Question:
Rosetta Stone for Russian?
Steve K
2010-01-02 05:26:42 UTC
I am very interested in using rosetta stone for Russian. I am hesitant to buy it however based on Russian's severely different alphabet.

Has anyone with no prior experience in Russian tried it and can confirm that it is worth it and teaches you well?
Three answers:
Japagerfrenchinese
2010-01-03 01:42:37 UTC
First of all, the alphabet isn't that different. My first language is Japanese (although I barely used it between the ages of five and twenty) and I also know a lot of Mandarin and Korean, and a little Arabic and Cantonese. THOSE, my dear are different. There are even a few letters in the Cyrillic alphabet that look and sound almost exactly like the way you say them in European languages, just with a different accent; "a" for example, is the same, sometimes like "fall" and sometimes a little more like "cat" depending on the word.



If that's your biggest concern, you should know that Rosetta does have specific lessons to teach you how to read and spell accurately. Also, it's the only program with voice recognition software to coach you on speaking and pronouncing correctly.



I don't know what the other person means by "It only teaches nouns" because I distinctly remember verbs less than one minute into the program and being able to do about twenty types of sentences in less than half an hour. It has specific lessons for grammar, reading, listening, pronunciation, conversation, and it even teaches you how to type Russian, which they don't even teach in most college courses.



It has a six month money back guarantee anyway, so even if it doesn't work for you, you can just get a refund. Just make sure you buy it directly from Rosetta Stone company and not from some store or other website because then the guarantee is void.
Jennifer
2010-01-02 16:13:52 UTC
I've tried Rosetta Stone for Russian - it's definately NOT worth the money - it's really over priced.



I'd recommend a programme called "Linkword"



IT's fantastic - it teaches you by associating words with english words. Google it - on their website you can do a trial in russian. It doesn't teach how to read though - it teaches in the english alphabet. It does include a small alphabet learn section - I'd recommend just teaching yourself alphabet - get hold of some russian writing and practice reading with the alphabet translation with you. Best way - and I've tried lots!



Also - Rosetta stone - used just photographs to show what it means - so it will say "man" and you need to click on the man. But the photos aren't very clear sometimes - it could mean, man, driving, sitting etc. My boyfriend had to tell me what a lot of the words meant because he's russian -
GLXS
2010-01-02 13:30:32 UTC
No, stay away from RS, you're better off using the internet! Rosetta Stone only teaches nouns (which you could do with a dictionary) and no grammar, which is the structure of a language, so it's a complete waste of money. Look elsewhere!


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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