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Rosetta Stone Overview

The Rosetta Stone program is available on any of the computers in the Language Lab. We only have one license for each language level though, so you may want to make a reservation by calling the Lab at (360) 867-7020 or via email.

To get started:

1. Open the Rosetta Stone program from the desktop. It takes a few minutes to load, so don't get discouraged and click the icon a million times. This will only open the program a million times, increasing your wait.

2. Once you're in there, you'll see a list of languages on the left. Find the language you want to work on. Choose a level. For some languages you don't get a choice, but for others you get up to three!

Note: If you accidentally select the wrong thing at any time, you can go back by clicking on a button in the bottom right corner. It looks like a parachute. You know, so you can bail out. Get it? Get it? Careful, though, 'cause if you push it too many times, you'll close the program and have to start again at Step 1.

3. Now that you've selected your language and your level, you get to select your unit and your lesson. For those of you who are kind of proficient in a language, you may be able to read the lesson names. If you aren't yet proficient, you may be able to guess that "adjectivos" probably means adjectives, but for some languages (Chinese, Arabic, Japanese, I'm talking to you) you may just have to guess. Or start at the beginning and see how it goes.

4. You've picked your language, your level, your unit, and your lesson. Now you can start the drills. To see the vocabulary and grammar you'll be working with before you get in there, you can click on "Preview." Rosetta Stone is a total immersion system so there are no translations, anywhere, ever. But you get to see the words, the pictures that go with them, and hear 'em spoken, too.

Note: Any time there's a little gray square with a speaker in it, that's a button, so you can replay the audio as often as you like.

5. There's a vertical menu on the left side with pictures of things like a speaker with a book, a speaker by itself, a book by itself, etc. After you choose what you'd like to do (e.g. listening and reading at the same time, just listening, just reading, etc.) you'll have a choice of several activities. Play around, figure out what will benefit you most.

Note: The vocabulary and grammar structures in each lesson are the same from activity to activity, so you will get to work with the same stuff many different ways, increasing your chance for retention while avoiding the boredom of straight up repitition.

6. There are options for recording your own voice so you can hear how you sound and for writing (valuable for languages which use pesky diacritics or, worse, a different writing system). Ask a lab aide for help with the microphones and recording because it's trickier than it seems.

7. Do it. Learn things. Play around, have fun. Even if you don't use the recording feature, say stuff out loud. This is the language lab, for cryin' out loud, and we don't care if you're noisy. You won't bother us or anyone else. That's what we're here for.

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Language Learning Strategies

Mary Jacob at UC Davis has compiled an excellent set of strategies for effectively learning Chinese and many of those suggestions are applicable to any language you want to study:

1. Review within the first fifteen minutes after class to increase your retention of new grammar and vocabulary.

2. Practice speaking by reading dialogues out loud, not just in your head. The more you say it, the easier it is to call structures and vocabulary up from memory when you're in a real conversation.

3. Study a little every day instead of cramming once a week. Even if you study for seven hours that day, it's not as effective as an hour a day for seven days.

4. Review new vocabulary in several short study sessions of a few minutes at a time, on the bus, waiting for your friend, whatever.

5. Make vocabulary flashcards on paper or online at Word Champ.

6. Make index cards for sentence patterns. The act of writing the structures down will help them stick.

7. Find a conversation partner or study buddy and practice speaking as often as possible. Write your own dialogues or handy phrases and practice saying them out loud.

View the full list of tips here.

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Setting up your computer for multiple languages

Windows 2000

To add languages:

NB: For character-based languages, including Chinese and Japanese, you must first install or enable an Input Method Editor (IME)--if your system doesn't have this already--to be able to type in characters, kanji, or kana.

1. Open the Start menu, and in Settings, click Control Panel.

2. Click on "Regional Options."

3. In the "Regional Options" box, click on the "Input Locales" tab.

4. Select the language and dialect you want in the "Input Locales" box, then click "Properties."

5. Change the keyboard layout, if you need to, in the "Keyboard layout" box.

6. Click "OK," and then "OK" again to save your changes.

To switch between languages:

Click on the language bar, now located near your clock, and select the language you want to use.

(Thanks, Microsoft, for this How to.)

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Windows XP

To add languages:

NB: For character-based languages, including Chinese and Japanese, you must first install or enable an Input Method Editor (IME)--if your system doesn't have this already--to be able to type in characters, kanji, or kana.

1. Open the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Click on "Date, Time, Language, and Regional Options."

3. Click on "Add other languages."

4. A box will open called "Regional and Language Options." On the "Languages" tab, click "Details."

5. Another box opens. This one is called "Text Services and Input Languages." On the "Settings" tab, click "Add."

6. Yet another box opens. ("Add input languages," it's called). Click the "Input language" list and pick your language and dialect. You can also change the keyboard layout, if you want to. Click "OK" when you're done.

7. Now you're back in the "Text Services and Input Languages" box. Click on the "Default input language" list and select the language you use most. That way, when your computer starts up, it knows what to do.

8. Add more languages, or click "OK."

9. In the "Regional and Language Options" box, select "Install files for complex script and right-to-left languages" and/or "Install files for East Asian languages" if those apply to you and the language you're working with.

10. Click the "Regional options" tab. Click on the "Standards and formats" list and choose your region. (Unless you are living in another country, you can just leave it "English (US)." You don't have to change the region to use multiple languages).

11. Click the "Location" list and select your location. (Again, you can just leave it as it is).

12. Click "OK" to save your settings.

To switch between languages:

Click on the language bar, now located near your clock, and select the language you want to use.

(Thanks, Microsoft, for this How to.)

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Windows Vista

To add languages:

1. Open the Control Panel from the Start menu.

2. Click on "Clock, Region, and Language."

3. Click on "Regional and Language Options."

4. In the Regional and Language Options window, select the "Keyboards and Languages" tab, and click "Change keyboards."

5. Under "Installed services," click "Add."

6. Double-click the languages you want to add. Add any text services and options you want, and click "OK." For character-based languages, including Chinese and Japanese, make sure you select the Input Method Editor (IME) option to be able to type in characters, kanji, or kana.

To switch between languages:

1. After you add input languages, the Language Bar should appear in the lower right corner of your screen. If it is not visible, right-click the taskbar, point to "Toolbars," and click "Language Bar." Click the Input Language button and select the language you want to use.

2. Click the Keyboard layout button and select the layout you want to use. Remember to select the Input Method Editor (IME) to type in character-based languages like Chinese and Japanese.

(Thanks, Microsoft, for this How to.)

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Mac OSX

Mac OSX includes support and input capabilities for many languages that do not require special installation, but some alphabets (Cyrillic, for example) require installation of compatible fonts from the the Mac OS 9 Installation CD. Installation of these custom language kits will automatically activate that language. Keyboard layouts for the activated language will appear in the "International Preferences" panel.

To type text in a given language:

1. Select a keyboard or input method in the "International" panel of "System Preferences."

2. A new keyboard menu with a flag icon will appear in the menu bar of all applications, which will allow you to choose different keyboards or input methods.

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Help for specific languages in Mac OSX:

(This section is copied in toto from the Apple support site. Thanks, Apple!)

Japanese

1. Open the document in a Mac OS X application.

2. If necessary, use these fonts: Osaka, Osaka-mono, or Hiragino

3. To type text: Select the Kotoeri input method

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Simplified Chinese

1. Open the document in a Mac OS X application.

2. If necessary, use this font: Hei

3. To type text: Install the Simplified Chinese Language Update, if needed, and select Simplified Chinese input method

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Traditional Chinese

1. Open the document in a Mac OS X application.

2. If necessary, use this font: Apple LiGothic.

3. To type text: Install the Traditional Chinese Language Update, if needed, and select Traditional Chinese input method.

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Korean

1. Open the document in a Mac OS X application.

2. If necessary, use this font: Apple Gothic

3. To type text: Install the Korean Language Update, if needed, and select Korean input method.

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Central European Languages (Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak)

1. Install the Central European Language kit in Mac OS 9.

2. To read in Unicode applications, use these fonts when necessary: Lucida Grande, Geneva, Times, Helvetica, Courier, or Monaco. Many other fonts work with these languages as well.

3. To write in Unicode applications: Select and use the Extended Roman Unicode keyboard.

4. To read in any application, use these fonts when necessary: Times CE, Helvetica CE, Charcoal CE, Geneva CE, Palatino CE, Courier CE, Chicago CE, Monaco CE.

5. To write in any application, select and then use any of the following keyboards: Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Slovak

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Cyrillic (Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian)

1. Install the Cyrillic Language Kit in Mac OS 9.

2. To read in Unicode applications use the Lucida Grande font when necessary.

3. To read in any application, use these fonts when necessary: Charcoal CY, Geneva CY, Helvetica CY, Monaco CY, Times CY

4. To write in any application, select and use any of the following keyboards: Bulgarian, Russian, Ukrainian

Note: You cannot type Cyrillic with the Extended Roman keyboard.

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Vietnamese

You must use a Unicode application.

1. To read: If necessary, use the Lucida Grande font.

2. To write: Select and use the Vietnamese keyboard.

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Icelandic or Turkish

You must use a Unicode application.

1. To read: if necessary, use these fonts: Lucida Grande, Times, Helvetica, Geneva, Monaco, or Courier. Many other Roman fonts support these languages as well.

2. To write: enable and use the Extended Roman keyboard.

(Seriously, thanks, Apple!)

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