Is the rosetta stone a really good way to learn spanish?
Would it be easier learning it in class or actually going to a spanish speaking country or the rosetta stone?
7 Answers
Assuming the same level of enthusiasm and effort towards learning the language in each of the three cases, I would guess the order of effectiveness as:
1). Going to a Spanish-speaking country
2). Learning it in class.
3). Using Rosetta Stone
I live around, work with, attend church with, and in other ways hang around people that have taken through college level classes of Spanish, and they can't carry on a conversation in Spanish.
I know children that have attended school through 2nd and 3rd grades, and they can speak Spanish and English equally well.
I've only met one other gringo that speak the language as well or better than I, but he's had two more years learning than I have, and he did it all by 'self immersion', in other words, his level of dedication required him to turn his entire life over to the latino culture and language. He's only visited Spanish speaking countries for a week at the time, so most of his immersion has been at home and on the job. He taught himself with every method he could find.
I used Rosetta Stone as a foundational tool and vocabulary builder for me, and it has worked well. I've completed all five levels of Latin American Spanish but I continue to pursue 'real' fluency.
To quote Izononi1: "Assuming the same level of enthusiasm and effort" I won't go so far as to grade the different methods, your mileage will probably vary anyway. Whichever route you choose, it depends on what level of fluency you want to attain (if any) and just how much effort you are willing to put into it (and it takes a lot).
I have finally reached a level of being able to 'comfortably converse' with most Spanish speakers and I give a lot of the credit to RS, but my wife says it is because I'm obsessed.
Though there is something to "learning like a native," there's also something to understanding what's going on, the structure of the language and the rules and how the pieces fit together and why
You better believe there is something to "learning like a native". Phonetic language teaching is extremely effective, it seems to work with every child on the planet than can speak, in any language, without knowing a whit about grammar and all the other nuts and bolts the we adults just 'have to know'. I would much rather be able to converse and communicate effectively with people, but then, I probably have different goals than others.
I don't want to negate grammar, I would just like to meet a 'grammar expert' every now and then that could speak the language.
I have the opportunity to talk a lot with migrant farm workers in this area. Most are from Mexico, and most of them have never attended school. One guy I talked to has learned to speak English pretty well, he told me that he had never attended school. I said "here in the US?", he said "neither here in the US or in Mexico, I've never been to school". That is the norm in this area, but they seem to "know what's going on".
I would definitely recommend either of the other methods over Rosetta Stone. A few classes, immersion in a Spanish-speaking country, and then some more classes just to synthesize what you learned in the immersion, solidify your grammar, etc. seems like the ideal program to me. Then, of course, more immersion and classes! Though I don't own Rosetta Stone, I've seen it in use and interacted with many people who have learned from it and it seems to me that its grammar instruction is severely lacking. Though there is something to "learning like a native" with Rosetta Stone [sentence edited for clarity], there's also something to understanding what's going on, the structure of the language and the rules and how the pieces fit together and why, and a lot of the people I've talked to who only use Rosetta Stone do not have a comprehensive understanding (or even a comprehensive understanding of the basic framework) of the language. Now, that being said, I would say that it's probably a great tool to use in addition to classes.
There's no short cut to learning a language fluently. Different methods work for different people. I do say that Rosetta Stone is a highly effective way to get the vocabulary down. If you visit the site, it will allow you to take an actual lesson to see how the program works. Most people are very visual so they have lots of pictures and scenes. I enjoyed the practice lesson and seriously considered acquiring the Spanish series but found this site and since I am partly fluent this works best for me. As I progress through these lessons, it's coming back and I find myself recalling mush of what I had lost.
I do plan on learning Japanese as well and will be getting Rosetta Stone for that. It's just a great way to get lots of vocabulary down which frees up your time to focus on grammar, verb conjugations, accents, and other differences of a language.
However, your fluency of a language will come from you using it so I may suggest you find a friend, spouse, child, cousin, parent, or bride someone to learn it with you. You'll have someone to split the cost of Rosetta for one and second you'll have someone to practice and suffer through with.
Just the two cents worth.
Ciao!
Jack O'Brien said
I have finally reached a level of being able to 'comfortably converse' with most Spanish speakers and I give a lot of the credit to RS, but my wife says it is because I'm obsessed.
MacFadden said
Now, that being said, I would say that it's probably a great tool to use in addition to classes
I just wanted to juxtapose these two great points about learning a language. First, it's helpful to recognize that the sustained enthusiasm and dedication that you have for learning a language (obsession) is probably one of the most (if not the most) important factors in achieving your goals. Taking that into account, the second point to realize is that both programs such as Rosetta Stone and textbooks (which is really what you are getting when you sign up for a Spanish class as most, if not all are taught according to some preferred textbook method) are nothing more than tools to help you on your way.
To me, however, the most important tool or, more accurately, your most important resource is actual person-to-person interaction. With Rosetta Stone, there is no inherent interpersonal communication going on. In a formal class setting, however, you are usually guaranteed (hopefully) to have at least one Spanish native or relatively fluent Spanish speaker at your disposal to converse with, i.e. the teacher.
A bit more than 15 years ago, I had my first go 'round with learning Spanish. That is to say that I took 2 years of Spanish in high school. During the time that I was learning Spanish, I had many opportunities for interpersonal interactions that I took full advantage of. I had three families from Mexico who lived in the house next door to me who spoke no English and who were more than happy to hold conversations with me in what I am sure to them was very broken Spanish. There were two kids who road the same bus as me and who spoke next to no English, and most days we would spend the better part of half an hour happily trying to teach one another our respective native languages. I also had a wonderful teacher, who was originally from Spain and who had an infectious enthusiasm for teaching that helped sustain my interest in learning.
By the time I graduated, I felt very comfortable holding conversations in Spanish, and this level of comfort was only bolstered by my first two jobs out of high school in which I had frequent and numerous conversations with my coworkers who hailed from various parts of America (Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico, Ecuador), many of whom only spoke Spanish (or at best, very broken English). In any event, having taken the two years of Spanish in high school laid a decent foundation that allowed me to feel out and expand my abilities by interacting with Spanish-speaking natives.
Between then and now, there was a period of at least 10 years in my life where I did not read, listen to, speak or even so much as think about Spanish, and as a result, when I decided to pick it up again (a little more than a year ago), I found myself almost starting from scratch in terms of being able to understand or hear conversational Spanish. Since that time, I have tried various methods and used various tools to try to get myself to the same level of fluency that I enjoyed in my youth. These have included Pimsleur, various text-books, lots of reading, Berlitz, Mango languages, watching Spanish television, and listening to Spanish radio, flashcards, and of course, Spanishdict. Even so, my opportunities for interpersonal communication are not nearly what they were the first time that I undertook trying to learn Spanish, and as a result, I have found that, even though my vocabulary is probably much stronger than it has ever been, my actual level of comfort and understanding, in terms of holding a decent conversation, is probably about a tenth of what it was so many years ago.
For that reason, I would suggest that you not get too hung up the tools that you use as most of the tools out there, with a bit of patient enthusiasm on your part, can help you to build a decent vocabulary and basic understanding of the syntactic structure of the language, but none of these tools is a real substitute for actual one-on-one interaction. In any event, good luck with your learning endeavors, Kirbster, and I hope to see you around the forum more often 
This is an EXCELLENT program! I would love to tell my friends about it.I got the whole set Rosetta stone program at http://www.perfectrosettastone.info/
