Today I was in Barnes & Noble trying to decide on a basic French language course my family can follow this summer to prepare for the autumn trip. They had Rosetta Stone, Pimsleur, and Living Language. All were costly, so I resolved to do some research and to crowdsource the question with y’all before I commit to one of them.
Do any of you have experience with one or more of these programs? I’ll probably get a workbook and do my own review course separately, because my French is more advanced than my wife’s and my kids (my kids have no French at all). I need to get something the kids can do online independently. I’ll work with them, but there needs to be an online component. I know Rosetta Stone has this, but I’m not sure they’re the best.
Advice? I’m not looking for my children to become fluent from doing an online summer course, but I do want them to have enough French so that they’re not in an entirely alien environment, and that they can have some interaction with French people this fall.
If all you’re looking for is a basic conversational proficiency, then Rosetta Stone will work reasonably well. You’ll learn a few phrases, and if you and your kids are good at pattern recognition, then you’ll learn a bit of the grammar, too. However, do not buy Rosetta Stone (or Pimsleur, I think) with the expectation of getting beyond the basics. It does not teach grammar or verb conjugations in a comprehensive way. It attempts a shortcut to learning language. As anyone who has actually learned a foreign language will tell you, no shortcuts are possible.