I'm approaching an age milestone (yikes!), so I took a look at the "To-Do Before Age __" list I made years ago and there was one item that still nagged at me: "practice a second language."
I barely remember the Spanish I "learned" in high school and really longed to learn something new, like French or Mandarin.
There are sooo many programs and apps out there, but I wasn't sure which were legitimate. With DuoLingo, Memrise, and more, I figured the newer ones were the best, but one standby kept cropping up: Rosetta Stone.
I remembered the big yellow multi-box gift set, but turns out they have an app now with over 50,000 reviews on the App Store, averaging at 4.7/5.
I did some digging, and this is what current users love about Rosetta Stone:
"After a base of Rosetta Stone, you can go to a country and communicate"
"You have to speak Italian to get past 'tourist' Italy… and that's 95% of it."
"I feel like after a base of Rosetta Stone, you can go to a country and get started with people; and then they will take you into, really, the true purpose of a language is—and that's to communicate." - Carole from Washington DC, studying Italian
"Wait a minute - I'm speaking Japanese! I got chills"
"[My roommate] didn't know English, and I didn't think at that time I knew Japanese that well. We're sitting at the dinner table, and I'm just having a conversation with her. And I was like, 'Wait a minute—I'm speaking Japanese to her!' I got chills." - Melissa from Baltimore, MD, studying Japanese
"Makes traveling so much easier"
"[Rosetta Stone] makes traveling so much easier.
I walked up to a Greek man who was selling something on the street, and I asked him [a question] in Greek … and he responded in such fluent Greek that I assume my question made sense to him and he didn't think to dumb it down for me.
That was a very cool moment, and it inspired me to keep going with it and get even better." - Jessica from Washington DC, studying French, Greek, and Spanish
"Instead of listening to the news, put on your language."
"I work with foreign exchange students—placing them in the community and also taking students myself—because I figure, I was an exchange student and it changed my life. I should give this back to some other kids."
"I try and spend at least an hour twice a week- instead of playing music or listening to the news, put on your language." - Pamela from Hawaii, studying Russian
"[Rosetta Stone] allowed me to navigate my way"
"I studied Spanish and Italian with Rosetta Stone, and … just being able to have a few conversations on the road allowed me to navigate my way within those countries." - Peter, Los Angeles, CA, studying Spanish and Italian
"When I'm not busy [working] in the hospital, I go over my lessons."
"[My patients] feel comfortable with a physician who speaks their language… that barrier is diminished when you can speak another language...Recently, I downloaded the app. Sometimes, when I'm not on very busy rotation in the hospital, I'll have a few minutes and I like to go over some of my lessons." - Amber from Shreveport, LA studying Spanish
Rosetta Stone has some amazing features, like stories, speech-recognition technology, and more. Users also loved the user-friendly interface and how you could download lessons, so if you're traveling, you can still use the app without wifi.
For a limited time, if you buy Rosetta Stonefor 12 months or more, which works out to $10.38 a month, you don't just get access to one language - you get them all! If I started learning French and wanted to tack on Mandarin, Spanish, Arabic, Japanese, or Italian, I absolutely could.
I picked my plan and I'm so excited to start practicing!