Author Topic: Does anyone have any experience with RosettaStone? (Read 3908 times)

DownwithIslam · « **on:** March 16, 2009, 08:40:05 PM »

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with Rosetta Stone in general and with their Hebrew learning software in partIcular. I really have committed myself to learning hebrew and I was looking for a more interactive program that the audio forum that Chaim recommended. I see a bunch of things that come up when I search but obviously Rosetta stone is the most well known. I was wondering what people think I should do.

DownwithIslam · « **Reply #1 on:** March 16, 2009, 08:47:32 PM »

Rosetta Stone seems to be the best option even though it's pretty expensive. I am very serious about becoming fluent in hebrew now so it is worth the money. I feel so pathetic because I encounter many sefardim on a daily basis and I am unable to talk to speak hebrew with them. What a shame I speak the useless language of yiddish when it's hebrew that I want so badly. Anyhow, I was also looking at those programs where you chat with an israeli teacher online. That would be good except I would rather just be able to take out my computer wherever I am and use the software at my own pace. I dont want to have a set schedule like those programs require.

muman613 · « **Reply #2 on:** March 16, 2009, 08:52:07 PM »

Im sorry that you are not happy with Yiddish but I dont think it is good to call it useless. It is a very wonderful and poetic language in its own right and we should not be quick to discard it.

Rubystars · « **Reply #3 on:** March 16, 2009, 08:54:33 PM »

I'd like to learn two languages and I was wondering if Rosetta stone was a good program too.

DownwithIslam · « **Reply #4 on:** March 16, 2009, 08:58:05 PM »

Quote from: muman613 on March 16, 2009, 08:52:07 PM

Im sorry that you are not happy with Yiddish but I dont think it is good to call it useless. It is a very wonderful and poetic language in its own right and we should not be quick to discard it.

Muman, I will trade you every yiddish word I know and give all the yiddish i know away permanently to learn hebrew. Yiddish has never come in handy ever and it means nothing to me. do I really need to be able to communicate with the satmars in wiliamsburg brooklyn? I really would love to be able to speak hebrew fluently. This is going to be my new project now. I hope in a very short time to be able to post on hayamin haamitis hebrew forum.

nessuno · « **Reply #5 on:** March 16, 2009, 08:59:03 PM »

I'm not sure if it is the same where you live DownWithIslam but my public library has free online access to Rosetta Stone. Maybe the public library near you has something like that.
It's worth looking in to it. Good language learning programs are really expensive.

People have told me that Rosetta Stone is a good program. They use it in my school district to teach children...what else but spanish.

cjd · « **Reply #6 on:** March 16, 2009, 09:00:53 PM »

Quote from: Rubystars on March 16, 2009, 08:54:33 PM

I'd like to learn two languages and I was wondering if Rosetta stone was a good program too.

Chaim was recommending another program a while back used by the state department to teach its staff different languages. I don't recall the name however.

DownwithIslam · « **Reply #7 on:** March 16, 2009, 09:03:34 PM »

Quote from: bullcat3 on March 16, 2009, 08:59:03 PM

I'm not sure if it is the same where you live DownWithIslam but my public library has free online access to Rosetta Stone. Maybe the public library near you has something like that.
It's worth looking in to it. Good language learning programs are really expensive.

People have told me that Rosetta Stone is a good program. They use it in my school district to teach children...what else but spanish.

Bullcat, thanks for letting me know that. I dont think the libraries in queens have that lol. Here they basically just entertain shvartzas who pop in on their way home from killing their teachers in school. Anyhow, I know that rosetta stone is lots of money but I am very serious about learning hebrew now so the money will not be wasted. It may be worth going to the library to try the program out but I have to say that I would need to be able to do it on my computer in my free time and traveling to the library will not be worth it if I really would be using the program often.

Moshe92 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 16, 2009, 09:11:45 PM »

How did you learn to speak yiddish? Do your parents speak it?

nessuno · « **Reply #9 on:** March 16, 2009, 09:18:42 PM »

We can use Rosetta Stone on line, which is nice.
I haven't taken advantage of it yet.

I haven't been to a Queens library in a long time. They used to be very nice.
The public library should have a no 'animal' policy in effect.

ag337 · « **Reply #10 on:** March 16, 2009, 09:28:42 PM »

Personally, I do not have experience with Rosetta Stone; but my Mom has used it and she thought it was a pretty good program to learn different languages.

She used it to learn Spanish.
She lives in Arizona and wanted to learn Spanish due to the large Latino population there.

My Mom creates a lot of artwork and sells them at community venues.
She has a lot of Spanish speaking customers, so she wanted to be able to better converse with them to enhance her sales.

I hope that you find a program that works for you.
It is always a benefit to be knowledgeable in other languages.
Good luck.

DownwithIslam · « **Reply #11 on:** March 16, 2009, 10:16:29 PM »

Quote from: Moshe92 on March 16, 2009, 09:11:45 PM

How did you learn to speak yiddish? Do your parents speak it?

Moshe, unfortunately I speak yiddish. It's really worthless, trust me. Hebrew is the language of the jews, not yiddish. I learned it from my parents.

Rubystars · « **Reply #12 on:** March 16, 2009, 10:41:05 PM »

When I'm around a bunch of people chattering in Spanish it gives me a headache because it sounds like a bunch of loud annoying meaningless noise. It might still be overly loud and annoying but maybe my headaches wouldn't be so bad if I could at least understand what they were saying.

Moshe92 · « **Reply #13 on:** March 16, 2009, 10:45:52 PM »

Quote from: DownwithIslam on March 16, 2009, 10:16:29 PM

Quote from: Moshe92 on March 16, 2009, 09:11:45 PM
How did you learn to speak yiddish? Do your parents speak it?
Moshe, unfortunately I speak yiddish. It's really worthless, trust me. Hebrew is the language of the jews, not yiddish. I learned it from my parents.

Your family must value yiddish a lot. I think my great-great grandparents' generation was the last generation in my family to speak yiddish.

Nadav · « **Reply #14 on:** March 16, 2009, 11:26:55 PM »

Try the Pimsleur program first to get a good grasp of Hebrew. I have a thread in the Hebrew section on it. You can then use Rosetta Stone to sharpen your skills, Rosetta Stone is great.

Mishmaat · « **Reply #15 on:** March 17, 2009, 12:00:12 AM »

Quote from: cjd on March 16, 2009, 09:00:53 PM

Chaim was recommending another program a while back used by the state department to teach its staff different languages. I don't recall the name however.

The program is called Audio Forum - http://audioforum.com/index.php?crn=3078&rn=174&action=show_detail

Mishmaat · « **Reply #16 on:** March 17, 2009, 12:01:58 AM »

Quote from: DownwithIslam on March 16, 2009, 10:16:29 PM

Moshe, unfortunately I speak yiddish. It's really worthless, trust me. Hebrew is the language of the jews, not yiddish. I learned it from my parents.

Interesting. I used to get ridiculed for not knowing Yiddish by American Jews.

briann · « **Reply #17 on:** March 17, 2009, 01:13:03 AM »

I have experience with it. Its pretty good. Very simple and straight forward. Its good to get started... but its no substitute for learning all the grammatical rules and whatnot.

Geert Akbar · « **Reply #18 on:** March 17, 2009, 10:50:04 PM »

whats good about RS is that it works at your pace to make sure you learn, and you can always go back if you want to review or anything like that. It's definitely a great tool to get started, beats going to classes.

Abben · « **Reply #19 on:** March 18, 2009, 12:26:51 AM »

I wouldn't say Yiddish isn't worth knowing. My mother speaks it and sadly I was never taught.