2 stars (It may be effective for some, but it is not the program for me) - Rosetta Stone was the first Spanish language program that I had tried. (I have previously studied French, Latin, and ancient Greek.) I ordered it from the company directly but returned it after about a month. It has some interesting unique features but it was not for me.
Here are the positives:
1. The pictures are colorful and memorable and will help you learn many words quickly.
2. There is an interesting effective feature which allows you to listen to a word or phrase in Spanish, record your voice, and playback. Then a scale tells you how close your voice came to that of a native speaker. But I would not spend extensive time repeating the same word or phrase because it is very difficult to meet their standard for "native speaker."
These are the negatives:
1. There is a great emphasis on sentences that are not practical for an adult tourist, business person, or employee wanting to speak Spanish with native speakers. In addition, most of the sentences have verbs in the present progressive tense; there is not enough practice in all the Spanish verb tenses. There are many sentences in Spanish about boys under the table, girls walking, women waving, and men falling.
2. Because I work at a computer all day at work, I am not motiviated to sit at a computer for long during my spare time.
Because I am eager to learn useful Spanish quickly, Pimsleur is more effective for me. I can listen to the CDs in my car or at home. In addition, I have learned more sentences that I may want to use such as how to find a bathroom, restaurant, or pharmacy; or how to order food.
Rosetta Stone may be a good program for a child who likes to use the computer or an individual who has never studied Romance languages before.
5 stars (rosetta stone spanish) - this program is wonderfull for anyone that want to learn any spanish.I seen many other programs but by far this is the best.it cost more but in the long run u get what u pay for.i love it.
3 stars (You'll remember the lessons but won't be able to use them) - The program is a very effective teaching tool. The combination of visual and audio cues make the lessons easy to remember. But I am puzzled by their choice of the things they teach first. If you're thinking of actually using some of the stuff you learn in the first several units on a trip to Mexico, forget it. Most of it is really impractical, unlike the Pimsleur CDs which I really like. For example, Rosetta will teach you early on "The boy is running. The horse is eating a carrot" while Pimsleur prefers things like "I want to drink a beer. How much is it?" for early lessons. As you can see, the practicality of the latter far exceeds that of the former. Proably because Pimsleur focuses on statements involving "I" and "You" instead of the 3rd person. You learn vocabulary faster with Rosetta. But ignoring the possibility that you will be called upon to describe horses eating carrots, if you want to use what you learn any time soon, try Pimsleur. |
