Pimsleur, Rosetta Stone, or Community College for language learning?

Question

If some have followed my previous questions, I am looking to learn Vietnamese and Korean, or Vietnamese and Japanese.
However, due to time and scheduling I am wondering whether or not independent learning (with Rosetta Stone or the cheaper Pimsleur CD's) will be worth it or classes with a community college....

Answer 1

In my opinion the college class would be the best. But if it doesn't work out for you with your schedule and you go for the software, Pimsleur is better. I don't really like Rosetta Stone because it just shows you pictures and says the word/phrase below, so you don't always really know what is going on. I personally don't like Rosetta Stone. I don't think it's worth the money. You could probably get a demo of Rosetta Stone on eBay for like $8 and see if you like it. So I recommend to take the class if possible, but if not, Pimsleur!

Answer 2

I've used Rosetta Stone for a few languages, and like many others on this site, I can promise you that it will improve your French, and that it's exercises and lessons will help COMPLEMENT your education, do not expect fluency with the programme, but just a comfortable understanding of the basics. The way it associates what you hear with visuals on the screen, and how it lets you read, and listen to the language constantly, getting the sounds and basics of it in your head. It is good at showing you the structure of the language, but it's weak point is vocabulary. You're not going to learn a whole lot of words, just pretty basic stuff. AP classes are hell anyway. The Spanish AP class in my school was mostly made up of native speakers, because it was so difficult, everyone just took Spanish 4 Honours if you were a gringo. Even that was extremely difficult. I'm basically saying that while it will help you get the language down, you're not going to be able to take the course and walk into an AP class and expect to do very well, unless that is you are already excellent in French. Then you might as well skip Part 1 of the programme because it's just basic colours, foods, and some verbs.

Answer 3

Language lessons with a live teacher are better than just correspondence lessons on the same level, or even a higher level.
But as the languages you are looking into might not be the easiest to find community classes for, and language schools are also hard to find in some areas, you might try to combine the website or postal lessons with meetings with native speakers, (or if that is impossible, on-line sessions,) to get the best of both.
An other thing, classroom teaching is mostly just starting once a year, and have strict timing to the lessons. And the level they teach might not be high enough for your needs.
But whatever method you chose, try to get a teacher to help you from the start with pronunciation, because once you learn that wrong, it will be hard to learn the right sounds later.