rosetta stone worth the investment? - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**pinknic38** · 11-04-2007, 10:22 AM

ahh so the new thing now that everyone I work with has seen every TV show and movie ever made (we have a networked media server with all that stuff on it and since January we've watched it all) is everyone has been buying Rosetta Stone. Through the Army we can do it online for free (level 1 only), but the internet is PAINFULLY slow and the website doesn't work anyway because you need some macromedia plugin and because we don't have admin rights on Army computers we can't just go download it (story of my life during this deployment).

anyhoo, it started when me and a few of my coworkers were discussing how to pursue our dreams of marrying a foriegner (one of my coworkers is adamant on marrying Central American royalty - LOL - and is even making a trip when we get back in June to Honduras and Costa Rica I believe)... and me, I feel like maybe I might marry a German diplomat (don't crush my hopes and dreams). but now like 4 people in my office have bought levels 1-3 of different languages... we've got Spanish, Greek, Russian, and I believe Japanese in here at the moment.

I have the dream of learning German. It was my father's first language and his whole side of the family speaks it so when I am there for holidays and they make their little jokes in German, I'm over there on the couch with my sister like "oh good one... NOT". I planned on taking German when I started at OSU next fall, but I thought maybe if I learned a lot from RS, I might be able to test into intermediate level German and wind up with a minor. Plus I am going to Germany to see Celine in June!

The thing that blows it how much it freaking costs...for all 3 levels it's like 430 bucks. I can afford it at the moment but it's like making myself spend that much money on something. But then my boss put it into perspective, he said levels 1-3 of RS is like taking 2 semesters of a language if you're disciplined and taking 2 semesters would cost more than taking RS. He told me to get it and just get a German-English dictionary and one of those German Spark Charts for grammar, and just go to town.

So yeah, I know this RS thing has floated around these boards (so apologies for a repeat), but just wondering everyone's thoughs. I don't just want to plunk down the money if it's not going to be a good thing. In the past I have excelled at language courses (taken both Latin and Spanish), but this is the first "on my own" sort of deal.

thoughts?

EDITED TO SAY: I tried the 20 buck "teach yourself german" cds but just sat there confused as I listened through it. so I am done with the cheap remedies haha