Pimsleur vs Rosetta Stone

[citywayne]

Hi all, this is my 1st post, but I have been lurking on this site for the past 3 years.

A little about myself, in explaination. I, unlike many of you students, am an older, recently retired person (30 years with a megacorp). I am an ABC and do not speak mandarin (understand very basics). My wife is from Taiwan and we plan on spending a good amount of time traveling in Asia (a lot in China for obvious reasons), as well as living in Taiwan and using it as our 'base' in Asia. We would like to 'visit' for a month or two at a time cities like Beijing, Shanghai, ...etc.

My Question.

I have the intro Pimsleur course, taken the 1st 3 'chapters' and found it easy and helpful.

I have seen the ads for Rosetta Stone and how the US Govt. uses this to teach their employees.

Does anyone have experiences with both or either and a recommendation?

Also what is the approximate cost of both for the basic coursework?

By the way, this is a great informative forum. Thanks for all of your helpful posts.

[thph2006]

In my opinion, if you're just starting, Pimsleur is pretty good to get you a beginner's vocabulary but more importantly to start you down the path of good pronunciation which is extremely important if you want to actually communicate and be understood. The downside is even after all three levels you'll have a pretty limited vocabulary of essentially canned phrases and no reading or writing skills.

I think Rosetta Stone is absolutely the wrong thing for someone just starting Mandarin and I would strongly recommend against it. Once you have a little knowledge under your belt though, Rosetta Stone can be useful as a sort of picture based flashcard system. It has 8400 pictures with recorded audio! I actually took the pictures and mp3 files, put them in iTunes and now I use it as sort of flashcard fire hose.

There's also a fair amount of information in the forums about both Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone. Just use the search function to find it. Here are a couple links to threads to get you started.

Thread on Pimsleur vs. Rosetta Stone

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/12575-pimsleur-or-rosetta-stone&highlight=rosetta+stone+pimsleur

Thread on ChinesePod with some good information on Pimsleur and other approaches as well.

http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/11192-chinesepodcom-does-it-really-work&highlight=rosetta+stone+pimsleur

One last thought. With your wife being from Taiwan you have the ultimate situation. Just corner her for an hour after dinner every night and get her to teach you. It'll be much better than any program!

[DrZero]

Cornering the wife for Chinese lessons is, in my experience, easier said than done. It depends on the person and to what extent they are equipped for that sort of thing. In the case of my wife, her patience runs very thin very fast, and she generally avoids teaching me in any structured manner. When her friends come over, I sometimes corner them into a Chinese lesson. Also, having the language spoken around you constantly helps a great deal when you are learning the language more formally through an audio course or flashcards or whatever. You may learn a word this afternoon, then hear in a conversation at your house this evening ... and find that it really helped you understand what was being said. That really makes the words stick! My listening comprehension is much better than my speaking.

[simonlaing]

Yes although having a chinese person to practice with is a good. I would be careful making your wife the only source of Chinese learning. Sometimes there can be a role confusion issues.

She's pissed at you for not doing the laundry so she is stricter in correcting your tones.

Enrolling in regular classes at a school or getting a tutor works better as a rule if you are serious about learning Chinese.

Good luck,

have fun,

Simon:)

[citywayne]

Thanks to all who have responded. This is very helpful. For our travels in Europe, does anyone have any experience with the Pimsleur French, Spanish, and Italian courses?

btw, my wife has a lot of family in Taiwan and I think that I will force myself to immerse myself in the community, so that should help. The problem is that I use my wife as a crutch (I revert to English due to my laziness and use her as translator)

On a different note, does anyone have experience with 'speaking' language translator devices by Franklin and ? (I forget the other manufacturer). I think that this would also be a crutch, but you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks.

I hope to travel in the Beijing area within the next year or so. Since many of you are students or ? there, it would be great to get together with you. ...sort of a built in community of expats.

Thanks again. I have learned a lot from many of you.

[novemberfog]

Regarding pimsleur for euro-languages, my father used the German series and it helped him to travel around Germany alone. It prepared him enough to handle things like shopping and ordering food and making small talk when necessary. So he recommends the course to me always.

The dictionary translators are also helpful in the beginning I think. When I first moved to Japan, I had the basics down but had difficulty making sentences because there were still so many words I did not know. For about three to six months I carried my electronic dictionary with me everywhere, and after I settled into the language, I no longer needed it. So yes, I think it helps and yes, it is a crutch, but often a necessary one in the beginning stages.

[citywayne]

Thanks for the response Novemberfog. Was your unit a 'speaking' one or just visual?

I am wondering if anyone has experience with the 'talking' translators. There is a big premium for them and I was wondering if they are worth the cost.

[roddy]

If you are actually wanting to learn the language, a decent phrasebook will teach you at the same time as helping you communicate. And you can just point at the characters if necessary, which is probably more reliable than trying to get people to listen to a dodgy synthesized voice.

[bomaci]

I agree with the above that you shouldn't let your wife be your chinese teacher. But be sure to keep you ears wide open whenever she talks to other chinese people. You will pick up a lot this way. But most of your studying should be done on your own. When you later move onto real content you can ask your wife for explanations of phrases or vocabulary you don't understand.

[novemberfog]

Thanks for the response Novemberfog. Was your unit a 'speaking' one or just visual?

Mine was a visual dictionary only, it did not have the speaking capability. But my good friend in college was a student from Taipei, and she used a speaking dictionary her whole time while she was getting her master's degree in the US. She was more of an audial learning than a visual learner though.

[citywayne]

But my good friend in college was a student from Taipei, and she used a speaking dictionary her whole time while she was getting her master's degree in the US. She was more of an audial learning than a visual learner though.

Do you remember what the brand name was. Franklin and Lingo are the two I have seen advertised. Anyone have any experiences with either? I was planning on buying one that does multiple languages so I can also use it in Europe.

Roddy ... I understand your point on the 'voice', ... but being the 'lazy type' (otherwise I would have started my language lessons earlier in life), I am more than happy to have the 'crutch'.

I will also take the 'wife as teacher' warnings to heart.

Thanks All.

[roddy]

Fair enough, I'm a big fan of crutches myself.

Rosetta Stone currently have a 6-month money-back guarantee on CD-ROM products in the UK, for anyone in the UK. here. Best check T&C's, I just saw it on the telly.

[paulstyles]

I was just reading "How to Learn Any Language" by Barry Farber and he talks a lot about Pimsleur...he was certified by the US Army in 14 languages and has studied two or three dozen languages during his lifetime. He emphasized that learning on the go is one of the best ways to stay immersed in learning a new language, which you just can't do with Rosetta Stone. I started learning Mandarin with Pimsleur and it was definitely the best way for me to start speaking right off the bat. I was on youtube the other day and saw a video of a 10 year old rattling off Japanese after just a day of study http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceW86vUy8Vc It's kind of amazing how fast you can get going with Pimsleur. Anyhow that's my 2 cents!

[thph2006]

I'm not a real fan of Rosetta Stone but to be fair the newer 3.0 version of the product is a definite improvement over the previous version. It now includes mp3 files similar to the Pimsleur audio so you can play the lesson content on your ipod.