Need pros and cons of Rosetta Stone

[Jenny in GA]

My in-laws just offered to buy Rosetta Stone Spanish for our kids for Christmas this year. The kids are 11, 9, and 6, and all have some basic knowledge of Spanish, ie colors and numbers, how to say hello, how are you, that kind of thing.

 

I have Getting Started with Spanish and was going to begin it with the older two in a couple months.

 

I wanted to find get some information about Rosetta Stone to share with my husband and decide it, in fact, it would be a good fit for us and something we want.

 

What can anything share, good or bad? How does it compare to other Spanish programs? Thanks!

[Jenny in GA]

Anyone? Any thoughts about Rosetta Stone??

[Abbeygurl4]

Do a search for Rosetta Stone on the boards.

 

My kids hated Rosetta Stone and so did I. It was a huge waste of money. They learned way more from Mango Languages which was free from our library.

[laughing lioness]

Dh is learning HEbrew with RS- this is his 3th for. language (he knows Greek well enough to translate and is conversational in German) and he LOVES it, thinks it is the most effective way to learn a for. language.

 

We purchased RS German for the kids this year. They LOVE it. Kids are 9, 12, 18. We are hearing German thrown around more and more frequently.

[tomandlorih]

My dd (just turned 9, grade 3) is doing the online RS Latin American Spanish. It moves very fast and explains nothing. At first, dd and I hated RS (you can find my posts on that=) and looking for something else. I understand the idea of the immersion method but dd gets extremely frustrated having to guess (and be marked wrong) several times before she figures out what they want. Maybe "getting marked wrong" is not an issue for the at-home version though. Anyway, after having plugged away at the RS for awhile, it seems a little easier so we are going to stick with it for awhile since it is good practice with listening and speaking.

 

I recently acquired GSWS and it does an excellent, excellent job of explaining basic (but key) grammar concepts. And I had 3 years of college Spanish!) Actual content really reminds me of RS and I plan to start using it like worksheets for reinforcement rather than the RS worksheets. Or it might be good to use it to start with and at least introduce your kiddos to the grammar before starting RS.

 

I second looking into Mango as an option.. http://www.mangolanguages.com/ to see if it's at your library. I've heard it as "comparable" to RS.

 

Here is a link to the RS worksheets too (and parent guide). http://www.rosettastone.com/homeschool/sem It will give you at least some idea of lesson content and the guide addresses scheduling it and such.

 

FWIW, I have a friend (adult) who is in RS Hebrew level 3 and only just now feeling like she's starting to "get it." I think with RS it takes awhile.

 

My review of RS ..lol I'm sorry I can't compare other programs. We "chose" RS because we could enroll her for free through the school district. I was also looking at Spanish for Children from Classical Academic Press because it is a explain-the-grammar, parts-to-whole program that *I* prefer =D http://classicalacademicpress.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=7 Luckily, my library rocks and they are ordering SfC-A and I can then borrow it to see if I'd like it more than RS.

 

Good luck and congrats on having such nice in-laws! :001_smile:

[...................]

Pros:

Fun

Self-teaching (mostly)

It works- results are impressive

Good pronunciation

 

 

Cons:

Not much written work

Not much formal grammar

Weak on teaching conjugations

 

You have to review the Vocab and use the student workbook and book at least twice a week. You also need to oversee your students. They might move on to new sections without fully grasping the previous one, and then obviously they'll have holes in their knowledge. On the other hand because the program itself builds and reviews constantly, you don't want to hover over them and make them memorize every single word because then the program would be pure drudgery.

 

My ds is doing level One and is on lesson 2-02. Her understanding and pronunciation are great! I do the workbook and textbook with her twice per week, and I make flashcards but I've found they aren't necessary if I'm doing the workbook. A few time I made her go back and re-do some lessons. I also make her say all the words aloud, not just silently click.

 

Overall it's very easy to use! I expect that I'll really start seeing it all start to click with level 2.

 

I definitely think this would be a big blessing from your in laws.

[speedmom4]

RS starts out fun and easy but as others have said there is NO explanation why. As it goes along it gets more and more complicated with still no explanation. I also took Spanish all four years in high school and three years in college and I was having a difficult time helping my dds. My oldest is now working on Breaking the Barrier Spanish and my younger daughter will be taking an online course.

 

Good luck!

 

Elise in NC

[Tess in the Burbs]

Honestly, I am not so happy with it. I found the written worksheets but they are in Spanish and it's not always clear what the directions are. The lessons they do aren't teaching how to do the worksheets so while the sheets help with written grammar, it's too hard to figure out and not really taught.

 

My kids wanted to learn Spanish and we are all trying to work through it. I hear them making up sentences all the time, so we are continuing b/c they are learning basic Spanish and doing it eagerly. But I will need to find something else for high school credit. I don't think I will be far enough along to push the worksheets and be able to explain the grammar well enough to count for credit.

 

We bought all 5 levels on a really good special but in hindsight it was a waste of money. Not sure what else is better though. For my kids ages(9 and almost 11) it's perfect and they can play with that until high school is my current plan. We will be adding Latin back next year and Spanish will become a fun thing they can do on their own.

[Durriyyah]

DD1 likes it for Mandarin Chinese. I figured it was the best way to go since it isn't one of the main common languages you can find at the library. I wish the homeschool package went through the full five years so I didn't have to figure out a way to grade her through high school.

[whitestavern]

I had the same complaint as some other posters...there just wasn't enough explanation in the beginning. However, I purchased GSWS and we spent a little time with that in conjunction and it worked great. My dd just needed to see some of the grammar explained a little for it all to sink in. I think those two programs used together are very effective.

[justLisa]

Exactly. DS just didn't get the grammar in the non way it was presented. :tongue_smilie: DH just explained what was missing and now DS is flying through and getting more out of it.

 

I mean the idea of Rosetta Stone is pretty good. It's just missing some explicit grammar instruction. Some people do better with that. And I imagine that is especially true for a person who speaks English as their first language because some of the concepts in other languages aren't a part of the English language at all. So they make zero sense.

 

I feel the same way. And as bad as it sounds I just cannot seem to make learning our native language a priority :tongue_smilie:

 

This gets them speaking more and then I can speak what I know they have learned and more. They definitely get more out of it having some formal grammar along with it.