Rosetta Stone vs italki
Overview
Rosetta Stone is one of the oldest and most tried and tested solutions for language learning. It immerses you in interactive core lessons conducted entirely in the target language and provides speech technology to get you speaking in your chosen language quickly and correctly. Rosetta Stone lets you choose both your level and your reasons for pursuing a language and if you purchase Lifetime Plus, you can access regular small group lessons with a live tutor.
italki is an online language learning community which connects students and teachers for live online lessons in 150+ languages. It’s highly user oriented: you choose your teacher, the type and number of lessons you take and whether to learn 1-1 or in group sessions. You pay as you go with no subscription and can connect with other learners and native speakers for free via the community.
Pros
- Very immersive, you see, hear and read only in your target language in true to life scenarios
- Speech technology to fine tune your accent and object recognition which allows you to point at an object with your phone camera to identify it and have a conversation about it in your target language
- Allows you to personalize your language goals
- Provides In depth progress reports
- Flexible - available in desktop and device versions
- Regular small group lessons with live tutors for Lifetime Plus subscribers
- Good user experience
- Live tutoring from professional or community teachers to help you get fluent fast
- Connects you to native speakers - via the community and by selecting a native speaking teacher
- Flexible - learn what and when you want at your own pace and with no subscription
- 1-1 tuition enables you to personalize lessons 100% to your needs
- 150+ languages to choose from with lessons covering speaking, listening, reading and writing and tutors to cover all levels
- Free italki community to ask questions and receive feedback
- 1-1 or group lessons available
- Free resources to boost learning between lessons
Cons
- Can feel rather repetitive
- Not great for grammar, writing or cultural context
- No placement test
- Full immersion in the target language may be off putting for some
- Potential lack of consistency due to tutor availability
- May not suit absolute beginners, or those preferring a more structured approach
- Lack of curriculum
Best for
Best for: Those looking to learn a new language from scratch or seeking to improve their speaking and pronunciation. Most suitable for those happy to learn purely in the target language and to learn intuitively rather than in a structured analytical way.
Best for: Anyone wanting to receive live, individual one to one tuition and connect with native speakers from over 180 countries. Whether this is to learn a new language or improve on your existing skills. Also, those not wanting to commit to a subscription. However, as there is a tendency to use the target language almost exclusively in lessons, it may not suit those who are shy or tentative about doing this - or those who are absolute beginners.
Price
From $7.99 per month
From $10 per hour
Number of users
500,000 active users
5 million
Overall
Overall: Rosetta Stone propels your language-learning forward by adapting a program of courses to suit your learning aims. It immerses you in the target language (combined with visual and audio clues) so you can learn instinctively and without relying on translations. It also stands out by offering additional features such as voice and object recognition.
To providerOverall: italki is an adaptive, practical way to learn a new language or build on current skills. Live lessons get you reading, speaking, and writing in no time. Unlike many providers, italki connects you with native speakers and live teachers which allows you to get personalized real-time feedback. I found italki to be an effective platform for immersion in a new language but you do need to be prepared to dive right in and speak the target language from the off.
To providerSupported languages
Spanish, French, German, Italian, English, Japanese, Arabic, Chinese, Dutch, Filipino, English (US), Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Korean, Persian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Swedish, Turkish, Vietnamese
The most popular are: English, Japanese, Spanish, Chinese (Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien), French, Italian, German, Korean, Arabic (Egyptian, Gulf, Levantine, Maghrebi, Modern Standard), Hindi and Russian. But equally, a range of less widely spoken (or even fictional) languages are also on offer including Basque, Choctaw, Dothraki and Klingon.
About
Rosetta Stone is a language e-learning service founded in 1992 with the aim of unlocking the secrets of language learning success. This is why it was named after the actual Rosetta Stone (which unlocked the secrets of Egyptian hieroglyphics).
It's now one of the oldest and best known names in the industry with 500k+ active subscribers.
As well as having platforms designed for personal and business use, Rosetta Stone has a K-12 educational platform. Around 15% of schools in the US subscribe to one of Rosetta Stone's products.
Rosetta Stone is very immersive and uses only the target language (combined with audio, images and speech recognition) to teach you from the very start.
italki launched in 2006 as a social network for language exchange. It connected people around the world so they could learn from one another.
It expanded in 2008 to include a marketplace where learners could pay fees to teachers for live online individual or group lessons.
Italki now has over 5m learners and 20k+ teachers from 180 countries who offer personal tuition in 150+ languages. You select the language you want to learn, the level you want to learn at and the teacher that best suits your needs. And you pay as you go for lessons so there are no fixed fees or rigid timeslots to commit to.
How it works
To get started on Rosetta Stone you choose the language you want to learn and either go for a three day free trial or subscribe to one of the options (see costs below).
Following this, you choose your proficiency level and your learning aim (travel, work, etc.). Rosetta Stone will then present you with a learning plan based on your answers:
These plans are the core part of the program. The overall aim is to teach you useful vocabulary and phrases that match your learning aims.
Each lesson is split into bite-sized parts which challenge you in different ways and help to keep up your engagement.
Rosetta Stone also offers a range of supporting features such as:
- Speech recognition to hone pronounciation
- Seek and speak (object recognition)
- Phrasebooks
- Stories
- On demand videos
- Live tuition with expert coaches and native speakers (for Lifetime Plus subscribers)
All of these are described in detail in the features section below.
To get started you go to italki.com and simply click on ‘Start now’ and open a free account using your email address, Google, Facebook or Apple.
From that point on, you are in control of what and when you learn, as well as who you learn with.
After selecting the language you want to learn, you can choose your skill level, take a language placement test or work with a teacher to build a customized learning plan.
Teachers will be filtered to match your target language and skill level. Most offer a 30-minute trial at a reduced rate and hourly rates for each lesson. They set their own fees and sessions helping you find those best suited to your budget and schedule. And because you pay per lesson, there’s no fixed fees and you can choose how much time to commit.
The italki Classroom is similar to Zoom but is a built-in feature of the italki desktop and app versions. So, you don’t need to download any additional software. Some tutors also offer the option to use Zoom or Skype.
With the aim of immersing you in a language, italki tutors will speak to you mainly in the target language right from the get go.
You also have the option to record lessons and watch them back as often as you’d like, which is great for revision.
What a lesson is like
Generally, whatever the level or language, Rosetta Stone’s lessons are structured in a similar way.
They are grouped around communication topics depending on your purpose for learning (eg: business, travel, etc.) and designed to teach useful vocabulary and phrases which you then practise.
Lessons themselves are split into bite sized exercises conducted entirely in the target language.
You’ll usually hear and see a word or phrase along with a number of pictures and try to match them together. The aim is to get you learning actively and intuitively, rather than just memorizing words and translations. You’ll also be asked to repeat words and phrases using voice recognition.
Lessons on italki vary depending on the teacher you choose, lesson length, your skill level and your individual preferences.
Teachers will assess your current level if you’re new and help to develop a programme that suits you if you choose to commit. You can contact any teacher to clarify lesson content prior to purchasing.
Once you’ve chosen your teacher, you connect via italki’s own version of Zoom. This is built-in so you don’t need to download any software. The connection is stable and high quality so you can stay focussed on the lesson.
In a typical lesson you will:
- Converse directly with your tutor in the target language as much as possible (aiming for this to become 100% of the time)
- Speak, read and translate phrases from a worksheet, with real time feedback to help pronunciation
- Engage with interactive whiteboard content
- Pick up new vocabulary with picture clues and real life examples
Use the note function to write phrases
Each tutor and every lesson I took was conducted mostly in the target language. This was rather intimidating at first. But repetition, visual clues, use of worksheets, notes and the interactive whiteboard help to make things clear.
You can also review lesson content by re-entering the chat page and your teacher can share resources and set tasks to take learning beyond the classroom.
Who is it good for?
Rosetta Stone's learning style would suit anyone who's:
- Learning a new language from scratch
- Keen to improve their skills in another language
- Happy to learn purely in the target language
- Like to learn intuitively rather than in an analytical way
- Appreciative of consistent, predictable content
- Interested in applying language-learning to real-life scenarios
- Keen to join regular small group live tutorials
- Needing to learn flexibly on any device
The italki learning style would suit anyone who:
- Feels they’d benefit from 1-1 teaching
- Is keen to spend time practicing conversation in their language of choice
- Is unable to commit to rigid programmes and fixed time slots
Already has some foundational skills and is looking to advance
While italki is designed for students of all skill levels, you will be expected to converse in your chosen language. So, coming to italki with some basic knowledge to build upon is ideal.
Right away, italki has you speaking and listening in your chosen language. This means you get real-life experience talking to a professional teacher and/or a native speaker!
Features
- Personalized learning
- Flexible learning
- Speech recognition
- Seek and Speak - object recognition
- Phrasebooks and stories
- Regular live small group classes led by a tutor
- Personalized 1-1 live tuition
- Direct contact with native speakers
- Immersion
- Flexible pay as you go learning
- Desktop- or device-based to best suit your needs
- italki Challenge
Is it worth it?
A lot depends on the type of learner you are.
If you like to work things out for yourself and are happy to plunge right into your chosen language then Rosetta Stone's dynamic immersive approach is likely to suit you well.
It will teach you the vocabulary and phrases you need to achieve your language learning goals. And though its core lessons can feel a little repetitive, Rosetta Stone gives you the freedom to jump ahead or focus on the specifics that interest you. It also provides lots of fun resources to help you actively practice the language.
And if you subscribe to Lifetime Plus you'll be able to boost your learning real time feedback with live tutorials from expert native speaking coaches.
But if you are a very analytical person who wants to understand the grammatical structure of a language, or you want a strong focus on writing, it may not be the best choice for you.
While I'm nowhere near proficient in speaking French, after a few hours on Rosetta Stone I was speaking more confidently and precisely than before. Also, the additional features such as seek and speak, stories and videos were a great way of immersing myself in the language outside of core lessons.
Overall, with a free trial option for three days, I think Rosetta Stone is worth trying out. After choosing your goals, you can get a feel for the site by taking a few lessons. As most users agree, it's a helpful place to start and gets you speaking actively in your new language.
In short, it depends on your preference.
If you’ve tried out some other providers like DuoLingo and found the content hard to translate into everyday life, italki is an excellent resource for building your speaking and listening skills.
Also, if you have a busy/unpredictable lifestyle and find that you can’t commit to fixed days, italki makes the scheduling process easy and convenient for you by letting you choose your time slot.
Although I don’t have extensive speaking skills in my chosen language, I found that after only a couple of hours I had so much more confidence speaking Italian aloud than I ever did from using previous sites. That being said, as someone with zero knowledge of Welsh I felt very overwhelmed at first - though I did make progress by the end of the lesson.
While being thrown in at the deep end and conversing almost solely in your chosen language is intimidating, it is arguably the best way to progress and advance those foundational skills.
With trial lessons starting at as little as $5, with no commitment needed, you have very little to lose and a whole lot to gain. If you’re looking for adaptive learning that suits your needs and helps you to become fluent fast, italki is one of the best e-learning options out there.
So, why not browse the teachers and give it a go?