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I was thinking of getting Rosetta stone or some other software to learn French. Has anyone used Rosetta stone or any other means to learn a new language, and how much did you end up getting - how long did it take?
I've used it.
I studied Vietnamese with at for at least a year then I got the Thai one right before I left for Thailand. I learned a little Thai in a classroom once I got there then got to practice it quite a bit hands on. I haven't actually spent much time with the Thai RS, maybe I should practice but I haven't since I got back to the US. I never really got to use the Vietnamese much.
I would guess it generally works a lot better if you are learning a European language like French for native English speakers.
I seriously doubt you'll become fluent just using RS. If you get the RS I would recommend also taking a class or finding someone who is fluent to talk to or something like that.
The newest versions are supposed to have live online lessons but I don't know how good they are.
Rosetta stone is good but nothing can compare to the real thing as far as soft ware goes, get a girl / boy friend to teach you
Watching TV and listening to the radio also helps a lot.
But to me as an adult it is quite difficult these days to learn a completely new language, especially one from Asia or Africa. Somehow just learning sound sequences by heart does not do it for me, I need to see where the word begins and ends (kind of difficult with Asian signs) and how the grammar works etc. I guess I am a rather analytic person, the hands-on baby approach does not work for me.
I tried to learn Tamil by means of a cassette-based course years ago, but gave up after some time. It was just too alien for me.
I have used it for Portuguese, but I was also using other methodologies at the same time. I used it religiously for a while, then got a bit tired of the format. Overall, I think it was worth what I paid for it, but it only helps get so far.
I have never used any language software so I cannot help you with RS. Twelve years ago, when I first learned Italian, I simply enrolled in a summer course at a community college. It was an immersion course for beginners, and the only rule the prof gave to us on the first day was, "Within these walls, we speak only Italian."
Six hours a week, that's what we did. By the end of the summer, we were all capable of carrying conversations involving, aside from the tourist stuff, bargaining at the stores, asking for a date, filing a complain at the police station for stolen belonging and berating airline for loss luggage, etc.
Another two semesters after that summer, I went off to Italy to search and buy a house, dealing with almost all difficulties in the transaction completely in Italian, confident in my ability with the language.
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