I have struggled with Rosetta Stone. My husband also struggled with their Japanese software. It was buggy and expensive.

I finally found a system I can use, for free with duolingo.

I am more than half way through relearning my German, and will start with either French or Italian next.

The program is not error free, but I have gotten to the point where I can advance to reading literature.

Best part, it is all free, so if duolingo doesn't work for you, no loss.

My mom LOVES Rosetta stone, although the price has always been a barrier for me.

I've had good luck with Mango, too -- it's free through my city's libraries. I like how they have a visual element. This has been really valuable to me with Japanese, because they give you the Romanji -- and you can mouse over the different parts of the word or sentence to get the pronunciation of that element.

Lots of people love Pimsleur Audio, too, and I've used it for Spanish (again, through my library), but it was too hard to use it for Japanese because there is no visual/written element -- the sounds are a little more foreign to me, and I couldn't really differentiate between certain sounds with just the audio. Also, the Pimsleur German pronunciation is off (sounds like they didn't use native speakers, to my ear, anyway)-- so that makes me suspicious of how accurate the pronunciation is with their other languages.

I've been meaning to try duolingo for a while now because I want to improve my Spanish reading abilities, and it seems that duolingo stresses the written language more. Would that be accurate?

I've been meaning to try duolingo for a while now because I want to improve my Spanish reading abilities, and it seems that duolingo stresses the written language more. Would that be accurate?

Posted by: sofar at March 7, 2014 1:11 PM

Duolingo is a balanced approach. Lots of reading and constructing sentences. Listening practice, and some speaking practice, but the speaking practice can be turned off.

I have a pretty good ear for German after living there for three years. What I lacked was grammar and vocabulary.

Good news, is I am learning to spell in German. Always terrible at it in English

My husband is living and working in Japan now, If you take a look at Rosetta Stone Japanese you will find very average reviews. He said, their approach was not suitable for the way he learns, and that their translations were often poor. Couple that with the tech support problems, and he abandoned Rosetta stone entirely after about six months.

He attends a Japanese school called Kumon now twice a week, which relies on structured workbooks with a teacher available to help.
Romanji is not particularly helpful in Japan. Kanji are what you need to learn, and those are very difficult.

I use Duolingo in combination with Google translate, two different iphone dictionary apps, and three different Kindle grammar books.

I think relying on one book or program can cause you to forget that there are often several right, and wrong solutions to how to say something.

I am working hard to develop a feeling for verb tenses, and gender word endings.

Romanji is not particularly helpful in Japan.

Oh for sure! But it's excellent for learning the language because it helps me to see it written out in roman letters as I'd say it. It's sort of like, for German, seeing it written out as "Zaihr goot" instead of "Sehr gut," to help with the pronunciation.

I don't think I'm going to have time to learn Kanji/Hiragana/Katakana before I go, and I'm going to be there for such a short time (shy of a month), that I'm just going to focus on speaking and understanding for practical/useful phrases and basic sentences and questions.

I'm definitely going to give Duolingo a try. Thanks!