Language Software

[Colleen27]

I know this has been discussed here before so I'm hoping some voices of experience can help me out. Dd13 has asked for Rosetta Stone Japanese but I'm not convinced it is worth the price.

We have free access to Mango through our public library and have been enjoying that. It is, however, a typical travel oriented conversational course with very little info on grammar or sentence construction. For Spanish that has been fine, but Japanese is so different grammatically and culturally from the Romance and Germanic languages that it really demands a different approach IMO. Dd is thinking Rosetta Stone is a more comprehensive course; I'm skeptical and think it is probably just a different conversational program.

So, can anyone share reviews of RS? Comparisons to Mango? Other ideas for language learning software that covers grammar and reading/writing in addition to conversational vocabulary and phrases?

 

[barkley]

dh purchased rosetta stone to learn greek, and his intent is to be able to read and write it as well as speak it (so not travel oriented). he's been VERY impressed. the program is very thorough, and the voice recognition aspect won't permit the student to progress unless they've mastered the correct structure and pronunciation. another aspect of rosetta's package that's been very beneficial is the ability to sign up (included in the package-no extra charge) for live on-line instruction with a teacher. dh signs up for a date/time and interacts on-line in group (and sometimes one on one) sessions. as he progresses to completing (independently) different modules in the program he can schedule subsequent live sessions.

I was alarmed at the prices as well, but they do have specials-right now they are doing the first 3 levels (which is ALOT of modules) for $179 vs. their normal $399.

 

[auralia]

I know the government uses the program's for their linguists from time to time as well.

 

[texasroni75]

Rosetta Stone has a 30-day return policy, so you could try it for a month and decide. Also, they have a homeschool version. I'm considering it for my DD(13).

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I am using it for Spanish and absolutely love it. When I have mastered Spanish, I plan on purchasing the program to learn Polish.

 

[chris31997]

I currently live in Japan.

I love Rosetta Stone. We have used both. Both work. But in my opinion Rosetta Stone is better.

However to learn to write in the proper format and kanji of Japanese, you will need to invest in books that your DD can trace and learn the proper way to write in Japanese. There are 3 forms of Japanese, kanji, something that starts with a "h", and romanji(English letters). If it is not written in Romanji and written correctly she might say "tree" but write "apple" because a line is misplaced or not curved right.

These books should also teach basic grammer.

I also recommend that you take the time to find manga books. Make sure you preview them some are very adult and XXX rated. You want to find the ones you read "backwards". From the back of the book-left to right. Some of the translated ones read that way, otherwise I would get the ones in Japanese. My kids read Conan- a dedective series and a couple others that I can't spell

Youtube has been great for annime. You can find annime with subtitles so that you are hearing Japanese and picking up on the English. However, the catch with that is that annime is "cute" Japanese and not used in connversation. But it helps you to pick up words and understand connversation and gammer.

My DD has done all of them above. Watched annime, read, writing books, mango, and rosetta stone. The Japanese here are amazed she can talk with them in Japanese. The only thing she can do that your DD can't do is be in the cultrure by dancing and out and about

Just a random fact: o get into high school you have to know over 3000 characters. Something like words


Good luck in learning Japanese. It is a very hard language to learn.

 

[pryncess527]

. Dd is thinking Rosetta Stone is a more comprehensive course; I'm skeptical and think it is probably just a different conversational program.

This is my opinion. I think it's great for travel, and casual use -- but the Spanish department at the Uni where I work does not consider it helpful for students enrolled in University Spanish because they say it is more focused on vocabulary and not the language skills they emphasize in class. Our students do get access to it for free though.

 

[Colleen27]

Rosetta Stone has a 30-day return policy, so you could try it for a month and decide. Also, they have a homeschool version. I'm considering it for my DD(13).

That is very good to know! Thank you.

I am using it for Spanish and absolutely love it. When I have mastered Spanish, I plan on purchasing the program to learn Polish.

Polish? I'd love to hear how that goes when you start it. My family is Polish and I've always thought about learning but it isn't a course that is offered in my neck of the woods so it has been on the back burner for a long time. It might be my next project after Japanese, though.

I currently live in Japan.

I love Rosetta Stone. We have used both. Both work. But in my opinion Rosetta Stone is better.

However to learn to write in the proper format and kanji of Japanese, you will need to invest in books that your DD can trace and learn the proper way to write in Japanese. There are 3 forms of Japanese, kanji, something that starts with a "h", and romanji(English letters). If it is not written in Romanji and written correctly she might say "tree" but write "apple" because a line is misplaced or not curved right.

These books should also teach basic grammer.

I also recommend that you take the time to find manga books. Make sure you preview them some are very adult and XXX rated. You want to find the ones you read "backwards". From the back of the book-left to right. Some of the translated ones read that way, otherwise I would get the ones in Japanese. My kids read Conan- a dedective series and a couple others that I can't spell

Youtube has been great for annime. You can find annime with subtitles so that you are hearing Japanese and picking up on the English. However, the catch with that is that annime is "cute" Japanese and not used in connversation. But it helps you to pick up words and understand connversation and gammer.

My DD has done all of them above. Watched annime, read, writing books, mango, and rosetta stone. The Japanese here are amazed she can talk with them in Japanese. The only thing she can do that your DD can't do is be in the cultrure by dancing and out and about

Just a random fact: o get into high school you have to know over 3000 characters. Something like words


Good luck in learning Japanese. It is a very hard language to learn.

Thank you for the detailed advice!

I have a pretty good grasp of hiragana/katakana but only know a handful of kanji so far. We went over the jouyou kanji, which are the 2000-some that Japanese students learn in primary school, but only had to master the first 30.

I actually have a lot of manga laying around from back when the only way to get them in the US was in Japanese. I was a big Sailor Moon fan in middle/high school. Now that Kodansha is translating most of the popular series and publishing them in English it has gotten very difficult to find Japanese manga. Even at Youmacon, which is a pretty sizable Japanese pop culture convention, there was much more in English than in Japanese.

Anime on the other hand is easy. With Netflix and Hulu we have access to a lot of series with a choice of original or dubbed versions, and the DVD/Blu-Ray releases tend to have both language tracks to choose from. That's actually where my 13yo's interest in Japanese started, with my old manga and anime collections.

I'm planning on doing a short-term study abroad course in Japan in May 2016 and we're hoping to travel there as a family in 2018 as a sort of graduation gift to my DD, but scheduling issues mean I'm stuck with almost a year between taking Japanese 1 and 2 at school so I'm trying to do what I can to practice in the meantime.

 

[Dashzap]

This doesn't currently cover Japanese, but I thought others might find the info useful. Duolingo is free and they say studies show it is as effective as Rosetta Stone.

https://www.duolingo.com

Duolingo offers Latin American Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Danish, Irish and Swedish courses for English speakers, as well as American English for Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, Russian, Polish, Turkish, Hungarian, Romanian, Japanese, Hindi, Indonesian, Korean and Czech speakers.

It is available on the Web, iOS, Android and Windows Phone 8.1 platforms. I use it on my android phone daily.

I found it through a fascinating TEDtalk, by the guy who invented CAPTCHA. It is worth watching even if you aren't interested in learning a language. It's from 2011 but still worth it: http://www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration

The service is designed so that, as users progress through the lessons, they simultaneously help to translate websites and other documents.

 

[chris31997]

That is very good to know! Thank you.



Polish? I'd love to hear how that goes when you start it. My family is Polish and I've always thought about learning but it isn't a course that is offered in my neck of the woods so it has been on the back burner for a long time. It might be my next project after Japanese, though.



Thank you for the detailed advice!

I have a pretty good grasp of hiragana/katakana but only know a handful of kanji so far. We went over the jouyou kanji, which are the 2000-some that Japanese students learn in primary school, but only had to master the first 30.

I actually have a lot of manga laying around from back when the only way to get them in the US was in Japanese. I was a big Sailor Moon fan in middle/high school. Now that Kodansha is translating most of the popular series and publishing them in English it has gotten very difficult to find Japanese manga. Even at Youmacon, which is a pretty sizable Japanese pop culture convention, there was much more in English than in Japanese.

Anime on the other hand is easy. With Netflix and Hulu we have access to a lot of series with a choice of original or dubbed versions, and the DVD/Blu-Ray releases tend to have both language tracks to choose from. That's actually where my 13yo's interest in Japanese started, with my old manga and anime collections.

I'm planning on doing a short-term study abroad course in Japan in May 2016 and we're hoping to travel there as a family in 2018 as a sort of graduation gift to my DD, but scheduling issues mean I'm stuck with almost a year between taking Japanese 1 and 2 at school so I'm trying to do what I can to practice in the meantime.

How cool. A family trip in 2018 would be lots of fun. So many things to see and do.

Something else you might want to look into would be ask around and see if there are any Japanese clubs/retirement homes/groups in the community that you can join/volunteer at. Then you can practice.

My mother in law has a German club in FL and they meet once a month. Some of them more often.

Since you are taking classes and anything(Rosetta Stone, Mango, tapes/cds, books from class) you do to keep up or maintain will be helpful. Your DD will pick it up if you work with her and talk with her. You will pick up a lot from the work study in 2016.

 

[sheetz]

There's an old TV show called "Let's Learn Japanese" that's appropriate for young teens. You can buy accompanying text books off Amazon. The shows can be found on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hZ_jn9j0y8&list=PLD4C5B65A10143C15