Rosetta Stone or Babbel, which is the better program to become semi fluent (or A2 level) in a foreign language?

[Buzz Rules]

Rosetta Stone or Babbel, which is the better program to become semi fluent (or A2 level) in a foreign language? I have a goal to become semi fluent in Spanish, French, and Italian within the next 10 years to make vacationing in places that speak those languages easier. I'm an intelligent person but when it comes to learning a foreign language, I seem to learn better at a slower pace than an advanced student would in a classroom setting. That's why I'm looking at computers programs that allow me to work on increasing my understanding of the romantic languages in my own time. So fellow Disboarders, from your experience, which is the better learning program or would you recommend using both? Thanks in advance.

 

[GAN]

I "know" some Italian, but when I'm going to be travelling there I usually spend a couple months(maybe 4-hours/week) using DuoLingo. Did the same thing when going to France. I become fluent enough for the locals to appreciate my effort and that's the important thing. I was surprised how well I did in France ...it helped enough for me to understand quite a bit and speak in short sentences. Sounds like you're looking for a little more than that possibly. I know around where I live some schools offer small group language lessons as well(for a much more reasonable cost than Rosetta)

 

[Smugpugmug]

Do community colleges near you offer these languages as classes? You don't need to be a student at the college to take these courses as you can take them for non credits. If you want to learn a language beyond a few phrases and sentences for travelling, then the best way is to be regularly communicating with native speakers of the language.

 

[darnheather]

They are ok, but often not what the every day people speak but the more formal language. Use them in conjunction with watching things on Disney+ in the language you are working on and whatever books you can find on Amazon.

 

[Smugpugmug]

They are ok, but often not what the every day people speak but the more formal language. Use them in conjunction with watching things on Disney+ in the language you are working on and whatever books you can find on Amazon.

Sesame Street is a fantastic show to watch in the language you intend on learning. I watched a lot of Sesamstraße when I took German.

 

[darnheather]

Sesame Street is a fantastic show to watch in the language you intend on learning. I watched a lot of Sesamstraße when I took German.

Yes! I used Teletubbies and Sesame Street to learn Turkish. My daughter is now enjoying Bluey in Turkish because she has every show memorized.

 

[DodgerGirl]

Growing up as a little girl my mother kept trying to teach me Spanish and it never interested me but then my grandmother told my mom that she would like me to talk to her in Spanish and so I got Spanish language learning software and was learning Spanish like a pro and my grandmother was shocked at me at how much Spanish I knew. But I remember when Rosetta Stone came out and my dad and I got a demo disc of it and I can see why it's the number one language learning system in the world. Because when you get the general picture learning languages is very big right now. I even tried mastering Filipino once and have gotten good at it when my dad found a book and I mastered it a few times and it's great. I also have a French lesson on my Nintendo DS and a Spanish lesson that I mainly use as a translator also on my Nintendo DS too