You probably will be happy with Rosetta Stone, but you probably won’t learn anything useful.
Rosetta Stone will make you happy because it is beautiful, popular and talked about at all the right parties.
Notice that I didn’t say that you will be happy because you will really learn a foreign language.
No, it will make you happy because it’s popular, and being popular will make you happy even if you never learn a language.
Fortunately There is a Better Approach
Software doesn’t have to be beautiful to work well. It just has to be designed by people who understand the physiology of how your brain really learns.
You also have to follow the directions.
If you want to learn any of the languages below, click on it to try much better working (but much less beautiful) software.
Spanish – French – German – Danish – Irish – Russian
Read the rest of this article to find out if Rosetta Stone will work for you or if it will waste your time.
A Fast Way to Tell if it Will Work
Ask someone who is studying with Rosetta Stone to ask you a simple question like, “What’s your name?” in the language they are studying.
Every time I visit a language club, or meet someone who is studying with Rosetta Stone, I always say, “Ask me what my name is in the language that you are studying.”
They never can do it. Even after they have been studying for quite some time, but they still like Rosetta Stone because of it’s beauty, and popularity. It really is very beautiful, but beautiful pictures, don’t teach you to speak.
Should You Learn a Language Like a Child?
Have you ever seen a small child who is just learning to talk, come in into a new room, point at an animal that barks, has four legs and a tail and likes to chase cars and say “Cat.”
It takes children a very long time to learn their first language, they make lots of mistakes and waste lots of time. So if you are old enough to read this, you shouldn’t copy the learning methods of small children or you will waste a lot of time too.
However you should copy the enthusiasm and joy of learning that small children have.
Celebrate your successes and celebrate your mistakes too! Feel great about every step of learning, and your mistakes are an important part of learning, so enjoy them, just like a small child would.
Dynamic Nonsense
Rosetta Stone calls their learning system “Dynamic Immersion.” We call it “Dynamic Nonsense” and here’s why. First it’s not language immersion. Language immersion is when you go to France, move in with a French speaking family who doesn’t speak English, and study French during the day. That’s language immersion and it’s a great way to learn quickly.
Rosetta Stone is selling a computer program that runs on a computer that you sit on your desk. It’s NOT language immersion. It’s a computer program. The word dynamic, means that something is moving, and while the words and pictures on the computer may really be moving, the computer is a machine that sits on your desk. It’s not very dynamic.
“If you call a sheep’s tail a leg, then how many legs does a sheep have?” Well it doesn’t matter what you call a sheep’s tail, a sheep still only has four legs. It also doesn’t matter what Rosetta Stone calls their learning system, it still isn’t language immersion.
Useless Words and Useless Phrases – “The Boy is Under the Ball”
Rosetta Stone starts beginners out with a list of words like man, girl and apple. This seems to makes sense when you are buying their software from an airport kiosk but it is the wrong approach. The right things to start with are phrases like, “What’s your name?” and “Where are you from?”
After you have started with their first round of mistakes you will then continue with other useless (or almost useless) phrases. I remember being asked to learn the phrase in Russian, “The boy is under the ball.” This was accompanied by a beautiful photo of a 10 year old boy (who didn’t look very Russian) lying down in a park with a soccer ball balanced on his back.
I figured I could live a couple of lifetimes without needing to know how to say, “The boy is under the ball.”
We Start With Practical Things, Rosetta Stone Starts with Impractical Things
We start beginners out with common phrases that you will need right away, like “Hello” and “What’s your name?” Rosetta Stone starts you with words like man, woman, and apple and then moves on to phrases like, “The Woman drinks.”
With our software, if you aren’t a beginner, you can skip immediately to lessons that are right for you. We have movie lessons, song lessons and lessons from classic books.
We can also easily make new lessons for any special vocabulary you need to learn.
Our software is designed to help you learn quickly and retain it for a lifetime with a small amount of review time. We can also help you learn quickly for a foreign trip or vacation.
Rosetta Stone Was Designed by Teachers Who Hadn’t Done Their Homework
Rosetta Stone says that their program was designed by teachers. That is probably true and it shows. However this is nothing to brag about. They should have had it designed by scientists who specialize in understanding how human memory works.
Our engineers aren’t experts in human memory, but we studied all the research we could find on human memory before writing our software. After our software was complete, we tested it to make sure it worked.
Sadly most foreign language teachers have never bothered to read what is known about how to efficiently form new human memories.
Rosetta Stone’s Prices are Low!
Rosetta Stone gets a lot of criticism on the web for being expensive. This criticism is totally unjustified. Their prices are cheap if you actually learn to speak a language.
Even the Rosetta Stone Totale program priced at $999.00 is amazingly cheap if it actually works for you.
Yes it’s true that if you go to most book stores, you will find products that promise to teach you a language for $20.00. Believe me, I’ve tried them all and I didn’t learn a thing. They aren’t even worth reviewing.
The reason we don’t recommend Rosetta Stone is not because it’s expensive, (if it works for you it’s definitely NOT expensive) it’s because we haven’t yet met someone who studied with Rosetta Stone who could ask a useful question in the language they studied.
Who Should Use Rosetta Stone?
You should use Rosetta Stone if:
- Being popular is more important to you than really learning.
- You want to look at beautiful software even if you won”t learn much.
- You want to talk about learning a language without really learning it.
Marketing Genius, but Educational Incompetence
What I want to buy from Rosetta Stone is a marketing class! Maybe we could teach them how to make software that works and they could teach us marketing. These people are absolute geniuses at selling software that doesn’t do what it says it does.
So is Rosetta Stone totally worthless? Well not for people who like looking at pretty pictures without learning. It’s not useless for people for whom being popular is more important than really learning. It may also not be worthless for people who can study for a very long time before learning anything useful.
Just imagine how much more software these guys would sell if it really could teach you a language!
Why Have We Published This Review?
You might think that we don’t like Rosetta Stone, but we actually like them a lot. They are the best in the world at selling language learning programs. That’s a sincere compliment.
We also like Rosetta Stone because they have attracted so many new language learners to the market. For that we sincerely say thank you.
We published this review first to help our readers who come to us for advice. Our job is to save you time and if the most well known product on the market doesn’t work very well, it’s our job to let you know our considered opinion.
Second we published this review to try to inspire Rosetta Stone to the greatness that they are capable of. They have a lot of talented people and a lot of resources.
The next program they come out with might be great! We will be the first to give it a positive review like we did with Pimsleur, if it really works.
In a broader sense we don’t compete with Rosetta Stone at all, we are both competitors of ignorance and closed mindedness.
If you would like a second opinion, here’s a Rosetta Stone Japanese Review by a Japanese teacher.
What Language 101.com and Rosetta Stone Would Agree On
We haven’t talked to anyone who works in marketing at Rosetta Stone (and we really would like to), but if we did here are some things that we would probably agree on.
Learning a foreign language will make your life a LOT better. Do it!
No software tool is right for every person or every situation. For example we don’t teach you to write with our program.
You will probably use several different tools for your different needs as a foreign language student.
The most important thing for your success is to start right now with enthusiasm and stay enthusiastic.
The worst thing you can do is put off your decision to start one more day. It’s far better to buy a less than perfect study tool and use it enthusiastically than it is to keep endlessly looking for something perfect. Believe me, nothing perfect is out there.
Try Our Language Learning Program
We suggest that you try the Language101.com language learning program which isn’t nearly as pretty as Rosetta Stone, but works a lot better for most people.
Here’s what to do:
1. Click on your language below then click the big “Try It” button.
2. Watch the “How To” video twice, then learn for 30 minutes right now.
3. Click “Buy Now” to view our prices.
Spanish – French – German – Danish – Irish – Russian
What if We Don’t Have Your Language?
If your language is above, try it now. If not, please use the contact us form below to tell us what you want to learn.
We strongly recommend Pimsleur if we don’t have your language. No we don’t get any money from them.
Pimsleur Review – Obsolete technology, but it still works. It’s also the best for the blind.
Great Articles on Language Learning
These articles will save you a lot of time, and make your learning a lot more fun!
How to Learn Any Language (over 20 articles)
Please Link to Us
If you found this review helpful, please copy and paste this URL into your web page.
Read these critical <a href=”http://language101.com/reviews/rosetta-stone/”>Rosetta Stone Reviews</a>.
This review is based on using Rosetta Stone’s Russian 1,2 and 3 in 2006. If anyone from Rosetta Stone would like us to review the current version, please contact us.
Rosetta Stone uses the same program for all their languages, so this is also a review of Rosetta Stone French, German, Spanish, Danish and Irish.
We Currently Offer
Spanish – French – German – Danish – Irish – Russian
Please tell us what language you want to learn. Feel free to ask a question. A friendly human will reply.
Last Updated: March 17, 2010