Roseta Stone: Redux

[A. Katz]

A language that is not for amateurs is not for people.

This has nothing to do with RS or computer language teaching. As others 
have stated, the technologically based systems are not a panacea.

But a language that ordinary people can't pick by talking to their parents 
in childhood is either dead already or not a human language.

    --Aya


On Tue, 8 Feb 2011, john at research.haifa.ac.il wrote:

> I would be amazed if a single person actually learns to speak Navajo
> using Rosetta Stone. This is not a language for amateurs.
> John
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> Quoting "s.t. bischoff" <bischoff.st at gmail.com>:
>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Over the last week I was involved with an event at the American Indian
>> Language Development Institute and the folks that created the Navajo Rosetta
>> Stone gave a short talk about the software. What follows is my understanding
>> of how it came to be.
>>
>> The Navajo Rosetta Stones was created in collaboration with Rosetta Stone
>> and the non-profit Navajo Language Renaissance (NLR). NLR is a non-profit
>> organization that is NOT affiliated with the tribal council or government in
>> any way, for obvious reasons I think (e.g. getting council approval for the
>> project). However, it has been endorsed by the school leadership and NLR is
>> actively trying to get the school district to adopt the software. You can
>> view the NLR website here http://navajorenaissance.angelfire.com/ A
>> non-community member started NLR after using Rosetta Stone to learn Russian.
>> She thought it would be good if Rosetta Stone created a Navajo version. She
>> contacted Rosetta Stone (RS), and they told her they would provide here with
>> the software to develop the lessons,  a photographer, and technical
>> assistants (limited on the ground, mostly by phone) to develop the program
>> for $300,000. Another option would be for her to apply for a grant from RS
>> to cover most of the costs. So the NLR was created, a partnership between
>> community members and one non-community member,  as a non-profit
>> organization and applied. RS gave two grants the year they applied, one went
>> to NLR. The grant covered all but $27,000 of the $300,000. So NLR had to pay
>> RS $27,000 to have access to the software to create the Navajo Rosetta
>> Stone. This means they had to create the lessons and pay speakers and
>> informants themselves. RS provided the software, a photographer, and
>> technical support for the $27,000. NLR now is the only group that can sell
>> Navajo Rosetta Stone, which they do for $150 per license and $200 for a
>> personal box set. It is not clear if they have to pay RS a percentage of
>> those revenues or not. When I asked a clear answer wasn't given. NLR also
>> has a "training" session for administrators and teachers which costs $1500 a
>> day and $400 per 3 hours. Needless to say, it is not un-controversial in the
>> community for many of the usual reasons. Ironically, the speaker after the
>> Rosetta Stone folks gave a talk that demonstrated how to create nearly
>> identical language lessons as Rosetta Stone's simply using power point. I
>> was encouraged to let folks know that they should contact the NLR if they
>> have any questions at mbittinger at rosettastone.com. You can try a free
>> introductory lesson here http://navajorenaissance.angelfire.com/ The folks
>> at NLR praised RS for their efforts and felt they had really done them a
>> service. In short, they were very happy with the arrangement and how it was
>> working out. They were also upset by the controversies surrounding the
>> Navajo Rosetta Stone and felt they were really the result of a
>> misunderstanding and misguided assumptions. One finally thing, they did seem
>> to think that it was not a pancea, but rather another useful tool in
>> language revitalization efforts.
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Shannon
>>
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