How fast with rosetta stone

I would highly suggest paying for the smaller groups with six students at the most. A teacher you like can be very motivating. In the past, Rosetta Stone only sold boxed software that you installed with CDs on your computer. If you want to try Rosetta Stone and are looking for a lower price, sign up for one of their free newsletters and read them when they arrive, and you will probably be offered a lower price. The people who work at Rosetta Stone are decent human beings.

It is so-so-absolutely boring. I prefer to learn words first and the structure will come. Of course, the words have to come from interesting content. They are traditional structuralists who are trying to teach you the grammar of your new language first.

And they try to teach you this grammar without using any translations. Many people find it slow paced, repetitive, and boring. Try a free lesson by clicking on the flag of the language you want to learn below. If you are learning Japanese, you may want to read our Rosetta Stone Japanese review. Our customers tell us that they can remember much more for several days after they studied when they use our program, compared to Rosetta Stone.

We have written a lot of articles on how to learn any language. These articles will help you learn your new language faster, no matter which program you buy.

But we like Pimsleur, and you may too. It does work, especially for going from knowing nothing to being minimally conversant. Rosetta Stone is a foreign language learning program that features beautiful pictures and clear audio.

So does it work? Only rarely. Click on the flag of the language you want to learn below to try a more practical approach and see how much you can remember after 30 minutes of study. This article is based on using Rosetta Stone Spanish 1, 2, and 3 in If you are interested in learning Japanese, you will probably enjoy our. Click on the flag of the language you want to learn below, and start a free practical demo lesson on the next page.

I wrote this review in part to inspire Rosetta Stone to the greatness that the company is capable of. Someday they may develop software that really works. Fortunately, in response to this review and others, they no longer advertise that adults can learn like a child with their software. I commend them for that. Of course, I also wrote this review for the thousands of people who have tried to learn a language with Rosetta Stone and failed.

If you are one of those people, I want you to know that your failure is not your fault. In fact, you might even be a language-learning genius and not know it yet. Quote from Quote from 1. That can come later when I have mastered the basics.

In all, I would say RS is great for a beginner, great for building vocabulary flash card style , practicing your listening but not great for grammar, reading or writing extended text. I have been practicing French using rosetta stone..

My native language is Spanish. When I came to the United States when I was 6yrs old I couldn't understand anything most of the teachers, students, at school would say I would just hear people speak and see I would watch pokemon.. I could easily understand other people and with the little things I did know I learned more : and well I think Rosetta Stone does just that..

I think the people that do not like this program are just.. If you are a visual learner.. Rosetta stone takes care of that.. If you are older than 5, you don't talk like that. They should develop the curricula separately according to the languages.

The set has all five levels. Having grown up in Texas, I'm familiar with Spanish already - pronunciation and some basic words and sentence structure.

I've always been mystified at how to conjugate verbs I eat, they are eating - it makes perfect sense to me now. What you say about the program forcing you to quickly and accurately speak a response is spot on.

What I find most helpful and fun are the stories I can read using what I've learned. Much like a first grader discovers the joy of reading "See Dick.

See Jane. Run, Jane, run" - it's a thrill to read and comprehend something entirely in Spanish without even pictures to put it in context. At night in my dreams, I am reviewing what I learned. I can only imagine how fluent I'll be by level 5. It's not perfect by any means, but it is a very, very good program.

One point is clear; there is no magic bullet or shortcut to learning language. One must practice frequently for a long time and ideally start at a young age. Some schools rely on video or software only thus shortchanging the children. The children instructed through video or software miss out on the natural interactions of interpersonal communication between real humans.

Use technology as a tool or supplement, but not as a replacement for the teacher. I just finished all 5 levels of French and I can say I agree with most points of the review. I had good success with RS, but I do think it depends on your circumstances and learning style. In my case, I started about a month before being relocated to Lyon for a work assignment.

The company covered the cost, so that wasn't an issue. I also had studied Spanish in school and lived in Madrid for a semester of college. So I had a lot of the foundations of romance language grammar such that I could recognize it when it showed up in French. I also began living in France when I was early in the program, so it's hard to say how much French I learned on RS and how much in real life.

I have examples of seeing things on RS after I ran into them in the real-world and the other way around. I would also say that I am a visual learner, and matching what I'm reading and hearing to the pictures worked well for me. Finally, I also worked at it. I did lessons almost every day, did the live chat sessions as I qualified for them and spent some time with the games and such.

LIke anything you're learning you have to do the work. On the point of other aides, on occasion I did refer to french. I bought my R. I didn't download it until 6 months ago and had no problems until 2 days ago when I was suddenly unable to access it.

I telephoned the help-line and was informed that my version of the R. S was out of date and that I would not be able to use it unless I downloaded the up-dated version. They sent me a link to up-date my version but after 5 hours of following their very confusing instructions and getting nowhere, I gave up. I am 62yrs old and a computer 'newbe' but I don't understand how I can be refused access to a product I have bought because it has been up-dated by the retailer.

Hi, Thanks for the review. It was one of the most indepth one I have read regarding Rosetta Stone. I am currently learning Korean, having started on and off about 2 weeks ago. To put it into perspective, I already speak 4 languages fluently, some French and very little Welsh and can understand some Spanish.

I can pronounce some Korean having learnt it 2 Sundays ago when I was in bed for a day with a bad cold but have no idea what it says. I did it using a free phone apps. I borrowed a copy of Rosetta Stone about 2 days ago and am on lesson 2. I find it quite tedious and am getting quite sick of having to guess all the time. I had a week of Welsh lessons where I was the only non native speaker with zero knowledge and ended the week by being near the top of the class.

The Welsh teacher thought that it was due to my already being able to speak a few languages. I do not think that there is any great secret to learning languages. I think there is some truth in that children learnt by guessing a lot of the time and that it pays not to question too much at first, just memorise what you are taught. However, you do need to understand and remember what things mean which I find irritatingly missing in Rosetta Stone.

You have to guess a lot of time which would be fine for a child but not for an adult. Thus far, I have not learnt anything useful after the first short lesson except that it has become tedious. I have already learnt most of the words taught thus far by watching Korean dramas with mandarin subtitles.

I had to do it by guessing and so do not expect lessons to be further guesswork. I have seen the French version which I thought was quite good. It might be that not all languages can be learnt this way or that it will be most helpful when you are already familiar with the language and is using it to brush up your knowledge.

I think that Rosetta Stone will be vastly improved by having at least a 5 minute lesson where the meanings of the words are explained at the end of every lesson, As it is, it is a hefty sum for learning a language which I feel could be put to better use. There is no substitute for putting time into studying a language and those who think that they can get away with that by spending this amount on RS will be sadly disappointed.

Rosetta Stone is a swamp!! Had started with a purchase of a 4CD set two years ago. Am able to get back into it, now, and tried to access it on my Android. Silly me. When you call "customer service" they are of little help.

Their "chat" is worthless. Found myself with their "created" e-mail address for me and a different password Yes it was as crazy as it sounds. So, yet another confused phone-call with someone who struggles with the English language. What was a very good company and product has gone downhill very quickly!!!!! I don't get paid for fixing their broken service. Will go with a competitor I think this is a really decent, thorough review.

Thank you for a great review. I was given a Spanish edition of RS and could not use it. I gave up after 1 hour. I tried other learning material but nothing really worked but using Spanish tutoring books helped more. Because I at least have near perfect pronunciation for Spanish and Italian, it was more of an exercise in building vocabulary. Native speakers I meet have always told me that my Spanish pronunciation is perfect. Why don't some of these courses work?

Because many of us learn material in different ways and I found that not having a translation at the bottom of the Spanish material in RS ruined it for me. I have to see the words in the new language, hear it and see the translation. I then write the new language on paper as I use it. That combination works for me.

I am also now in an environment where I work with 30 Spanish speaking people. I look up words and phrases on line. I am one that never shied away from trying to create a sentence the way I think it should be. That helps. I read and write Spanish better than I speak because I can figure out the words in context in a sentence. I had lived in Spain for a year, 30 years ago and became fairly fluent but lost it when I did not use it. Immersion with native speakers is a great add on to using structured material.

Being personally tutored by a native speaker that knows how to teach is great in addition to using structured material. I realized this year that I started thinking in Spanish with no mental translation. I would be in the warehouse speaking Spanish and the next English I heard, I automatically answered in Spanish.

To make learning a language work for you, you must be determined and keep at it and try to have fun with it. Never be afraid to try it. I viewed the demo of the French version just to get an insight into how the system works. When taking a look at the value of the program, prospective buyers would be advised to use this as a base price. Great and correctly titled Balanced review of Rosetta Stone! I am pleased that someone actually appreciates that cultural relevance in the image content delivery by Rosetta Stone should not be the focus as some people like to stress.

The currency is something that can be researched later on, but it is introduced in the content as well, so again not a drawback. Now I strongly disagree with you in the area about learning first the informal, everyday and in some languages even rude way to address someone. The formal way to speak should be taught first since no one would be offended if they are spoken to this way. However, you may come into a world of trouble should you use the informal way to speak to an elder or political figure if you find them out and all you know is how to say "What's up dude?!!

To put things in perspective, it is always better to speak to someone using "Usted" in Spanish than "Tu" since a lot of people you interact with at any place if you have never met or been introduced to might completely dislike you, dismiss you, or in rare cases hit you should you address them using "Tu".

When you are growing up, and someone's parents have any inkling of decency and responsibility, they will teach a child to always use the word combinations May I and Please as in "May I have a banana please?

Now do you use the expression "May I" that often and everyday? Probably not, but at least you will not come out as an uncaring rude individual if you always use it because that is the only way you know how to speak AND everyone will understand what you are communicating.

Also, the most effecient way as adults to learn a language is through classes offered by a native speaker, and frankly the cost of enrolling at colleges or institutions for 2 or 3 years of tuition comes out as far more expensive than Rosetta Stone to achieve the same level of fluency and understanding, and the electronic alternatives to Rosetta Stone are far more inferior in my opinion.

I completed Level 1 of Portugues in 1 month, and after visiting Brazil for the World Cup, I was able to engage in basic conversations with natives if they spoke to me slowly just out of this first level. I am continuing the next levels and am delighted with it. So yes, it works and I think it's worth it to get you to be able to read and understand quick provided the alphabet is one you have used most of your life.

For languages using a different alphabet, more time AND a solid strategy are very important in order to save into long term memory all the content, such as Russian which I am also learning.

I use the Duolingo app for French and think that combined with writing exercises and member community corrections on iTalki these are a good pairing. I really like the Coffee Break French free podcasts that I can listen to anytime and there are lots of idiomatic expressions that are taught although perhaps a little old fashioned perhaps in season 3 but a little too much spoken English. The only product that I have purchased is News in Slow French and it is relatively inexpensive and if you like news, it is also informative and the two broadcasters have good chemistry.

Rosetta Stone is on sale today so that is what made me look for reviews. I like what you have suggested in terms of iTalki lessons with tutors and the 30 to 50 sessions would totally outweigh the benefit of the price of the Rosetta Stone package. I have decided to spend the money on iTalki tutoring after reading this!

Let's put the cost in a little better perspective. Start with the actual price tag. As of today, you can buy levels of French, Italian, German, Spanish, etc. And you will own it forever and can share it with whomever you want. Each level includes 4 units of 4 lessons each. Of course, if you own it, you would repeat any lessons you want and if there are two people in your family, you cut the per-hour cost in half.

Or if you give up on things easily, etc. Yes, you can fly to a country that speaks your target language. But who in this country would teach you the difference between masculine and feminine words? The subjunctive? How to use the conditional or imperfect? If you don't have a base, going to a target country is fun and you pick up things, but this is not a learning strategy. You can't learn a language on vacation for a week; the best you can hope is to make some progress if you already have a good start.

Yes, you can get 15 hours less than one-tenth the hourly content of Rosetta Stone of in-person instruction. But how much better is a person going to be teaching you how to say "apple" or "red" or "twelve" or "I'm hungry" than a computer is? I would argue the live tutor would be worse because they don't have the stock of images to illustrate all these basics.

Even if the person is just as good, you get one-tenth the value; and if the person, somehow, is twice as good, you still only get one-fifth the value. Many of the complaints people have are valid, especially that they don't tell you things.

But there is no rule inside Rosetta Stone prohibiting you from using a dictionary, looking something up on Google, or asking a native speaker. The woman who melodramatically drove across town illustrates the point: sometimes you have to go to certain lengths to figure something out, and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I bet after all that effort and fussing, she won't forget what she learned.

The thing to keep in mind is that this is one tool in your toolbox. It can and should be one of the most useful tools for a beginner, but like a hammer you still have to use it properly in order to derive any benefit. Using it properly means: studying the content, not just breezing through it; repeating what you don't absorb the first time; being curious about the content and why things are true; and -- perish the thought -- going outside the program for an answer if you don't immediately get it.

Other tools you can use concurrently or after you finish include reading children's books, watching cartoons and movies, going on vacation to a target country, subscribing to other learning tools, getting private lessons, or -- if you're really serious! There was a lot of information given in the review however none of it really answered the only question that I was interested to find out. I currently have the RS Latin Spanish installed on my computer so I don't need a lot of talk about whether I should spend the money.

After all, I already have and am working my way through the program. More specifically how fluent should I expect to be when I finish the series. Having read what seems like 5 pages of review never seemed to answer this most obvious question. What am I missing? Also - nice job mentioning the fact that you can get these second hand or slightly dated versions, this is quite true and they are not hard to find.

What do you think of the Rosetta Stone Shared Talk website? Any experience with this? I am going to be reviewing your website very soon on my own, keep up the great work, truly a gem of a site you have Donovan. This was a helpful review. My only note is that you wrote that it made more since to learn casual speech prior to honorific.

I purchased Rosetta Stone to learn French. The software never worked properly; I had quite a "run-around" trying to get technical support; then, all but one of the technical support personnel were not helpful; and the software has never functioned correctly.

I have nearly ten years of experience teaching languages and have to say that the parts of the software that did function did not seem especially effective for reasons already noted in your article. When I sought a refund, I was informed that it was outside the 30 day refund window and the company refuses to provide a refund - despite the horrible experience I had with the software and their personnel.

So in addition to substantive flaws, the technical and customer support for the product is awful. I strongly caution folks to be very careful about purchasing Rosetta Stone products. I know I will never do so again. Speaking for Japan, it is considered very rude to speak casually to people who are not in your inner-most circle. People have enough trouble trying to get past the "Ugly American" stereotype because, at least if you're Caucasian, you're automatically seen as American without going and proving people right by speaking to them as though you're a close friend when you are not.

It takes a lot to get to that level in Japanese society, and even then there can be restraint. So, you might likewise consider the cultural aspect. RS isn't perfect, and I believe the BEST way to learn is by living in the country of origin for the language you want to learn, but it is definitely a great supplement, or a great basis. What's more, children learn language based on context, and that's something I like about RS.

As a child you're faced with situations where someone is telling you something and you can't make sense of what they're saying or what they're trying to illustrate to get their point across, so I think RS is right on with that. And as someone who has done both "standard" college classroom instruction and full immersion no English, PERIOD, not even in textbooks in Japan, I can say that the latter is much better for retention.

Also, as someone who has spent thousands of dollars both in the U. I agree with some of the people who said that it's too difficult or not useful for some people because they're either not the type of person who can learn with visuals and audio, or because some people are too lazy and want results now. Some people are obsessed with price and think that they need to have some results A. Price is not an indication of possible success.

It takes dedication and diversification of learning methods. I think RS is a great tool, but it needs people going into to use it with the right mindset and realistic expectations, as well as materials to supplement their learning. You don't go into a classroom without books. I purchased Rosetta Stone to learn to speak German after moving to Munich. After many hours of working through the lessons, I gave up in frustration.

Firstly, as someone living here, I was impatiently trying to acquire vocabulary that I needed every day. Rosetta Stone was teaching me: "the girl, the boy, the bike, the cup" rather than expressions which were immediately useful interacting with other adults such as "How are you? Secondly, I am already fluent in 2 languages and functional in two more. Rosetta Stone does not leverage my existing knowledge. I was diligently having to convert the lessons into extensive notes of verb conjugations, and to attempt to reverse engineer the intricate german grammar rules.

I have friends here who take german classes and use Rosetta Stone as a supplement to help them build their vocabulary. The extensive repetition enables them to naturally pick up on the gender of words and sentence structure.

But, the classroom lessons are still a necessity. My husband wants to learn some german. I have suggested he use babbel. I must admit that I agree very much with this article. Rosetta can be good for the kind of person it will work with, and who will work with it. It is not magically going to teach you effortlessly I had been learning a language with various sources over the past 10 years, and even though I got an idea about the grammar and structure, and some rules, etc, I never got around to properly learning it for lack of motivation, structure, and support.

Rosetta may not have worked for me when I started from scratch, because I like and do need the grammar. But it has provided me with the catalyst I needed to put it all together and finally progress: I progressed more in a month than in 10 years! And I use all the other resources to confirm the grammar, etc.

This being said, I found the 4 teacher-led sessions a month very very beneficial and flexible. But it has a lot to do with the fact that I usually get the same teacher, and am alone in the class. And having 1 session a week is more than enough: it forces me to progress daily and review two lessons and get a bit head in "previewing" the next ones.

Finally, the iPad apps, and the Livemocha addtions, make it richer than I could want it to be. The Apps make it easy to preview a lesson, or review it without interaction, for instance while driving. Don't do it, it is dangerous! Thank you very much for this review Donovan and for posting this content. There are Three days later it went down to I tried to get a credit but here is the problem I have tried calling it twice. The first time I waited an hour before I hung up, I am still trying to get through and have been on hold for almost 45 minutes.

So here is the kicker The "money back guarantee is a scam. They wont answer the phone, so how do you cancel it??? I'm just finishing RS Mandarin. It's my only exposure to Mandarin. I went to China two years ago after I'd done 2 levels, and got by somewhat and was also understood.

I'm finishing level 5 now, with a few days left to go before I go to China for a month to study there. I've found the program to be as described, but I haven't had trouble figuring out the grammar patterns. The one thing I did since day one, lesson one, was to take the online Studio class with a teacher once a week. If you are patient, and willing and able to figure things out, and listen over and over, and repeat things, then take the online class a week to see where your skills are weak, you'll get a great foundation.

I did try iTalki, but you need to have a certain skill level with both speakers if you're doing the free talking. After about 6 months of that and 2 years into my RS lessons I was able to switch from the pin yin of Rosetta Stone to the characters.

I use the characters for all but the newest of lessons now. I have learned many many practical phrases and went to China after one years of RS and finished only level 2 at that time I study several times a week , with a Chinese speaking tour group to sight see for 10 days, but couldn't read much.

I've used Rosetta Stone for speaking, and books and Skitter for characters. I think it's an amazing program. I reviewed the Russian level 3, as I speak Russian as well, and was impressed with it. My once a week RS teacher often goes off script and we can have conversational Chinese.

I've had her for years but she'll only do this if I'm the only one in the class, which is most of the time. I'm very confident in my speaking ability, and consider myself an early intermediate maybe HSK 3 or 4 but I'm not too familiar with that system.

I had some tech issues and also had to switch from the CD's to the new version a couple of years ago. Personally, I like the no English parts, but have bought two grammar books to help me to confirm or reinforce what I think RS is trying to teach me. I wish they would offer higher levels than B2 in their languages.

I am at a C1 or C2 level in French, and I would love to work with their software at that level. Otherwise, I think the French Rosetta is probably useless for me. Hi everybody! Great review, I really enjoyed how thorough you were. I am using Rosetta Stone to study persian, a language which, though not obscure, probably boasts fewer resources in English than the more popular languages like French, Italian, German, Russian, Japanese, etc. The first Rosetta stone product I tried was Arabic, and I found it very difficult, probably because I wasn't used to the Rosetta stone process.

I think if you are trying to learn a language with a different alphabet cyrillic, arabic script, korean , I personally found it essential to study the alphabet on my own before using the Persian Rosetta Stone. Without any explanations I think its a bit of a stretch to figure out that each letter has three or four different forms depending on their position in a word. Having at least some familiarity with the alphabet really helped me hit the ground running with Rosetta Stone, although I am pretty much still at the point of illiteracy.

I also think Rosetta Stone is a good tool if you already know how languages function, I wouldn't recommend it for someone learning their first second language. It becomes much easier to figure out the "rule" you are supposed to learn, if you know that different subjects take different endings for example.

Then you can focus on looking at the picture and you know exactly what you are listening for. So far it seems to me like the Persian Rosetta is doing a good job of using the culturally appropriate forms using the formal you when addressing an elder for example , but since I am still a beginner, I am not as aware of mistakes as I would be otherwise.

I think your idea of including culturally appropriate food is really important, and I hope that Rosetta stone person who commented here takes note and tells the developers. I can't imagine how annoying it must be to be living in a foreign country and not now how to order the actual food they have on the menu. It seems to me that the content is pretty universal from language to language, which is a bit disappointing. But, I think its a pretty great supplemental resource as long as you don't pay full price!!

Thanks for the review. I am right now learning spanish latin america with Rosetta Stone. I started two weeks ago and I'm already very good. I speak better Spanish than in 7 years french at school lol. I gotta say that I'm fluent in Croatian, German and Croatian. I can manage French as well.. This may be an advantage for me using Rosetta Stone as I already have a feeling for languages. For me the whole school system never worked. What I like about RS is that they don't just force you to learn conjugation at the beginning.

They just throw random sentences and words at you and day by day you just get a feeling for the language. I can imagine learning Mandarin or Arabic is very difficult with a software but lets be honest, why would you do that? I would never try to learn any asian language with a software. Simply because it's a total different world to me : What I really enjoy is the voice recognition, the games with other people and the live sessions. A big dislike for me are the countless repetitions.

I often skip steps because its a bit annoying at least the spanish one. I recommend this program to everybody who is easy going with languages and who already speaks a second language :. Here is an inconsiderate comment about endangered language programs I have to say this was the most balanced review I found of the software. I do also agree that it is probably best as one part of a whole for learning. I am currently learning Japanese using it, but I am not learning with only Rosetta stone.

I also watch a large amount of Japanese Anime, and sporting events like Sumo wrestling so I have developed an ear for the language and I have started turning off the subtitles and am finding it easier to follow and know what is being said.

My biggest issue with Rosetta stone is that there are a number of languages that are not offered that are still spoken by a large number of people. Also that there are more than just Native American languages that are dying. Yiddish, one very colorful and culturally relevant language to many people is dying out and that would be another good one for them to attempt to create a program for. I had a friend who was from Germany and had asked him to teach me the language.

I learned by going to his house and his family would speak in German to me, and only if I was really lost I'd ask for translation. But it was all about intuition and repetition. I also picked up Rosetta Stone German Volume 1 from a friend, and how 6 years later I haven't spoke a lick of German but I remember everything from that volume 1 and only some of what I learned from my friend.

Although, what I learned wasn't particularly useful it was family stuff, started boy, girl, bread, water, drink, eat, then sentences the boy ate bread, the girl drank water, the man read the newspaper etc but I bet if I completed all the sessions, it would get more practical and a good way to learn.

But the important thing is to practice. They constantly are having sales. So my advice is research before you buy. Also beware of any article that says they are going to give a fair review but starts off in the very first line saying you should buy this other product.

They will always undersell not necessarily be negative the competition. Every person learns at different rates and through different methods.

So look for companies that offer a free trial so you can experience their program before you buy Once you get the free trials then sit back and try them all out. If one works better than the others get that one, if they all work about the same then go for the best value. I agree about the cost, but there's no need to pay full price.

I'm not sure if there's any pattern to the sales, but they certainly drop the price around Christmas. Hi I enjoyed reading your review. Very well Put. I got the german. I do believe that Pimsleur is a better programme and gives you better sentence structures and real world country specific situations. Cheers Brett. Just want to toss in my two cents here. I was lucky enough to get to try the Russian edition. To me it has been a great experience.

I actually recommend the Russian version, if you have a knack for languages, and are good at intuitively figuring out sentence structures and grammar, this product is actually very decent.

My friend has tried Japanese, which seemed to be a more bitter experience, so I think the review are very thorough. However, if I were to buy it as opposed to getting it free from work like I did, I don't think the product is worth more than USD.

I bet they'd sell like crazy if they dropped the price down to this. I liked your review. I was wondering have you ever heard of or tried Fluenz? I was wondering if that might be really good to use. Thank you!!! I don't know if this has been said already, but there is a current sale on RS. I'm using it to learn Filipino Tagalog and many of the cheaper options don't have this language.

I purchased the latest version total package for USD broken up over 3 months. This was a much more affordable option and still comes with all of the bells and whistles of the new packages. I love it. I also have friends from the Philippines that I communicate regularly with, but this program is amazing in my opinion.

I would never have bought it at full price, but if you catch the sale it's well worth it. It was on a holiday special, for Christmas. So I suggest waiting for them to have one of these deals for what I paid was less than half the price.

I am just beginning my journey so I feel It is a good start speaking for myself anyway. I have downloaded a few podcasts from other sources on I-tunes just for a reinforcement excersizes. Here's my two cents. I have been using Rosetta Stone French and Korean for a while; while I haven't gotten too far as of yet, I have found that Rosetta Stone actually works very well for me.

I am a very visual person, and seeing pictures paired with the words written in the language has helped what I learn stick. I figured out pretty quickly that it really helps to have a notebook and a pen or pencil nearby while you're using the software.

I write down any new words I learn, their definitions, and their gender. I have categorized them by type basic, food, animals, colors, ect so that I have to really focus on the word and what it is used for; I have found that writing the word down helps me memorize it, and as soon as you memorize the word and don't have to work so hard to recall it, figuring out the grammar gets pretty easy.

Once you get pretty good at listening for the words, watching Korean TV with subtitles is actually pretty useful because A. You have a plethora of native speakers to listen to, some with different dialects and accents. Give them both a go and see if one grabs you more.

Truth is, both of these tools are great for different reasons. It is a fantastic introduction to the languages it offers and it gives you a lot to work with for no charge.

And Duolingo is super easy to use anywhere on your smartphone or tablet. Just try it. You have nothing to lose. It forces you to speak, which is the goal. I got huge compliments on my accent and was able to ask for help with public transportation. Before you freak out at the price, check with your library. I also like Duolingo for supplemental work. The A. By Patrick Allan.