Does Rosetta Stone work? How effective sầu is Rosetta Stone? I explain it all in this very detailed & honest Rosetta Stone đánh giá.
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In short, I vày not recommkết thúc Rosetta Stone for new language learners. Rosetta Stone is a one-size-fits-all method that’s tedious to follow, lacks explanations, and never advances beyond the beginner level.
Rosetta Stone is one of the biggest brands in language learning. Almost all language learners have heard of it.
But don’t confuse it with the Rosetta Stone that helped us decipher Egyptian hieroglyphics, which it’s named after. Whether you will learn lớn decipher your target language will rely on a lot more than this one tool.
Running a blog as big as this means I get asked the following questions often: How good is Rosetta Stone? Is Rosetta Stone worth it?
In my opinion, skip this one and find another course for less that will actually teach you to lớn speak the language confidently.
“It’s a one-size-fits-all approach that keeps you stuông chồng at beginner màn chơi.”
In fact, I think you’ll find yourself discouraged if you use this as your first language learning resource. I actually polled my readers for their favourite và least favourite language courses. Rosetta Stone came out as the biggest loser.
So let me explain why I don’t think Rosetta Stone is worth it.
Rosetta Stone nhận xét Table of Contents
My Frank Review of Rosetta Stone TOTALeHow Does Rosetta Stone Work? The Rosetta Stone PhilosophyRosetta Stone Price Tag: Why is Rosetta Stone So Expensive?Most Useful Feature By Far: Live Lessons With a Human!Other Rosetta Stone Features: Games, Stories, and Irrelevant PhotosThe Real Major Flaw in the Rosetta Stone AppA Copy-and-Paste Approach for Very Different LanguagesWould I Recommover the Rosetta Stone Software?What Would Actually Be a Better Use of Your TimeIs Rosetta Stone Good? Pros và Cons Summary
My Frank Review of Rosetta Stone TOTALe
First, let me start off by saying that I had contacted Rosetta Stone in the past to lớn ask for a nhận xét copy. They were kind enough lớn skết thúc me one. That was TOTALe version 4.
It has been a while since that version, so I have sầu updated this post lớn reflect the current Rosetta Stone plans & set up. As of now, Rosetta Stone has since switched khổng lồ a subscription-based Model. The whole program is done online or in their Rosetta Stone phầm mềm.
The reason I mention this is because when Rosetta Stone sent me their program a while baông xã, I told them they could see the nhận xét before it went live sầu. I did this to lớn allow them the opportunity to lớn correct any factual mistakes. They were very helpful in making sure there was no misleading information here.
They requested that I give sầu a disclaimer that I have my own products, such as Fluent in 3 Months Premium. And as such, I’ve included their own comments & explanations for why their method is the way it is.
So, you’ll be getting a balanced nhận xét, because I’ve sầu included Rosetta Stone’s reasoning as well as my own opinion.
And at this point, years later, I can attest khổng lồ how ineffective this program is even still.
When they sent me the program, I studied Dutch, which I was learning at the time while living in Amsterdam. But, this Reviews also covers every other language version for a (rather disappointing) reason I"ll explain below.
I want to lớn answer three major things for my readers:
How does Rosetta Stone work?Why is Rosetta Stone’s price so high?Is Rosetta Stone good and would I recommover it?How Does Rosetta Stone Work? The Rosetta Stone Philosophy
I’ll admit, Rosetta Stone has an interesting philosophy. It only uses your target language, right from the start.
Yes, that’s right. Rosetta Stone never uses your native language.
Rosetta Stone explained that they were founded by people who appreciated learning by immersion. These founders had learned languages abroad in immersive sầu environments. They wanted khổng lồ emulate this as cthua trận as possible for people who can"t travel.
Of course I have other recommendations if you can"t travel. But the base concept makes sense.
What I disagree with is how it’s packaged as a generic version of immersion across all languages. More on that later.
“Rosetta Stone has an interesting philosophy: it only uses your target language, right from the start.”
One interesting aspect is how they have sầu no English at all in the program apart from interface & menus. They never present a translation of anything. It"s all represented in photos & untranslated audio và text.
While there are major issues with this, the idea of not using your native sầu language is an interesting one.
The “Learn Like a Baby” Approach to Rosetta Stone Languages
I have sầu to admit that I (as many learners) vì learn a lot through English. Getting my vocabulary through flashcards, reading grammar explanations in English, etc.
I"m sure this slows down learning by thinking in English at times, which is an issue this program successfully avoids. For people who are fans of “learn lượt thích a baby would” philosophies, they would get some benefit out of this program.
All the unit categories for each languageRosetta Stone say that they aren"t promoting a “learn as a baby” philosophy because they get rid of the guesswork. But I find many similarities myself.
Such learning approaches have big advantages, but I disagree with the concept. Because we can take advantage of the fact that we are adults.
We can have things explained to lớn us in more complex ways. The devotion to learning in such a simple way through audio và pictures (even though the research behind it is very complex) made me learn very slowly in Rosetta Stone.
“I don’t agree with the ‘learn as a baby’ method, because there are smarter ways khổng lồ learn as adults.”
After days of intense study time with the program, I felt I would have learned the same things so much faster using other approaches.
Rosetta Stone’s reply lớn this was that the goal is not “speed for its own sake”. They feel their retìm kiếm over 30 years about when and how words should be introduced have sầu proven to lớn be very effective sầu.
They have carried out intense retìm kiếm for sure, but I still disagree based on my experience.
A Clever Idea That Falls Flat
I only made it halfway through my phối. But I can"t imagine how completing all 3 levels would get you out of what I would definitely hotline basic level.
Rosetta Stone’s philosophy is a clever idea, but I’ve learned much faster with other methods.
An example in unit one lớn teach you basic conjugation through pictures và no explanation.One thing I did lượt thích was Rosetta Stone’s audio. I tried something similar when I reviewed Pimsleur in great detail. Pimsleur is only audio, so you would think their audio would be superior, but I actually prefer Rosetta Stone"s audio.
Apart from instructions (lượt thích repeat, listen etc., which are given in English in Pimsleur"s courses), everything is in the target language. The audio is based on what you would have gone through so far for that unit, so you should actually recognise everything.
If you clichồng on “Extended Learning” in the menu tab, you can access the Audio Companion, which allows you lớn tải về the audio for on-the-go listening. I like this feature a lot. It’s helpful for studying on a run, for instance.
“You won’t be under much bức xúc with Rosetta Stone.”
But even though it"s an improvement on Pimsleur, I still found it a bit tedious after a few sessions.
Actual native content such as a podcast would have sầu been more helpful khổng lồ recreate an immersive sầu environment.
But of course, it"s all part of the greater whole of the program. They ayên to lớn only present you with words you should know already.
In this sense, the interconnectedness of the entire set of lessons, audio, etc., is very intricate. It’s designed to rely on what you"ve learned. You won"t be under much ức chế in this program to see or hear things you haven"t come across before.
This makes it an enjoyable learning environment, although hardly a realistic one in my view.
Krashen"s Input Hypothesis
Rosetta Stone replied saying that the pace & structure is based on the (Comprehensible) Input Hypothesis of Stephen Krashen. His retìm kiếm made huge và important contributions to linguistics in the 20th century.
I have sầu issues with how far this research is being taken as being the basis of their entire learning technique. But, I have lớn admit that Rosetta Stone applies that approach in an effective way.
“If you compare language learning to easing gradually into lớn a swimming pool, Rosetta Stone is just dipping a toe in.”
Recognisable input as a learning strategy is more enjoyable than the stressful situations you would encounter in immersive sầu environments. But you learn quicker with that pressure and it"s simply more realistic khổng lồ how the world works.
The input-hypothesis is an “ideal” learning environment, & is thus not suited to a non-ikhuyến mãi world.
Of course, many people would rather get eased into a language through a system like Rosetta Stone. It sounds fantastic. But after all the units, you would still not feel ready for the vast majority of conversations you are likely khổng lồ have.
You will still struggle khổng lồ speak.
At the over of the units, the course still is only showing you pretty simple sentences.Even if you select “Advanced” as your starting point, these are the types of sentences you start out with.If you compare it lớn easing yourself into cold water, the amount you would learn in the whole system is equal to dipping a toe in.
My preferred strategy for language learning is speaking from day one. The immersive/communicative sầu approach I apply takes the preference of diving my entire body straight into lớn the water. You get the unpleasant part over with quicker since it"s going to happen anyway.
If you are a tín đồ of Krashen"s retìm kiếm then you will love Rosetta Stone. I agree with a lot of what Krashen says, but think that most people take it too far.
Rosetta Stone Price Tag: Why is Rosetta Stone So Expensive?
The big question often asked is: Rosetta Stone costs a lot of money. Is it worth it?
If you’re wondering how much is Rosetta Stone now since they’ve switched to lớn an online and phầm mềm subscription price… Well, it’s broken down like this:
3 Months, 1 Language: $35.9712 Months, Unlimited Languages: $119.8824 Months, Unlimited Languages: $167.76Lifetime Unlimited Languages: $199It’s a bit misleading if you look at the site, however. They say it’s “11.99 per month” for 3 months of one language… But you have to lớn pay the whole price upfront. The same is true for all the packages.
This is actually far cheaper than it used khổng lồ be — at one point, it was $500 dollars per language. When I originally wrote this article, it was $329 for my Dutch language paông xã.
So, the price has come down quite a bit.
One of my first questions to lớn them, when we talked, was about the price tag. Why does Rosetta Stone cost so much?
From Rosetta Stone"s perspective, the price tag does indeed make sense. It"s the investment they put inkhổng lồ it.
Rosetta Stone Invested Heavily in Research
Rosetta Stone has spent a fortune on linguistic retìm kiếm, cognitive sầu scientists, PhDs, neuroscientists và more.
This retìm kiếm is incorporated into every single aspect of the Rosetta Stone software. From the positive sầu reinforcement of sound effects (that I turned off right away), to lớn the meticulously planned photos (which I also had an issue with, described below).
“All the scientific retìm kiếm behind Rosetta Stone leads to lớn a sterile learning environment.”
Rosetta Stone has led a team of people from all such aspects of learning, all focused on producing a great language learning system. It would be logical khổng lồ presume that it would lead to the best system in the world.
But I disagree here. The research is tailored more khổng lồ how can we make a hàng hóa that sells well và is scalable. But it should be how can we ensure people definitely learn this language as efficiently as possible.
As you can imagine, Rosetta Stone disagrees with this. Their reply is, “In our view, a program is truly effective only if it offers genuine language learning value khổng lồ the widest possible diversity of learners.”
But the problem is all this scientific research has led to a sterile language learning experience.
So I"m afraid the research they invested in is not something I hold that highly.
Another reason to justify the higher price is how much research has gone inlớn developing their speech recognition from the ground up.
When you speak, it analyses your recording và approves it or requests that you try again based on how you did.
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While I like the idea, since it gets you speaking khổng lồ the program & gives you feedbachồng, I found several problems with it. One time, it registered a sneeze as a correct answer. Other times, I had lớn repeat myself several times and didn’t understand what was different that I got right.
In fact, when updating this Đánh Giá, I tested out this feature again. I didn’t say anything but clicked my mouse by accident. The mouse cliông xã requested correctly for “ni”; my own voice did not.But luckily, the reading exercises are spoken by natives. So you will learn more from listening to lớn the pronunciation, anyway. You can also get a more detailed pronunciation guide for the alphabet within the help menu of the program.
Most Useful Feature By Far: Live sầu Lessons With a Human!
I was surprised to see that I got live time with a native teacher through the program!
Once you complete a lesson in the program, you can go lớn the “Live sầu Tutoring” và schedule a 25-minute session with a teacher through đoạn Clip conferencing.
The teachers are friendly, patient, và very professional. They’re excellent và experienced teachers of the language.
When I looked at the time slots available, there were plenty of times without much wait. I could have scheduled an appointment today, in a couple of hours if I wanted lớn.
When I took this course a few years baông xã, my first ever experience speaking Dutch was within the Rosetta Stone environment! My teacher was so patient và refused khổng lồ switch to lớn English (consistent with the program philosophy).
That’s something I agree with & it’s difficult lớn maintain. But a wise decision for the learner"s benefits. In my first two sessions, I found each session to lớn be incredibly useful.
But unlượt thích most private lessons, all the tutors have a very fixed program they follow.
This is all part of the master plan of the program, which is fair enough, but I would have preferred lớn just chat with the teacher. The justification I received for this is that the program teaches you particular vocabulary before the session. It would not make sense to ask you random questions since you wouldn"t be prepared khổng lồ answer them.
Again, that goes baông chồng to lớn creating a stress-không tính phí environment, rather than a realistic one.
Luckily they were patient with me if I went off on tangents, so you can be somewhat flexible if you have the right teacher.
Live sầu Tutoring is Where You Get Your Money’s Worth
These live sầu tutoring lessons, based on what’s learned within the units, are included in the price.
To me, this was the greatest justification of a higher price than the reasons listed above sầu.
You can hire teachers to lớn get online lessons much cheaper elsewhere. But it would be hard khổng lồ find people so integrated inkhổng lồ such a complex system lượt thích this.
And I did honestly find each spoken session to lớn be very helpful. This was my most favourite part of the whole application và what I got the most value out of.
Without this to work towards, I would have sầu given up on using the program due to lớn frustrations at the slow pace of learning.
Other Rosetta Stone Features: Games, Stories, and Irrelevant Photos
As well as the core course and live sầu tutoring, there are other features of the program. Within each lesson module & unit, it breaks it down into further mini-lessons based on the core lesson:
PronunciationSpeakingGrammarReadingWritingListeningReviewSo, it does ayên to cover all the major aspects of language learning. But because it’s all contextual, I think it falls a bit flat.
Take the grammar lesson, for example. The grammar is shown within sentences with no explanation, which I found a bit frustrating.
But one nice feature is the “Stories.”
For every unit, there are stories like a mini-podcast with a native speaking more consistently than the rest of the program. It helps you get used to lớn reading và listening at the same time to associate spellings with sounds.
I did enjoy these stories, & each story was separated by the cấp độ you’re at. That made it a good resource for finding material to read within what you currently know (a struggle for many).
Now, they did have two features – “Play” và “Talk”. These had replaced the previous gaming aspect of Rosetta Stone. But as of now, they’ve sầu removed it from their site và it says khổng lồ “keep an eye out for more nội dung & interactive sầu activities.”
Photos for “Natural” Language Learning
This wasn"t mentioned as a major reason for the price. But I suspect that taking professional photos, hiring models, & finding the right places and lighting, etc., can be a huge expense.
Rosetta Stone said that while taking the photos, very precise care is taken lớn make sure that everything is perfect. Even right down lớn which direction the model is looking as they are performing the action, as this can dramatically alter how it’s interpreted.
“It’s not even close lớn learning a language in the real world.”
The photos are very well done, and you bởi get a good feeling for the action they are performing. This is where you really see how they applied their retìm kiếm. The care they took for how khổng lồ represent a word without using your mother tongue in just images is obvious.
In most cases, it"s pretty clear what is going on.
These photos clearly show two people greeting each other.But I did have sầu one or two cases where the photos weren"t helping và I had to lớn go find a dictionary lớn figure out what the word meant. So I can"t say that four (or more) images is a great way to present every concept in the world.
Rosetta Stone’s reply lớn this is it’s based on advice from cognitive psychologists about how the brain likes to learn.
Once again, this highlights my frustration in how they used experts from so many fields, who don"t have experience specifically in language learning.
I don"t doubt that images are fantastic learning tools, but they are not suited to language learning when used in this way, in my opinion.
Learning a language through multiple-choice options is not even remotely cthua trận khổng lồ an immersion learning environment.
There are many ways the software presents images lớn you. Sometimes it asks you to repeat phrases. Sometimes it explains one pholớn & gives a similar one with slightly different context you have sầu lớn guess.
But the vast majority of your work is based on multiple-choice (usually just 2-4 options) and process of elimination.
I find it hard khổng lồ express how unnatural this feels khổng lồ me for language learning. But apparently Rosetta Stone"s linguists disagree. This photo-centric presentation is a fundamental aspect of the learning system which I can never agree on.
The Real Major Flaw in the Rosetta Stone App
Since my original Đánh Giá, I can say that Rosetta Stone seems to lớn have updated their photos và removed the poorly photoshopped pictures. But there’s still a glaring flaw in the system, related lớn the photos. And this is key, especially since photos are the foundation of the Rosetta Stone online program.
Cheesy Political Correctness Instead of Cultural Relevance
I"m all for political correctness. Presenting a varied cultural mix of people in photos is great, especially in multicultural environments.
But it"s distracting if you are learning a culturally-relevant language.
For example, when learning the word “Newspaper” in Dutch, the newspaper"s text in the image was printed in Arabic. I"m not learning Arabic right now.
This doesn"t help me at all & is part of the copy-and-paste use of all images across all languages.
But even forgetting this for a moment, most culture presented in the photos screams U.S.A.
“80-90% of the course is based on a copy-paste template which is the same for all languages, and that’s too much for me.”
When learning about Dutch, I want lớn see photos relevant khổng lồ the Netherlands và how Dutch people act (or Belgium/Belgians). I want to learn their body language và their smiles.
I don’t want to see cheesy American poses. Even the culturally sensitive ones seem lớn be from an American perspective.
For example, in one image I saw, someone is presented with a big pitcher of water in a restaurant. They don"t bởi that in Amsterdam.
Even in the pholớn I shared above with two different photos of people greeting each other “Hola”. My language was phối to lớn Spanish. But we see two Arabic men and two American women.
I can"t imagine how many culturally irrelevant aspects of photos there are once you compare it to lớn non-western cultures!
As a non-American who has lived in different countries, I can say this is doing nothing lớn help you prepare for any kind of immersion.
There"s a good reason they vì chưng this, which brings me khổng lồ my biggest pet peeve sầu of all with Rosetta Stone:
A Copy-and-Paste Approach for Very Different Languages
When I was getting the live đoạn phim tour, I noticed that the nội dung of the lesson was exactly the same in Swedish as it was in Dutch. I asked about this và it was confirmed that it"s the same in Chinese, Spanish, French, Italian, German, Japanese, Russian or other very different languages.
When something is drastically different, they vày take that into lớn trương mục. For example, one lesson showed me how to distinguish two Dutch words for “family” depending on if it"s immediate or broader.
But this is more out of necessity since it would be wrong khổng lồ teach me that the same word counts for both as in English.
Rosetta Stone has done its researched one way of presenting a language learning system và simply translated the nội dung to lớn every single language.
They explained that this is because a “completely customised language” (i.e. a unique course for each unique language) would increase costs. But I know many, many other courses và resources that vì exactly that in a much better fashion.
Even if “just” 80 or 90% of that template is the same, that"s far too much.
An English speaker learning Dutch has obvious advantages over the same person learning Chinese or Arabic. To clump learning any language together as following the same generic, identical nội dung, photos & steps is madness.
This holds no benefits at all to the user. It’s nothing but a lazy shortcut to be able to lớn scale a system khổng lồ every language in the world.
Would I Recommover the Rosetta Stone Software?
While there are aspects of Rosetta Stone I bởi vì lượt thích, this really got on my nerves và it"s one of the many reasons I can"t recommkết thúc the system to lớn people.
The one-size-fits-all content is everywhere (audio, games, courses, live spoken lessons) & what the whole system rests upon.
Some people will benefit from Rosetta Stone. Perhaps Rosetta Stone for kids would work a bit better.
And I did learn something from this program. I had my first ever conversation in Dutch, which gave sầu me an enormous boost of confidence. Injecting this confidence is something that Rosetta Stone does very well.
But to be honest, the time would have sầu been much better spent on other tasks.
Talking about xanh skies and red balls made little addition to the conversations I needed lớn have sầu with people. This has always been an issue with generic courses. They try to teach you everything và in doing so teach you almost nothing that you really need.
I didn"t even see the word “please” until Level 2!
What Would Actually Be a Better Use of Your Time
You can actually learn a language entirely by finding learning material online or in your local library. Then meet up with natives in person (without needing khổng lồ travel) or via language learning sites.
“I recommkết thúc learning a language by speaking it from day one.”
The problem is that doing so for không lấy phí or inexpensively requires that the learner be active sầu.
What I would recommover doing is this:
Is Rosetta Stone Good? Pros & Cons Summary
This was quite a long, in-depth post. But I hope you found it helpful. To sum up everything discussed, here are all the points broken down as the pros và cons of Rosetta Stone:
Pros:
Live tutoring lessonsWell-done audio storiesImproved pricingNo English use khổng lồ fall baông xã onIgiảm giá khuyến mãi for fans of “learn like a baby” approachesCons:
A one-size-fits-all approach to very different languagesTedious repetitionCulturally-irrelevant photosNo explanations whatsoeverMulti-choice questions don’t emulate immersionNever advances past a beginner’s comprehensionIn my opinion, skip this one và find another course for less that will actually teach you to lớn speak the language confidently.
