Rosetta Stone

[Hatake girl]

Hi.
Ive been considering buying rosetta stone-japanese to help me get a better grasp on the language. Being that the software is so expensive, i was just wondering if any of you guys have had experience with it before. is it worth what is costs or should i find a better way to strengthen my japanese (besides japanesepod101.com)?

[Psy]

Rosetta Stone isn't worth the price. It seems like a good idea on the surface, but it doesn't provide fundamental grammatical explanations nor does it introduce the critically important cultural aspect of Japanese. Additionally, some of the pictures are of such low quality it can be hard to tell what's going on in them-- made worse because there isn't an English translation.
In the end it's a good idea that was poorly executed, and as such is not a tool for serious learners. Aside from that, after about 15 minutes it just gets really, really really boring.

I'd suggest instead saving your money and buying either an Electronic Dictionary, a Nintendo-DS with some learning software, or maybe (just maybe ) a premium J-Pod subscription. You'll have a lot more fun that way.

[QuackingShoe]

Agreeing with Psy almost completely, it's worth pointing out I guess that most complaints levied against Rosetta Stone have been made less true with the third editions of all of it's languages, in particular the problem with difficult to make out pictures. And of all the things that have gotten IMMEASURABLY better, speech practice has probably raised the most.

The complaints are all still true, mind. Just less. It remains absolutely boring as hell, though, and more of a way to give yourself false confidence and sense of achievement and familiarize yourself with the bare basics of pronunciation than anything concrete. So unless you just have the money to throw away...

The most irritating things of all, everything is put in the ～ています form, and there isn't anything even vaguely conversational for the entire four units I tried of the 2nd edition (this may have been improved, but I doubt). Which means that it isn't even a good tool for quickly picking up enough things to speak some of the language for a trip overseas or for business! Would you like to know how to say hello, how are you, how much does this cost, where is this? Be ready to wait a long time before Rosetta decides to broach such a topic. It's apparently far more important to know how to say that the boy/girl/man/woman is currently eating bread. For 20 lessons. Using words for boy/girl/man/woman that the Japanese don't actually use.

The speech practice isn't so bad though!

[binz]

Nintendo-DS with some learning software

Can anyone recommend the best title for this? Either a homebrew application or an actual product, I don't mind.

[Gracie7600]

Absolutely awful. Boring too. the pictures are ridiculous when trying to figure out what exactly is going on. the only decent thing was the typing tool, that let you practice writing in either romanji/hirigana/kanji. the writing tool made me remember the spelling (helping with pronunciation in the future) but it was SO boring. Rosetta stone skips on grammar. I did a few lessons, it really is mind numbing.

As soon as I found out about Japanesepod101.com, I deleted rosetta stone from my hard drive.

[Ar_Yue]

I've tried Rosetta Stone too. It's only good to a certain extent... mostly good for naming items and stuff (vocabulary), but learning grammar from it, it's rubbish.

It really doesn't simulate your learning and I pretty much forgotten most of what I learnt from it. (TTnTT )

[Trav_man]

www.jlist.com
The above website has a number of Nintendo DS games that are supposed to help you learn kana and kanji. Also, Nintendo is releasing "My Japanese Coach" for the DS this month.

[wccrawford]

Not sure JList is a good source for information on DS games. They sell them, but finding them all and figuring out what they are good for is a different story.

Instead, take a look at: http://mrbass.org/nintendoDS/japanesegames/ They are all organized by type of game, and many even have reviews. There's a Kanji section lower on the page.

[Belton]

Nintendo-DS with some learning software

Can anyone recommend the best title for this? Either a homebrew application or an actual product, I don't mind.

I have several DS kanji titles. Part of the problem with them though is they are aimed at adult Japanese rather than second language learners, so the vocabulary is quite difficult even at low levels (grade 1 kanji). And of course instructions are also a bit problematic.

However, I found one title that is fantastic and I found easy to use.
正しい漢字かきとりくん
It's aimed at grade school children so everything has furigana in the explanations and the vocabulary is more accessible. I think you'd need some basic kanji skills already to get the best out of it, and English meanings are still an exercise for the student, but it's the best I've come across and I use it everyday.
It's improving my handwriting, teaching me readings, and increasing my vocabulary.
http://100mas.jp/kakitorikun/

There seem to be 2 versions. I have the earlier version with the 1006 kanji up to Grade 6. The later version has the complete jouyou and a slightly better interface. However the vocabulary may well be more advanced overall; it seems aimed at an older audience and looks more complicated
http://www.100mas.jp/kakitori2/

[kinyobi]

On the contrary, a friend of mine who is currently taking her 3rd year in Japanese at a Univesity said she bought Rosetta Stone (Levels 1 through 3) and thought she got quite a bit out of it.

I have not tried them and wanted to try it, but I've stumbled across this website and started subscribing and felt I got what need out of the Podcasts and lessons. She paid around $459.00 for her set and I wasn't willing to shell that kind of cash out for something I don't know works well. I did her testimony saying that she thought it helped her.

So the review isn't going to be 100% negative about the program, but from what I can see - I can get enough information here and from the Japanese books I already own.

Good luck regardless.

- Kinyobi

[wccrawford]

Rosetta Stone markets itself as a product that will teach your Japanese from scratch. From trying the demo, I can tell you that isn't nearly enough. It supposedly tries to help you learn without telling you exactly what is going on, but all I ended up was confused as soon as anything beyond 'cat and car' were introduced.

For instance, there's a part where a kid is over an airplane, and then under an airplane. For the 'kid over an airplane', how do you know it's not saying 'airplane under a kid'? You don't. And by the time you've done 20 of them, you're even more confused because it just doesn't give you any way to be sure what you are saying.

Your third-year Japanese-student friend is way, way beyond the beginning courses and is only learning vocab from them, if anything. As far as that goes, iKnow is free and MUCH better at vocab.

[oneredice]

Hey, if anyone is still wondering about this, i just wanted to comment too.
I have a 27 language pack of Rosetta Stone.
It is an AWESOME SUPPLEMENT when you are learning a language. However, it is no where close to being something you can learn a language from scratch. I initially started using it for German, which was a horrible idea. German has a complex grammar system and even attempting to learn it from something like Rosetta Stone is just ludicrous. So I was quite disappointed with the software. Later however, when I was learning Mandarin I revisited the software and I loved it. This is mostly because the grammar in Chinese is very simple. So you can just continously keep reading, listening, because you do not have to analyze much. You are just memorizing the tune of the sentences and learning vocabulary.
Thats why I consider it a great supplement. It gives you a good tune of sentences, and adds on immense vocabulary.
One more good thing about it, it has options to display the text your reading. So you have the text displayed in romaji, kana, or as normal japanese with kanji. It was useful when I first was trying to learn kana because the sentences would be read out, and I could follow along with the text.

[jeezzle]

Rosetta and Pimsleur are great for building vocabulary as long as you keep a notebook and study the words at work or wherever. Make sure you write down the original form of the verb and it's meaning. Don't take Rosetta's meaning for granted. The boy isn't falling, he's jumping. Look the words up in a dictionary to get the real meanings. Tonde is the te form of Tobu. Rosetta is all te form. So you'll have to learn the formula to make te into the original form. IE Rosetta uses aruite. Always aruite. The original form is aruku. To walk. ARUKU = ARUITE.

J-prep.com is the dictionary site that I use.

Try "Yan San and the Japanese People" on for size, otherwise known as Japanese Basic I and II by the Japan Foundation. You can find it on Youtube and Veoh. It's a great video series. Basic I is everywhere (26 episodes) but Basic II is harder to find (26 more episodes). Very helpful and very interesting.

[tanitayou]

Hi Jeezzle,
Could you kindly give more information about "Yan San..." video? I've tried to searh them on YouTube, but I cn't find them . Rhe same on Veoh. Could you insert a link? Thank you.

[Psy]

Yan-san & the Japanese People (Episode 1, 1/3)

Great, albeit funky, course.