Rosetta Stone

[Subbynet]

Hi all,

I was just wondering if any of you had experience of the language learning application called Rosetta Stone.

http://www.rosettastone.co.uk

How did you find the process, would you say its worth the money?

I was just about to purchase it, but at £150 it's a little over my "impulse buy" threshold and just want to make sure it's a worthwhile investment, or to know if anything better available...

I've gave the demo a quick go, seems pretty good...

Opinions?

 

[VladimirYakimenko]

Rosetta Stone is a leading company in language learning market. "Before the Internet" they had pretty good multimedia courses, and a couple of years ago I also have tried their on-line service.

In language learning you will need a variety of materials and some even advocate content over methodology. So you should not stop after spending £150.

As more modern alternatives try also http://lingqcentral-en.lingq.com/, http://www.busuu.com, http://hello-hello.com/

Also Michel Thomas's method stands out: http://www.michelthomas.com/

 

[Subbynet]

Hi Vladimir,

Thanks for taking the time to reply!

Rosetta Stone does seem one of the better courses, I think I prefer the way it teaches with pictures and sound, I'm picking it up pretty quickly so I've bought it now. It's a little cheaper on Amazon too but I'll have to wait for it to be delivered.

I haven't seen those websites before and I'm most impressed with busuu.com. I've signed up on the free course at the moment to give it a try, and it seems pretty good - I think joining a community is a good idea - as I need someone to practice on!

I also checked the Michel Thomas course, and noticed you can get a starter audiobook for only £6 from Amazon as well, so I've bought that and will give that a listen tonight. If it's any good I'll buy the full course.

Some really good tips, thank you!

 

[lumiaro]

I actually bought Rosetta Stone a few years ago (paid out of pocket) when I had to get functional in Spanish for work travel, so I get the “£150 is not an impulse buy” hesitation.
My experience: the process is polished and the immersion-style approach is good for building a “picture → word” link without constantly translating. In the first couple of weeks I felt real momentum, especially with basic vocab and getting used to hearing the language.

Where I hit the wall was value-for-money vs. outcomes. I could progress inside the program, but when I tried to speak to real people, I still froze — the exercises didn’t push me into messy, real-world output enough. It also started to feel repetitive once the novelty wore off, and I realized I needed more targeted practice (listening + speaking) than I was getting for the price.
If you’re unsure, my advice would be: don’t spend £150 expecting it to be a complete solution. If you do buy it, treat it as a structured “input + habit” tool and add something that forces output. For the habit side, I used Duolingo (duolingo.com) later because it’s easier to stay consistent with. For short integrated practice that makes me actually listen/read/write/say things out loud, I’ve also used Avatalks (avatalks.com) on busy days — it helped more with confidence than another round of recognition drills.
If your goal is travel basics and you enjoy the demo, you’ll probably use it. If your goal is speaking comfortably, you may get better ROI putting that £150 toward a few sessions with a tutor + a cheaper daily routine.

 

[MikeJ]

I think after 15 years, nobody is considering it an impulse buy...

 

[lumiaro]

I think after 15 years, nobody is considering it an impulse buy...

agree