Maybe it’s me.
I have taken five years of French, two years of Spanish and two years of Latin. I can’t really speak a word of any of it. Go education system!
So I was hopeful when I heard about Rosetta Stone’s language software, and I heard about it some more, then I heard about it some more. I heard about it from Michael Phelps and from the Richmond-based Martin Agency’s new ad campaign and I even heard about it on BizSense.
So the Virginia-based company obviously makes enough money to do a ton of advertising. And there is a reason for that: They charge a heck of a lot for their product. If you get all three levels of the training software, it could run you in excess of $500. For that chunk of change, I expect to wow an Italian model with my language skills.
We could have a rowdy debate about the value of a foreign language. It’s supposedly important, but I know lots of successful people who can barely speak English. And they grew up here. That’s the perk of being an American.
But surely there’s merit in being more cultured.
So, right off the bat, I read through the agreements. If you purchase the software, purchase it directly through Rosetta Stone. If you get the software from someone else, none of the return policies apply. So if you are laying out half a grand for software, it would certainly stink to be left holding the bag if you are not pleased.
Which brings me to my next point: Will you be pleased? I’m not sure. I know, I know, that’s totally hedging, but here is my point. I took the demo for French, a language I know well, and used a friend’s copy of his Russian software. For French, I breezed through it. I may not be fluent, but I know how to say “boy” in French. But for the Russian language, I had a bit of trouble using the method.
The method claims to be the way you learn your first language. That is, it uses visual cues such as pictures that you recognize before giving you the word for that picture in the language you are trying to learn. If this were the French, it would show a picture of a small boy then say “un garcon.” Then the program will prompt you to select another picture of “un garcon,” thereby forcing you to think in another language.
With French it came naturally, because I have a foundation in the language. With Russian, it seems that I had trouble remembering the words correctly. But as I worked and worked at it, I was able to perform the tasks in the lesson fairly effectively.
Lesson 1: Rosetta Stone isn’t like that scene in “The Matrix” where you sit down in a chair and download the knowledge into your head. It still comes down to good, old-fashioned hard work. Boo.
There is also a headset that goes with the language recognition software component. The program will prompt you to say a word then let you know whether or not you said it correctly. They call this method “dynamic immersion.”
Here is the problem with this kind of language learning, and it is in fact the same problem with all these “quick-fix” solutions to language learning: From what I can see, there is very little in the way of grammar instruction or conversation skills. You may learn the basics of listening and pronunciation with the software, but as far as I can tell you have no opportunity to apply what you have learned in a practical setting.
As much as you try to replace a classroom instructor, there is really no substitute for a conversation in another language. Not even clicking pictures and speaking to inanimate objects. With this method you may be able to grasp what to say in some situations, but you certainly don’t have any chance to ask a question or figure out why the same word is used differently in different situations.
But for what it is, it seems to be a useful tool for getting the basics of a language. And maybe I am rushing to judgment because I haven’t taken the entire course. But if you need the basics of the language to get around Paris, Moscow or Dubai on a business trip, then I would recommend Rosetta Stone. But if you want a job with the State Department, then traditional language instruction seems like the way to go. In the meantime, why don’t you give the demo a try and see if it’s for you.
This also has me thinking about the value of a foreign language for business people in Richmond. Perhaps Spanish comes in handy?
David Larter covers technology for BizSense. Please send news tips to David@richmondbizsense.com.
You need to look at the courses offered by the Cortinia Language Insitute. Been around for over 100 years, inventor of the system using recorded media for learning (developed with Thomas Edison). 20 lesson course offers CDs (or tapes), dictionary, reading text, etc…., very comprehensive, and its only $129.00. Of course, it doesn’t matter if they give it to you if you don’t put in the study.
Rosettastone self study with the application is great to help users learn the basics of the language and it progresses into more complex sentence and syntactic constructions as the units advance. The first level will give you some basic competancy, but you really need to go through the full course to become semi-fluent. The idea is to start your language learning with a self-study system to get the basic interactions – then move on to a guided study ( classroom ) to formally learn the grammatical constructs of the language.
Just like when you learned your first language – you start with the understanding of the core concepts before your learn the esoteric details of grammar and expand your vocabulary. It is very hard to learn to speak and interact in a foreign language if you start with grammatical rules – and try to translate from your first language to your second language – you never really learn the core concepts that give you an intuitive understanding of the language. RS’s aproach tries to give you the core competency – on which you can build language learning success.
RS is also offering TOTALe – which is an online interactive playground where you can play games, take online classes with an instructor, and use self study to broaden your understanding of your second language. You play games using voice chat, video chat, and text chat with native speakers and other learners to help you sharpen your conversational skills and improve your understanding. The included instructor guided classes also help you hone your skills.
Overall – I think RS is great. I would recommend it to annyone that wants to learn a new language.
Thanks for the article. I agree with a lot of what you said about Rosetta Stone. I am useing it now and am enjoying it very much. I wish it were as easy as the Matrix but until something like that comes along, I think this is the quickest and easiest way to become bilingual.
The only thing I would disagree about is the price. I got it from http://www.cbcwebcollege.com which offers a full year of Rosetta Stone for $180 which includes access to all languages and all levels. That’s a lot less than the $500 you described. I also get all the additional support I need to stay with it. For fun, you can explore the 30 other languages. That’s a great side benefit, although I personally find I need to focus on one language at a time to be really effective.
I also think the grammar instruction comes more intuitively than explicitly when you get to the conversation sections.
Overall, I like it better than having a classroom instructor. I had there hears of high-school foreign language classes and I learned more useful language abilities in a month at my Rosetta Stone online classroom than in the three years in high school.
By the way, doesn’t the U.S. State Department use Rosetta Stone for their staff? I believe I read that.
The U.S. State Dept and the U.S. Army both use Rosetta Stone. In fact, while I was enlisted in the Army, they offered to let me learn any language free (via RS) in my spare time… especially Arabic.