Is Rosetta Stone vs Fluenz a Better CBT Software to Learn a Language?

I think Fluenz is better than Rosetta Stone. But none of these can compare with the Pimsleur method. The Pimsleur method teaches in the same way that we learned our native language and can easily have you speaking in the new language very well in the shortest amount of time possible. I used it to go from knowing a few phrases and words in Spanish to becoming fluent. I also used it to become conversational in Italian and French.

Recently, since I have not used German since childhood, I used an intermediate Pimsleur German to become fluent in German too.

Right now, i am on the 3rd level of it and i can loudly and proudly( :P ) say that RS helps.

I am not sure whether it'd make you fluent or not but you'll end-up somewhere to A-1 to B1 higher level if you use it regularly and finish it.(Level1-level3)

Hope that helps.

I had my first voice to voice conversation in spanish yesterday though it was very basic but i did handle the conversation.

oh yeah, and go to livemocha.com, they have the same type of lessons as rosetta stone, but it's free and imo, more useful.

Ugh to rosetta stone. I had the spanish and their word choices were ridiculous. Horse, jumping, boat...etc. And even after you guess the answer (which is the only way to figure it out) it's extremely hard to figure out which they are applying it to in subsequent pictures. I have it in Mandarin as well. oh forget it! I found Fluenz much more useful BUT it is outrageously expensive (because RS was easy to get on craigslist, lol).

Pimsleur (only audio) was far better than both imo)

I've never Fluenz before. I may look into it since I feel like I hit a little wall with Rosetta Stone for Portuguese.

I tried using Rosetta Stone for Korean. I have native Korean speaking friends and tried to use what I had learned on them. If you aren't using their exact phrases, RS is useless. Korean has a lot of grammatical intricacies, like marker words for a subject or object, action or whether a sentence is a question or declarative. None of this is ever dealt with in RS. You are left to figure it out on your own. If you don't already know about these things, it's easy to mistake these sounds as a natural part of the words. Then you sound like an idiot. They also don't deal with verbs well. Walking, walks, walk, walked. Good luck figuring out how to change them to meet the needs of what you are saying in RS. They never deal with it. They never give you any kind of vocab list translation so you can at least look them up in a Korean to English dictionary either. Plus, the pictures don't always match up, and you can guess incorrectly. I gave up on Korean and figured I would try French instead. This led to the same problems, except in a language that was easier to read.

I was so frustrated with Rosetta Stone, I tried to give it away. My local community college refused to take it, as did the high school. My wife got me Fluenz French. It was easier right from the start, and I was getting the hang of it within a few weeks. So much so that I got complimented on my French while in Paris last year. I had only been using the program for 2 months. The instructor is easy on the eyes, very clear in her pronunciation, and the lessons were laid out in ways that mimmiced an actual language class, complete with grammar and sentence structure. Plus, plenty of useful vocab. I supplimented my lessons with vocab lists I found on the internet (although I didn't need to, eventually we got to 99% of what I wanted to learn) and I learned to use it correctly.

Plus, and I have to be honest, I think the Fluenz software voice recognition system is much better. I like the interface much better, and think it was better at picking up and if you set it to do so, nitpicking, the way I spoke French.

I can't say it enough, Fluenz is the way I'd go if I had a choice in the programs. Certain languages (Korean) aren't available yet, but I hope they add them. It's a much better system. Less guesswork, more learning.

Yeah but since i have already sworn that i will be finishing it, so i will not back off from here. Rather i will supplement myself with other resources as well because after investing so much time, if i don't come up with results than that might demoralize me and my interest too =D

Who knows if it really does wonders. =P

Lol back again, now things have drastically changed for me in Rosetta stone and it's hard to make out what the pictures are trying to convey...

I am doing fine but i have lot of doubts that if whatever i am assuming is correct or not.

Hmmmmmmmm a difficult software.

Almost 25hours(25days) left to end RS level2.

Now i see it does teaches you grammer as well but without explanations.

I am still using it and like i said before i'd be finishing all the levels =)

Yes, it's true i don't expect any miracle from Rosetta stone and atleast not for myself because where i live they don't know a word of spanish but nevertheless my practice will continue my understanding of spanish is increasing day by day, and i being a person who is self teaching myself, i know it's gonna take lot of time but i wouldn't mind consuming all the softwares, tapes and course books available in the market.

=D

I don't know if RS works or not. I am using it and found to some extent it's good. Right now i am on level2 of spanish(Latin america)

So far what i felt is that maybe it's good for remembering vocabulary and enhancing your listening and pronunciation only.

Don't wanna say further more because they claim if you finish all 5levels of it then you become conversational in your desired language. No sé pero estoy practicando cada día porque me gustaría hablar en español.

But it doesn't explain anything about spanish "Article/prepostions/verbs"

There is no translation you have to make it out yourself.

Fine! we can use our brains but becoming fluent i think it's almost impossible(i am just saying it i'd repeat myself once again that i might change my opinion after completing level5--who knows if it's true jajajajaja)

But so far so good doesn't seem that awesome.

I have plans to start pimsleur after finishing all the levels of it and then lslc1-2.

Last choice would be Assimil or Platiquemos(heard a lot about it. =) )

I can already speak four different language fluently.

Hindi,English,Nepalese,urdu(i can write in urdu as well.)

First off, the teacher for french, Chinese and Spanish, Sonya Gil, with Fluenz is smokin hott, so it can at first be distracting. but putting the goddess aside, i have tried both rosetta stone and Fluenz, and i seem to enjoy the style Fluenz goes about it, they will break down every words meaning and how it fits in a sentence and add additional comments to certain words or phrases, the subtitles and commentary in English definitely make it so much easier to understand the translation rather than guessing and hoping you are correct. Two thumbs up for Fluenz!!

experience tells me that only repetition makes you learn french. Learning it with all the grammar exceptions is difficult. The french speaker of Rossetta are more versatile and give you different vocal sounds.

I have been using Rosetta Stone.I will try Fluenz for a better and wider knowledge.Thanks for sharing this ideal.I loved it.Vote up,interesting and useful.

i am using rosetta stone and i have bought fluenz also. right now i am practising on rosetta stone, i will practice for 3-4months and then i will decide.

Good review. You touch on some key points which i've found frustrating when using Rosetta, especially "As a user, you are guessing what picture matches the phrase, and there are enough times the photo is not clear enough yet you get it right. One does not get a precise translation of a word or phrase, so you tend to do this, which may not be truly accurate."

how to learn various countries of language ? you can get the cheap rosetta stone.everyone can get the language which country of language want to learn ? Come on ! so value the software to learn all kinds of language ,pls from these cheap rosetta stone start ,LOL