Rosetta Stone: Learn Languages 4+

I’ve used Rosetta Stone off and on for years now. When I first traveled to China, I had powered through level 1 mandarin a few months before the trip and everyone I met said my accident was SO good, even though my vocabulary was still at beginner level. Still, I had the skills and confidence to try living and socializing in China. I attribute Rosetta Stone with this early success. Since then, I’ve gone on to study mandarin in graduate school and in a semester in China, and I still use mandarin level 4-5 to brush up on my skills. The combination of engaging visuals, plus authentic chinese audio and the option to use real Chinese characters plus pinyin (written Chinese for English speakers) also gave me confidence jumping into the wild world of written characters.

Once you get to advanced language levels, you will definitely want to supplement Rosetta Stone with advanced book learning (think formal classroom textbooks) and plenty of conversation with real speakers, but even then Rosetta is still useful for brushing up on key vocabulary with good visuals. Especially for the beginner and intermediate learner, I can’t speak highly enough if Rosetta Stone. If I could suggest one improvement, bring back the games and make more of them!! This was a fun way to keep learning the language when maybe I was too brain-drained after work to do a full lesson.

So: I dabbled in language learning for over 20 years... all kinds of methods. This has (by far) been the most effective. I finally invested in Rosetta Stone over 10 years ago when online learning wasn't an option for them yet (and after using their program for a college course). I then sprung for the online. I was officially sold on their first big sale for Veterans (at which time i took the plunge and got the lifetime online membership, for less than i paid for the original 6 CD package i purchased years ago). Since then: they have made AMAZING IMPROVEMENTS to the software and opened up more languages. My only complaint is about the app: it can get glitchy (doesn't recognize audio, doesn't update lessons as completed, trivial issues that correct themselves with some "tough love")... but if I force close the app then the issue resolved. Tech support is responsive, as well! I love their product and highly recommend giving it a try to see if it is a good fit for your learning style! (Also: ensure you join an individual coaching subscription or a social group to get one-on-one real world conversational experience/practice. Rosetta Stone offers this option, but I do not have my laptop/desktop set up for use currently)

The app’s content is great. I am really happy with how it works and how easy it is to learn. The only problem with it is that the app has a few bugs that need to be fixed. Sometimes randomly when you’re asked to speak into the mic, for some reason it doesn’t work unless you exit the unit or sometimes even the app. Also, sometimes when you click on a section in a unit, it shows a loading screen that never goes away unless you refresh the app. Also, sometimes when you finish a section in a unit, it takes you back to the beginning of the unit instead of the next section that you’re up to (this one isn’t such a big bug). My only other problem with the app is that it is sometimes way too slow. It’s not a bug that makes it slow, it is the way the app was made. I personally tend to be a fast learner and it is very frustrating when a section says that it takes 10 minutes when I could finish it in 3 minutes if it didn’t take so long to process your answers and go to the next slide. The animation of matching the answer to the correct box is unnecessary and I think there should be an option to turn off the animation and replace it with a simple and fast check mark or x. Again, I think the app is great and I am only criticizing it because I really enjoy using this app and I use it quite frequently.