![]() ![]() A classic example: One of the most difficult things for the French student is learning the gender of nouns, which seems totally arbitrary. Rosetta Stone boasts in their advertising that you don't need to spend hours with mind-numbing conjugation charts and vocabulary lists, and that's true but as a result you also don't learn your conjugations and vocabulary. I'm more disenchanted with the lack of explanations. Match the pictures? On what basis? I see four pictures of horses here - what to you want from me?! But truthfully, that's rare. Sometimes (not often) this can lead to confusion, as when you're trying to figure out what you're supposed to do on a 4-panel screen. Rosetta Stone uses the immersion method, which means no English is used. You can adjust the precision level, or sensitivity, to your own skill (and tolerance). ![]() ![]() I was skeptical at first, but started to believe when it flagged just about every French word with an "R," which is notoriously difficult for Americans to pronounce, and having spent nearly a year with it, I'd say it works surprisingly well. On most exercises, you need to reasonably decent pronunciation to continue. Rosetta Stone requires you to speak, and it analyses how well you did. Nice idea, but sometimes the effect is less "you are there" than "first-person-shooter video game." Surprising a couple camping in the woods? Creepy! And doesn't Rosetta know that that's the plot of just about every teen slasher movie ever made?īut let's not quibble: They have one thing that no other product on the market can match: speech recognition. Still, if you can handle the unvarying format (and all the programs have their own private monotonies as well), it's not a bad way to learn.Īt the end of each unit you have what Rosetta calls a "milestone," a kind of POV vignette, in which you are dropped into a situation and have to - gulp - make conversation. But it's always 4 panels (except when on occasion it's 2 or 6). Within this structure you do various things: match spoken language with the correct picture type a spoken phrase speak the phrase shown, and so on. Rosetta Stone is famous (and sometimes derided for) it's total immersion, 4-panel approach. This is a clue that something may be different with Rosetta Stone, and it is: This is the only two products I found (Tell Me More is the other) that have speech-recognition software. The first thing you notice when you open the box is that it comes with a surprisingly decent USB headset. With my grade-school-French background (mostly forgotten), it took me about 10 months to get through all 5 volumes. How do they go about delivering on that promise? This is one of three products I used from beginning to end. I mean, when you 3 you didn't sit down and study the past pluperfect. ![]() When Rosetta Stone says, "Learn language the way you learned as a child" they mean, without trying. Without a doubt they are the biggest company, and one of the first, but are they the best? I cut through the hype. Owing to their ubiquitous presence in airports, shopping malls, and TV, this is the first (often the only) name that comes to mind when you think "language-learning software." Rosetta Stone is known for its immersion-driven, "painless" approach to second language acquisition. Plus, the interactive learning application for iPhone or iPod Touch devices keep you engaged in language discovery wherever you are."Learn language the way you learned as a child." You'll also connect with others as you activate what you have learned through live conversation classes led by native speakers and language-enhancing activities in the online community. You'll build a strong language foundation using the latest award-winning software, complete with speech recognition technology, a headset with microphone and Audio Companion CDs so you can review while on the go. It features everything that's made Rosetta Stone the world's leading language-learning solution, now with access to online services that fully engage you on your journey. Take the Rosetta Stone experience with you on-the-go with Audio Companion Rosetta Stone TOTALe is the most complete way to awaken your natural language-learning ability. Learn language for driving, planning adventures, and much more. Develop conversational skills to navigate the workplace, care for your health, arrange repairs, and move abroad. Negotiate complex situations with confidence and accuracy. Rosetta Stone's Spanish (Spain) v4 TOTALe - Level 4, deepen your understanding of the language as you build on your success in Levels 1, 2, & 3. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |