Rosetta Stone vs Mondly
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.
Mondly is a language learning platform with 80 million learners. It offers 42 languages and enables you to learn anywhere on any device. It targets all aspects of communication: speaking, reading, writing, and listening. Mondly provides you with a gamified, interactive learning experience via memory exercises, a very intuitive interface and cutting edge augmented reality (AR) and chatbot technology.
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
- Effective and comprehensive covering speaking, listening, reading and writing
- You can tailor your learning according to your goals and interests
- Engaging and fun - short sharp lessons and gamification to make learning fun and motivating
- Learn anywhere, anytime on any device
- Great user experience with a user friendly, polished interface
- Augmented reality and Interactive chatbot conversations provide an immersive way to practice your skills
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
- Less to offer more advanced learners or those wanting a strong conversational focus
- You always have to start at the basic level
- Bite-sized lessons may be too short for those preferring a more in-depth approach
- Free version is limited
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 who is looking to learn a brand new language or has a limited grasp of one and wants to improve. Those who love fun, gamified, interactive apps and are intrigued by AR and like to engage with new technological experiences. Overall, Mondly is for those of you who consider themselves to be self-guided learners and would benefit from daily, weekly, and monthly lessons and goals
Price
From $7.99 per month
From $4.99 per month
Number of users
500,000 active users
500,000 active subscribers
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: Mondly is an incredibly popular platform that has over 80 million users. Having used the platform for the past couple of weeks it's easy to see why. Lessons are comprehensive and immensely fun and I found it a really effective way to learn a new language. I was very impressed by how easy it was to use and how fast I was able to introduce myself in a new language.
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
English (UK), English, (US), Spanish, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Turkish, Arabic, Persian, Hebrew, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Hebrew, Catalan, Latin, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Finnish, Latvian, Lithuanian, Greek, Romanian, Afrikaans, Croatian, Czech, Bulgarian, Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Hindi, Bengali, Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai
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.
Mondly is a language e-learning service founded in 2014 designed to meet one aim: to get adults and children speaking a new language - fast..
It’s consistently ranked as one of the highest-rated education apps in the app store and has 80+ million learners.
Mondly is a gamified language learning application that provides you with a guided yet interactive learning experience via memory exercises and a very intuitive interface. It offers learning in 42 languages via desktop and app, using virtual and augmented reality products.
It was acquired in 2022 by Pearson, the world’s leading education company, to boost its existing portfolio of state of the art learning tools and provide a way for students to study languages independently online. For Pearson to select Mondly, out of all the language platforms available is testimony to its effectiveness.
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 on Mondly you simply select the language you want to learn and click ‘Start Learning’. Mondly works the same way regardless of the language you choose.
You’ll see the Mondly dashboard containing lots of topic icons such as weather, travel, food, etc. You can choose a topic or select ‘daily lesson’ and Mondly will guide you through in a recommended order.
For each topic (or within the daily lesson) you’ll take bite-sized lessons which cover the following:
- Vocabulary (Interactive flashcards)
- Listening (Audio to written and spoken exercises)
- Speaking (Hands-free conversational lessons and thematic lessons)
- Reading and writing (image association and phrase creation)
Conversation (chatbot conversations)
Lessons are self-paced and you complete them in your own time. You can view them on the go, on your computer, mobile, or tablet. Plus, you can track your progress with statistics and leaderboards and compare your score with other learners. Weekly quizzes, and monthly challenges are created according to your progress.
On top of this there are additional resources to optimize your learning, such as the Mondly Augmented Reality (AR) app. The AR app uses a virtual teacher to help you learn new words by showing you interactive worlds and activities.
As an experience, Mondly very much has the feel of a board game, where your objectives, achievements, and progress are visible as you go along a ‘learning path’.
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.
Mondly’s lessons are grouped around topics such as weather, food, travel, etc.
The structure is very straightforward. This means that you know exactly how many words and phrases you will learn, the estimated time it will take you to complete the lesson and your overall rating.
For each topic there are:
- 6 vocabulary activities (all are interactive and use different methods to target memory retention)
- 1 conversation exercise (where you practice what you’ve learned with the chatbot function and voice recognition software)
1 vocabulary review in which you swipe the correct translation
You can match your lessons with an intelligent calendar that helps you organize your learning objectives and provides you with a visual record of how your learning progresses over time.
Overall, you can view your progress by navigating through Mondly’s map and using the calendar function and the statistics view.
If you want to extend your learning, it is possible to click on parts of phrases and sentences to get additional information or grammatical explanations. Such as this screen below which conjugated the verb ‘to be’ after I had clicked on ‘is’.
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 Mondly learning style would suit anyone who:
- Wants to learn a new language from scratch or has a limited grasp and wants to improve
- Has a busy schedule and needs to fit lessons around their life
- Loves fun, interactive apps
- Likes the flexibility of learning on mobile and desktop
Is intrigued by AR and likes to engage with technological experiences
Overall, Mondly is for those of you who consider themselves to be self-guided learners and would therefore benefit from daily, weekly, and monthly lessons and goals.
Features
- Personalized learning
- Flexible learning
- Speech recognition
- Seek and Speak - object recognition
- Phrasebooks and stories
- Regular live small group classes led by a tutor
- Gamification
- Fun, interactive lessons that touch all learning styles
- Flexible learning
- Chatbot function
- Augmented reality
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.
I found Mondly easy to use, and thought the lessons were well structured, engaging, effective and ‘sticky’.
Together with gamification through points, streaks and leaderboards it makes for a fun learning experience that motivates you to come back for more.
Mondly’s stand out feature is its use of technology such as chatbots and AR that provide a novel and more immersive way to practice your new skills. It’s also comprehensive, helping you to improve all aspects of communication: speaking, reading, writing, and listening.
That said, there’s always room for improvement. Whilst it is comprehensive it has a fairly narrow focus on grammar. Its approach to this is more intuitive - with constant practice of phrases and sentences you’ll learn the rules without realizing.
Also, if you really want a laser-like focus on conversational skills, you may find the chatbot a bit limited and prefer a platform that offers live lessons with native speaking teachers.
However, if you value a fun yet structured approach that really helps new learning stick then Mondly is definitely worth considering.
You can use the free version to get a flavor of the platform or subscribe and make use of the 7 day free trial to make up your mind. Just remember to cancel before the 7 days is up to avoid payment. The pricing point is very competitive and there are frequent discounts available making it even better value.