To learn a foreign language perfectly is the dream of many. Such knowledge can be the impetus for a sharp career growth, can help travel, when concluding deals with partners, etc.
Unfortunately, not everyone can find time to attend full-time classes in foreign languages, so many are interested in reviews of Rosetta Stone.
Idea
The developer of this training software is Rosetta Stone Inc, founded in the USA in 1992 by Allen Stoltsfusom. The latter had an idea to create a software product for those who want to learn a foreign language a long time ago. In his youth, he lived for some time in Germany, where he learned to speak German. While attending classes in the Russian language, which were held in a traditional format, Stoltzfus noted that classroom instruction does not produce the effect that provides immersion in the language environment.
Then he decided to create it artificially, based on his experience in mastering German.
history of the company
To develop software designed for teaching foreign languages, Stolzfus invited his brother-in-law John Fairfield, who had a Ph.D. in computer science.
In 1992, the advent of CD-ROM technology made it possible to carry out their joint project.
Stolzfus and Fairfield founded Fairfield Language Technologies in Virginia and hired several young programmers - Eugene Stoltsfusa (Allen's brother), Greg Keim and Michael Silverman.
Soon, their first product, the Rosetta Stone Language Learning Program, was released. In 2003, Fairfield Language Technologies announced the hiring of Tom Adams. This businessman with international experience was appointed to the position of President and CEO of the company.
In September 2013, Rosetta Stone announced the launch of a new children's version, and in November 2014, Rosetta Stone Kids Reading appeared. It is intended for younger students and helps to form a foreign vocabulary in a playful way.
In 2016, Rosetta Stone switched to a cloud-based business model and went beyond language learning, delving into educational technology.
What does Rosetta Stone mean?
Before proceeding to the description of the program, it is worth saying a few words about its name. So, the phrase Rosetta Stone from English translates as "Rosetta Stone." This artifact is a granite monument found near the city of the same name. A grateful inscription is carved on it in several languages, one of which is Greek. Rosetta stone has become a kind of key for decoding ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs.
Description of the program: first level
The Rosetta Stone software, reviews of which are presented below, offers students to overcome several levels of learning with increasing difficulty. Each level consists of exercises of various types.
First of all, the student needs to accumulate a sufficient vocabulary in the foreign language of interest.
To do this, photos appear on the monitor, and you need to specify the fragment of text that is the description of the selected image, or supplement the description by entering the necessary words from the keyboard.
Grammar
Knowledge of words alone is not a guarantee that you can speak a foreign language. In order to learn how to make sentences, you must pass the level, the program of which consists of grammar exercises.
First, the student is shown several examples of grammatical constructions that need to be supplemented so that they become correct. Then a sentence with several variants of a word or phrase is given, and he must choose the right one.
Speech Skills
Those whose goal is to learn how to speak a foreign language should get a computer microphone. In this case, they will be able to try to achieve a good pronunciation by pronouncing the proposed text out loud and receiving an assessment for the correct reproduction of sounds.
Each lesson of the Rosetta Stone program, reviews of which are mostly positive, ends with viewing the content that was required to be learned, and a simulated dialogue consisting of already learned words.
How the program works
When a user enters an answer, the Rosetta Stone program (reviews of this product confirm the effectiveness of such training) immediately reports whether it is correct or not. In the "Settings" menu, the student can choose whether to play sound. At the bottom of the program window, all sections for the current lesson are displayed. If all answers are correct, then the button turns green. If only some of them are correct, the border of the button becomes green, and it itself becomes orange. If all answers are incorrect, the button turns orange. This applies to all lessons, with the exception of reviews and tests. For them, the buttons remain brown.
If the student did not answer correctly to a large number of questions, the program will offer to repeat the material.
In all lessons in the lower right corner of the window there is a button. If you click on it, you can find out how many questions you answered correctly, incorrectly or not at all.
On the screen, you can see the rhombuses that indicate the main lessons with new words, grammar rules, speech turns, etc. In addition, there are symbols indicating the related activities that are needed to consolidate the content received during the main lesson. Each complementary lesson is designed to develop either reading skills, or grammar, or speech. The “Milestone” icon appears at the end. This is an invitation to pass an exam to determine if it’s worth moving on to the next part of the level, or if you still need to practice with already completed material.
Software
Rosetta Stone (German, English, Arabic, Japanese, Hindi and localized versions in other languages) is distributed on discs. The set includes 5 CDs for popular languages and 3 for less common ones. Each of them consists of 4 thematic parts, and those, in turn, of 4 lessons.
How to use
When you start the Rosetta Stone program, the user is prompted to create a profile by entering his name and install at least 1 level for any language. If this is not provided for in your version, then you need to make a choice from the list and click on the “Add or Remove Languages” item.
Then required:
- insert a disk into the drive or create an image of it with a double click and wait until Rosetta Stone recognizes it;
- click on the “Install selected language” button to copy the contents of the disk to the computer;
- choose the level of language learning;
- answer the question about why you need knowledge of a foreign language, so that the program selects the intensity of classes for you and indicates what to focus on (reading, speaking, etc.).
Exam
As already mentioned, testing can be done by clicking on the "Milestone" button. At the end of each topic, the exam is held in the form of a slide show illustrating a certain life situation.
All answers should be spoken aloud. In this case, no text is shown, you must independently guess what phrase should be said at the moment. Unlike ordinary lessons, you cannot affect the order in which you pass exam assignments. It is carried out strictly in a certain order, without the possibility of returning to any of the previous tasks.
Learning hieroglyphs
Today, around the world, Chinese and Japanese are very popular. They are difficult to study, but with Rosetta Stone it will be much easier to do. The program provides for the inclusion of transcription of hieroglyphs in Latin letters and makes it possible to master a large number of the most common words.
Rosetta Stone: errors
As you know, there is no computer program that would be perfect. Rosetta Stone is no exception to this rule. In particular, many complaints can be heard regarding the lessons for setting the correct pronunciation. User complaints are related to the fact that sometimes the program does not perceive even the simplest words that are simply impossible to pronounce incorrectly. Perhaps the whole thing is the imperfection of the microphone. In order not to suffer each time with the passage of the stage associated with speech recognition, it is necessary to test the equipment, saying any words so that the program determines whether there is an input signal. However, even a proper microphone setup is not a guarantee that the lessons related to speech recognition will go smoothly. Perhaps this is due to the imperfection of the software module used in Rosetta Stone for these purposes.
According to users, the most offensive thing is that in order to correct at least one mistake made through your fault or because the hardware or software “did not hear” what you said into the microphone, you have to redo the entire task. In other words, it will be necessary to once again perfectly speak all 8 phrases in a row and continue until Rosetta Stone considers that you have achieved perfection in the pronunciation of foreign words.
And a couple of tips in the end. To make the program better perceive speech, you need to pronounce words with small pauses. In addition, you can launch a special pronunciation training module by clicking on the gray speaker icon located in the upper right corner of each photo.
Rosetta Stone: reviews
The high level of effectiveness of the program is evidenced by at least the fact that it was purchased by the Pentagon for use in the training of military personnel who were prepared for shipment to the Middle East.
As for ordinary buyers, they claim that they were able to achieve great success using Rosetta Stone. Italian, English, Arabic, German, Polish, and about two dozen languages with its help, if you believe the reviews, you can learn at a pretty good level. True, for this you need to be patient and engage in daily activities for several months until all the material covered is deposited in your memory.
Now you know the benefits of Rosetta Stone, a program for learning foreign languages. She deserved a lot of positive feedback, as it makes it easy to learn a large number of unfamiliar words in a fairly short time.