Alternatives to Rosetta Stone for German and Japanese

[nerdybird]

My oldest (12yo) expressed an interest in learning German this year, so we purchased Rosetta Stone Homeschool German for him. He is really NOT liking it, complains about it being boring and his progress is fairly non-existent. He says that he still wants to continue studying German, just not with Rosetta Stone.

 

He's pretty good with languages despite having a lingering speech impediment and not being very verbally oriented. We did Fluent Forever Spanish on our own for 5 years with pretty good success. He likes flashcards and rote memory tasks a lot. He is also very auditory and has to have a curriculum that features a strong auditory component.

 

I would have done FF with German, but I just don't have the time to whip up a DIY curriculum for a language that I know little about. So we thought that Rosetta Stone would work well enough.

 

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DD (9yo) wants to start studying Japanese next year. I don't think she would do well with Rosetta Stone and I haven't found much else out there that I think would be appropriate for her. Any ideas? Anyone else doing Japanese with non-high school level students? 

 

 

Edited February 3, 2016 by nerdybird

[HomeAgain]

For German, try Duolingo.  It's free, not buggy, and doesn't come with insanely stupid requirements RS does. 

 

Japanese might be a little harder.  We did find a curriculum several years ago (I think Rocket Language?), but never tried it out.

[Wabi Sabi]

My ds started Japanese at 10 with a private tutor. Tutors are expensive, but we found a great way to make it affordable: we found a local Japanese woman who has her own small children and has experience teaching Japanese. Her hourly rate is quite high, but she was willing to split that rate if we found other children who also wanted to learn Japanese. Another mom and I recruited a few other families for a total of five children, the tutor provides them with a group lesson, and her hourly fee is split five ways. She provides the materials in handout form each week (we all pay her an extra $5/semester for copying/printing costs), assigns homework, and gives weekly quizzes/tests.

[Monica_in_Switzerland]

At 12, couldn't your son set up his own FF system if you bought the FF word lists with audio clips?  Otherwise, look at the memrise German courses (free) which are essentially flashcard format.  We are using a combo of duolingo, memrise, and pimsleur.  After we've gone through these, I'll probably move on to a textbook and tutor or possibly an online school.  I want to reach that magical 5000ish word point where we can switch to reading and parsing books to gain more fluency.  

[keirin]

Try http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/language/

 

As a starting point for japanese. Also,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0486413365/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1454516897&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX220_SY330_QL65&keywords=japanese+for+children&dpPl=1&dpID=51XgPJdGT4L&ref=plSrch

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071408274/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=6128cP91LyL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C100_&refRID=1W1Z35H15P6SBS2NDEHE

 

Maybe...

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4805310790/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_8?ie=UTF8&dpID=51nqajIaerL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR100%2C100_&refRID=027PVVSCP567C6DYGF9V

 

 

but I also second the recommendation to look for a tutor in your area. I learned japanese with a tutor starting at age 12, and went on to take 3 years in college. The tutoring was more helpful than all the books, flash cards, and computer programs (not Rosetta stone, some very basic vocabulary type program) I had available at the time.

[3 ladybugs]

http://www.germanschools.org/Schools/List.htmAre one of these close to you for German? This is what my son doing (7 years old). 

 

I supplement this with Join.TV subscription which is 50 german language channels from Germany, Switzerland, and Austria. My children can watch all their favorite shows in German. 

[SparklyUnicorn]

I have the German and have not been all that pleased with it.  DS made it through the first 2 levels no problem.  After that he got more and more lost. 

[crazyforlatin]

WTMA will be offering German in August.

 

Does your library have mango languages?

[Embassy]

Human Japanese app is a great way to get started.  My middle schooler made some good progress with that.  Dr. Moku apps are also good to help learn how to read Japanese.  Now my son has started on the Genki textbook.  

[nerdybird]

At 12, couldn't your son set up his own FF system if you bought the FF word lists with audio clips?  Otherwise, look at the memrise German courses (free) which are essentially flashcard format.  We are using a combo of duolingo, memrise, and pimsleur.  After we've gone through these, I'll probably move on to a textbook and tutor or possibly an online school.  I want to reach that magical 5000ish word point where we can switch to reading and parsing books to gain more fluency.  

 

We have considered having him do FF on his own. I am on the fence as to whether or not he can handle it on his own though. He still needs quite a bit of handholding and oversight. I think he would get overwhelmed or just obsess over irrelevant things at this point. I'm looking for something that he can do on his own, but that has a monitoring component to help him stay on track. Plus I want him to have a bit more exposure to the German language before I leave him to own devices with FF. Since I can't really help him, he'll need to be more independent in seeking help and also in managing his time. I just don't think he's there yet.

 

Duolingo looks really promising and we've used Memrise before for other subjects, so I think that is most likely path for us to take next year unless we find a curriculum that just wows us at this point. 

[nerdybird]

Human Japanese app is a great way to get started.  My middle schooler made some good progress with that.  Dr. Moku apps are also good to help learn how to read Japanese.  Now my son has started on the Genki textbook.  

 

I'll have to look into these apps and the Genki textbook. The apps may make a nice summer intro to Japanese to gauge interest. There's also a family at our church who lived in Japan for a length of time. Two of their kids are fluent and the oldest has done a few presentations/informal Japanese classes with the homeschool co-op/group. They were for 10-14 yo though, so DD wasn't old enough to attend the last time they were offered.