Thinking about learning a foreign language? Here’s my experience using Rosetta Stone’s app to improve my German!
Confession: I’ve been with a German man for nearly 9 years and my Deutsch is “nicht sehr gut”.
Translation: my German sucks.
I tell myself that it’s not really my fault: Liebling and I met in Hong Kong, shacked up together in London, then got married and moved to New York City.
Besides, with the exception of a really cute accent that nobody can guess is German (people often peg him as French, Dutch, or even British), his English is impeccable, so there’s no real need to use German at all.
And as someone who is fluent in three languages (English, French, Spanish), can order food in three others (Italian, Portuguese, Cantonese), and can curse in at least five more (Mandarin, Greek, Polish, Tagalog, Esperanto) I’ve smugly convinced myself that I’m pretty multilingual already.
But I feel my lack of German language skills as soon as I touch down in my hubby’s hometown of Berlin to see his people. For example, while communicating with my mother-in-law is possible, it’s very slow and encompasses a lot of hand gestures; family functions and get-togethers with his childhood friends usually result in Liebling whispering rapid-fire translations in my ear while I try to play catch up (the girl laughing 30 seconds AFTER the joke was made? That’s me).
When we got married in Berlin four years ago, a last-minute bungle meant that our ceremony was conducted entirely in German, as opposed to both German and English as planned. This meant that I didn’t really understand most of what was said, and that Liebling even had nudge me when it was time to say “I do”. Well, “Ja, Ich will”, if we’re going to be precise.
Of course, I’m being a little too hard on myself: my German isn’t completely disastrous. Still, for some time now I’ve been wanting to improve my speaking and comprehension. But with a punishing travel schedule that doesn’t allow me to take classes, what’s a girl to do?
Enter Rosetta Stone: the mobile app for language learners on the go
So when Rosetta Stone recently contacted me to try their mobile language app, the timing couldn’t have been better. I had an impending trip to Berlin (to attend Liebling’s mom’s birthday bash as well as his best friend’s wedding), so I dutifully downloaded it and waited for magic to happen.
Now, as a former high school French teacher (I have a M.Ed in French Education and taught children for 10 years around the world), I know a thing or two about learning a foreign language. I was thus cautiously optimistic about the app. How well could it aid in language learning?
Extremely well, as it turns out. Let me explain.
How the Rosetta Stone App works
Available in 24 languages, the mobile app takes the best of the company’s programs and presents it in an easy to digest format that makes language learning fun. And here’s the thing: Rosetta Stone’s primary goal is to get you speaking, so the focus is on immersion, not translation.
As a former language teacher, I know that above all else, being able to communicate in the target language is key, so I loved this immersion focus.
The German section of the app has 20 units which contain four half-hour lessons each. Each unit has a theme or topic which informs the vocabulary, grammar, listening, and speaking exercises that follow. This is the same format for all 24 languages the Rosetta Stone app offers.
For example, in Unit 5, which is “Travel” (surprise, surprise), the first lesson begins with teaching vocabulary you would commonly need on your trip to Germany, Austria, Vienna, etc. and how to correctly pronounce it.
It then continues with grammar. However, instead of rote memorization of conjugation and tenses, the Rosetta Stone app instead teaches you phrases that are in context.
The subsequent lessons in each unit build on the previous ones, so that by Lesson 4 you are listening, speaking, and reading in the target language.
The benefits of learning with Rosetta Stone vs. other language learning methods
Portability. While I was mildly skeptical about using a mobile app to improve my German, I discovered that there are many benefits. The first advantage, of course, is the convenience. My phone is basically glued to my hand at all times, so I loved having all this knowledge at the swipe/tap of finger.
Authenticity and audio-visual tools. Secondly, I am really digging the authenticity of the app. When Rosetta Stone promises to teach you the target language with no translation, they mean it! Instead, they use imagery to convey meaning. A common activity in most of the lessons requires you to match the written target language phrase (in my case, German) with the corresponding photo. I liked that there was no immediate default to English to get the message across. Being able to compare my pronunciation with that of a native speaker’s was pretty cool, too.
Unrestricted learning flow. Finally, since the majority of my German has been learned “in the street” (i.e. conversing with native speakers) and not in the classroom, there are a lot of gaps in my knowledge. For that reason, I really enjoyed being able to jump back and forth between lessons so I could both learn completely new things and also brush up on the aspects I was shaky on. The app makes it super easy to jump from, say, Unit 18, Lesson 3 back to Unit 4, Lesson 2.
The Takeaway
You know the expression “Rome wasn’t built in a day”? Well, neither was learning a foreign language. Especially not one like German (have you seen the length of those words?!)
However, I’m happy to report that the Rosetta Stone app will have you well on your way to communicating in languages from French to Farsi. I’m thinking that after I conquer German, I might brush up on my Spanish… before tackling Arabic insh’allah. Because why not? The possibilities are abundant, habibi.
But as for my Deutsch, I’m also happy to share that its improving now that I’ve included the app in my bag of tricks. I’m currently typing this blog post from Berlin, where this weekend I successfully attended my mother in law’s birthday celebrations as well as my hubby’s best friend’s wedding.
And guess what? Literally EVERYBODY I came across at the two events commented on how much better my German has been getting. I smiled graciously at their compliments as I said “Danke sehr” over and over. Little did they know that Rosetta Stone hooked ya girl up!
Join me in my quest to learn more languages — Get the Rosetta Stone app today! Do you speak any foreign languages? Which ones? And how have you learned them?
This post was written in partnership with Rosetta Stone, but all opinions are mine.
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45 Comments
I’ve been wondering if RS was worth the money; thanks for the writeup (and for the screenshots).
I speak Spanish in addition to English (native language). What’s helped more than anything is italki.com. I think it’s the best thing to learn a language. How it works is basically you get a tutor in your target language and you actually speak with someone regularly. There are a few ways to do the lessons but I’ve mainly used Skype.
Rossetta Stone is good application to learn english and others !
I have some German friends and some of them find it hard to express things in English. I’m interested in learning German too and this app is exactly what I need so I could communicate better with them. I wish to learn other languages too and become multi-lingual. This will help me connect better with people from other culture and countries.
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