Rosetta Stone software bills itself as the premier interactive language learning software. Pitched and used by everyone from Olympians to government officials to everyday you and me, it's a self-contained learning environment. The creators of Rosetta Stone promise that, by using their software, you can learn a new language by the immersion method without every stepping out of the house, much less into another country. It comes at a price, too: Just one level of the three-level program costs over $200.
This software isn't just an investment in money: It also takes a lot of time. But the payoff should be worth it. Right? Mastery of another language from the comfort and security of your own couch? Let's see:
Rosetta Stone software is easy to get up and running. Once it's been installed and configured, you have native speakers with infinite patience at your very fingertips. Didn't quite catch that nuance of inflection or tone? Click the little circle button and she'll repeat the word or phrase. Over. And over. And over again. I guarantee that you'll get it before she runs out of patience, and that helps immensely when learning a new language.
Rosetta Stone also has some pretty slick speech recognition software. You can customize the level of difficulty--how close must you get to the native pronunciation in order to pass each exercise?--and if you're struggling with certain sounds, you can actually view a graphic of your pronunciation and the native speaker's pronunciation, compared side by side. Big plus.
It's obvious that the creators of Rosetta Stone put a lot of work into tailoring their software to how people really learn. One of my favorite features is how, instead of presenting everything in a strictly linear manner, the lessons are twined together to help you establish context. For example, you might do the core lesson for lesson one and a few other lesson one activities, then go on to lesson two. More lesson one activities are coming a little further down the line; this way you have the time, space, and context from other lessons to have thought about and absorbed more from lesson one than if you just plugged on through all of lesson one and didn't come back to it later. The other lessons are similarly entwined with each other. It's also a great way of providing lots of repetition--necessary for language learning in any environment--without being monotonous.
Best of all, Rosetta Stone really does shortcut the urge to think first in your native tongue and then translate it into a new language. Because the only words you see and sounds you hear come from the new language, you start learning it immediately instead of using your language along the way. But Rosetta Stone software isn't perfect: Read on for some of the problems and frustrations you may encounter.