mastery over getting it done in a certain amount of time.

*I sometimes let them watch each other go through a unit. They like the group aspect of doing it that way.

*We sometimes find an buy children's books in German, or download a Pokemon video that they know well, dubbed in German, or find other inexpensive supplements-- not often, but often enough that they get some fun reinforcement.

 

They are getting the grammar, the spelling, the vocabulary, and the audio discernment pretty well so far for beginning speakers. We are studying Latin through another conduit at the same time, so I don't know if learning another language is helping them learn-how-to-learn languages or not.

 

:iagree: It's a valuable component of our Spanish program. That said, I seriously doubt that using only Rosetta Stone is going to lead to fluency. In order to become fluent, you need to use the language. Completing a computer program, even daily, won't get you there alone. However, it can be a great jumping off point. In the HS edition, there are notes for teacher that tell you about each lesson. (You can do the lessons too, of course, although I will say that while I think immersion is great for my kids, it does not suit me at all, to say the least. I want the rule and I want it now! :tongue_smilie:) You can take what they're learning and reinforce it with labels of household items, verb conjugation sheets, memory work using the card system (or my kids' idea of making their own dictionary from what they've learned), etc. We have conversational Spanish every day. Later on, I can see having one day a week or a few hours of each day, or dinner time every night, etc. when we only speak Spanish.

[laughing lioness]

My dh is loving it- he is using it for Hebrew (he has studied Greek and German extensively) and believes that it has brought the best results in the fastest amount of time. At some point (if our cars would quite breaking down) we'll be purchasing another modern language (they're doing Latin) for the kids.

[cbhrbooth]

Used Rosetta Stone Spanish for 2 years and it worked. There were headaches with the software and testing at times, but overall, we felt good about it.

 

Younger daughter will start using software in the fall. I've considered supplementing Rosetta Stone with casual classes offered in homeschool community, but kind of wondering if it would be worth it. Daughter has little interest in foreign languages, at this point. Meh.

[SuperDad]

I just looked up the review I wrote up of Rosetta Stone a few years ago (yes, I've updated it since then). Some phrases I used to describe RS were "ineffective", "confusing", and "a costly mistake". At the very best, it could be a decent supplement - but a pricey one at that.

 

I'm sorry to be blunt, but I feel very strongly about RS, and not in a good way. Try Mango instead, or one of the many other foreign language language options out there that are both reasonably priced and actually effective.

[Unicorn.]

A waste of money for us. Unfortunately I bought 3 levels of it. I wish I had returned it w/in the 6 mos, but I kept hoping it would work. My friend has started teaching her kids Spanish by watching this guy on youtube-they are doing fantastic and learning tons! And for free. My advice, don't waste your money.

[lillehei]

I agree. RS is totally not worth it for us. We have the homeschool edition and everything except the schedule has been a waste. I did the worst thing possible and bought all 5 levels because I had been given such good reviews. My kids can't speak it, read it, or understand it and have been doing it a year. It doesn't really teach conversational spanish or phrases you might want to know. I did a couple months of it and then dropped it. The kids are still doing it but we are thinking of shelving it until they are older (they are 9 and 11). Ugh. I really dislike Rosetta Stone!

[songsparrow]

My daughter has been doing the first level of French for the past 9 months. Before that she had no French. The schedule has been a little sporadic, but she typically averages a couple sessions a week.

 

My observations at this point are:

1. Her pronunciation is very good.

2. I think that she knows a lot more vocabulary than she realizes that she does. E.g., If I ask her a question, her first response is "I don't know", but then after she thinks about it, she does know. I think this is more an issue that . . .

3. Her confidence in speaking or using that vocabulary is very low.

 

So, I do not think that RS is sufficient by itself. I wanted to give it time, because I wasn't familiar with the program and how it would develop over time.

 

My plan now is to incorporate more classes where we can practice conversational French and I can make sure she's understanding when to use different articles, verb conjugations, etc. i also plan to use more French in day-to-day situations. I do plan to continue using RS as a supplement.

 

I hope that is helpful!

[momto2Cs]

A waste of money for us. Unfortunately I bought 3 levels of it. I wish I had returned it w/in the 6 mos, but I kept hoping it would work. My friend has started teaching her kids Spanish by watching this guy on youtube-they are doing fantastic and learning tons! And for free. My advice, don't waste your money.

 

Link? Please?

[Unicorn.]

This is the guy: http://www.youtube.com/user/tontitofrito

Here is one on the alphabet (I didn't know the alphabet changed in 1994-):

[momto2Cs]

This is the guy: http://www.youtube.com/user/tontitofrito

Here is one on the alphabet (I didn't know the alphabet changed in 1994-):

 

Thanks! :)

[kroe1]

We love Rosetta Stone and find it very helpful for learning a foreign language. But you need to buy the newest version. The oldest versions had a lot of bugs.

 

And for those who say the headset doesn't work right, try changing the user settings. The default setting requires almost perfect pronunciation. There are easier settings for beginners.

 

We are currently on Level 4 Spanish and Level 2 Chinese. But we supplement with BJU Spanish II and BetterChinese.com. We don't get as much immersion as I would like in either language, but I feel what we are doing is the best option under the circumstances.

 

Try a demo at a sales kiosk before purchasing.

 

:)

[Alte Veste Academy]

We love Rosetta Stone and find it very helpful for learning a foreign language. But you need to buy the newest version. The oldest versions had a lot of bugs.

 

I do think this matters. Obviously everyone is not going to unanimously love the new HS version, but I do wonder how many people who tear it to shreds tried it years ago. I hear there is quite a big difference in versions.

[Jeanne in MN]

Visual Link Spanish is much cheaper and has positive reviews. Might be worth looking into.

 

http://www.spanishprograms.com/spanish-learning2/visual-link-spanish.html

[The Crazy 4]

Thank you:001_smile: I was searching the threads for reviews on Rosetta Stone.

So happy I did. I live in Los Angeles County, our Library offers it online.

 

http://www.colapublib.org/languages/

[Pat in MI]

I have to agree with pp, the RS from years ago and the new version are worlds apart. Please don't base a review of the product on what the program was like in the past. We have Spanish from 5 or so years ago and it is so different from the Dutch program we bought this year. The new version is so much better. It is still costly, but I have found most foreign languages are costly when you buy all of the components. WE have only just started with the Dutch, but we like it so far.

Blessings,

Pat

[southcarolinamom]

My dd used it for 2 years for high school Spanish, Levels 1-3. If I had known how little grammar help there was with RS, I would have purchased Tell Me More instead.

[Maisy]

My dd used it for 2 years for high school Spanish, Levels 1-3. If I had known how little grammar help there was with RS, I would have purchased Tell Me More instead.

 

:iagree:

 

Ok, so I'm not the only one! I literally just posted about this and then saw your post. So frustrating!

[ChiMomNP]

We love it. We use the online version not the homeschool version, so it has games and my son can interact live with people practicing the language and he can go to a live online "tutoring" group where they practice with a native speaker. He is doing Korean and he spends 45 minutes to an hour on it 5 days a week. We are amazed at how much he has learned in such a short time.

[mommymilkies]

I bought it last year and it is a waste of money.

[Satori]

We get Rosetta Stone free through a local homeschool enrichment program so we just started Spanish 1 last month. Due to previous negative reviews here on the boards, I wasn't expecting much, but so far, we have really loved it! My daughter can't tear herself away and will use the phrases throughout the day with me. I'm also using it to brush up my skills.

 

We use the worksheets, but we do need more grammar and written practice, so I may be adding Song School Spanish or Spanish for Children this fall.