Think of a kid learning a language and it’ll probably be a lot of goo-gooing and gah-gahing, mixed in with the occasional, accidental curse words and a few rapidly inflated spittle bubbles. Then comes random words stabbed into the air: “Mine! Bottle! IPad!” Clumsy, but they get the job done. Then in later years, simple sentences, and so on. It’s a slow process, but most kids seem to get there sooner or later, even the ones that end up eating paste in art class. Kids are absorbent and resourceful.

Rosetta Stone has been on the scene for a long time. The product has its origins in 1992, when Rosetta Stone was released on CD-ROM. It’s gone through a few iterations and is now primarily known as an app, but the core of Rosetta Stone is still the stand-out promise that you’ll learn like native language speakers learn: like a child. I’ve had years of off-and-on experience with Rosetta Stone, and no shortage of opinions.

the takeaway on rosetta stone

Rosetta Stone promises to teach you a language the same way in which babies pick up their native languages: through lots of visual cues and lots and lots of trial and error. It’s such a slow process, though, that it makes me think that once you’re an adult learning a language, you have better, faster, more efficient options.

If I had to think of a new marketing catch phrase for Rosetta Stone, it would be “You’ll get it eventually.” Rosetta Stone does, in my experience, replicate learning like a child, but with all the slowness that entails. But as harsh as that is, I did make some progress using it, which is more than I can say for some other popular language-learning apps.

the good and the bad

The Good

• More engaging than drier language learning platforms.
• 10–15-minute lessons are quick to do
• Fairly generous week-long free trial

The Bad

• Progress is slow
• Have my doubts about the “learn like a child” core process

how i tested

Looking to brush up on my intermediate, functional-but-clunky Spanish, I tend to give Spanish a go on all the language-learning apps I test. That was also the crux of my Rosetta Stone use. I knew enough to know when the app wasn’t providing enough correction or direction, and yet I had enough left to learn where I genuinely needed instructing.

the rosetta stone difference

At first blush it seemed to me that Rosetta Stone backed off slightly from its “learn like a child” marketing message, which is relied upon for many years. But digging a little further I found that they’re just as committed to it as ever. Rosetta Stone is built around it, and always has been, app or not.

“As a child, you learned to speak instinctively by experiencing the world around you,” says an explainer page on Rosetta Stone’s website. On it they explain how they’ve tailored their approach. “Rosetta Stone uses immersion-based learning methods to simulate a real-life immersion experience. By carefully crafting sequences of words and images, we enable you to intuitively derive the meaning of each new language concept.

“For example, if you were being taught French, the program may show you an image of bread, label it ‘du pain’ and ask you what ‘du pain’ is by having you choose between images representing coffee, bread, and milk. By using inductive reasoning, you’ll know that bread is the correct choice.”

The Lessons

Lessons commonly look like a selection of photographs of objects or people doing things, and you’re asked to figure out the specific word or phrase describing what you’re looking at. You make your shot, and if you’re wrong you get the right answer. Then the next batch builds on that, and so on, so that if you figured out the French word for red, for example, future lessons will incorporate red even as Rosetta Stone assumes you’ve learned it and the true focus of those lessons moves on to more complicated fare, such as learning the verb for “to drive” or how to describe the rooms and clothing inside a house.

You’re supposed to detect commonalities between lessons, so that learning looks something like, “Oh, hey, there was a red car earlier and a red balloon, and here’s a red door, and the word rouge was in all of them, so rouge must mean red in French!” Voila. There you go.

I did like how Rosetta Stone worked historical and cultural tidbits into the lessons. You can’t separate a language from its people, its food, its location, and all that. Duolingo leans heavily on humor, which is fun and all, but my favorite part of Rosetta Stone was the cultural learning slipped in throughout.

How It Works in Practice

Here’s the thing about learning “like a child.” Children take a really long time to become good conversationalists. Years. By about age five or six, children are speaking in adult-like sentence structure in their native language, although if you’ve ever had a complex conversation with a six-year-old you realize that you’re still pretty limited. You like cookies? That’s great. So does everyone. That’s after five to six years of complete immersion; you know, learning like a child.

The same (and further) research posits that true fluency develops later, in the teens. So when I was using Rosetta Stone, I was asking myself how long I’m willing to commit to learning like a child. Kids pick up their native language because they have to—what other options do they have?—but that doesn’t make it particularly efficient or fast. I don’t want to spend five years learning a language only to end up being able to carry on a conversation in French as if I were a five-year-old.

Progress, but Slowly

When I used Rosetta Stone, I felt like I was heavy on the “error” part of its “trial and error” approach. I progressed, but I progressed slowly. Compared to Pimsleur’s more structured, definitely not learn-like-a-child approach, I found I progressed much more quickly through Pimsleur, both through my intermediate Spanish and beginner French.

Compared to Duolingo’s free and paid tiers, though, I learned more through Rosetta Stone. Duolingo was fun and engaging, but the lessons just didn’t seem to stick. So for all the guff I give Rosetta Stone over the pace of its learning, it at least provides steady pace, not just the illusion of pace through flashy busy work.

Should You Still Try It?

Give the seven-day free trial a test drive if you’re not completely put off by Rosetta Stone’s core process, and if you’ve already tried other language learning apps (I recommend some below) without success. You get lessons in all 25 languages, including more than 500 flashcard sets, conversational practice through “chat,” and speech lessons.

That’s a lot more generous than Babbel’s, for example. For that you only get a very basic first lesson as a trial, and that’s almost useless for testing whether Babbel is right for you. At least you’ll have some idea of whether Rosetta Stone is worth cold, hard money to you once you finish up its trial period.

alternatives i recommend

I’ve raved over Pimsleur because of all the language learning apps. Yeah, even though at $21 a month for all 51 languages, it’s not super cheap (but neither super expensive). And yeah, even though the core lessons are 30 minutes apiece, which is on the long side. So it’s a serious tool for people serious about learning a language, not a fun time-killer while you wait for the train. But it works so, so well. Better than every app I’ve ever used, better than in-person meet-ups, and better than books. Some will complain its listen-and-repeat audio lessons are not “fun” enough or revolutionary enough, but it works crazy well. How could I argue with that?

Check out my Pimsleur review.

ITalki is an interesting one. Rather than present you with lessons designed as games, flashcards, multiple choice quizzes, AI-driven chats, or audio lessons, the core of it is connecting you with other real, live people. You can chat with other language learners and native speakers of your target language, taking turns teaching each other, for free. You can also hire professional tutors for customized lessons over video chats; most have actual degrees and are very professional, and the lessons are cheaper than a straight-up language school, I’ve found. That human connection makes it much more hit-or-miss, though its novelty is a great complement to your language-learning journey once (and only once) you have a solid understanding of a language’s basics underneath you.

Read my iTalki review.

shouldn’t I just learn through movies and books?

Having tried that out personally across three languages (Spanish, French, and Russian) over many years and in many, many contexts, I’ll say that it was basically useless for me to try to follow along with the subtitles on a movie or TV show without a solid understanding of basic vocabulary and grammar.

These sort of real-life experiences are invaluable when paired with more formalized instruction. And after you have the basics. Trust me. Frontera Verde was much more fun for me when I could understand enough Spanish to watch it in its native tongue and not be totally lost. Following along with books, movies, music, and television shows is a lot of fun and crucial—in the intermediate stage.

Can I double up on apps?

Eh, I wouldn’t bother. Even though many of them have their own schtick, by which they’re attempting to stand out from the crowd, they’re all trying to do the same thing. I couldn’t see any advantage in doing Pimsleur and Rosetta Stone, for example, for the same stage of the same language at the same time. It’d be redundant, not complementary. Now pairing one of them with an app like iTalki would make more sense because you can use iTalki’s format to take advantage of what you’re learning through Rosetta Stone or Pimsleur.

the bottom line

Language learning, I’ve found out over the last 30-some-odd years, is incredibly personal. You need to find the system that works for you. I can’t tell you that Pimsleur will work wonders for you, or that Memrise’s video-heavy lessons will do the trick best of all. You might hate Pimsleur’s dry, textbook-like audio lessons and find Rosetta Stone just clicks for you. Start your free trial to find out for yourself.