Why I'm Not Getting Rosetta Stone

I've been looking into Rosetta Stone over the last couple of days. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I want to learn how to speak Vietnamese. After doing a little bit of research I have decided not to go with the Rosetta Stone program.

The reason is because Rosetta Stone only teaches Northern Vietnamese dialect. My grandma is from the North and so that is what she speaks, but my father grew up in the South, so he speaks both. Most Vietnamese in the US speak Southern dialect. So, I guess I could use the Rosetta Stone system if I wanted to be able to only talk to half of the people I know. I found some podcasts online, which are informative and free. I feel like I would do very well pursuing them, but again, they are mainly Northern dialect, they only touch on Southern style.

I have been searching in my area for Vietnamese classes and I found one in Portland, OR. I emailed them last night to ask if they teach Northern or Southern dialect. I received their reply this morning. They have teachers from both! They use the same text book, which is no real surprise since the words are spelled the same, just pronounced differently.

A 12 week course, with one class a week is about half the price of the Rosetta Stone software. I am going to save up all of my blogging money to get classes! If I feel like they are working well, then I am going to check out some of the classes they have for toddlers. That's right! They have Vietnamese classes just for toddlers! I'm sure that if I enroll Caleb, he will learn faster than I do! He will probably be teaching me at home!

tạm biệt!