Rosseta Stone learning program

[Dino-Fly]

I'm thinking about stocking up money to buy one of the Rosseta Stone Learning Programs, is it a good idea or a waste of money.

[Double-J]

I don't know. Languages are very hard to learn the older you are. If you really wanted to *learn* a language for competency (i.e. you want to move to another country and be relatively fluent), you should probably enroll in some courses that take you from basics to advanced levels of a language.

But that's just me...

[Dino-Fly]

DJ: Also true, but I think it becomes a drag to go to lessons after 3-4 months, also, you need a good teacher or else it a waste of money.

Btw, here's the Rosseta website, try one of the demo's and tell me what you think.

[Medur]

I have only really learned english, and that took about 6 years of reading/writing (with no method whatsoever; basically I'd chat on IRC a lot), and my english isn't that great, BUT

if I were to learn a completely new language I wouldn't put my money on software or even professional courses - I'd get a good grammar, a good dictionary, some sort of exercise book and have a disciplined learning for a while until I could manage to read said language's literature. Then I'd read and read and find online forums or something where I could practice.

I really dislike the method of starting off with simple phrases, silly vocabulary, little to no grammar and whatnot whilst slowly progressing to intermediate levels. My german course in university is a bit like that: so far we use a learning book designed for 5 year olds with severe mental retardation and have only acquired important words such as 'crocodile' and 'electric mattress pad'; our grasp of the germish grammar is akin to Twinsen's grasp of the dangerousness inherent to running into walls.

Of course, if you have an urgent need - say you're moving out to a foreign country - it might be a good idea to get on an intensive learning class or the like. But that doesn't seem to be the case.

[Double-J]

I don't know if self-training is always a good idea though. I think if you have a decent teacher, someone who does *know* the language, it can help you avoid pitfalls or mistakes associated with the language that a book may not cover.

Then again, I had a good Spanish teacher at Uni (even if I've forgotten most of it by now ).

[Streg]

Originally Posted by Dino-Fly

I'm thinking about stocking up money to buy one of the Rosseta Stone Learning Programs, is it a good idea or a waste of money.

For now, you'd better save your money and remember it is "Rosetta"

[Dino-Fly]

Maybe I should search for a teacher, but it may take a while.

[Darkflame]

While I'm no judge, the Rosetta principle of learning seemed pretty good from the demo.

(which is just about polar opersite to how I was taught in school, incidently. The software dosnt translate at all, but rather makes you associate words with meaning, whereas in school we always just mindlessly learnt blahblah = blahblah and then some gramma.

Of course, a skeptic side of me points out by learning purely by example, the software can be sold anywhere )

[Dino-Fly]

DF: that's what I thought, but I don't want to get something that might not work and waste a lot of money on it, that's why I opened this thread, though posts like the one from Medur say otherwise, so I'm very confused on what to do now.

[Darkflame]

I think Medur was talking in general, what you need is people that have actualy used the techique/software.
I could be wrong.

[Dino-Fly]

I don't know anyone who has sadly, any of you guys?

[Archangel]

Well, I guess we all used the same technique in learning whatever our home language is. We learnt by being completely surrounded by the language all the time.

So... the best option for you, dearest Dino is to move out and find yourself a German-speaking family and pester them 24/7. Does that answer your question? Happy now??

J/K I still luv u

[Lupin]

I used the software in Japanese and Portuguese (didn't actually buy it ). I think it's quite good, but not enough, it gives you a good intuitive understanding of the language, but it's not enough. If you do all the lessons you can get some vocabulary too, but i think you need to learn with a more standard method in parallel.

[Reek]

Just download the thing

[Medur]

Ah yeah sorry, I sort of went on a tangent there. I've never used this software, no.

[Dino-Fly]

Anakin--> Wastes too much of my precious few MB of download space.

[Darkflame]

I just went over the demo in dutch, seems really good, imo.
My only question is if it goes to a high enough level, or if it only really teachs you about kids falling off horses

[Lupin]

Nah it reaches a hight level, slowly. The grammar is introduced very slowly and the first half seems quite childish, then the second part is more based on general vocabulary acquirement and practice situations like situating a place in a town, things like that.

[Dino-Fly]

So what's the conclusion?

[Lupin]

Find a way to download it !
It's a good tool, but it's too expensive for what it is.

[Dino-Fly]

I'm only allowed to download 750MB, the download is 328MB, and I don't want to grovel on the floor for a month(25Sept-25Oct) with only 432MB, although that's quite a lot, some unexpected things may come up when I least expect it.

I'll probably download it next month or something.