opinions on Rosetta Stone

if your not familiar it is the most marketed language program in the U.S. and to the casual observers has a lot of credentials to its name, but is its as effective as it sounds, particularly for russian?

i'm pondering purchasing this along side books, but wonder if its hefty price tag ( at least for a poor college student like myself) is worth it when i can buy more books than i could finish in the next few years for the same price (roughly 500$ US)

does anyone have any experience/success/failure/dissatisfaction etc with this product, with any language (because i would be interested in spanish as well) and would you recommend or not recommend it.

I am using it to learn Latin American Spanish.
It is good, but it is not that good.
Not sure about Russian, but the LA Spanish version has a few glitches, such as the sound not matching the picture, but they fix them as they find them, and if you have a licensed copy, you can d/l updates and fixes each time you run the program, so such minor glitches are not a big issue.
A bigger issue is that the material is not always thought through. For example, when they introduce the verb tener ("to have"), they use pictures where people actually hold various objects in their hands, and these pictures are repeated over and over throughout the lesson. So, unless you look up "tener" in a dictionary, you may decide that tener means "to hold".
Still, it can be a valuable resource, depending on what other materials you have and on your learning strategy.
It strong points (the ones that I can think of at the moment) are:
- It teaches you pronunciation and listening comprehension, something that a book can't do (but you can use other materials for the same purpose).
- It is interactive, and it takes you trough your lessons and drills step by step, which is an advantage for those who can't work out their own learning program and stick to it.
- Whenever you make a mistake, you know it at once and can correct yourself.
Is it worth the money? That's the sixty-four dollar question :). Honestly, I think the price is too steep.
Can it be used as a stand-alone resource? I don't think so. I think that most people will find that their progress will be much smoother if they have a grammar book and a dictionary to help them along the way.

I have the Russian version (also Spanish Arabic and Korean) but i don't like it and don't see how it works, I think though, It can't hurt to use in your arsenal of material. To be fair i have learned a few words from it. I haven't yet tried the other languages though. I got my copies through shareware, I would never pay for it because it is just not worth the money in my case.

I agree with Translations, it can't be used as a stand alone. You better buy a book too!

thanks guys, i started digging and found a copy of it, but have yet to get it up and running, i also purchased a grammer book and dictionary, so thanks for the heads up and i suppose i can come back in a few months with a better opinion on it for everyone.

After 8 months of struggling to learn Russian, 6 of the months using with Rosetta Stone, I am convinced the best way to learn any language is to go to your local college and enroll. I live near Rose State College in Midwest City, OK, an they offer Russian 1 and Russian 2. The strengths are that a community college is not expensive, you get to use what you learn with an instructor that can correct your mistakes, and you learn in a structured manner. I cannot take advantage of this because I am a truck driver, I'm never home.

But I think Rosetta Stone is a great addition to another course of instruction.

BTW, the program is licensed for 2 computers, and up to 5 users per computer. If you want to cut the cost, split the cost with someone else. My nephew is learning Russian, and next time I get to California, I am loading it on his computer.

My response to that is that if can't learn language on your own then college will do you no good anyway. The first thing to remember is that no one can teach you a language, you have to learn it yourself. You will learn nothing in college unless you spend hours on your own with the target language. If you are not prepared to do this or you are a linguistic genius, you will be like 98% of the people in my class at college who never really learn the language. They just satisfy a grade, make a credit or two, the school looks like it has a "Russian program," and sells more classes the next year.

if you're truckin' all the time pimsleur would be something good to try. you can do the lessons while you drive in addition to taking classes or smt

Okay, I don't recommend Rosetta Stone largely due to the fact that you have to figure out the words yourself when presented with the pictures. It hinders your progress because you're stuck with a new Russian word and no way of knowing what context to use it in. For the longest time I had no idea what яблоко was - Rosetta's picture was of an entire fruit stand - until I got my hands on some texts that clearly state it's an apple. You will see a picture of a boy on the wing of an airplane, and then under it, but it doesn't always register that they're drawing distinctions for, in this case, above and below. It could just as well be his blue shirt, short hair, the surrounding environment, so forth.

I've been using Pimsleur with some texts and highly recommend it. I also only get better if I pronounce outloud to myself even when I'm not getting it right, and even when I don't feel like it. In Rosetta you're learning single words at a time and only lame 2-3 word sentences that are never useful in social situations, like: "The woman is on the car." Pimsleur teaches you daily conversational skills that beat Rosetta any day.

Hy,
Rosseta Stone is not very usefull for Russian Language. I tried to learn with it, but with little succes.

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In Rosetta you're learning single words at a time and only lame 2-3 word sentences that are never useful in social situations, like: "The woman is on the car."

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Yes, that is the greatest issue i have with this soft... after 2 weeks of "playing" with it, i found it that i know alot of Russian sentences, but i would not be able to comunicate some simple sentences with a Russian speaker...

Well, I think Rosetta Stone is fairly useful.......I got the 12 month online subscription, so much less expensive........but still $300.

I am good at figuring things out using deductive reasoning.........

darn I cannot use cyrillic font....can someone tell me where to download it?

I figured out apple just fine.......again deductive reasoning. I study mathematics, so that might help.

Also I'm told I'm naturally good at languages.

What RS does NOT tell you, however, is whether something is masculine, feminine, or neuter. And in Russian, that is VERY IMPORTANT............

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Originally Posted by AthenIvanIdx

...darn I cannot use cyrillic font....can someone tell me where to download it? ...........

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Привет, Афина!
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Для кириллицы попробуй: Control Panel - Reginal and Language Options - Keyboards and Languages - Change Keyboards - Add

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Originally Posted by translationsnmru

- It teaches you pronunciation and listening comprehension, something that a book can't do (but you can use other materials for the same purpose).

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You can get audio recordings of many books via internet, which can be of great help in this regard.

Thanks, Lampada!

Athena......

From what I've gathered, you'd do just as well starting with LiveMocha.com instead of Rosetta. LiveMocha is free and you get plenty of pictures and listening practice. Only drawback for beginning this way in Russian is that you need to be able to read the cyrillic script. Just learn the alphabet first and you should be all set. You don't even have to know it perfectly, as you'll be able to see the script while you are listening to it, so you can get some practice reading it while you are hearing it.

I found it to be worthless, at least for the way I learn. As you know people learn different ways. Some people learn visually, some just from hearing it, and some can learn from both. There is another group of people like myself, I find things much more arduous through seeing it, or hearing it which is what Rosetta Stone works off of. I learn through practical, hands on approach. If you know you can learn from Audio/Visual means, it will be effective. Otherwise save your money. You may agree, or disagree with me, but this is simply my opinion on it.

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Originally Posted by AthenIvanIdx

Well, I think Rosetta Stone is fairly useful.......I got the 12 month online subscription, so much less expensive........but still $300.

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(Deleted. L.) The best price to pay is халява :)

Rossetta is decent at building your vocabularly, but it's often FAR FROM CLEAR what on earth the picture is supposed to be depicting. I went through it with a dictionary to be certain. There are far better methods out there.