rosetta stone

[liber]

Does anyone use this?  any pros and cons?  I have a son wanting to learn Russian.  Anyone use the Russian program?

[Amira]

I think RS can be decent for what it does, but it doesn't do as much as it claims. I think it's at best an expensive supplement or introduction. But it is easy to use and the parent doesn't need to know any of the langauge. There also aren't many resources for teaching children Russian. Two of my sons used Pimsleur Russian when they were in middle school and neither thought it was very useful, although they could order a wide variety of alcoholic drinks while we were living in Kyrgyzstan. :)

 

If there is any way you can find a Russian class or a teacher, even online, I'd recommend that.

[duckens]

I have been using the Chinese Rosetta Stone.

Pros:

--It is a nice supplement to the local Chinese Language Class I am taking with my daughter.

--It has helped with my vocabulary and my use of some basic phrases.
--We got it for a good price through Homeschool Buyers' Coop.  Don't be in a hurry to buy.   They have new specials all the time for Rosetta.
Cons:
--It does not teach grammar. Thank goodness I have our Chinese teacher to help make sense of this! 
--I needed my Chinese Language partner through My Language Exchange to help me translate some of the most basic sentences at the beginning. 
--Many colleges do not count Rosetta Stone as "one year of a foreign language" because RS does not teach grammar. 

1) Talk to your local community college or university admissions office for what their standards are.

 

2) Talk to your local high school language teachers of what program they would recommend for a student that may attend high school and take the language.  This doesn't mean your son will go to high school, but it will be compatible with what his peers will be learning, and he can slip into the foreign language high school classes if your family goes that direction.

 

3) How old is your son?  (You don't have to answer here).  I have a few resources for really young children (early elementary or younger).

4) Do a search of the boards of Russian language resources.  See what other programs are out there besides RS.  RS is well publicized.  That doesn't mean that it is the best choice for your son.

5) Does the Russian RS use the Cyrillic alphabet to teach you or does it use phonetic English?  There may be a steep learning curve if it's the Cyrillic alphabet.  The Chinese course uses Pinyan  (Chinese written in "almost phonetic" English and with marks for the tones).

[Reefgazer]

I bought this for DD so that she could supplement her work with her French tutor.  Worst. Curriculum. Buy. Ever.  You learn a little conversation, but there is never any grammar or real sentence structure taught, so the student can never progress past the conversational stage.  It's OK as a conversational introduction, but don't count on your child learning the language.  It was an expensive mistake for me; my worst curriculum purchase.  If you want conversational, there are cheaper programs out there that can do the same job. 

[EndOfOrdinary]

My son used the Spanish for two years.  It gave him a fantastic, near native accent - he was young when he started so that helped as well.  However, he retained almost nothing.  He could not converse.  He could not read very well.  He did not memorize many words very effectively for the time spent.  We now only use it for pronunciation and communication practice as we live in the sticks and no longer in a bustling city.  This is commonly what I have heard from many families.

 

You can pay an actual tutor what you pay for RS.  We got ours through a charter and it was great for that.  Now we use other books and resources. 

[creekland]

Rosetta Stone is THE one major regret I have with homeschooling.  We used the homeschooling version that grades online, etc, and my guys were getting straight As, so I didn't worry.  When it came to college entrance, after having done RS for the four years of high school, my oldest couldn't even pass one semester of basic Spanish.  Middle son got together with one of his ps peers in Spanish 1 - and couldn't understand what they were doing.

 

We quickly switched and ended up getting random "Learn Spanish" books from the library.  Middle son tells me he learned far, far, far more from those.

 

Once I was typing a response to another RS thread and middle son saw the title from across the room.  He quickly asked me in a worried tone, "You're NOT recommending THAT, are you?"

 

Buyer beware.

[KrissiK]

I was not happy with Rosetta Stone as an educational program for school. Now, if we were going on vacation to Mexico or something, I think there would definitely be some value there, but for us, it was an expensive mistake.

[liber]

Thanks for your replies. Hubby was gung-ho to buy it. I'm glad I told him to wait.

[Space station]

My daughter is doing Russian this year with the Russian Step by Step books.  russianstepbystep.com

We also have access to this program free through our public library website:  http://www.pronunciator.com/  We haven't used Rosetta Stone, but from my understanding of it, Pronunciator is similar.

 

Russian Step by Step does not have video lessons, but there are audio recordings on their website.  It is good in that it does teach grammar as well as phrases.  I would estimate that doing the Intro book and the Level 1 book would be about 1 semester of Russian, maybe a little more.

 

This is working for us, but my husband knows Russian (as a second language, not a native speaker) and is able to help her when she needs it.  I don't know if she would be able to do it otherwise.

[Spring Flower]

I speak Russian (as a second language) and I did buy Rosetta Stone for my children. I do not regret the purchase! It is a great resource and the pronunciation is authentic. As has been mentioned, it isn't great for grammar, but it has worked well for my DD. I have to admit, though, if I didn't speak Russian I don't think it would be very useful. I sit with her as she does it and we talk through all of the lessons. I fully expect us to finish using level 1 of Rosetta Stone this school year but I haven't decided if I will purchase level 2 yet. I've looked into many different resources and nothing has been better IMHO than Rosetta Stone for my young children. I think it depends on the age of your child. For an older child, I would consider more of a textbook approach that specifically teaches grammar. We will move this way eventually. 

 

 

 

 

[Spring Flower]

 

5) Does the Russian RS use the Cyrillic alphabet to teach you or does it use phonetic English?  There may be a steep learning curve if it's the Cyrillic alphabet.  The Chinese course uses Pinyan  (Chinese written in "almost phonetic" English and with marks for the tones).

 

They do use the Cyrillic alphabet. 

[Spring Flower]

I am not fluent in Spanish but did study several years of it in high school and college. Spanish is an easier language to study than Russian. If I wanted to teach my child Spanish I would NOT use Rosetta Stone. There are so many other good resources out there for Spanish. The problem is that it is much harder to find resources for teaching Russian, especially if you want to teach younger children. 

 

 

[73349]

DuoLingo estimates that they'll have Russian ready next July. I'd do that (free) sooner than buy RS for any language.

[liber]

My son is 17 and is in grade 12. He wants to start learning Russian now as part of his long term goal career wise.

[Spring Flower]

My son is 17 and is in grade 12. He wants to start learning Russian now as part of his long term goal career wise.

 

I would say "probably not" for Rosetta Stone in that situation. It can be a good resource, but for the amount you pay it is probably not worth it. 

 

Good luck finding something. (But more luck to your son, Russian is a hard language!)

[purduemeche]

We bought RS Latin and Spanish with the intention that it would be all they would ever need for FL.  I found much what everyone else does - DS10 knows some Latin vocab but really has no idea about the language structure, formally.  We have gone back to a parts-to-whole program, whereas RS is whole-to-parts.  We will use RS after a few years of structured Latin as a supplement to practice listening and speaking.

[creekland]

DuoLingo estimates that they'll have Russian ready next July. I'd do that (free) sooner than buy RS for any language.

 

While it won't work for the OP due to timing, for anyone else reading I'll mention that middle soon LOVES DuoLingo for French and Spanish.  (He's the same son that was concerned that I might be recommending RS.)  He used DuoLingo's French to prepare for his C'ote D'Ivoire trip this past summer and felt it really helped him.

[Spring Flower]

While it won't work for the OP due to timing, for anyone else reading I'll mention that middle soon LOVES DuoLingo for French and Spanish.  (He's the same son that was concerned that I might be recommending RS.)  He used DuoLingo's French to prepare for his C'ote D'Ivoire trip this past summer and felt it really helped him.

 

I wanted to say thank you for the link. I did request to be notified when the program starts next year. Cost is the main reason I can't decide if we want to purchase Level 2 of Rosetta Stone. I'll take free any day of the week!