The Rosetta Stone Audio Companion CDs Are Mostly Useless
Seeing as how Rosetta Stone (relatively) recently released Level 4
The Audio Companion CD’s Aren’t Worth Trying
I was particularly interested in trying the Audio Companion CD’s advertised as coming with the program. It’s been a while since I’ve used Rosetta Stone, and my previous experiences didn’t include any audio CD’s (I guess they didn’t exist back then). I was looking forward to honing my pronunciation (a major strength of the computer program) and practicing useful conversations. Sadly, I got neither.
The audio companion CD’s are nothing more than a listen-and-repeat version of the phrases covered in the corresponding computer lesson a la the Living Language Ultimate Spanish
That said, Rosetta Stone is still well worth buying. It’s the best, most complete product I know of. In conjunction with a good Spanish grammar aid (like the Practice Makes Perfect series), it can get you as close to fluency as you can get without traveling to a Spanish-speaking country and hiring a private tutor, for a fraction of the cost. I just don’t appreciate the obvious money-grab of advertising the audio companions as a major pro of purchasing the program. After all, if that method of learning Spanish actually worked, there would be no market for Rosetta Stone to begin with.
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What about live online lessons using native teachers from the countries listed? I went to a school in Antigua and they offered online lessons. So I have been taking classes once a week for the past 3 months.
What exactly did you expect from an audio companion? Or maybe the better question would be, what would you have done differently to improve the companion audio CDs?
I have been learning the Spanish. I find they uniquely complement the learning. There is a great deal of what I’ll call “patterning” in the Rosetta Stone software. So, very often, I can get the information correct based on likelihoods, rather than a proper understanding of what I’m actually being presented with as choices. Of course, that’s probably part of the software.
However, when I’m driving, I find that this is a GREAT way to let my subconscious make deeper neural impressions of the information. If you remember…the CD’s are “not” intended as a learning tool. They are a ‘review’ tool only. In fact, the instructions on the CD’s even say that you should only use a lesson ‘after’ you’ve completed it online. So, to characterize them as part of a poor way to learn a language (i.e. by simple listen & repeat), is a rather unfair.
But to look at them as a ‘review’ tool, they are really quite useful. As I’m driving, I am focused on traffic. The CD’s are like a person in the car next to me, queuing me with phrases to repeat back. But, as I’m driving, I realize “when I am” and “when I am not” saying the right thing.
As I hear a word or phrase from the lessons, my mind flashes the image I saw. And, as I speak the sentence…I’m realizing that the words coming out of my mouth either do or do not mean what I’m seeing in that momentary mental still frame.
I respect that we all learn differently. But, I find them extraordinarily useful CD’s. I bought them when Spanish was only 3 levels…and, ironically (relative to this article), I found this article as I was searching to see if there is an Audio Companion CD set with the 5 levels they currently have now for Spanish (Latin America).
Thanks for the article. It was informative!