Rosetta Stone Program

[Pramrider]

My daughter has been fascinated with languages for years and trys to learn some of them. She has customers of other nationalities come in Food Lion who always look for her when she's on duty as a cashier, so they can converse a little with her in their language while checking out. She gets a kick out of doing it as well - says it's the only fun part of the day. Most of them say she speaks very well for as little time as she's been learning. They teach her a few more words everytime they come in. Currently, she's speaking some Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, French, and Spanish.

Anyway, she recently purchased Part I of the Japanese Rosetta Stone software to increase her knowledge even more and absolutely loves it so far. From what she tells me about it, the program teaches you much the same way a child learns a language from the beginning - associating visual objects and actions with words. She really gets into it because I hear her jibber-jabbering in Japanese with her headset on while watching the monitor. The program lets you know if you didn't speak back correctly. Since she wants to work in a medical office I told her these language skills could come in handy. Especially with the population ever diversifying in nationalities around here it could be a plus for her landing a job. If I ever decided to pick up on German again I might give it a try myself. Has anyone else tried using this language program? If so, how do you rate it?

~Pramrider

 

[chevre]

I tried the web demo and it seemed pretty cool. Unfortunately they don't produce a Linux version, though. But apparently it works under Wine.

 

[Takashi]

I am learning German with the Talk Now! program and it's good so far. I would have liked to use Rosetta Stone but my parents got me this instead, it's not bad the first disk starts by teaching you the basics such as numbers, colors, food, body, time, and first words. It is a in a set that is 5 discs and it's worth it in my opionion.

 

[whitefox]

I haven't used Rosetta Stone, but it did seem like a good program to use for learning another language. The demo was also pretty interesting, using pictures and words instead of just memorizing the words. Thanks for telling us about it, Pramrider; I might just have to actually buy it now.... It is quite expensive, though, isn't it?

 

[Pramrider]

I might just have to actually buy it now.... It is quite expensive, though, isn't it?

Altogether, it was around $225 to $250 for the first part, with taxes and shipping. There appears to be three parts for each language as you progress. Each one is purchased separately, or you can buy two or three parts together at a discount. Guess like most anything else, you get what you pay for. You might want to get the free demo first as Chevre did. That's what my daughter did first before laying out nearly $250. Though they have a 6 month return policy if you're not happy with the program.

Kenshin, thanks for the info! I'll have to check that program out as well.

~Pramrider

 

[Kip]

I've always wanted to learn Spanish and I have looked at Rosetta Stone. My mom tried to learn Spanish using another progrm, but she didn't get very far/ Maybe I'll have her take a look at this program and see what she says.

 

[Pramrider]

I've always wanted to learn Spanish and I have looked at Rosetta Stone. My mom tried to learn Spanish using another progrm, but she didn't get very far/ Maybe I'll have her take a look at this program and see what she says.

As I just added in an edit to my previous post, she could get the free demo to try before commiting herself to buying it. I only know what my daughter has told me about it so far, but she seems very pleased with what she's learned in the short while she's had the program.

~Pramrider

 

[Takashi]

Kenshin, thanks for the info! I'll have to check that program out as well.

~Pramrider

Here's a link to there site.

Talk Now! Language CD-ROM Series

 

[daria7483]

I took French in middle school, Spanish in high school, but don't remember much of either. So awhile back I bought some inexpensive software to try to brush up on my French. It wasn't bad, but I only used it once or twice. I don't know why, really. There just wasn't anything about the software that made me want to do it in my spare time. There was a lot of matching pictures to words and stuff that seemed kind of boring and kiddie-ish. I would like to try Rosetta Stone, as I've heard lots of good things about it.

I think it's great that your daughter is dedicating her spare time to learning a new language, Pramrider. I really believe that we need to start teaching languages earlier in the U.S. More people would become fluent or at least be able to converse in another language if they started it in kindergarten instead of middle or high school. Unfortunately there still seem to be quite a few people in this country who think that learning another language (particularly Spanish) means that the foreigners are taking over, so it seems doubtful that these programs could get the funding they'd need anytime soon.

 

[Peachy]

I am learning German with the Talk Now! program and it's good so far. I would have liked to use Rosetta Stone but my parents got me this instead, it's not bad the first disk starts by teaching you the basics such as numbers, colors, food, body, time, and first words. It is a in a set that is 5 discs and it's worth it in my opionion.

I wonder if I still have my English textbook from 5th grade (my first year of learning English). All I remember is that it featured a family (whose name I forgot) with two parents, a boy, a girl and a dog named Toby and a cat named Tibby. Good times. We certainly didn't learn about body parts until way later.

Let me know when your program finally reaches the point where a "Windel" comes into play!

Peachy

 

[starshine]

I really believe that we need to start teaching languages earlier in the U.S. More people would become fluent or at least be able to converse in another language if they started it in kindergarten instead of middle or high school.

No... not really. I took french from JK to Gr. 10, so 12 years, and I can -barely- hold a conversation. Seems from JK to gr. 8 I learned the same things over and over, and in gr. 9 and 10 is where I really learned something useful. Learning a language takes time and dedication, unless parents are sticklers about it and encourage you to use it at home, you aren't going to learn much. It's just another school subject.

 

[Takashi]

I wonder if I still have my English textbook from 5th grade (my first year of learning English). All I remember is that it featured a family (whose name I forgot) with two parents, a boy, a girl and a dog named Toby and a cat named Tibby. Good times. We certainly didn't learn about body parts until way later.

Let me know when your program finally reaches the point where a "Windel" comes into play!

Peachy

Oh yeah it's really gonna talk about diapers and stuff.

 

[starshine]

Oh yeah it's really gonna talk about diapers and stuff.

I don't see why not. If your learning a language, you need to know a lot of words.

 

[Pramrider]

I think it's great that your daughter is dedicating her spare time to learning a new language, Pramrider.

She really loves learning new things relating to other languages. Not saying it just because she's my daughter, but her memory is exceptional. She's memorized many of the 10 digit barcode numbers on heavier products like cases of bottled water and large dog food bags. She just tells the customer to leave it in the cart and she punches the numbers in from memory. The other day she was jokingly saying she's now reached the first grade. She has learned as many of the Kanji symbols as a first grader would know!

Her interests in language started out with a fascination of different people's names along with their origins and meanings. She'd check out baby name books from the library and study about where different names originated from. She likes her middle name the best since it's more unusual. Her first name is a form of my wife's first name and not that uncommon, and her middle name is a feminine form of my first name which is rarely used.

~Pramrider

 

[whitefox]

No... not really. I took french from JK to Gr. 10, so 12 years, and I can -barely- hold a conversation. Seems from JK to gr. 8 I learned the same things over and over, and in gr. 9 and 10 is where I really learned something useful. Learning a language takes time and dedication, unless parents are sticklers about it and encourage you to use it at home, you aren't going to learn much. It's just another school subject.

I've done that it in English class! It's been *counts on fingers* 9 years, not including kindergarten, but it doesn't seem like there is anything else to learn about the English language, let alone anyone that cares enough to pay attention. Just this year I took an extra English class with some people one grade ahead of me, and they were simply pathetic. No motivation, no desire to learn, and about half of the students had failed before. It wasn't even remedial English!

That being said, some people in America (at my school, actually) can barely talk right, and even then it's hard to comprehend what they're saying. Not just the slang or dialect, but the sheer ignorance of those people drives me crazy.

 

[the0silent0alchemist]

im trying to learn japanese, and want to regain knowledge of greek whch is a language used by most relatives, most japanese ive learned has come from my incessent and relentless viewng of the anime bleach, in which the up to date episodes are in japanese with subtitles... brother thinks its extremely bad that know more japanese than greek...

 

[Rissy]

Your brother is silly... Greek is boring
I'm trying to learn Japanese at the moment too... There is heaps of languages I'd like to learn... but a lot I don't seem to like... I mean I want to learn German, Russian, Thai... amongst others... But I think French and Italian and some other popular ones are kinda sucky languages... I'd still like to learn them but I don't really care for them..

 

[Grutzvalt]

I have Spanish part 1-3, honestly it's not worth buying all three unless you plan to move to spain or mexico.