Rosetta Stone Reviews

Honestly be so so careful with starting a plan. They charge you and don't even send you notice or an email before taking out your money. I purchased a one off sale and 3 months later it renewed itself. Not a good learning platform and waste of money!

Like anything, there a pluses and minuses.
On the plus side, the “immersive” concept seemed to work well. You have to concentrate to initially work out what’s meant through the context and pictures but I think that helps it sink in.

For me the downside was the technology and the poor customer service. The desktop programme is slow and clunky, so I tended to use the iPad application, but this would constantly “miss-score” review lessons that I’d completed perfectly telling me I’d skipped questions which I’d answered. Also the modules would display incorrect historic scores ie 25/32 completed when I’d completed them all.

I gave up reporting the issues as customer service would either not respond, or fob me off with no real effort to resolve issues.

So, in short, good concept which has helped my Spanish considerably, but let down by poor support and systems. I wouldn’t discourage anyone from trying it, but be prepared for some frustrations.

Maybe it depends on the language but if you are using Rosetta Stone for a language like Irish with a very complex grammar, it is absolutely useless. A lot of what happens in Irish grammar depends on whether the noun/pronoun is masculine, feminine or plural. This is never explained. I only understand the Rosetta Stone sentences because I have been simultaneously following the Duolingo Irish course where all this grammar is explained. If I had only had RS at my disposal I would have given up by now.
I gave 2* rather than 1* only because the audio is good and helps you with the pronunciation.

Wife & I wanted to learn French, in retirement [said to be a great idea to keep 'senior brains' stimulated].
I paid a very large fee for a 'complete course' on CD, promoted as usable on more than 1 device. Our 'retirement presesnt' to ourselves.
We were able to create 2 individual learning accounts and things went OK for a while, though there were occasional technical issues from time to time.
We both used the CDs on a single Windows device for a for some months , but that computer eventually broke down. Our only alternative device was a laptop with no CD drive. Rosetta stone promised to send an email explaining how they could help us continue to use of the service we'd paid [handsomely] for.
No email ever arrived! After a couple more phonecalls to a Philippines call centre and no real help we gave up in disgust - feeling cheated out of hudreds of pounds.
Recently, a propmotional email offered...
"Did you previously purchase one of our CD or downloadable Rosetta Stone products? We want to replace it by giving you a free Rosetta Stone Lifetime subscription.
What's the catch? There isn't one! July 1 - 8 we are giving away single-language Lifetime subscriptions to customers who own outdated versions of Rosetta Stone software.
Why are we offering this? We value our customers, and we want you to be able to take advantage of our new features and innovations. Outdated software, like CDs or downloads, can cause slowdowns in your learning experience."
After years of not being able to use the service this appeared to solve our problem . . .BUT IT DIDN'T !!
Turns out: the 'upgrade is to a INDIVIDUAL ACCOUNT ...so only one of us MIGHT benefit from the "free Rosetta Stone Lifetime subscription". If we both want to learn they want further payments and on a repeat & regular subscription basis which, as pensioners we cannot afford : (
My advice: stay clear of Rosetta Stone !

I signed up for a 3 month subscription to find the app auto-renewed without my permission. Both Rosetta Stone and Apple refused to give me a refund despite me requesting one on the renewal date, having seen the pending transaction in my bank. I would have expected more sympathy during a global pandemic / recession.

My son bought me the app for my birthday. As I had already started learning Russian on Duolingo, I did quite well at the beginning. Once I passed where I was on Duolingo, I found that Rosetta Stone spoke way too fast and I couldn’t slow it down. It asked me to repeat two long sentences that I could never pronounce because it never let me practice the individual words. It was impossible for me to replicate as I couldn’t remember the first sentence when I was trying to get the pronunciation of the second sentence.
I wish I had never asked for this gift as it makes me feel frustrated and stupid.

The app is ok. Their billing system however is a joke. You cannot auto renew users after a set contracted billing period without specific consent. It should not be set automatically. I paid for one year, up front on a set term. I did not consent at any point to renew, on totally different terms, ongoing when I’d already long stopped using the app. Sending an email saying we’ve put on auto renewal and you can stop it is not the equivalent of agreeing a contract for service. I may well have probably agreed to renew it, or paid for life membership if asked. Arbitrarily starting one month renewals without consent is not acceptable under the law in my jurisdiction, no matter what argument you come back with, what generic customer service spiel you give me or how your billing system is setup. If the argument back is that I agreed auto-renewal when making an account, at the time I created it I didn’t for one it only became a feature later, and even if that is the point you try to argue, it would be disingenuous. I’ve no time to pursue getting money back from them, going to try using Duo lingo instead.

A somewhat sour experience with this language course. The course it self is okay, but a lot trickier that you would expect at first. The idea is to put you down as an open-minded child and slowly let the language (in my case Spanish) work on you through texts and pictures. But it is not that simple and a child's brain functions very differently from an adult. Moreover, a child is really immersed in the language in which it grows up, which is of course very different for a non-native.
But my real problem lies in the service and policy of the Rosetta Stone club. I bought a completely legal version, still on CD-ROM. Now this version is simply no longer supported by support. I have a newer version on my desktop than on my laptop, when I asked if I could update the version on my laptop I got the answer that I can only upgrade. And yes that costs money, moreover, that upgrade version can only be used for 1 or 2 years. So just thieves that Rosetta Stone family. I would say wrong, maybe just start another course. Good luck

Great tool for language learning!

I really like Rosetta stone, I've been using another app to teach myself Spanish and getting on well. It was limited in grammar, whereas Rosetta stone teaches you grammar without you even realising. It's very clever system using images, tone, voice and pitch which makes you remember. I'm really glad I purchased!

Loving the way this program teaches you and you pick up meanings and why phrases are the way they are along the way

If you are keen or slightly worried learning a new language. You can be rest assured that Rosetta Stone are with you all the way.

My husband purchased Rosetta stone for me in 2012. Which I registered with them. Which I used several times. and then i was unable to use it (health reasons) and we had a computer destroyed due to a flood. I have the CD and am being told by Rosetta Stone that I am unable to use it because) they deactivated it (and no one there can tell me why) and they want proof of purchase. So let me get this straight. I have the CDs the activation code (which no one could make up as it's about 20 letters and numbers long). They even have my email address and phone number and records but refuse to activate it. So i have a product that my husband paid several hundred dollars for and Rosetta Stone will not honour it. NOT HAPPY with them at all.

Very good, from an ex French Teacher!

Excellent starting point for learning. I'm only on Unit 2 and I've made tons of progress.
The fact it is app based means I can take it everywhere and learn anytime. Highly recommended!

Bought a two year subscription. Was able to use it for about 2 weeks. Now I get constant "UNable to connect" errors, and phone crashes everytime I open the app. I haven't been able to learn anything in weeks. Support literally ignore me.

I desperately wanted to learn this language, but at this stage would rather have a refund and give up. Rubbish company with rubbish support, and an unusable app. Can't believe how much money I've lost over a two year subscription that I can't use. Completely THEFT.

I learnt Spanish with Rosetta Stone for six months prior to a trip to an area of Spain I knew didn’t speak much English. I completed the course and was surprised at how well I could communicate with the local people. Most importantly I could understand most of what was said back to me. The total immersion method worked for me and I can recommend it.

Fantastic course, easy to use and extremely helpful when I am in Italy ??

It's good however need some more sessions like reading n writing more

I'm really impressed with Rosetta Stone - learning a language online has been a much better experience than learning in the classroom. Merci beaucoup :-)

I studied Japanese with Rosetta Stone and my opinion is that it works very well from beginner to intermediate. The beginner gets the kind of immersive experience that makes the intake of new vocabulary easy and spontaneous. The progression is smooth and repetition is well paced. Once you get to intermediate you can still benefit a great deal from the fantastic RS tutors. They are patient, optimistic, and fun. However, when the time comes to fly to advanced level, I suggest something more... advanced. Happy learning!

If you can commit your time to learning then Rosetta Stone is a good provider. I would recommend you take the plunge and book the online speaking tutor, I didn’t and regret not doing as I would have a better understanding of the language I chose.

Awful experience, wouldn’t work properly on my iPhone. Could not communicate at all with them. Do not bother

My experience with Rosetta Stone has been frustrating. I signed up to a 24 month access course. I accessed this through the app. I had a question regarding my account access, so tried to talk through the chat option but nobody answered so I sent a message through the 'contact' option, leaving my email address. I waited over a week and still no reply. I sent a further 2 messages and still no reply. Finally I tried the chat option again and after 30 minutes of waiting for someone to chat, I finally managed to ask my question. The whole chat process took 1 hr 20 mins. I wasn't satisfied so I decided to cancel my subscription and received a full refund. I received a review questionnaire which I returned stating my dissatisfaction and added my email address to be contacted, but still never received a response. I keep receiving messages to ask how I'm enjoying the course, so I've taken this opportunity to say how terrible the after sales service is. I enjoyed the learning style of Rosetta Stone but would rather spend my money on a product where the company cares about the customer and has the decency to respond to so many messages.

An excellent course. My only problems have been with the technology. I would prefer in greater flexibility in how easily I can repeat a lesson. This applies particularly to the lessons in pronunciation, which I find to be a great strength of Rosetta Stone.