Rosetta Stone

Beach Affiliate

Beach Affiliate

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Jul 9, 2011
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Doing my research on Rosetta Stone but finding a mixed bag on reviews of its efficacy.

Have any of you gay webmasters used it with success?

Looking to grab the Level 1, 2 & 3 set for Latin to freshen up my skillz before moving on to some other, more functional languages like Spanish.
 


IceToEskimos said:
The kids like it, but I don't know if they are learning anything.
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That's at least a glimmer of hope. Hell, if it can keep me entertained, something may stick.

This is exactly why I want to use it for a language I'm already familiar with (albeit not spoken much, obviously). So I can see how it does with the smaller task of memory refreshment before making the leap into something totally new (albeit a language that is Latin-based).
 
I've tried it a few times, but never kept at it for more than a couple days in a row. Life keeps getting in the way.

I will say that after about 20 minutes of it I start getting some headaches. You know, the good kind where your head gets all cold and you realize, "Shit! I'm learning something."
 
Beach Affiliate said:
That's at least a glimmer of hope. Hell, if it can keep me entertained, something may stick.

This is exactly why I want to use it for a language I'm already familiar with (albeit not spoken much, obviously). So I can see how it does with the smaller task of memory refreshment before making the leap into something totally new (albeit a language that is Latin-based).
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I've watched them use it, and I do think that the method of teaching is effective. It comes at the problem from a few different angles.
 
I've used it to learn basic Latin Spanish. You do learn things, but you really need someone that speaks the language fluently to converse with otherwise your brain doesn't store the info permanently. Use it or lose it.
 
cheshire said:
I've used it to learn basic Latin Spanish. You do learn things, but you really need someone that speaks the language fluently to converse with otherwise your brain doesn't store the info permanently. Use it or lose it.
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Exactly. That's exactly what happened with my Latin. I never used it so I got rusty.

But the girl I'm seeing now speaks it well and we both enjoy talking to each other in Latin so I want to brush up.
 
Beach Affiliate said:
Exactly. That's exactly what happened with my Latin. I never used it so I got rusty.

But the girl I'm seeing now speaks it well and we both enjoy talking to each other in Latin so I want to brush up.
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I'd say do it. If you have a basic understanding of the fundamentals of the language skip lesson 1. It's stuff like "The dog is under the table." Lesson 2 expands that vocabulary and teaches you sentence structure. Lesson 3 puts it all together so you can converse without sounding like a retard.
 
Beach Affiliate said:
Doing my research on Rosetta Stone but finding a mixed bag on reviews of its efficacy.

Have any of you gay webmasters used it with success?

Looking to grab the Level 1, 2 & 3 set for Latin to freshen up my skillz before moving on to some other, more functional languages like Spanish.
Click to expand...

I moved from the UK to Italy a while back and obviously had to learn Italian. I tried several different approaches, including RS, a course from the BBC, Berlitz, Michel Thomas, books and other random stuff.

Imo Rosetta Stone was the weakest. The method did nothing for me (and I'm a visual learner) and the content felt irrelevant and horribly basic and old fashioned.

The best all-round language course was from the BBC; the best course for conversation and general fast learning was Michel Thomas (although he does come across as a bit of a cunt on the CDs he was a genius). I'm using a combo of those two plus a local once per week grammar course and help from my Italian girlfriend.

One thing I have read is that learning a language is really great for the brain. Good luck with it.
 
I like Rosetta Stone. I used it to learn some basic Dutch in the past. I probably learned more by being in the Netherlands and reading/hearing the language in everyday life. Knowing some things already from Rosetta Stone definitely helped though. Some of the sentences in the program would never be used in life, but they helped me learn the words.
 
I'll do it. I'll make an update thread after a few lessons too, for others that were curious.

Fluenz looks pretty cool as well, but doesn't provide a product for the language I want to study at the moment. May look into it for Spanish or Italian though.
 
wezcountry said:
I moved from the UK to Italy a while back and obviously had to learn Italian. I tried several different approaches, including RS, a course from the BBC, Berlitz, Michel Thomas, books and other random stuff.

Imo Rosetta Stone was the weakest. The method did nothing for me (and I'm a visual learner) and the content felt irrelevant and horribly basic and old fashioned.

The best all-round language course was from the BBC; the best course for conversation and general fast learning was Michel Thomas (although he does come across as a bit of a cunt on the CDs he was a genius). I'm using a combo of those two plus a local once per week grammar course and help from my Italian girlfriend.

One thing I have read is that learning a language is really great for the brain. Good luck with it.
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Funny you should say Italy. One of the reasons I want to freshen up on Latin is because I want to visit Rome this summer (i'm a fan of Roman history)

Thanks for the input.
 
Beach Affiliate said:
Funny you should say Italy. One of the reasons I want to freshen up on Latin is because I want to visit Rome this summer (i'm a fan of Roman history)

Thanks for the input.
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NP. Your best best is Michel Thomas into to Italian.

You probably know that Italian is a mix of Latin and Renaissance Florentine, so although Latin is useful in terms of Italian grammar, it won't help you much as a tourist in Rome. Your English will though !
 
It sucks ass. Rosetta stone assumes that adults learn languages like children, which is simply through continuous absorption (and zero grammatical/logical explanation), but research has shown time and time again that this isn't the case.

I had good results with Fluenz learning Spanish, it may give you a good start and then you can switch to books or whatever.
 
wezcountry said:
NP. Your best best is Michel Thomas into to Italian.

You probably know that Italian is a mix of Latin and Renaissance Florentine, so although Latin is useful in terms of Italian grammar, it won't help you much as a tourist in Rome. Your English will though !
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The Latin is just for fun. I'm a Roman history geek from way back.

dmnEPC said:
Just do it. Pussy is a strong motivator so you will pick it up quick
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Thanks but the ass is already on lockdown. The motivation is just the fun of doing it.
 
My language learning regimen:

half hour of Pimsleur daily
half hour of Rosetta Stone daily
children's books if you have the time
 
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