[hypercaine.]

Hello,

I have used Rosetta Stone in the past to refresh my memory on French and German and found them great for vocabulary, I can still remember some of the words from when I started learning Italian (I soon got bored). Im using Duolingo at the moment to try and improve my French, I learnt French up to pre-GCSE and also visited pretty much every year up until then but have forgotten many of the important aspects such as tenses.

Does anyone find these two pieces of software any good in the long term? Ive never got to the higher levels with them as I used to get frustrated at the lack of explanation and it seems to just go on association which I dont find particularly useful but maybe its because I havent stuck with it for long enough?
I dont want to carry on wasting my time and money to find out that in fact I still dont really understand some parts of the language which is what I found before. Im pretty sure Rosetta Stone has great reviews but I thought id ask people who have experience with languages from being taught through an alternative method and how they think it compares.

Thank you!

[constantmeowage]

Avoid Rosetta Stone like the plagueeeee. >.< £500 for something a phrase book could teach you?! They commit some massive false-advertisement too - "Learn a language freely and at your own pace" or whatever. Sure, you'll learn some words and perhaps the very rudimentary grammar, but you'll never get very far because basically Rosetta Stone in just a phrasebook with bells and whistles. There are much more efficient ways of learning a language, depending on your preferred style. If you want to focus on input (reading and listening), then read books and listen to texts with/without transcripts - you'll grow a big vocabulary this way and you may be able to work the grammar too. However, if you're like me, and find this really rather boring, then focus on 'output' (speaking and writing) - if you use grammar books then you'll have a good grammar but often no vocab to back this up (so don't just use a grammar book!), which is where actively writing and speaking the language to anyone, even the wall helps. For me, doing the language helps an awful lot, but we all learn differently. Of course, you could also use a mix of these two strategies (which is what I suppose one is supposed to do to become all round proficient in a language), but I don't think there is too much harm in focussing on one, at least to begin with.

Good luck!

[Purple Giraffe]

I've never spent much time using Rosetta Stone, I've just done some of the demo version because as a language nerd I was intrigued. The 'no translation' thing is a good idea, but in practice it doesn't work. I found it very strange that as a beginner for a Spanish course, you are shown a man eating and given the phrase "El hombre come", with no explanation as to where the "come" came from. It seems good for learning random phrases and vocab, but not for being able to independently construct a sentence when necessary.

It's much better to start right at the bottom. Learn the basic verbs, and how to conjugate each one for each different person (I, you, he/she/it etc). Once you've done that you will be armed with the knowledge of how verbs are formed, not just what they are in their different forms, meaning you can conjugate more of them freely.

I personally would say don't waste your money on Rosetta Stone, it might be good for your yearly holiday abroad, but not for advanced learning. Listen to the French radio, watch programs you enjoy in French (they're often on YouTube), try posting on the TSR French society to practice your writing skills. Speaking's tricky unless you know someone who knows/is also learning French, but the more you practice speaking out loud, the better and more confident you'll become. Good luck!

Since constantmeowage was negged for knocking Rosetta Stone, I'm assuming I will be too. I'd love to know why

[constantmeowage]

I got negged for bashing Rosetta Stone? Heehee, I'd love to know why, but obviously my negger doesn't have a valid reason.

[Purple Giraffe]

(Original post by constantmeowage)
I got negged for bashing Rosetta Stone? Heehee, I'd love to know why, but obviously my negger doesn't have a valid reason.

I have no idea, but your answer was good so I thought that must be the only explanation. From my own experience I know people don't like it when you put down RS.

[hypercaine.]

Thanks for both of your replies, I just wanted to say it wasnt me who neg'd you!
I think I will carry on with Rosetta Stone or Duolingo as they both seem pretty similar and then maybe look up more of the advanced stuff online when I get to it or even ask a friend of mine who is French.
I dont really want to learn it to such an advanced level, when im back at uni I could took non-credit bearing modules if I wanted but I want to at least get to a decent level so I dont have to do 'Beginners French'

[21stcenturyphantom]

(Original post by helzz94)
I have no idea, but your answer was good so I thought that must be the only explanation. From my own experience I know people don't like it when you put down RS But then people just neg for no reason these days...

Edit: Was I negged for the irony or because I bashed Rosetta Stone?

(Original post by constantmeowage)
I got negged for bashing Rosetta Stone? Heehee, I'd love to know why, but obviously my negger doesn't have a valid reason.

Come on now, you've both been here a while; surely you know the negging rules by now? Any discussion of neg rep in a post is like a huge MAGNET for someone to neg you. It's just the red flag to the bull. I'll get negged for saying this, guaranteed.

[tc92]

I'm currently using Duolingo to do Spanish. I'd done it to GCSE a few years back (at uni now) so it's helping refresh things. From what I've done so far, it seems fairly thorough on grammar, albeit you have to pick up points of grammar from seeing them in action (i.e. by seeing different verb forms through translating sentences) rather than simply giving you tables of grammar to learn. Will have to see how successful it is.

[Juichiro]

(Original post by tc92)
I'm currently using Duolingo to do Spanish. I'd done it to GCSE a few years back (at uni now) so it's helping refresh things. From what I've done so far, it seems fairly thorough on grammar, albeit you have to pick up points of grammar from seeing them in action (i.e. by seeing different verb forms through translating sentences) rather than simply giving you tables of grammar to learn. Will have to see how successful it is.

Are you still on Duolingo?

[Kolya]

(Original post by Purple Giraffe)
I've never spent much time using Rosetta Stone, I've just done some of the demo version because as a language nerd I was intrigued. The 'no translation' thing is a good idea, but in practice it doesn't work. I found it very strange that as a beginner for a Spanish course, you are shown a man eating and given the phrase "El hombre come", with no explanation as to where the "come" came from. It seems good for learning random phrases and vocab, but not for being able to independently construct a sentence when necessary.

It's much better to start right at the bottom. Learn the basic verbs, and how to conjugate each one for each different person (I, you, he/she/it etc). Once you've done that you will be armed with the knowledge of how verbs are formed, not just what they are in their different forms, meaning you can conjugate more of them freely.

You might be able to conjugate them freely at your leisure in a classroom. But that ain't gonna be much use in a regular, actual conversation. You just can't think fast enough for it to be reasonable. But if you're thinking about the topic and can recall the correct phrase straight away then you're sorted. Rosetta Stone has that going for it.

[Purple Giraffe]

(Original post by Kolya)
You might be able to conjugate them freely at your leisure in a classroom. But that ain't gonna be much use in a regular, actual conversation. You just can't think fast enough for it to be reasonable. But if you're thinking about the topic and can recall the correct phrase straight away then you're sorted. Rosetta Stone has that going for it.

Relying on set phrases you have learnt off by heart won't get you very far in an actual conversation. Unless the converser knows what questions to ask and what topics to discuss, you'll have a hard time replying, as Rosetta Stone can't give you every phrase you could ever need. Also, when listening, you won't recognise a sentence if it's been phrases slightly differently to what you've learnt.

It sounds unlikely, but when I talk in a foreign language, I think about the vocab I'm using, and how to conjugate each verb I require into the right tense and person, all while speaking at a natural pace. It sounds difficult but it isn't at all when you know enough vocabulary and know how to conjugate verbs. This wouldn't be possible if I only knew set phrases I'd learnt from Rosetta Stone, as I wouldn't know why I was using certain words and their origins, and thus wouldn't be able to construct a sentence independently.

Don't get me wrong, I can see why Rosetta Stone would be great for a holiday abroad or potentially even as a starting point for learning a language, as set phrases will be all you need. But once you get past a certain level, you need much more than that.

[Kolya]

(Original post by Purple Giraffe)
It sounds unlikely, but when I talk in a foreign language, I think about the vocab I'm using, and how to conjugate each verb I require into the right tense and person, all while speaking at a natural pace. It sounds difficult but it isn't at all when you know enough vocabulary and know how to conjugate verbs. This wouldn't be possible if I only knew set phrases I'd learnt from Rosetta Stone, as I wouldn't know why I was using certain words and their origins, and thus wouldn't be able to construct a sentence independently.

Then perhaps you're lucky and gifted in some way compared to other people. In detailed and complicated conversations, I must work hard to accurately and speedily conveying my thoughts in a language I've spoken for over twenty years, let alone doing that while also having to consciously make decisions about grammar and vocabulary when speaking!

[Arekkusu]

I am also using Duolingo to refresh GCSE Spanish.

Good bits:
- Love the real-world translations, though they are very difficult.
- The "learned" and "mastered" and "test out of this skill" are great constructs.
- Generally the range of different English translations it will accept for a given phrase is good.
- They e-mail you to remind you to practise - total godsend.

Bad bits:
- No explanation. This is incredibly annoying and the main reason I gave up Duolingo German (ab initio). The case endings, urgh.
- Same phrase over and over again, not proper teaching.
- Some lessons are too long, some too short.
- You can't pick a level to start from, it's all from scratch. So for Spanish I'm learning stuff I already knew.

[Octopus_Garden]

I'm trying out Duolingo German. Very odd teaching order, but ignoring that, it just tried to teach me that "das Maedchen isst nicht eine Tomate"


No, no, No!

Das Maedchen isst keine Tomate! Never "nicht ein/eine/ein".

It's also told me that Freundin is "girlfriend" and only girlfriend. Female friend not accepted.

[Bread Basket]

I have yet to see anybody actually complete a full course on Rosetta Stone and be satisfied with it and their level of proficiency in the target language. Quite often it's used as a crutch because of the pricetag, some sort of linguistic panacea. In reality it just fires random words at you until you retain them, then it tests that you can spell them.

I tried it with Russian just to test it out and I can still remember how to say things like "the boy eats" so this vocab drilling does work. However most people have not got the money, motivation or knowhow to us this technique successfully.

For the same money why not just get a teach yourself book, a berlitz book, an FSI course, a grammar book and a novel of your choice in your target and native language. You'll probably have enough leftover money to get yourself a kindle to access all of this on the go too...