Rosetta Stone

All yours, for $499.

I have never bought or used Rosetta Stone on my own, so it was interesting to watch as Ana fiddled around with it in our last class.  I've talked with a friend who has used it previously (before studying abroad in Italy), and she loved it - until she got there. She felt that she learned a lot at home on her computer, but when she was thrown into her new life in Florence, she felt lost and confused. She also felt disappointed in the "progress" that she made, because it didn't seem like she made any progress at all.

Rosetta Stone's promise.

Trying out Rosetta Stone on a language such as Arabic or Chinese must be difficult.  Being that you start out just repeating vocabulary, it can be hard to properly dictate tones or even understand how to properly say the word.  Many of the words from Greek Rosetta Stone just sounded like mish-mosh to me.  I felt the computer's audio-lingual method was not working for me all - I was basically mumbling what I thought the computer was saying, most definitely without proper diction. But I guess this is Rosetta's way of throwing you into the language. I find it's extremely difficult to identify and read the written word in languages that do not use the Roman alphabet.

Still, I will always think that a master teacher or the host country are better ways to provide spontaneous immersion of the language.  I like Livemocha better than Rosetta Stone from what I have seen thus far - Livemocha is much more interactive than Rosetta seems to be.  It is also much more affordable. $499.00 (Rosetta Stone) or Livemocha (free).  This is a deciding factor for most.

One of my concerns about Rosetta Stone is that it will replace the teacher in the foreign language classroom. Not because it is better - but because of money. Yes, it is expensive for the individual - but $500 is much cheaper than a teacher's salary. Many schools are already having students learn on Rosetta Stone. It's disheartening and frightening to say the least.