Is Rosetta Stone -- or Any Language Curriculum -- Worth the Money?

We made a specific promise to our oldest son, Matt. When we took him out of public school after 10^th grade to homeschool, we would find a way for him to study Japanese. Learning Japanese was his passion, and the public high school did not offer that option. Matt's dream was to go to Japan one day to teach or work, so we wanted to make good on that promise.  

This was 2013. That summer, my husband and I went to a homeschool convention. The sessions were quite beneficial, but the curriculum area was eye-opening—so many things to chose from, whether you wanted to teach Christian or secular homeschooling.  

I made no plans to purchase curriculum because I had a plan set for the coming year, but I wanted to see what else was available as I planned for the future.  

As we explored the curriculum fair, we saw the Rosetta Stone booth. Who hasn't heard about Rosetta Stone with its recognizable yellow packaging? It's been around for ages. 

And surprise – they were having a sale on their language editions specifically for homeschool, and Japanese was included. In fact, instead of getting a one-year course, we could purchase the three-year edition for a special, low price.

Our oldest son's desire was to learn Japanese.

We promised.

We bought the three-year software package. 

Photo by Chris Yates on Unsplash

Matt was ecstatic. The homeschool version was arranged in daily lessons and provided me a way to track his progress. He eagerly completed Japanese lessons every day for a few months.

Then he stopped, never to finish the final two years of the program. 

While he did learn a good deal of conversational Japanese, he found a website that provided better, more in-depth lessons to learn Japanese -- for free.

See the end of this post for websites where your
homeschooler can learn a foreign language for FREE.

With his disinterest in Rosetta Stone, I decided to try selling the software we purchased on eBay to get some of our money back. The auction was successful, but the buyer never paid. A week later, I found out that we were not allowed to resell the Rosetta Stone software because it was against the agreement made when we purchased it.  After more research, I discovered what the convention salesperson failed to tell us -- we weren't purchasing software but merely leasing it. For this reason, it is not resellable, especially on eBay.

I wasn't necessarily angry that $249 was spent on software that didn't work for my son. Instead, I was upset that the product was sold to us without making it clear that (1) we didn't own the copy of the software and (2) the "lease" was only for one student, not siblings.  

Oh, sure. Read the fine print. But in 2013, when we were still purchasing software on CDs, why think we weren't buying a copy of the software to own for our use?

While I thought this was our mistake, a search on the internet brought to light many other stories like ours.

Because of our experience, we chose the traditional route with our youngest son. Josh learned  Spanish 1 & 2 through our homeschool co-op from a qualified Spanish instructor. It was more in-depth and worth the extra cost.

Today, Matt can speak Japanese and he is continuing to learn it. Not just the language conversationally, but also grammar, sentence structure, and how to write it. His plan is still to teach English in Japan when borders re-open from the COVID pandemic. While he is there, Matt will take the competency test, certifying his proficiency in the Japanese language.  

I asked Matt why he stopped using Rosetta Stone for Japanese after one year in high school, and his answers are worth sharing for other homeschoolers who want to learn an Asian language.

First, Rosetta Stone primarily teaches students to learn language conversationally and with memorization. There are sentence examples with their meanings, but not enough help is given so the student can apply those sentences situationally.

Additionally, the Rosetta Stone method encourages students to learn intuitively. While this may work more effectively for German or Spanish, it is frustrating for Japanese. This is because such a distinctively different language as Japanese will rarely have exact word-by-word translations. Unless there is an understanding of the specific fundamentals of grammar and sentence structure of that Asian language, it will hinder the student from constructing their own sentences and speaking more fluently.

You can still buy Rosetta Stone (Best Buy offers it for $199), but the better option would be to subscribe through the Rosetta Stone website if you want to try it. They do offer a free trial, but it is only three days. When the trial is over, you will automatically be charged the one-year subscription price (with the option to cancel anytime). Since you have to give your credit card information to get a three-day trial, I would recommend that you instead sign up for a one-month subscription of $12 for 30 days. Try out everything included in the subscription to determine if it is best for your student.

Matt's advice for homeschoolers wanting to learn a foreign language is not to spend any money on curriculum! With so many free websites and YouTube, students have at their fingertips all the necessary resources to learn a language.

There are several free websites your student can explore to help determine what language they want to learn. Read "Where to Find Free Spanish Lessons and Courses," or the "Best Websites to Homeschool Foreign Language," here at Muses of a Mom.

I'd love to get your opinions on Rosetta Stone or another foreign language curriculum you used. What is the best or the worst? What were your successes? Let me know in the comments!!