Rosetta Stone is Over Rated

by PE
(NYC)

I have had RS for a couple years. My Russian wife bought it for me to learn with for when we went to visit her hometown and see her parents who speak no English at all.

Repeatedly I have tried to get it going - and repeatedly I have given up rather quickly.

I can understand RS might help someone who can at least recognize the letters in the alphabet they are trying to learn - but when the alphabet is totally foreign - a la Cyrillic - how can you even get started?!?!

RS offers nothing in English to help you get the ball rolling and even know how to make your first attempts to use the product in any kind of intelligent fashion.

I have bought cd's ie the Michel Thomas method and books and learned so much in such a short period of time that my wife's friends and family were totally impressed during my first visit.

I thought having a base to start again on RS would be an advantage -- but I encountered the same problems yet again - specifically having no reference to dive into RS so I repeatedly can say "The dog is jumping" -- but not much else.
And I have tried fresh over 2 years several times.

When I called them, they said "Well sir, this is total immersion..."
Bah. I am not a code breaker - which is essentially how RS attempts to teach you to speak something as foreign as Russian is to English.

Give it a try for a Latin based language if you like - but for something beyond that -- keep looking --- RS is NOT the way to go at all.