Rosetta Stone Language Learning Review

Rosetta Stone is undoubtedly one of the most famous language learning programs. But is it any good? The answer is yes, especially if you are new to a language and want to build a solid foundation in vocabulary and grammar. It’s well-structured, clear, and slow moving. In a few months of faithful use of Rosetta Stone, which is the best full-featured language learning software and our Paid Programs Editor’s Choice award, you will learn to speak, read, write, and understand basic words and phrases.

When using software to learn a language at your own pace, it’s important to have realistic expectations. While Rosetta Stone can help you build a solid foundation, it won’t make you fluent. When you feel that you have reached your limit with Rosetta Stone, you may need to get yourself into situations where you are actively using the language rather than reacting to the application. The best way to do this is to talk to a friend or private tutor. While Rosetta Stone does offer tutoring for an additional fee, there are currently no apps or software that are proficient in this area.

What languages does Rosetta Stone teach?
In addition to U.S. English and U.K. English, Rosetta Stone offers programs in 23 languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Farsi (Persian), Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish (Latin America and Europe) , Swedish, Tagalog (Philippines), Turkish and Vietnamese. Not all languages are available on all platforms.Rosetta Stone’s Consumer Learning Program is no longer available in Indonesian, Dari, Pashto, Kiswahili, or Urdu.

Practical Tips for Successful Schooling at Home
Previously, when you purchased Rosetta Stone, you had to select a language with each purchase. Now, when you purchase a one-year, two-year, or lifetime subscription, you get all the languages in the catalog. It’s a much better deal.

If the language you need is not on this list, you can try another application.Duolingo covers more than 30 languages. Some of the languages you can get from Duolingo that are not covered by Rosetta Stone include Czech, Danish, Esperanto, Indonesian, Irish, Hawaiian, Hungarian, Navajo, Norwegian, Romanian, Scottish Gaelic, Swahili, Ukrainian, and Welsh.

If you still can’t find the language you need, try Simon & Schuster Pimsleur Premium (aka Pimsleur), which is available in 50 languages. While Pimsleur is one of my personal favorite programs, the problem is that it’s almost entirely audio-based. If you don’t mind learning by listening, give it a try.

Rosetta Stone Pricing and Programs
Rosetta Stone’s pricing is high compared to other language learning programs, although you can almost always get a discount. It’s available as a three-month subscription ($35.97), a one-year subscription ($170), a two-year subscription ($249), and a lifetime subscription ($299). The available discounts will have you paying close to $120 per year, $170 for two years, and $199 for lifetime. Keep in mind that subscriptions of one year or longer now provide access to all language programs.

The subscription includes access to all courses via a web browser as well as the Android and iOS mobile apps. You can also download courses to the mobile app for offline learning.

While you used to have the option of purchasing Rosetta Stone on CD-ROM or as a digital download, it is now only available as an online subscription. However, you can sometimes find older physical CD-ROM sets through second-hand sales and online retailers.

You also have the option of adding online tutoring to your program. 25-minute group lessons cost $14 or $19 (for two sessions), and private lessons cost $19 or $29 (for two sessions). These courses are offered in a webinar format with a live instructor.

How does Rosetta Stone teach?
For the past 15 years, I’ve been using Rosetta Stone myself at home, testing it and writing about it for PCMag. I’ve tried the program in Spanish, French, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Turkish, Russian, and even English, just to get a feel for what’s included.

One of the new angles of Rosetta Stone is that you can choose the type of vocabulary you want to build. Options include Travel, Work, Home, Basic and Other, with the last one covering everyday objects and activities, colors, sizes, and formal and informal occasions.

What kind of experience is this? You learn by doing exercises in the app, which usually start with deductive reasoning. For example, while looking at a picture of a cat, you might hear the word “cat” two or three times; then you hear a new word and see a picture of a cat and a dog. You can deduce that the new word means dog. You click on the dog image, and the Rosetta Stone plays a harp trill, indicating that you got it right. If you find the sound irritating, you can disable it. No matter which language you learn, you will get the same deductive reasoning.

There is a lot of training and killing to teach. Once a new word is in your vocabulary, get ready to use it. You can hear it, say it, write it down, and choose from a list of multiple choice options. Drill-down instruction is effective at keeping new material firmly in your brain, although it can be tedious at times.

If you’ve ever tried Rosetta Stone in any language, you’ll have a familiar experience. It uses the same images-the same goldfish, the same green bicycle, the same bowl of rice-whether you’re learning French, Chinese, or any other language. However, the homepage and course landing pages have been redesigned over the past few years to look almost identical on different devices.

Rosetta Stone is consistent, predictable, stable and reliable. Because every program is virtually identical no matter which language you learn, you do lose some cultural context. For example, while the words rice, bread, and milk may seem commonplace, cabbage, potatoes, and sour cream may come in handy more often in some languages and cultures.Rosetta Stone solves this problem to some extent with additional material. For example, in the French program, there are extended learning resources that cover topics such as the bridges of Paris. There are also new on-demand videos for the Latin American Spanish course. One series explores the language specific to Latin American café culture. These videos are not currently available in all languages, but they are great material and I hope to see more.

While some language learning should be specific to a country, region, or culture, I appreciate that Rosetta Stone incorporates inclusivity in its imagery. As you learn words like man, woman, hello, and goodbye, you’ll see photos of people from all over the world.

Immerse yourself in a new language
Rosetta Stone prides itself on its immersive approach, which means no guidance in your native language. The only English you’ll encounter (or your native language) is in the Help menu, Settings and Title screens.

When you start, you will see pictures and will see or hear (or both) words associated with that picture. After being exposed to them a few times, you must say or write the word. For verbal responses, the voice recognition system determines whether you are saying the right thing. You can disable this feature or tweak it to require higher or lower accuracy. As you progress, you must eventually write the word. The same words and images appear again and again. In each lesson, your vocabulary increases, so individual words become phrases and statements.

Repetition is necessary for any learning process to some degree. Rosetta Stone, however, is heavy and has no cultural context. If you find yourself confused by repetition fatigue, I suggest you try some games and activities. They can be found in the Extended Learning section. I especially like the reading activities where you can read or listen to short stories appropriate for your skill level.

There’s more to say about the Rosetta Stone learning method: first, you learn simple nouns and verbs using deductive logic, and later, things get more complicated when you have to figure out new verb forms and plurals (“he ran,” “she ran. ” “”They ran”), but it’s never difficult.

There are some challenges with this method, however. Since you have not been given any guidance in your native language, it is impossible to know whether the German word Erwachsene means “person” or “adult”; is Guten Tag formal or informal, or is it irrelevant? The Rosetta Stone won’t tell you.

Rosetta Stone is useful when you need to learn vocabulary, gender, plurals, and some verb conjugations, but not so useful when it comes to complex grammar, nuance, or cultural context. However, it improves in a few areas, such as giving learners the opportunity to go straight to the content that is most relevant to them, including the previously mentioned focus topics: travel, work, and family, as well as foundations and others. You can also look for specific topics in more advanced courses. For example, there are language courses on describing emergencies, business and industry, catering and vacations.

There is no placement test for this software, at least for the consumer version of Rosetta Stone. The commercial version has placement tests. If you’ve learned a language before, it can be difficult to know where to start, although you can choose between beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels. Also, you are free to jump to different courses and try them out until you feel properly challenged. This is the complete opposite of Duolingo. The app won’t let you skip unless you’ve completed all previous lessons or passed a test. That said, Duolingo does have an initial placement test so you can start at the right point.

Rosetta Stone Tutoring and Live Streaming
In addition to the core lessons and bonus content, Rosetta Stone offers optional tutoring sessions and a new live streaming feature that is in beta at the time of writing.

Coaching sessions allow you to practice your language skills with a live coach. These sessions take place via one-way video conferencing, either individually or in small groups. You can see the tutor on the shared screen, but no one can see you. Your audio is turned on so you can respond when the tutor asks you questions.

To enroll in a tutoring session, you must reach a milestone during the session. Each tutoring session corresponds to a class in which you practice almost the same things you have learned in the course so far. The courses are plentiful. No matter what time zone you are located in, it is not difficult to find openings.

Group classes have only a handful of students, up to four. Private tutoring is one-on-one. Tutors speak only in a foreign language and follow a script, which can feel limiting. If you don’t understand something or your audio is temporarily interrupted, they won’t be able to tell what’s going on from your facial expressions. If you have a problem, you can communicate with the tutor via the chat box. You can also mute the microphone and mark yourself as gone if you urgently need to leave the class.

The instructor shows a picture and asks you a question about it, which you must answer. Again, it’s pretty much the same as what you do in the app, except now you’re talking to a real person.

These lessons have great added value because there is a huge difference between speaking a foreign language to a computer and listening and responding to another human being.

If the courses seem too intimidating, another option is to take a live course. I had the opportunity to join one of these courses, which is still in beta. The course is a live video of an instructor teaching in your native language and the language you are learning. Participants watch in real time and can join the text chat area. The tutor interacts with the participants and asks them to type in answers to questions. Sessions last approximately 40 minutes.

Rosetta Stone’s tutorials and live streams are a quality resource that you’ll be hard-pressed to find elsewhere for the same price. That said, they are not a substitute for a live classroom. However, keep your expectations clear and you’re sure to reap some benefits.

Games and Bonus Content
Sections that include bonus content and games offer more ways to study and learn. You can play certain games alone, while others can be paired with other learners or native speakers. Whether or not you can find someone who is online at the same time as you is an adventure.

These games are a bit lackluster, but they utilize a lot of skills. For example, in one game you have to say short sentences. Another has you listen to a story and then click on any word that appears on a bingo card.

The reading section here is my favorite. It’s filled with short stories designed to be at your fingertips. You can listen, read silently, read aloud, or any combination of these options.

If you also enjoy reading content, you might be interested in another language learning app called Beelinguapp. It has a variety of texts in 13 languages for different skill levels and different topics.

Lay the Foundation with Rosetta Stone
Rosetta Stone is a wonderful, sophisticated and technically proficient language learning program. It’s our top choice for paid language learning software, and we especially recommend it for beginners who need to build a foundation in vocabulary and grammar. As with all apps and services, you may also want to consider other types of instruction, such as local courses or tutoring, if your goal is true fluency, but Rosetta Stone can definitely help you build a solid foundation.

If you have previous experience with a language, it may take some trial and error to figure out where to start with Rosetta Stone, although many of the add-ons are ideal for more experienced learners. We recommend that you make sure you explore these additional sections.

If you don’t need (or don’t want to pay for) a heavy course like Rosetta Stone, Duolingo is our editor’s recommendation for a free language learning app.