Off topic: Rosetta Stone

[Crazy Hippos]

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Has anyone used it? Is it worth the money?

 

[HopefulAg]

General consensus from people I know who've used it is that it doesn't work, either that or it's at best a supplement.

I've tried it to learn German, but it seemed more like vocabulary flash cards than anything else. You don't learn conjugation and what not with it. Or at least actively (I suppose over time they expect you to recognize the difference in the same word and the tense, but I'd rather have someone just blatantly point out the difference to me). But I do think it'd make a nice supplement to a standard book.

 

[Armymutt25A]

I concur. We have it free through the Army and it's great if you want to learn specific phrases, but I don't think it will make you conversational.

 

[marycatherine]

If you'd like to try it, check at your local library or school's library! Our public library had online access to it, we could just use our library card numbers as a password. ...of course by the time I got around to wanting to test drive it, they canceled the subscription for a different language learning software.

 

[SoBeVet]

If you'd like to try it, check at your local library or school's library! Our public library had online access to it, we could just use our library card numbers as a password. ...of course by the time I got around to wanting to test drive it, they canceled the subscription for a different language learning software.

@marycatherine, This is going to be completely off topic but did you do the camino de santiago in spain? your avatar is one of the many symbols of that pilgrimage.

 

[marycatherine]

Yes, I wrote you back on my profile but I can answer here! I did the pilgrimage from Roncesvalles to Compostela this past May, and am hoping to go back this year-- but might not get to because of pre-reqs. Are you a pilgrim??

 

[SoBeVet]

Yes, I wrote you back on my profile but I can answer here! I did the pilgrimage from Roncesvalles to Compostela this past May, and am hoping to go back this year-- but might not get to because of pre-reqs. Are you a pilgrim??

Thats awesome! Yes I am. Actually the pilgrimage runs through my village where I spend all my summers there. Its funny to freak pilgrims out when they speak rough spanish and I reply to them in English showing where the albergues are. They always have that look of, "How the hell is there an American girl living here in the middle of nowhere." My village is called Bercianos del Real Camino, its a couple of villages before Leon, right after the town of Sahagun.

I did the pilgrimage when I was a junior in high school from Sahagun to Astorga, twisted my ankle there and had to stop at a gas station along the way and wait for my mother to pick me up and take me back to my village. Lol. Hopefully soon Ill be building stables and owning some horses there so one day I would like to get back on it but this time riding on a horse. You don't see that many pilgrims doing it that way.

 

[marycatherine]

Thats awesome! Yes I am. Actually the pilgrimage runs through my village where I spend all my summers there. Its funny to freak pilgrims out when they speak rough spanish and I reply to them in English showing where the albergues are. They always have that look of, "How the hell is there an American girl living here in the middle of nowhere." My village is called Bercianos del Real Camino, its a couple of villages before Leon, right after the town of Sahagun.

I did the pilgrimage when I was a junior in high school from Sahagun to Astorga, twisted my ankle there and had to stop at a gas station along the way and wait for my mother to pick me up and take me back to my village. Lol. Hopefully soon Ill be building stables and owning some horses there so one day I would like to get back on it but this time riding on a horse. You don't see that many pilgrims doing it that way.

Oh I could not be more jealous!! If you ever need someone to muck your stalls for a summer, you give me a call.

This is the first Bercianos thing I could find in my photos:

And perhaps this is the entrance? We stayed in the town that had this cross at the front. Sorry to be vague, but my journal and book are at my parents' house right now!

...I've also got this tattoo, while I'm sharing.

 

[SoBeVet]

Sick tat!! I've been meaning to get one of the cross of St. James (you know the red one that looks like a sword) but mother will have my head. Thats so freaking cool that you at least have something from my village. The pic of the cross is the entrance to the next town, El Burgo Ranero. You passed by my house though, I live on the street where the pilgrims walk by. Mine was still under construction but my grandmothers is just across the street.

Yea, Ill def send you a message about helping me out in the stalls. Got accepted to study at the University of Edinburgh this fall so if you are ever in Spain (or Europe) again, let me know! I got connections to some breeding ranches there if you want an internship/experience.

Sorry to everyone else for inputing this tangent off the main topic. If it helps I'm considering getting Rosetta Stone for the Gaelic languages. ^_^

 

[marycatherine]

Sick tat!! I've been meaning to get one of the cross of St. James (you know the red one that looks like a sword) but mother will have my head. Thats so freaking cool that you at least have something from my village. The pic of the cross is the entrance to the next town, El Burgo Ranero. You passed by my house though, I live on the street where the pilgrims walk by. Mine was still under construction but my grandmothers is just across the street.

Yea, Ill def send you a message about helping me out in the stalls. Got accepted to study at the University of Edinburgh this fall so if you are ever in Spain (or Europe) again, let me know! I got connections to some breeding ranches there if you want an internship/experience.

Sorry to everyone else for inputing this tangent off the main topic. If it helps I'm considering getting Rosetta Stone for the Gaelic languages. ^_^

I had so much trouble deciding between the shell and St. James cross! I only went with the shell because I didn't feel like I was in a religiously-correct-place for getting a cross (I don't know if that makes sense, but it's hard to explain, especially on a public forum, haha). But I think it'd be so neat to have a red tattoo of it.

I'd been planning to go from Roncesvalles to Santiago again this May/June as a peer-leader for a program from my school-- which would almost pay for my trip for me. The only problem is that if I do go it will set me back almost a year for some for science pre-reqs? I'm thinking I might postpone my Camino trip until I've got more free time, even though I'd have to pay for it myself if I did. (However then I could also get some sort of internship and animal experience after it, so maybe I can justify it a little, haha.)

Also when I get home I'll check my passport-thing, I've got stamps from most of the towns I passed through and I bet I can find where we ate breakfast in Bercianos del Real Camino, haha.

This is the picture in my iPhoto right before the Bercianos sign, I think we ate breakfast here? (I liked the clock!)

And sorry OP for hijacking the Rosetta thread, it's just so weird/exciting to have found someone else who knows the Camino.

 

[HopefulAg]

Ok so I'm interested: what on earth are ya'll talking about? Sounds awesome.

 

[marycatherine]

Ok so I'm interested: what on earth are ya'll talking about? Sounds awesome.

The Camino de Santiago is a medieval pilgrimage route that primarily runs through Northern Spain (however some pilgrims begin in France or farther) and is one of the 3 major pilgrimage routes for Christianity (the others being Rome and Jerusalem). It's well known among Spanish scholars, Catholics, people in Europe, etc, though doesn't get too much press here in the States.

I got a chance to do the pilgrimage this past summer and hiked 500 miles across Spain. It was the best 5 weeks of my life. (I did the pilgrimage for personal/academic/sport reasons, though many people do it for religious reasons.) Basically, you get up every morning from 5am-7am and start walking, stopping in small towns for breakfast/lunch and eventually staying at an albergue (special hostels for pilgrims). The path is marked by yellow arrows and shells (see my avatar) and everyone along the way is pretty accomodating towards pilgrims. The hostels range from peoples' houses to rooms full of bunkbeds, sometimes with hot water sometimes without, and some where everyone cooks dinner together. The pilgrimage route has gained popularity in the past 10 years, and hundreds of thousands of people make the walk every year.

Along the way you get stamps in your passport (called a credential), which proves how far you've traveled. When you get to Santiago de Compostela, you take your passport to the office and if you've walked more than 100km you get a compostela. For Catholicism I believe it absolves 1/3rd of your sins? 1/10th? Something like that? Either way, I got one because of course I'm getting the certificate after 800km, hahaha.

In short, it's almost like a shorter Appalachian Trail with a lot of gorgeous cathedrals, tiny Spanish towns, and international company. Not to mention I pet a ton of random animals! (So many of my pictures are of stray dogs/cats or horses/cows we'd stumble upon in a field, all of which were friendly.)

here's the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_St._James
here's some photos of a passport: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pilgrim_Passport2.jpg
(mine was way bigger and basically full of stamps because I filled it up for my dad because he loves these kind of things)

 

[Crazy Hippos]

Thanks for your input guys! Oh, and the pilgrimage stuff is interesting too. 🙂

 

[iheartpandas]

I agree with the others that Rosetta Stone is just okay... I highly recommend the Pimsleur series for any given language, however! The lessons are engaging and really get you thinking in the target language. Best tool I used for learning Spanish.

It's pricey, but if you don't have the $$ to spend you can often get them at the library (or through interlibrary loan), or join a place like http://www.simplyaudiobooks.com (kinda like Netflix for audiobooks), at least long enough to try them out.

 

[HopefulAg]

The Camino de Santiago is a medieval pilgrimage route that primarily runs through Northern Spain (however some pilgrims begin in France or farther) and is one of the 3 major pilgrimage routes for Christianity (the others being Rome and Jerusalem). It's well known among Spanish scholars, Catholics, people in Europe, etc, though doesn't get too much press here in the States.

I got a chance to do the pilgrimage this past summer and hiked 500 miles across Spain. It was the best 5 weeks of my life. (I did the pilgrimage for personal/academic/sport reasons, though many people do it for religious reasons.) Basically, you get up every morning from 5am-7am and start walking, stopping in small towns for breakfast/lunch and eventually staying at an albergue (special hostels for pilgrims). The path is marked by yellow arrows and shells (see my avatar) and everyone along the way is pretty accomodating towards pilgrims. The hostels range from peoples' houses to rooms full of bunkbeds, sometimes with hot water sometimes without, and some where everyone cooks dinner together. The pilgrimage route has gained popularity in the past 10 years, and hundreds of thousands of people make the walk every year.

Along the way you get stamps in your passport (called a credential), which proves how far you've traveled. When you get to Santiago de Compostela, you take your passport to the office and if you've walked more than 100km you get a compostela. For Catholicism I believe it absolves 1/3rd of your sins? 1/10th? Something like that? Either way, I got one because of course I'm getting the certificate after 800km, hahaha.

In short, it's almost like a shorter Appalachian Trail with a lot of gorgeous cathedrals, tiny Spanish towns, and international company. Not to mention I pet a ton of random animals! (So many of my pictures are of stray dogs/cats or horses/cows we'd stumble upon in a field, all of which were friendly.)

That sounds really awesome, and I'm not even religious lol. Thanks for the info. Is it a once a year deal or do people do it all the time? Might be interesting to do for the Summer.

 

[Armymutt25A]

... I'm considering getting Rosetta Stone for the Gaelic languages. ^_^

The RS I've been working on is Irish (Gaelic). They don't have Scottish. There's a bit of a difference, but I suppose it would help if you were planning a trip and needed to be able to recognize important things, like the signs on a toilet (might as well use the English vernacular). Oddly enough, my pigeon-Arabic seemed to work well enough, and the population I was with only learned English from the other Americans who had been with them. Hmm...maybe I need to get back into the language learning again.

 

[lazyjayn]

rosetta stone is ok, but not really usefull, I find. I used, or tried to use, the one for dutch, and it was about 40 words by the end of lesson 10. I can say (or could say) that the woman walked/ danced in the car. the lessons are the same for all languages, and at no point do they really explain the sounds. It's like the whole language method for reading. You end up really good at about 600 words, and otherwise totally lost. Pimsleur is better, and I think that's totally useless. There's actually a pile of free info available. try foreign service institute online. the books/ paper info is available for most languages on ERIC, and the tapes are available free in about half a dozen places. Don't know if they have a selection of celtic/ gaelic languages available, but I'd think those would best be learned in places they might still be spoken. I find the finnish FSI course from the 60's to be quite acceptable.

Eventually, you would of course want to move on to more advanced information, and live podcasts and things in the target language, but I think the FSI info is more than suitable to beginners.

 

[lazyjayn]

double post

 

[Armymutt25A]

Google has a website that will translate websites into a target language. Definitely a way to learn languages. We have a family friend who taught himself German by watching WWII movies with the subtitles blocked out. He's an interesting English gentleman who also has written his own tours of London (some of the best I've seen) and refers to William Shakespeare as "Bill" in his summaries of his works.

 

[marycatherine]

That sounds really awesome, and I'm not even religious lol. Thanks for the info. Is it a once a year deal or do people do it all the time? Might be interesting to do for the Summer.

You can go anytime you want. If you wanted to go in the winter-time you might have to do a little more research/calling because some of the hostels are closed in the winter. This summer it's going to be real busy because it's a Holy Year, so lots of people are expected to be doing the pilgrimage.

A lot of people do it just for sport. I saw a guy who was speed-rollerblading (on roads) the whole way. He had a car following him with people that would run in and get stamps for him. Tons of people bike the Camino, though it's a bit off-road at points. For walking, it's a definite work-out at points, but so much fun to go through fields and mountains and across farms and through tiny towns. Everyone is so nice-- some women in the towns bake food specifically to give to pilgrims as they walk through town.

If you do think of doing it, drop me a message. I could talk about it forever.

 

[marycatherine]

Google has a website that will translate websites into a target language. Definitely a way to learn languages. We have a family friend who taught himself German by watching WWII movies with the subtitles blocked out. He's an interesting English gentleman who also has written his own tours of London (some of the best I've seen) and refers to William Shakespeare as "Bill" in his summaries of his works.

I've also had luck with putting foreign language subtitles on foreign language films-- putting German subtitles while they are speaking German. It helps if they speak quickly and you can read the words, too.

 

[iheartpandas]

I've also had luck with putting foreign language subtitles on foreign language films-- putting German subtitles while they are speaking German. It helps if they speak quickly and you can read the words, too.

Oh, that reminds me of a really good book--How to Learn Any Language: Quickly, Easily, Inexpensively, Enjoyably and On Your Own by Barry Farber. Lots of good tips in it, including the movie tip.

I also used the Foreign Service Institute stuff and it's definitely helpful too. For me, Pimsleur was better overall.

 

[cateyes]

I've used the pimsleur method, and I really like it. it's more to get you conversational in the country, so alot of it is travel useful information (i want to buy, you said, i don't understand, how much, numbers ect). However, there's plenty to get you going. after i felt i had a good basis, I went to movies, music and radio stations to listen to as much as i could..once you've got the basis (which is really all pimsleur promises you) you have a much easier/faster time picking up the rest of the stuff that you need to know.

 

[lazyjayn]

another resource for (free, online) ideas/ methods/ suggestions, is all japanese all the time, here, by a guy who taught himself japanese well enough to get hired into a japanese speaking job in japan.

also, there are resources like mnemosyne, a flash card-like program which will run off a USB drive, and the forums at how to learn any language.

I think the biggest thing with this whole deal is to figure out what works for you. Some people (my father) really like RS. Pimsleur gave me enough arabic that I could manage "I don't speak much arabic, do you speak english". The teach yourself books were almost totally useless, and I picked up waaaay more of the language I tried when I was actually in a country it was spoken.

I guess what I like about the FSI stuff is that there is soooo much audio, if you have a halfway decent ear you can pick up a decent accent. It also has the written stuff, so you can figure out the writing.- oh, yeah, and it's available online free.

I wouldn't use any of them alone, though, or much past beginner level. FSI in particular tends to be more formal, and you risk sounding like a fusty old stick in the mud. But that's what the intarwebs are for. And there are subs and dubs of stuff, and webcasts of local news, in all kinds of languages. Heck, if you get to that point, you can do language swaps with people trying to learn english- an hour in your target language, an hour in their target language.

-j.

 

[Crazy Hippos]

Thanks everyone! I'll definitely look into all these things (including the Camino)!