Rosetta Stone

For a while now I have been contemplating the decision to buy a copy of the Rosetta Stone software package. For those of you who don't know, the Rosetta Stone software suite bills itself as the easiest and quickest means of learning a language; it claims to accomplish this by utilizing the same methods by which one learnes their first language. Now I know that I like quick and easy (well, in most circumstances at least) but I don't like wasting my money. My girlfriend of 3+ years is Greek, and since we are going to get married eventually I figured that surprising her with some fancy, well spoken Greek would guaranteed me a happy honey-moon . My two part question is simple: Has anyone here had any experience with the aforementioned software, and if so, how would you rate and describe your experience? I really am serious about this, I would love to know what those "damn foreigners" are saying, well, the Greek ones at least. Please, post away.

I got a copy from my friend so I didn't feel really obligated to use it since I didn't pay for it.

It seemed fairly good but it was a little confusing. Maybe he was supposed to give me a manual or something... It does literally start you off from step 1 and it takes no advantage of the fact that you already know a language (which, I know, is the basis for the teaching method). So, as I said, you may feel a little lost. I only know english and started the arabic lessons expecting at least to have instructions in english. Nope, everything was arabic.

The lessons are fairly easy to get the hang of though. You start out with a series of about 4 pictures. a boy, a girl, a man and a woman. Also, it will have the written language under a picture and it pronounces it for you. As you get more familiar with these it will start testing you by cross referencing the pictures. For example, it may speak the word and you have to pick out the picture. Or it may have the picture and you need to pick out the written word.

I didn't use it enough to recommend it but it seemed decent enough.

Thanks for the response, please let me know if you begin using the software again. How exciting though, to think that I could learn another language in my spare time!

Best advice : Begin buying and reading newspapers and books in that language ! Internet forums also help a lot !

Hopefully my wonderful girlfriend can help me with that. Although, with the books her parents have around the house I would probably become a gourmet chef / military history buff. Her mom loves cooking and her dad loves guns, well the ones with historical value at least. All I have to work on now is getting that Greek yell down. Anyone ever notice how some Greek families always seem like they are yelling at each other? They're not, they're just a very passionate (read: loud as all hell) people.

For the uninitiated this is how it usually goes, I will use the daily experiences of my girlfriend as an example. Whenever my girlfriend starts a dialogue with one of her parents the conversation with start off in English like any other normal conversation would. After a short time though, for no reason whatsoever, the pace of the conversation picks up. They speak faster and faster until Greek and English words start getting mixed in with one another. Eventually the liftoff speed of the conversation is reached and bam, full blown rapid-fire Greek is flying out of each participant’s mouth. At this point they have doubled, nay tripled, the intensity in their voices. By the average American’s standards they are yelling at each other. I typically begin to day dream about video games or my girlfriend in her bikini at this point while they carry on. It can go on for a while or it can be short, but the end is always abrupt. Boom, in the blink of an eye everything is at peace. Usually at this point I feel compelled to ask “Is everything all right?” to which the reply is “Yeah, what are you talking about, is everything all right with you?” Most often though, I can tell when the poop has hit the paddles because someone will start crying. Don’t let that fool you though, some Greek women, especially mothers, cry at the drop of a hat. When someone starts crying just get the hell out, there’s nothing you can do then. God I love my girlfriend.