Rosetta Stone Review: Russian Lessons

Rosetta Stone is one of the oldest platforms for Russian lessons available in our review. The learning program was first released in 1992, and in 1996, it had its first 9 level-one language courses. Russian was among the original languages included, along with Dutch, French, English, German, Mandarin Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. As of this year, Rosetta Stone offers 25 different languages that take you from level 1 proficiency (beginner) to level 3. Some of the more popular languages go up to level 5 proficiency, including Russian lessons.

Jump right into speaking lessons and grammar

When you first get started with Russian lessons from Rosetta Stone, you'll see lessons that are planned out for your day. In our first suggested module for Russian beginners, we were suggested 3 core lessons, each of which took around 10 minutes to complete. Our lesson began with basics, including greetings, boys and girls, and drinking and eating. We were immediately given speaking exercises (so make sure your computer or headphones are set up to allow microphone permissions). Rosetta Stone will let you know how close you are to a native speaker based on your accent and its voice recognition software. We also started to see some grammar structures, like plural cases, in the first two lessons.

Immersive learning style

Rosetta Stone is known for its methodology, which it calls "dynamic immersion." This means that during an exercise, you pair together sound or text with images that are related to the vocabulary at hand. You'll get a mix of writing exercises (with an on-screen keyboard for languages that aren't written in the Latin alphabet, like Russian), speaking lessons, and grammar lessons, which require you to pick the right word out of several options based on the grammar you've learned so far. Some versions of the course, like the Homeschool edition of Russian lessons, will include tests, quizzes, and a workbook.

Cumulative approach with exams

Rosetta Stone's courses (including Russian lessons) are divided into levels that are offered in language packs. Back in the day, these were only offered in CD-ROM format, but now you can get them as downloads. As you work through the lessons, you'll get notifications as you complete activities on whether your matching choices were right or wrong. The only time this changes is for "milestone" lessons, which are more like tests, so you won't see how many you got correct until it's over. If you miss too many points in these, you'll need to retry the lesson. The work is cumulative, but the tests are sectioned off to cover mostly the newest material, unless you come to a chapter test, which will include all of the Russian you've previously learned.

Use Cyrillic the whole time

Rosetta Stone is one of the more immersive choices when it comes to translations. Rather than using Latin characters or English sentences, Rosetta Stone will generally give you vocabulary matched with a photo that is relevant to or depicts the vocabulary word currently taught. Your Russian lessons won't use the Latin alphabet either. All of the vocabulary is in the Cyrillic alphabet, so you won't learn any Latinized versions of the words with Rosetta Stone. However, we would like to see more direct instruction on the Cyrillic alphabet at the get-go.

Will help you from beginner to advanced

Rosetta Stone is for all types of students. We have experience with Rosetta Stone from middle school, and still find it equally relevant for new languages as an adult. You can use Rosetta Stone whether you're an absolute beginner or someone who wants to increase fluency from intermediate level to advanced. It's also particularly helpful for visual and auditory learners.

Pricing from $10.95 to $14.95 per month

Rosetta Stone has three different ways to subscribe. The free trial only counts for a few quick lessons in the first module. After that, you'll need to pick from a lifetime subscription, a 3-month subscription, or a 12-month subscription. Either way, you'll get a 30-day money-back guarantee to score a refund if you don't like the program. Here's how the costs shake out:

• 3-month:$14.95 per month (billed at $44.85 every 3 months)
• 12-month:$10.95 per month (billed at $131.40 every year)
• Lifetime:$199 one-time payment (includes all 25 languages)

Digital learning experience

Rosetta Stone is a computer-based Russian lesson platform. You'll need your computer or a mobile device in order to start learning. You can choose either, with mobile being particularly helpful if you want to work on your Russian lessons on the go. Just keep in mind that speaking into a mic is part of almost every lesson (and you can't skip it unless you want a "wrong" mark on that section of the lesson), so if you're using Rosetta Stone while at the gym or at the grocery store, people might hear you practicing your Russian vocabulary.

Strong reputation for helping with fluency

Rosetta Stone stands out with a perfect "A+" rating from the Better Business Bureau. On top of that, it has some excellent feedback for its lessons on the mobile app stores. According to the Apple Store, Rosetta Stone has an outstanding score of 4.8 stars out of 5 on average. Similarly, the reviews on the Google Play store are 4.6 stars out of 5 on average. This includes hundreds of thousands of individual student reviews. Recent reviews praise the level of understanding they gained while working with Rosetta Stone. Customers who used other language courses felt they could finally speak fluently with native speakers after using Rosetta Stone. The only main complaint we found was that Rosetta Stone can be repetitive. So, if you're looking to use it for Russian lessons, you might find that some of the photos are reused a lot or that the method does require a lot of regular reuse of terms and sentences.

Top pick: best all-around methodology

Rosetta Stone has been a successful way to learn a language for over 30 years, and it remains one of the top picks out there for fluency and true immersion in your new language. With perks like targeted grammar work early on and the heavy focus on only using the Cyrillic alphabet in lessons, you'll be learning to speak Russian within the first few lessons. With a focus on audio and visual learning, Rosetta Stone is ideal for multiple types of students, including absolute beginners in Russian lessons. For these reasons, and its long history of successful language courses, Rosetta Stone stands out from the pack, earning a full 5 stars in our review.

Learn More  ➜

On the Rosetta Stone website