www.alphadictionary.com

Is there anyone here who can comment on the usefulness of the Rosetta Stone Language study programs? Has anyone used these? Are they worth the price?

Karen

Hi,

I use it for French, and would say that it's enjoyable and a good buy. However, it's much more worth it's price for the more rare/exotic languages, which one can usually not find a plethora of information on. If you're going for one of the major/common tongues, I'd invest in several smaller materials. That's just my 2 cents though.

Good luck on your work!

-J

The Rosetta Stone is one of the best buys for self-study and it is true that the series covers a wide range of languages. It is based on a series of pictures with an expression in the target language. The pictures help you understand the sentences and it is very effective. That is why we carry their ad in such a prominent place on our website.

There are alternatives, though. In each of the language listings in our Language Dictionary section, there is a link to X Language Resources (Bookstore), e.g. "Dutch Language Resources" at http://www.alphadictionary.com/director ... nic/Dutch/ which leads to one of alphaDictionary's partners that offers a wide range of language study resources.

I haven't tried the Rosetta Stone for any language. Yet.

For comparisons of study aids and tips for learning, you might find this site useful. You'll find discussions on the relative merits of the Stone and Assimil and others.

Ironic that some of the posts in this thread are partially obscured by an ad -for the Rosetta Stone!

I don't understand what is "ironic" about asking about an apparent sponsor. I was unfamiliar with this brand until I viewed it at this site. Since it is the intention of an ad to "sell their product". I wanted practical advise from anyone actually experienced with R/S.

Thank you Dr Goodword. I would have thought if my query was inappropriate it would have been deleted. I felt it was a legitimate question. I am interested in improving my Spanish skills and maybe widening my base of perhaps another language also.

As seen on another site's forum guide, but true not here, it is suggested that flaming or severe disapproval is the responsiblity of the author and not necessarily of the site administrator or webmaster. I do not INTEND to offend.

I don't understand what is "ironic" about asking about an apparent sponsor. I was unfamiliar with this brand until I viewed it at this site. Since it is the intention of an ad to "sell their product". I wanted practical advise from anyone actually experienced with R/S.

Thank you Dr Goodword. I would have thought if my query was inappropriate it would have been deleted. I felt it was a legitimate question. I am interested in improving my Spanish skills and maybe widening my base of perhaps another language also.

As seen on another site's forum guide, but true not here, it is suggested that flaming or severe disapproval is the responsiblity of the author and not necessarily of the site administrator or webmaster. I do not INTEND to offend.

No no no, you misconstrue! Or I fail to explain. The irony I observed was that, while viewing this thread, reading the first several comments was interrupted by this rectanular box-ad that dropped down from the top right and obscured the text box, making them impossible to read in full. When one looks up to see who the offender is, it's Rosetta Stone. I thought that was ironic and I think your post is very a propos.

PS I just looked up, and it's still there. Is anyone else seeing this?

... The irony I observed was that, while viewing this thread, reading the first several comments was interrupted by this rectanular box-ad that dropped down from the top right and obscured the text box, making them impossible to read in full. When one looks up to see who the offender is, it's Rosetta Stone. ... PS I just looked up, and it's still there. Is anyone else seeing this?

sluggo:
You are not insane. (This reassures you, does it not? ) As of very recently, when I view this site on a Mac the Rosetta ad completely fills the screen, obliterating all else when viewing any topic, requiring excessive scrolling to read anything. When I view this site on a PC, it is as reader-friendly as always. (Of course, if you're not on a Mac, I'm not sure what may be causing this for you...)

-gailr
being bi-puteral sometimes comes in handy

And I can't see the left side of the page. The w in www.alphadictionary.com is not entirely visible.

Brazilian dude

... The irony I observed was that, while viewing this thread, reading the first several comments was interrupted by this rectanular box-ad that dropped down from the top right and obscured the text box, making them impossible to read in full. When one looks up to see who the offender is, it's Rosetta Stone. ... PS I just looked up, and it's still there. Is anyone else seeing this?

sluggo:
You are not insane. (This reassures you, does it not? ) As of very recently, when I view this site on a Mac the Rosetta ad completely fills the screen, obliterating all else when viewing any topic, requiring excessive scrolling to read anything. When I view this site on a PC, it is as reader-friendly as always. (Of course, if you're not on a Mac, I'm not sure what may be causing this for you...)

-gailr
being bi-puteral sometimes comes in handy

Sure does, though I'm not of the wealthy class that can afford Macs. I do see the obstreperous little box here in PCland, though it's not as big as Gail describes.

(and no, not being insane ain't reassuring (or do I overnegativise?))

Hmmm. . . No problems here on XP w/IE 6.0 and the new Yahoo! toolbar. The only Rosetta Stone ad is at the top of the right-hand "Our Sponsor" column. No pop-ups. Something's going right in the MicroSloth world for a change . . .

I have viewed on IE 6 and Firefox 1.5, and both display the ad on top of the forum text.

I think the issue is the width of the forum column, which seems to adjust wider as needed. In this particular thread, the column width is larger than in some other threads, which is causing it to spread into the ad territory to the right.

-Tim

Ironically, I think the column adjusted itself wider to accomodate the link Dr G posted in his response earlier.

Possibly, changing the font/size used by the browser would affect the width of the column...

-Tim

I have viewed on IE 6 and Firefox 1.5, and both display the ad on top of the forum text.

I think the issue is the width of the forum column, which seems to adjust wider as needed. In this particular thread, the column width is larger than in some other threads, which is causing it to spread into the ad territory to the right.

-Tim

When I shrink the window down the right side with the Sponsors Column disappears first, followed by the left side of the forum. I have the following options set on IE 6 so it will force Unicode for accented characters:

Tools/Internet Options/Accessibility/Ignore font styles on Web pages
Tools/Internet Options/Fonts/Language Script: Latin based
Tools/Internet Options/Fonts/Web page font: Arial Unicode MS
Tools/Internet Options/Fonts/Plain text font: Courier New

Hi,

I've noticed a lot of comments about the ad bar blocking the agora content. Which browsers are you using? (What resolution, and are you using large fonts?) We've tested the bar on Firefox (Linux and Windows), IE6, Opera and Safari (OS X 10.4's version). If the bar causes problems when you're viewing the agora, does it cause those same problems with the rest of the site? If you would be so kind as to send me a screenshot (My email address is in my profile) of what it looks like when it breaks, that would be super-good.

Thanks,

Andrew