Thread: Rosetta Stone

I purchased the Russian language program from Rosetta Stone and it seems to be going very well. I was curious if anyone else has had success with this way of learning?

I hope you didn't pay too much for it.

Originally Posted by kwatts59

I hope you didn't pay too much for it.

Ouch.

I can't speak for others but I tried just about every language program on the market and none of them worked. For me, it took studying Russian in a college classroon (taking credit classes) and studying with a native Russian tutor on the side for it to finally click and make sense.

But that was just me, perhaps you will have more luck.

I was the same way, taking classes in an environment where you're forced to do homework and talk out loud has helped me tremendously... Unfortunately, me improving tremendously is still horrible!
-Fantom

Originally Posted by fantom605

Unfortunately, me improving tremendously is still horrible!

Тише едешь - дальше будешь.

Originally Posted by Rtyom

Тише едешь - дальше будешь.

Does that mean: Hurry up and slow down?

I think it means if you continue learning Russian quietly(?) then you'll get further at improving.

The quieter you go, the futher you will go...?

It's a proverb. It means if you do something slowly, it's more likely that you will succeed because a bustler might not notice his/her mistakes.

I'm learning with Rosetta Stone, but to tell you the truth, it's difficult. I'm in the 3rd unit of level one and I get completely lost. You learn through immersion so you don't learn the meaning of words and that can leave you frustrated on top of learning Russian by itself. Yeah I learned a lot for the three months I had it and decided each unit I do I look up words I don't know, like new vocabulary, but I get completely lost. I'm sorry, but I am so mad at it right now... . I think it wants me to fail.

I think rosetta stone is good for languages with the same type of alphabet and structure of your native language. I try to continue to use the program so I don't think I bought the lovely $300 program in vain, but I constantly feel as if I'm drowning.

I don't think this program will get you all the way if your learning by yourself. Also understand that the company advertises that you can learn a language all by yourself with this program, a nice advertising method that probably boosted their sales, I know that's why I bought it. Using the program and taking classes is probably the better idea. When I took French years ago our class would use Rosetta Stone now and again at the computer lab and it seemed to go quite smoothly.

At least I know when I move to Russia next year I'll have another study material I can use, but I am disappointed I wasn't able to learn by myself. Still, have to think I will use it or I'll get somewhat depressed over the cost of it.

The primary flaw in Rosetta's approach is that you can fake your way through so much of it. As long as you can pick out a key word ("horse", "dog", "car", etc.), you can pretty much guess which picture is being described without actually knowing the meaning. This is not always the case. Sometimes you'll have "The boy in in the plane.", "The boy is on the plane.", "The boy is under the plane." ... but in too many cases the pictures are diverse enough that it's simply too easy to rule out choices without even understanding what's being said.

Fake it before you make it.