About a month ago we were given the chance to review the Rosetta Stone course for Spanish (Latin America). Teaching Taylor a foreign language in homeschooling is a bit of a struggle for me since I don’t fluently speak any other languages – I know a tiny bit of Spanish from watching Sesame Street and from the 1 semester I took in junior high ages ago (I think I retained more from Sesame Street to be honest). So the chance to try out Rosetta Stone’s online learning program for a month was very welcome.
PROS:
- We love the immediate feedback with the voice recognition aspect to know if you were correctly saying the words and phrases. You use a USB headset so that the program can hear and understand what you say and it will tell you if you need to try again or it will move on if you were correct. A book or even just a recorded language lesson can’t do that. This is the closest thing to a real person teaching you as you can get I think.
- Easy to understand lesson layout. Can quickly figure out what you need to do even though there aren’t any written instructions in the lessons often.
- It was nice to have varying lessons each day. It wasn’t the same type of lesson each and every time which made it more interesting and less monotonous for Taylor. You have lessons in pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, reading, writing, speaking, and reviews.
- We liked that they use real photographs instead of drawings and graphics. The photos are also current, not old stuff from decades ago. They also appeal to all ages, not just kids, teens, or adults. Taylor hates when things are to “kiddish” with graphics.
CONS:
- Cost. I’m not saying that it is not worth the money, but it is a very expensive program.
- While Rosetta Stone immerses you into learning the language, which I think is great, Taylor kept wanting to see the actual word for word translation – he thought it would be helpful to him. My nephew, The Collegiate, also had a trial of Rosetta Stone thru his college and agreed with Taylor.
- During the speech part, occasionally Taylor would get stuck on a word or phrase and say it multiple times. He had the ability to listen again to the example, but he suggested it would be nice to have the ability to hear a syllable-by-syllable example to listen to or at least a phonetic spelling of what he was trying to say.
Taylor did retain many of the words and phrases he learned during the lessons. I have heard him throw out a few here and there a few times over the past few weeks. Our trial was only for a month though and unfortunately, the cost of the program is just too much for us right now to continue with it.
If you can afford the program, I think it is a fantastic learning tool! Homeschoolers – this is perfect for the parents like me who aren’t fluent in another language to be able to teach our children fully. For the holidays this would be a unique family gift – it would be fun for everyone to learn a new language together and be able to help and practice with each other in real life around the house. If you have a traveling family, this would be an excellent gift as well to learn a new language together for an upcoming trip!
The Rosetta Stone website has the details on the different products they offer, including the 31 different language courses. Right now they have a holiday special also – 10% off. Thanks again to Rosetta Stone for the chance to review the program for a month.
(in this case I received the USB headphones and 30-days of the program)
