Rosetta Stone - good only if you are a child

Rosetta Stone Language Learning Software

Rosetta Stone is one of the top selling language learning software packages in America. 30 languages from across the continents are available. They even have packages tailored for personal, business, government officers, schools or home schooling purposes. While the price is not cheap, the marketing is effective. Ask about language learning packages and the first name you will get is Rosetta Stone.

So, how does Rosetta Stone teach a language? As if you were a child. I tried out the free Mandarin lesson online. Level 1 is about 30 minutes long, according to the instruction page. You have to test your audio and microphone settings before you begin because you need to repeat after the "teacher" to check your pronunciation. No Chinese characters are introduced at this stage, as it is a beginner level lesson. However, all the pronunciation guides use Hanyu Pinyin 汉语拼音, the official romanisation and pronunciation of Mandarin. Hanyu Pinyin uses the English alphabet and symbols to indicate which of the four tones is used to pronounce the word. No explanation on how to read the symbols is given. Your guess is as good as mine.

No English or any other language other than Mandarin is used. Just throw yourself headlong into Mandarin with pictures and sounds, and hope to catch something. I have to admit that at least Rosetta Stone uses a variety of pictures of people from around the world as illustrations, rather than only westerners. But, variety of pictures add little to the actual learning process. A phrase is read with an accompanying picture that is the visual of the phrase. I have to repeat the pronunciation into the microphone and get it right (according to the software programme) before I can move on to the next phrase. New vocabulary is introduced at each step, so I am left guessing what in the world the phrase means, just by looking at the picture. I have to match the phrase with the correct picture, but sometimes, I don't have to guess too far because the last phrase read out will belong to the remaining picture.

Screen shot of pronunciation lesson

The "teacher" in the software is a native Mandarin speaker from China. The pronunciation is accurate, according to official China standards. When I repeat the phrase into the microphone, I have to repeat it in the correct China standard pronunciation in order to get it right and move on to the next phrase. If I use the southern Chinese accent prevalent in Singapore and Malaysia, the software will fail me. I have to repeat the pronunciation using the China accent. Even then, sometimes, the software doesn't recognise my pronunciation. After a few tries, I got frustrated. I do speak Mandarin with fairly accurate pronunciation. Why won't it accept my pronunciation?

While many may find Rosetta Stone useful, personally, I do not. I found Fluenz far more interesting and engaging. Fluenz treats me as a thinking adult. The programme explains every bit of the sentence and leaves nothing unturned. If you want to teach your child a new language by immersion, go ahead and get Rosetta Stone. Hopefully, your child will pick something up and be able to communicate with people who speak that language. As an adult learner, I end up none the wiser.

Have fun learning a language!

Fun Language Tools