Rosetta Stone: Experiences?

[Phantasee]

I'm thinking of getting Rosetta Stone for learning Italian, and probably for my sister to learn some Italian and Greek before she goes on her school trip. I was hoping to get some comments from you guys on the usefulness of the program? Ease of use? Does it actually do what it says on the tin?

[chitoryu12]

I could use some information as well. I'm planning on using it to learn French and Spanish (French because my class is terrible and Spanish because it's pretty common in Florida).

[Admiral Valdemar]

Someone been listening to the radio lately? I, too, could do with some insight, if only because I'd like to relearn all that German and French I totally forgot.

[Zed Snardbody]

DHS/TSA is now offering it free to its officers. I'm trying to decide what language I want to start with. Spanish probably. Maybe Russian.

[The Spartan]

For what it's worth, a buddy of mine, who just got out of the Air Force where is was a Russian Linguist, described as a lite, home version of the language course he had to go through without the total immersion training that he experienced.

In other words, it's probably the best thing you can get short of joining the military or a dedicated program through the government.

Take that all with a grain of salt, however.

[Karrick]

I own a Rosetta Stone multi-language disc and used a previous version of the software for my elementary school Spanish class. The best I can do now in Spanish is to ask "where is the cold beer?" and "there is a <insert noun here> in my pants". Really, that's not so much the best I can say so much as all I can say in Spanish. Then again, that was 9 years ago and the teacher wasn't very good. Neither did we use the software all that much.

My out of class experience with it is a lot more recent. I used it to start learning a little Swedish (why not?) and to brush up on my Japanese skills which, let's face it, after two years of not speaking it at all, have gone right down the shitter. It struck me as being good for learning a new language, though not as good as taking an actual class would be. How fast you'll pick up the language in question depends on a lot of things, like which language you're using (Polish is batshit crazy, for example. Hat's off to any non-native Polish speakers around) and how often/long you keep trying.

Using it to brush up on Japanese I found it either frustratingly hard or insultingly easy, depending on what level I was trying. I never really found a middle ground there.

I also never used the microphone capability because I did not, until recently have a microphone. I'm skeptical of how useful that really is, but I can't really say.

[R. U. Serious]

I borrowed it from a friend and started using it to learn italian. Unfortunately I didn't really go through with it. The thing is that - very unsurprisingly - it takes plenty of time. I found the software itself easy to use, and I can see how through enough repetition one could learn enough to get a familiarity with the language where you can continue to learn it yourself at some point (through TV, books, talking and lots of looking things up). I hadn't really progressed enough to see how grammer is handled.
But the thing is the softwae is not exactly fun to use, it doesn't get you hooked. At least for me that was the case.

I guess what I am saying is that it can be effective, but don't expect that simply buying it will be enough, you'll have to invest quite some time as well. I can't say whether it's worth the money. Personally I found that participating in a small group with a good teacher was more effective,

[Phantasee]

Well, I picked up an older copy my friend got at a yard sale over the summer. It doesn't have any Level 3 stuff, but every other language in it. I wonder how they expect you to learn arabic when everything is written in arabic?

[The Spartan]

For what it's worth, a buddy of mine, who just got out of the Air Force where is was a Russian Linguist, described as a lite, home version of the language course he had to go through without the total immersion training that he experienced.

In other words, it's probably the best thing you can get short of joining the military or a dedicated program through the government.

Take that all with a grain of salt, however.

As an addition to this, he also recommended a language program called Pimsleur. According to him it was a little better than even Rosetta Stone.