Another question about Rosetta Stone.

I'm just completing unit 1 of level 1 of Rosetta Stone. I'm not interested in buying any other software - want to use the one I have. Just wondering if some of my questions will clear up with time. I'll keep it up with reading, not conversing, as my goal. I'll look at Fr for Dummies to see if it'll help me understand what I'm learning with Ros. Stone. I did buy a copy of Le Monde. I can understand the gist of bits of it with the little French I already know from traveling.

Still hope to hear from someone who's used Rosetta Stone for at least 2 levels. Thanks to all of you.

Hi Rose,
... wanting to read a French newspaper is a noble ambition. Don't give up. On the other hand, there's a way to get the basics fairly quickly. Get a tape / CD of Berlitz "French for Travelers". I know I used every phrase I learned... and incredibly, I still remember a lot of it. bon voyage!P.

I was thinking about Rosetta Stone also. Can you take a non-credit beginners French? I plan to study French this fall (too late for this trip) simply because these "listen and learn" sets don't get down to the nitty-gritty which I am interested in. They do teach you the "buzz words" as my son says, which is still helpful.

Right now I am listening to "Pronounce it perfectly in French", which is only for pronounciation. I borrowed "Drive time French" for the car, and haven't decided yet whether it's worth purchasing.

Rose, reading a French newspaper isn't as difficult as you might think. With any course, including Rosetta Stone, you will pick up the most commonly used words. Yes verbs change form, but the root is recognizable. And a tremendous number of French and English words are similar (cognates). And of course the word order is usually different.
The thing to shoot for is not 100% comprehension. You recognize the subject, verb and a few other words and can figure out what is happening from that.
Try it! Go to the website of a French language newspaper (Lemonde.fr, for example) and check out the international news. You will be amazed at how much you understand already and can fill in the blanks with your dictionary. This will not help you speak or understand spoken French but you can be "fluent" reading.

-Bob

Try a software call Fluenz they have the best adult teaching language items I have found

Rose, for reading comprehension you might want to look at a book like "french for dummies" or a similar book for tricks that will boost your comprehension. As an english speaker you're farther along than you think; about 1/2 of english words are derived from french. So while the pronounciation is quite different, if you learn a few tricks you will recognize (in print) many words that you will not understand if you heard them spoken.

Here are 2 to get you started: 1) when you see ô in a french word just replace it with "os". For example, "hôpital" in french is our "hospital". 2) every word ending in "ion" is identical in french and english.

I tried a little bit of Rosetta Stone and can't sit thru with Pimsleur but I really like Michel Thomas series. I've completed his Spanish 8cd course and touched on his German series and I think they are great. I haven't tried out yet his French and Italian series but I would imagine it would be very similar to the Spanish series. My co-worker tried out the French and Spanish series and noticed alot of similarities between the both.
Going thru the audio course, I learned the foundation, rules, verbs and how to speak in past/present/future, he/she/it/they/we/i/you etc.
This is not enough to make you fluent but it will give you a really good base. You will still need to practice reading and speaking on your own. Try watching movies with subtitles, reading french websites, listening to french music or take a quick trip to Quebec =)

I'm have been studying Spanish for a long time and I still don't believe I am fluent yet. I studied in school and soon after, I became enamored with Spanish Pop music. I really think my continueing to listen to Spanish and translate song have kept my Spanish up and growing. I've taking some Rosetta Stone courses but like translating songs, all you get is the ability to understand what is said and not speak it yourself. I sing along with the music so I get the accents down. You also learn idioms too. I'm not sure about French, but I suspect there are many different varieties of French music as there are in Spanish.

I'm currently using the Rosetta Stone Spanish. I'm about to complete unit 2 of level 1. I have very kind friends who let me practice. While I can't yet have a spontaneous conversation, I find I can talk about the things in that lesson. I also had to go to the Spain train site last week and found I could read quite a bit in Spanish. Enough to understand it anyway. Keep going! I think this is going to be a good program.

Candace, I agree with you about Spanish music. When I began to studying Spanish, that's what I did to help me continue listening to the language. It helps quite a lot.

I absolutely did not like Michael Thomas French series. Borrowed it from the library and thought it the most awful language sets. Too much English!