Has anyone here ever ordered Rosetta Stone Language CDs? About how much are they?

[applegrove]

[burrfoot]

1. Check this out- prices over on the right hand column

http://www.amazon.com/b/?ie=UTF8&node=354789011&tag=googhydr-20&hvadid=3285366145&ref=pd_sl_195vcmcdim_e


It's pricey, but I've been impressed, and I've never known anyone to have a bad thing say about them. There's no magic bullet- you still have to put in the time, of course- but they really do work well.


As with anything, however, YMMV.

:toast:

[applegrove]

2. Thank you. That was a good help.

[burrfoot]

15. Sure thing. Let us know how it goes, and

what you think of it if you use it!

:toast:

[applegrove]

16. It is for my brother in Japan.

[burrfoot]

20. Fair enough- missed that when I

read through the posts earlier. Best of luck to you both.

[Lars39]

3. I've wondered if the larger library systems have them.

[applegrove]

4. I doubt it.

[Luciferous]

6. Nope. Libraries used to have them, but the company put a stop

to it a few years ago.

[Lucian]

5. I've heard nothing but good things about it.

I want to get that program and learn Celtic.

[Luciferous]

7. They are expensive, but work really well. My sister in-law used

them to learn Spanish and Mandarin.

[applegrove]

8. My dad wants to buy it for my brother in Japan. I'll tell him how much it is...just south

of $600. A university course would cost much more.

[Blue_Tires]

9. Expensive, but very useful if you put the time in...

The RS site has major discounts several times a year, so only buy when you can get a good deal...

I've used portuguese and german, and I give them my endorsement...

[bif]

10. See if someone will split the cost with you

My brother bought the French version and he can install it on a couple computers. So he gave it to me. Unfortunately, I haven't had time to do it.

[Bake]

11. Does the State Dept really use them?

Enquiring minds want to know.

Bake

[Patiod]

12. A friend of mine used them to learn Hebrew

before a sabbatical in Israel. His family was very secular, and he had never learned it in Hebrew School.

After going through 3-4 of the RS levels, he then took a conventional language class. The teacher was very nasty about how RS didn't ground a person properly in grammar, spelling, etc., but my friend said it gave him a really solid foundation in the language, then the conventional classroom work just polished it up. He said he wouldn't have wanted to start the classwork without it.

He very strongly recommended RS.

[Patiod]

13. dupe post

[Patiod]

14. dupe post

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. I looked into them and opted for live mocha instead.

It's online, and the first lessons are free. I received a rudimentary education in Spanish, using much the same theory as Rosetta, for free.

[Courtesy Flush]

18. I've been through Pimsler Italian

I can't say anything about RS, but Pimsleur uses a lot of repetition of material, which is a proven way to learn, but they fill their CDs with too much duplicate material. After completing their entire Italian series, I doubt I could have conducted any more than the most elementary conversation in Italian.

I don't know what language you want to speak, but if it's Italian, look into www.learnitalianpod.com . It's free to listen to the lessons, and you can also subscribe to their pay service, which includes printable materials and bonus lessons and quizzes. They cover much more useful dialog than Pimsleur did. Plus, it's an ongoing podcast, so there's always new material being added.

One note: Learnitalianpod does a lot of self promotion in their podcast, so it helps if you install an audio editing program to delete the parts of the recording that are not instructive. You can take it farther by later deleting material you know by heart, and only listen to the parts you're having difficulty with.

[RedCloud]

19. I get called an expert in this field a lot.

No brag, just facts.

But do they ever show a before and after? That is because failure will be the case except for the most dedicated. So they cannot make you any promises.

My vote would be to pass on them and check out what your library has.

THEN:

In complete darkness, listen to the audio components. Let your ear train itself to the sounds. This really focuses your ears in an era where you were already bombarded with 1,000,000 tv commercials before the age of 19.

THEN worry about meaning and grammar, etc.

And remember the ear, NOT the eye is the key to language acquisition.

[pitohui]

22. what redcloud said, the EAR not the EYE is the golden key

i had to learn this the hard way, but check out the recordings and just LISTEN, don't pay hundreds of dollars to find a system that don't work for your brain

for me i found pimsleur worked fine, and i believe if i needed to go deeper in a language my money would be best spent in a class or joining a club where i had to talk to people in that language

for instance, when i was in bolivia, at first i would tell people i spoke no spanish but toward the end they prob. thought i was in the DEA because i could understand what they were saying...i go by listening

rosetta stone has like these pictures and flash cards, i get nothing from that, but if you're a visual person that might really be helpful

for me there is no substitute for auditory (listening) and interaction -- actually getting out there and doing things with people -- the EAR not the eye

[pitohui]

21. got em free from the library and they were worth what i paid (that is nothing)

it may depend on the way you learn, i simply could not get fuck all out of rosetta stone

i was able to learn from pimsleur (not sure of spelling) because it is completely by sound

i will never speak any language well, not even my supposed birth language, but pimsleur at least made it possible for me to get along a bit in other languages

i travel solo frequently and honestly most of the time sign language plus a few key words is all i need but i'm not a person who needs "conversation" for me, rosetta stone it just baffled me i couldn't get anything out of the CDs whatsoever

but they are free from the library, try the different language systems first to see which one works for you

cost shouldn't be a factor or it isn't down here