I am just starting to learn Spanish. How does this site compare to the Rosetta Stone program?
I am just starting to learn Spanish. How does this site compare to the Rosetta Stone program?
8 Answers
It costs a whole bunch less of money.
Considering it's free, it's great quality.
I have just finished the Rosette Stone Totale 4 (latest version) levels 1-5. This is the entire package that RS offers for Spanish (Latin American).
Rosetta Stone has many excellent features, including fine quality photos which can greatly assist in learning new words, and their voice recognition system is superb. You get instant feedback on your pronunciation and can self-identify your difficult areas/words that you need to work on.
I've just recently joined SpanishDict.com, and find it wonderfully complementary to the RS course, because here, not only is there no fee (RS full package is over $650) but it is wider ranging in its topics and this loose organization is appealing to folks like me who can take from many, many different offerings. The extensive ability to study vocabulary from study lists, and to hear more experienced learners discuss grammar and expressions is invaluable, just to name a few of things that I'm exploring on this site. And I'm sure there is much I've yet to discover.
RS does not offer any possibility to learn grammar explicitly (e.g. it is never explained that some nouns are feminine and others masculine) you have to pick that up, along with all the other grammar rules implicitly in the practicing of the language. I prefer to have both explicit and implicit instruction, another reason why I find these two sources complimentary. (For example, in the second lesson 1.2, I already had learned something about Spanish that 5 months of RS did not teach me.) The RS 1-5 requires an enormous amount of time, and commitment to complete.. the company estimates (and I think this is a bit much) approx. 18 months to complete the entire 5 levels. Finally, there is an online speaking component to RS that I am not sure exists here (someone?) In other words, RS you can sign up to speak with a native speaker, in a variety of ways that is highly structured. This structure is helpful to beginners, but hinders intermediates.
Hope this is helpful to you and perhaps to many others considering RS. I thought it possessed an immersive capacity that I was surprised to find. But with a price. Good luck.
I have been using Rosetta Stone for over a year and like it. It teaches you the proper way to say things but it doesn't explain why. It is all immersion. I love this site for the grammer, forum, and flashcards so I use both. The good thing about Rosetta Stone is that you learn a big vocabulary without having to memorize.
Rosetta Stone is a great resource but this site is a totally different resource, an invaluable one to say the least, a great dictionary, great answers to many questions you will no doubt come across, and I wouldn't be where I am at now without Spanishd!ct.
Rosetta Stone is great for sentence structure and pronunciation of the language, highly recommended if you have absolutely zero background with Spanish.
I completed Rosetta Stone 1-2 and learned vocabulary and sentence structure which provided a good foundation but was far from being satisfied with learning the language. I also used Rocket Spanish which in my opinion is a much better product and value. Once you get a decent foundation you will be ready to learn on your own, this site is great for learning on your own.
graplar, your local library may have CDs from Rostetta Stone available for check-out or in-house sessions. I'd definitely recommend looking them over before investing a lot of money.
From what I've seen with Rosetta, you will need to augment your study with some good grammar instructional texts. The videos here have helped me a great deal.
Welcome to the forum!
I asked the same question about 2 weeks ago and subsequently went ahead and purchased Rosetta Stone for Latin American Spanish. Its been a week since I started using it. I think I'm finding the audio most useful in terms of helping with listening skills, especially whilst driving, but frankly speaking I think Paralee's lessons were just as good if not better. As you can see I still find this site useful and extremely interesting.
I purchased Rosetta Stone with the intention of ultimately becoming fluent in Latin American Spanish. I have been using Rosetta Stone for almost two months now and I am thrilled with my results thus far. Click the website at: http://www.perfectrosettastone.info/
