Rosetta Stone

Well, tonight I bit the bullet and bought a year's subscription to Rosetta Stone, the language learning program. I wanted to purchase the CD, since I'm not sure if I'll be able to put in time every day, and I'd feel like I was getting my money's worth if I had the software to use whenever I want. Apparently they don't deliver to South Korea, though, so I had to go with the online program. I'm going to have to try to make time to use it every day. I just did the first lesson, and it took about 45 minutes, so I think I can fit that into my schedule.

It's a fun little program. The first lesson involved showing me pictures of things and saying the words and then testing me in a couple different ways. First, it would show me four pictures, saying each word once, then one word would be spoken, and I'd have to choose the right picture. Then the pictures would change to those things plus something else, and I'd have to learn the combination in the same way. As I progressed, the program would also show me a picture, then take it away before giving me my word choices. And conversely, it would say a word once and take the written word away before showing me the pictures.

The program goes really fast. You have to pay attention. I was looking at the margin of the window a couple times to try and figure out how the scoring works, and what other info is there, and consequently I missed what the program was telling me. That also happened whenever my mind wandered for half a second. I guess that's good, though. It both makes sure that you understand words as they're naturally spoken and that you focus on the task.

Just now I learned nouns such as man, woman, boy, girl, elephant, dog, cat, horse, ball, table, airplane, car, and boat. I learned prepositions under, over, and in, as well as and.

Tomorrow maybe I'll do two lessons. I'd like to keep going tonight, but it's after 1am.