“I'd have so much more respect for a company that came out honestly and said we want to make a profit for our shareholders as we sell language instruction.” from Loraine

http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/kaihan-krippend...

This discussion is aimed at a different category of ESL learners: about 4.000.000 people worldwide learn ESL in online communities. Unfortunately, the main contenders for the leading role in the Global economy (China, India, South Korea, etc.) are under-represented among visitors of Rosetta Stone web site and all other online learning portals, although namely these countries contain the major portion of one billion ESL learners in the next 10 years who need fluency in ESL without going into language depth.

A few questions for Susan:
• What is the number of high school graduates (for example in USA, China, Russia, and Mexico) who speak foreign language after spending years and years studying them in school?
• Have you watched John Fotheringham presentation: Why Most Fail and How You Can Succeed: http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/language…
• Do you speak any foreign languages?

I'm not selling anything or pushing my own software – I give away my patented software for free to any educator who would like to try it. Besides, I am also ready to assign my patent on Language Bridge Technology to Roseta Stone for free. I would appreciate if you could help me to accomplish this assignment. It is not a joke!

My objective is to unite ESL teachers and together create a new method of learning ESL that will appeal to one billion of ESL learners and cause the explosion of online learning portals. To comprehend the difference between traditional and alternative methods visit these web sites which describe the alternative to the traditional teaching methods:
http://effortlessenglishclub.com/, http://www.lingq.com or my site http://www.language-bridge.com.

Sincerely yours,
Arkady Zilberman

There are the potential new students who learned with CDs or books before and are now shown an online version plus the investors who think: if RS is moving, then there must be money on the table.

So investors will look out for possibilities to fund smaller companies in the same sector, students who cannot afford RS will look for alternatives and so on and so furth.

RS TOTALe could be a kickstart for elearning. You can think of their method what you want but if they would sell crap, why is it that everybody seems to be happy.

And pricewise: well, good for competitors. As I said in my post above, it leaves enough air to build something in the same niche.

In the end I think we all will profit. Just my 2 cents

I have the feeling that RS cannot be that bad. As I said, I never tried their method so I cannot say if it works or not for myself. I can only say that I am doubtful about the general method as my personal teaching style follows an other scheme.

It is great to hear the opinion of a RS user who also implemented it in a teaching environment. Much appreciated, Susan.

Personally, I am not a linguist, but I am an educator. And my middle school adopted Rosetta Stone on a subscription basis for our ESL students. I have to say it was a huge success. Many of these students feel embarassed and afraid to speak up in a normal class setting, but with Rosetta Stone they have the chance to practice pronunciation and here there own voice against a native speaker in a safe, non-judgemental space. And having been through the Spanish version, I have to say it worked for this adult…many of my colleagues agree. Sorry to sound so much like a commercial (there are plenty of those on the air) but Rosetta Stone has been a Godsend for our school and our students. Hope this helps balance out the commentary. (I'm not selling anything!!!)

The main contenders for the leading role in the Global economy (China, India, South Korea, etc.) are under-represented among visitors of Rosetta Stone web site and all other online learning portals, although namely these countries contain the major portion of one billion ESL learners in the next 10 years who need fluency in ESL without going into language depth.

For them practical knowledge of ESL can be the deciding factor in finding a better job or getting a promotion. They need a modern method of learning ESL fast. For them it is a necessity. There is a saying that necessity is the mother of invention. Unfortunately the invention is on its way and now we don’t have a modern method of learning ESL that will meet the requirements of Digital Learners. By the way, the majority of today’s learners are Digital with new characteristics and requirements.

I recommend watching John Fotheringham presentation: Why Most Fail and How You Can Succeed:
http://l2mastery.com/featured-articles/language...

In my opinion, the Online Learning Portals should comprehend the necessity of uniting their teachers and creating a common ground for their teachers. Certification of ESL teacher is not a guaranty of his/her ability to help adults to learn ESL fast. ESL educators should unite and together formulate the fundamental principles of a new method of learning ESL.

The new method should take into consideration the following facts:
• Learning a language is not an academic subject but a physical skill and should be trained or learned rather than taught. That is why the old traditional methods showed poor results.
• All adult learners could be classified into language-capable (about 5-10%) and language-incapable (90-95%). The new method should restore the innate ability of learning languages in the second group of learners.
• A special tool is needed to automatically turn off cross-translation as the main barrier in acquiring fluency in a foreign language.

I would like to offer to all ESL teachers for free a complete version of my patented Language Bridge software that was designed with account of the above facts. Send me you email and I will email to you the link for downloading the software from Internet.

Sincerely,
Arkady Zilberman

Embrace the bear!