Rosetta Stone (Company)
| Rosetta Stone | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Inc. |
| ISIN | US7777801074 |
| founding | 1992 |
| Seat |
Washington, DC , United States
|
| management | A. John Hass III ( CEO ) |
| Number of employees | 1,147 (2019) |
| sales | $ 182.7 million (2019) |
| Branch | Software (languages) |
| Website | www.rosettastone.de |
Rosetta Stone Inc. is an American software company that develops language learning programs for computers, tablets and smartphones, and markets and sells them worldwide. The company's didactic approach is to teach languages through immersion . With the help of the so-called dynamic immersion method, the user should learn in the same way that he learned his own mother tongue as a child . In addition, the e-learning software creates a virtual learning environment consisting of words, images and sound from everyday situations in the target language and dispenses with translations into the learner's mother tongue. The company is named after the Rosette stone found in 1799 . For Jean-François Champollion, its discovery was the decisive key to deciphering the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing .
history
Rosetta Stone Inc. was founded in the USA in 1992, the forerunner being the Fairfield Language Technologies Company. In Germany the company is registered as a GmbH . According to the company, founder Allen Stolzfuß learned the language on site through immersion during a study visit to Germany in the 1980s. He then set himself the goal of creating a program that simulates a language learning experience like in the country itself. Together with his brother-in-law and a doctorate in computer science, John Fairfield and his brother Eugene Stoltzfuss, they worked on implementing the immersion concept with the help of the newly available CD-ROM technology. In 1992 they launched their software under the name Rosetta Stone. Since April 15, 2009, the company has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the name Rosetta Stone . Stephen Swad has been CEO since 2012 . The company is headquartered in Washington, DC, with offices in Harrisonburg, Virginia and Boulder, Colorado; Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; London, UK; Tokyo, Japan and Seoul, South Korea.
Language courses
The company offers language learning programs for 24 languages including Arabic, Standard Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, German, Dutch, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Persian (Farsi), Filipino (Tagalog) , Portuguese ( Bras. ), Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Vietnamese. In Germany, the courses are available either as a download or as an online subscription as a program package that, in addition to the course, includes functions such as a mobile app , online lessons with a native speaker or access to the online community Rosetta World. The international school in Frankfurt is one of the educational institutions that use Rosetta Stone's language courses.
Method and course structure
With the language programs from Rosetta Stone, the learner works on the computer with loudspeaker and microphone. In the program he assigns images and pronunciation to one another. The number of images varies. For example, the software shows four images with different objects or situations. The learner hears a native speaker describing one of the images shown. If the user selects the described image correctly, he receives positive feedback. Other exercises include the learner describing the picture verbally - the microphone records what is said and the program's speech recognition provides feedback on pronunciation. For word problems with the input of letters and characters that are not in the Latin alphabet, the program provides an on-screen keyboard. Grammar exercises include tense and modal conjugations . The language course first shows several examples of a grammatical phenomenon and highlights them for the learner. In the following exercises, fill in the clauses must be completed with the correct grammatical form. The lessons build on each other step by step and gradually convey more complex content. The first lesson in a language is freely available.
criticism
Opinions differ on the methodology of language learning programs. The Economist sees the mobile apps and the bookable live online conversation training as positive, but criticizes the grammar exercises as inadequate due to the immersion method. In addition to the program, grammar books are useful. A review by PC Magazin criticized the lack of cultural references within the Persian course, but rated the program as "very good" overall. The Süddeutsche Zeitung writes that capturing new vocabulary without the support of the translation in the program is sometimes a test of patience, but that what you have learned is retained in the long term. The magazine for intercultural foreign language teaching criticizes the isolated teaching of the target language and the lack of cultural references, but sees opportunities to use the program in an integrated language learning concept.
In 2010, the dictionary publisher Langenscheidt registered the color brand yellow for its bilingual printed dictionaries and sued Rosetta Stone in 2012 for injunctive relief and damages, as this company also used the color for its products. In September 2014, the First Civil Senate of the Federal Court of Justice , responsible for trademark law , decided that the yellow packaging from Rosetta Stone infringed the Langenscheidt color trademark .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Form 10-K. Retrieved July 5, 2020 .
- ^ Reuters, Rosetta Stone Profile
- ^ History
- ↑ http://www.rosettastone.de/ueber-uns
- ↑ http://www.rosettastone.de
- ↑ http://www.macwelt.de/produkte/Test-Rosetta-Stone-Totale-7368142.html
- ↑ http ://www.auswandern- Handbuch.de/sprache-lernen-mit-rosetta-stone/
- ↑ http://www.schwedisch-einfach-lernen.de/der-anfang/
- ^ The Economist. January 3, 2013. Review: Rosetta Stone .
- ↑ PC magazine. February 14, 2012. Review: Rosetta Stone Persian .
- ↑ Sueddeutsche Zeitung, March 8, 2010, page 36, Henning Hochrinner, "Italian as with Mamma"
- ^ Journal for Intercultural Foreign Language Teaching [Online] 15: 1, 2010, p. 3. Rosetta Stone GmbH (2008), Rosetta Stone Version 3: German level 1. Personal edition. ( Memento of the original from July 1, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Reviewed by Johanna Kraft.
- ↑ Federal Court of Justice on the scope of the protection of a color trademark, press release of the Federal Court of Justice No. 131/2014, September 18, 2014.
