How well does the Rosetta Stone Spanish Programs Work?

Question

I speak Spanish pretty well for a teenage "gringo" but would like to learn more vocabulary not taught in school and be able to communicate better with Spanish speakers (I go to a high school with a high number of Latino immigrants and would like to improve my language skills). Does this Rosetta Stone software work well and are there any similar products that cost less but are just as good?

Answer 1

Rosetta Stone is an excellent program. I recommend it highly for any language -- but if you already speak Spanish, perhaps what you should do is speak with the people in your school. After all, the idea behind RS is to learn by hearing and using the language just as a child learns his or her native tongue. You don't need software to show you pictures of a boy and his father jumping off a table -- you can go for lunch with your classmates and just immerse yourself in their language.

BTW, while you are at it, maybe you and your friends should help the "immigrants" to better fit into American society by teaching them English.

Answer 2

I'm looking into Rosetta Stone software as well, which is what lead me here. From the demos I've done so far, though, it looks to me like Rosetta Stone is geared towards learning a language from nothing, and learning it quickly. If you already know Spanish to some degree, it may not be the best solution for you.

One small word of warning...apparently, the website previously mentioned, "learn-spanish-software-review.toptenreviews" is run by Auralog, the company that puts out the "Tell Me More" language systems, so the rating there is a little biased. I'm not saying the "Tell Me More" isn't a good program, and it just might be better for what you're looking for, just take what you see there with a grain of salt.

Good luck!

Answer 3

I've heard Rocket is good, and I know it's cheaper than the more popular Rosetta Stone, and very effective with its own method. I've used Rosetta Stone's programme, and I can attest that it works in giving you a real basic grasps of the mechanics of the language, but the vocabulary portion is lacking. It's good at drilling the grammar down into your head, but I've noticed that it doesn't teach you enough words you'd need to know to converse with someone, just the basic structure of the language with very minor vocabulary. I hope this helped. Rosetta Stone definitely gave me a stronger grasp of Spanish, and I can understand a great deal of it now, and speak a bit. It's definitely helped in me being able to understand what others are saying, but again since the vocabulary is lacking, I'm always wondering the spanish word for simple words that you won't get with Rosetta. Rocket might get this done, I don't know, it might emphasise vocabulary more. I might try it one time, because I have heard good feedback on it. Rosetta Stone is quite expensive too. If you do decide on Rosetta, my advice is definitely use those other books to help you with Spanish, especially in learning alot of the basic words.

Answer 4

I tried Rosetta Stone for Spanish. It was effective to learn basic words and sentences. It does not have any grammar or conjugation instructions for instance.

My college uses another software called TeLL me More, by Auralog. I found it more complete and less repetitive. It covers not only the basics, but also intermediate or advanced level. My goal was to become fluent so it was perfect for me. It has a lot of different activities: picture/word association, videos, dialogues,..., includes also grammar and conjugation. It has also more content than Rosetta Stone as far as level and number of hours of learning. Their speech recogntion is great so you can have a dialogue with the computer. They have a free demo at http://www.auralog.com/.
I also found that site that lists the best language software http://learn-spanish-software-review.toptenreviews.com/

The best way to learn a language would be through immersion, visiting these countries. Learning a language will require some time. In addition to software, you can have books which are useful as well. Audio CDs like Pimsleur for instance might help you out but you cannot get any feedback on your pronunciation so I did not like it so much.

Answer 5

rosetta stone has good reviews but ive never used it probably works i dont know how it works in such little time tho