Rocket German Vs. Rosetta Stone
There have been complaints about the Rosetta Stone not being a very effective learn German software. The Rosetta Stone was developed by Allen Stoltzfus who believed that immersion is the best way to learn a new language. This German software purports to teach you how to speak, read, and write German fluently by immersing you in the language. This means that there will be no English hints. Everything happens in German and you will have no clue how to figure things out. The experience is just like being in a German-speaking country and having no clue what everyone is saying and having to get by with little or no knowledge of the language.
Each lesson in the Rosetta Stone consists of a set of questions. Each question consists of 4 images and a button that you click on to hear the audio. The audio either names the image or tells something about what is happening in the image. It is up to the learner to select the image that he believes matches the audio. At the end of the lesson, the learner is given his score and if he scores perfectly, he can then move on to the next level.
This method is repeated in the advanced levels. Here, the questions involve verbs, adjectives, verb conjugations, adverbs, and sentence structures. The same method is also used when teaching the learner about written words, speech patterns, and accents.
The problem with Rosetta Stone is that it doesn’t teach the learner anything about grammar. And, unfortunately for learners who want to know “why” and not just “how”, the whole approach is very informal and unstructured. Also, unlike other German software, the Rosetta Stone software doesn’t teach the learner any useful phrases or sentences for everyday discourse, which are essential to a language learner. To add to all these, as compared to other German software on the market, the price (at $300) is quite steep.
A better German software than Rosetta Stone is Rocket German. This software combines a variety of teaching methods, not merely relying on immersion. It makes use of an audio course, an interactive PDF course, games, a forum, and follow-up lessons via email. The course caters to both novice language learners and advanced speakers. The audio component consists of 31 lessons that range from the basics of the German language to complete sentences that can be used in everyday dialogue such as when asking for the time or conversing with a stranger. The interactive PDF course provides a more thorough understanding of the German language with lessons on grammar, sentence structure, and verb forms. Three games are included in the course: MegaVocab, MegaAudio and MegaVerb. These are accessed through the PDF course. The Rocket German software also provides flash cards that can be printed so the learner can play with fellow language learners, the option to sign up for a forum where students can ask questions and practice speaking to each other, and follow-up lessons that will be sent through email.
The Rocket German software is indeed more value for money than the Rosetta Stone. It has a ton of features that users commend for being user-friendly and effective. It is easily navigable, caters to all types of learners, is more structured and well-designed, and doesn’t give the learner a headache like the Rosetta Stone does.
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Category: Education
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