Y'all ever use one of those Rosetta Stone language programs?

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As a former Spanish teacher

Dec 9, 2012, 2:42 PM

Rosetta Stone is great for learning the language as you might use it on a vacation - it's very touristy (getting from the airport to the hotel, ordering in a restaurant, etc). It does not teach grammar, or even the alphabet, as of the last time I looked at it, but it will also not let you continue unless your pronunciation is decent.

Really, if you want to learn a language and become proficient in it, you need to spend time using the language, and to become fluent, you need to immerse yourself in the culture.

People teach lessons, and there are several websites that pair up people who want to learn each other's language. It's similar to chat roulette, but you get to choose the language.

Bottom line - Rosetta Stone is EXPENSIVE (except on the Pirate Bay, of course) and, in my opinion, not worth the cost.

You might check your local library for some other options. I know that when I was a kid, our county library had a couple of programs that came with text books and cassette tapes that you could use to practice, for free.

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and I like it. It is mostly vocab/phrases but it forces you to learn some grammar by having to construct and deconstruct sentences. For Japanese, it does teach some of the characters and you have control over how you want sentences displayed (use only kanji/hiragana/katakana, romaji (english letters), or a mix) which allows you to control your immersion.

There is still a TON of kanji (hiragana/katakana is much easier) to learn outside of the program and I'm not sure how fluent I will actually become in the language (just started), but I like it so far. The main problem is it is outrageously expensive and I'm not sure if it wouldn't just be more worth it to hire a tutor or find a night class. I will say, from what I understand the new versions of Rosetta Stone let you talk and converse with live native speakers which sounds cool.

To sum up, I think it's better than the "learn a language" book/cd combos you find at bookstores or walmart/sams/costco but it's probably not as good as taking a class or hiring a tutor.

Pretty sure Rosetta Stone has been lunge approved.***

If you're already strong in grammar, it's OK.

If it's Spanish you want to learn...

what about if you just want to learn to read?

The Pirate Bay.

As a former Spanish teacher

I'm doing the japanese version (not new version)

I did see the pron version

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