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| Re: Anyone out there have any experiance with either Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur for learning a language? (945271) | |||
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Re: Anyone out there have any experiance with either Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur for learning a language? |
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Posted by Henry R32 #3730 on Tue May 29 23:28:38 2012, in response to Anyone out there have any experiance with either Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur for learning a language?, posted by Jeff Rosen on Tue May 29 22:11:30 2012. I've used both Pimsleur (Volume 1 and first disc of Volume 2) and Rosetta Stone (Version 3, Volume 1) for learning Japanese...IMO: First off, both force you to figure out grammar, so if you are the type to benefit from learning the mechanics first, I'd suggest finding a good textbook to augment. That said... Pimsleur is awesome for developing a conversation "reflex"... but as it is an audio-only course it is obviously completely useless for reading/writing. The reason Pimsleur is better than your average language tape is efficiency: the spaced repetition is done quite well, and only twice did I find myself needing to repeat. Rosetta Stone is actually pretty good for linking visuals to sounds / text... I would say it is better for learning basic vocabulary. I wouldn't be able to tell you how good it is for learning a foreign alphabet as I learned the Japanese alphabets independently. It does have a speaking instruction but it (at least V3's) is crap compared to Pimsleur. For both products you can (legitimately) try them out for significantly less than the full cost... Pimsleur has the 12 lesson "starter" pack for ~$20-30, and libraries seem to have the whole shebang, available to be checked out. For Rosetta you can sign up for online-only at a month-to-month rate. Also I've heard there are massive discounts for government employees. As long as you slot out the 30 minutes/day I don't see either one being a let down... the only reason I stopped was an employment change requiring a lot more free time (and I think someone else had checked out the Pimsleur Volume 2). One warning: Rosetta Stone are pricks about installing their software multiple times, so don't count on being able to get a used copy at a discount. Good Luck! |
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