Rosetta Stone

twistedkiss · 01-07-2010, 07:44 PM

Would you consider this equal to a year of foreign language?

bookreader · 01-08-2010, 10:45 PM

YES, it is considered to be equal to a year of high school foreign language.
If you ask Rosetta Stone about this, they should be able to give you documentation that says as much.

cgarcia · 01-10-2010, 01:20 PM

If you ask any language instructors, they'll probably tell you that Rosetta Stone is overpriced, formulaic, and fairly worthless in the long run.

It tries to teach you a language based on immersion. Unfortunately, it has a very limited number of phrases. It does a poor job of demonstrating grammar and syntax. It also has a very limited vocabulary. You (and your wallet) will be much better off with a traditional program.

danas · 01-10-2010, 08:13 PM

I have some observations about this. My daughter paid for Rosetta Stone with her baby-sitting money and never became very enthusiastic about it. It was certainly superior to the French she got when she was in school, and at least what she spoke at home actually sounded like French. But hard to recommend it as a quality experience.
On the other hand, it satisfied her language requirement in her college application, at least as far as Princeton was concerned.
My spouse, who actually is bi-lingual and uses Spanish every day at work, refused to help our home schooled kids learn the language. The opinion there is that school language is next to worthless and talking Spanish at home around activities such as making dinner is just so much phony tripe. "Go to a country, and live in the language" is the advice from that quarter. It took me a long time to understand this, and my daughter's Princeton interviewer never got her head around it either. I think it probably is possible to learn a language in school or through home-bound "phony tripe", but the odds are seriously against it.

davenmame · 01-11-2010, 06:31 AM

My 7th grader is using Rosetta Stone and he has learned how to breathe into the microphone, saying nothing, and getting the "Green light" on accuracy of pronunciation. He is getting great grades using it, but I don't think it replaces conversation/dialogue that takes place in a classroom setting. If the student is truly self motivated, he/she could probably do well with it. My kids are typical kids, though, and unfortunately don't have that desire to learn another language.

quitejaded · 01-11-2010, 11:08 AM

I think for children, you should use any 20$ CD to help them learn spanish along with BOOKS for them to work on grammar and syntax. I think definitely having an instructor or tutor to help them with their accents and gain confidence in SPEAKING is necessary.

For someone more mature who actually cares about learning the language, Rosetta Stone may be good but I still feel that you can learn the language by use of books, television, and meeting some spanish friends online and in real life to exchange conversations with.

bookreader · 01-11-2010, 05:21 PM

Let's just remember that the OP did not ask for opinions on Rosetta Stone but rather asked if it was equal to one year of a high school foreign language requirement. All programs have strong pros and cons.

As an aside, my daughter who is in high school did two years of Rosetta Stone. Now she is in a class that is using a textbook and she is realizing just how much she did learn from Rosetta Stone.

danas · 01-14-2010, 11:23 PM

In my opinion, Rosetta Stone is equal to, or most likely better than, a school foreign language.
I and most of my friends took a foreign language in high school, and even continued in college. I am unable to read French for pleasure, and would not be helped in a French speaking country, while registering "A"s (it went into the college GPA, after all). My daughter, because she was a "good student", got "A"s in French in spite of learning nothing. Not hyperbole. It was worse than nothing, in the sense that it might have led her to believe she was learning a foreign language.

HighlandMom · 01-15-2010, 06:26 AM

RS is great but it lacks grammar, we added in a grammar text.

marybeth22308 · 01-17-2010, 11:36 PM

in our home, we found that we really liked Rosetta Stone, but knew we were lacking actual conversational skills, as well as structured understanding of grammar - especially verb conjugations. A multi-lingual friend recommended livemocha.com - a free online language learning program. hard to explain, but a great adjunct, and a lot of fun - plus a chance to dialog with both other learners and native speakers.

bookreader · 01-19-2010, 05:35 PM

RS has a grammar component, but it comes later. There is some grammar in the initial program (it's in one of the books that comes with the CDs) but most of the grammar is added into the second set of CDs.

That is how it was with the RS Spanish program that we used. This is in keeping with the 'immersion' philosophy of language acquisition.

atomom · 01-22-2010, 03:53 PM

I recently did all 5 levels of Rosetta Stone Spanish in 10 weeks ( pace not recommended!). Yes, it lacked grammar. (I understand that you are supposed to "pick it up naturally," but sometimes I just didn't get it and kept making the same mistakes. . .)

But I did learn a lot in a short time. And it was fun, painless, and--because I had to answer every question myself--it forced me to speak more than I ever did in 4 years of classroom French. I liked it, though it is hard for me to believe that each level is supposed to be "one year" of study. But if your school will accept this "known program" as equivalent to "one year"--great. I think the lack of bookwork makes RS a pleasant experience. (Some kids just hate going through textbooks, written grammar exercises.)

I paid $99 for on-line access to the software through my local community college. Look in to your local CC if you don't want to pay big $$ for the software. They may have other on-line language programs available, too.
Yabla (on-line) looks interesting, too.

sunshower212 · 02-18-2010, 12:34 AM

*Reviving this thread*

Would an at-home language course be equivalent to an AP class and satisfy the recommended foreign language units at top colleges? I can't fit AP Spanish into my schedule, so I'm trying to find a way to get a fourth year in...

applicannot · 02-18-2010, 10:11 AM

Colleges like to see verification of what you've done. So, study it, and then take the AP exam. That will prove that you've really done AP level work.

connormesan · 02-24-2010, 10:49 PM

I've tried to learn Spanish with Rosetta Stone (I'm not homeschooled), and it's been incredibly difficult. Rosetta Stone seems to trick you into thinking you're actually learning the language, but if you have to put it to use, you're not really sure what to do. That's been my experience anyway.