Pimsleur Method vs Rosetta Stone

[Longtrail77]

A place i have found has free Pimsleur sample downloads found here pimsleur-language.com , I have tried both Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur helped me learn Russian much better. I didn't like the fact that i had to sit at my computer with Rosetta, and it's more like picture mapping instead of actual conversation like Pimsleur provides.

[Scottimandog]

The pimsleur approach works so much better for me. I think that it depends on how you learn. Rosetta stone claims that you learn better if you learn a language like you did as a child. Therefore they give you words in a foreign language and show you pictures. This is ok, but it doesn't work for me. With the Pimsleur approach you are told the word in that language and you are told what that word means in English. The way my mind works is that I have to have a basic understanding of the word translation in English to learn it in another language. I don't like to see a picture and hope that I guess what that word means.

[Raveled]

I have never listened to a singular Pimsleur lesson and can say that it's an excellent system.

Being an ESL teacher like many here likely are I've seen tons of garbage curriculum.

The Pimsleur ask you questions in English you are to answer in the target language after being taught the necessary language.

It involves spaced repetition, and USING the new language in a real way producing deep level processing.

You don't repeat mindlessly, you respond to English questions and instructions in the target language, it's brilliant.

I've been living and working in Japan for over 3 years but I haven't spend any time seriously studying Japanese, one lesson plus my experience teaching ESL I KNOW this system is the best I've ever seen or rather heard.

As for rosetta stone, I can't comment.

[Lo_La]

what is the diferent betwen end-finish

[Krudi]

I want to learn via this Pimsleur, but not sure if I to purchase it. I hear good words about it. Is it legit? :/ I would really like to know this. I must learn english good and probably other languages as well. Maybe you have some other tips, too?

[Stuart.R]

I have taken a couple Spanish classes at the high school and college level. For the amount of money you will pay for a three credit hour Spanish class at a junior college or university, which is about $400.00, you should decided to invest in this program instead. This program is worth every penny that you spend to purchase it. I have learned more using this program, and faster, than any other class or program I have been in.

rosettastoneoutlet.com

[Sergej.sad]

heljo

at first i juse pimsleur to lern inglis. never spik inglis bifor. i tink mejd big progres. no problem. no cost. perfect. i spik englis nov, nobadi can saj i am not englis.

nov i start lerning spanis wit rozeta: El gato e negro. El gato e negro. El gato e negro.

baj baj

[Our Tort System]

[Anassar]

what is the diferent betwen till and untill ?

[Diadromos]

Pimsleur's approach is purely audio, which makes it a good way to redeem commute time or something you can listen to while exercising. Pimsluer's approach is very effective. Their repetition seams very effective. Rosetta stone is Audio/Visually oriented. It is also very effective, but requires that the student be in front of a computer screen. My experience is that RS's associative approach works better for retention. But, each is good. Ideally, one should use both approaches used together.

[Diadromos]

Pimsleur's approach is purely audio, which makes it a good way to redeem commute time or something you can listen to while exercising. Their repetition seems very effective. Rosetta stone is Audio/Visually oriented. It is also very effective, but requires that the student be in front of a computer screen. My experience is that RS's associative approach works better for vocabulary retention. But, each is good. Ideally, one should use both together.

[Seifip]

If anyone's interested, I just blog posted a Rosetta Stone Japanese review... The review is primarily about the Japanese version of the software, but the overall reasoning and conclusion applies to other languages as well.

[Language]

Go to http://www.therosettastonefrench.com/rosetta-stone-spanish-latin-america-level-1-2-3-4-5-set-p-4.html for more details.

[Kiajam]

Pimsleur is better than Rosetta. It makes you comfortable speaking the language. You will not be fluent, but you will come to recognize patterns, and it is a seamless jump off point to fluency. Once you finish, you should work with native material. But for basics, and hearing words, pimsleur is best. It breaks down words from back to front, and you can finally hear how they are joined together. That helps with languages like Ojibwe, Polish, Mandarin, etc. And the phrases will start to flow effortlessly. Pimsleur is better hands down.

[Epidot]

Rosetta Stone is awfull...

I started to use it to learn Tagalog and what people say is correct. Without the translation it's useless. I had learnt some phrases which I thought I new the meaning to, however I didn't. RS makes you understand what is being asked by looking at the picture but it totally fails...

For example

A picture is shown of a man eating food. The answer is involving the word Kumakain which makes you understand the phrase to be "the man is eating"

This may well be correct. It may also go as far as to show the words kain, kaiinin and kumain being used in phrases further down the course. But this is not a good way to learn. And you can imagin how difficult it would be to understand from pictures the following ...

kumakain = eat/eating
kain - eat

Depending purely on the context of the sentence/phrase you use the words in.. can totally change the word altogether. I'd really like to see how RS can teach this with pictures....

If both these words are shown to you will be totally confused "why is this Kumakain and this Kain when both are the same from what I can see in the pictures..."

RS assumes you can figure out why the word has completely changed just by looking at the phrase its used in. Well you cant teach yourself and deffinately not by guessing...

This is just one example of how RS fails and this is why people say you can indeed learn phrases but you cannot apply them to conversation using RS as your learning tool

Pimsleaur is fanstastic and 1000 times better than RS. I don't need to explain why. just try it if you havn't