UPDATE: Apparently Rosetta Stone was not making enough money with all of us using versions at the library, so they have terminated all library contracts. The only way to use this amazing program is to pay a lot of money for it. We ended up saving for a year or so and purchasing this program.
We want to raise our children to be culturally-minded. For us, this includes learning a second or third language.
To that end, I researched all the home schooling language curriculum options, and decided that Rosetta Stone was the best program available for the acquisition of a spoken language. (We are not yet using anything for grammar work.)
Rosetta Stone offer languages from everywhere! You could learn Swahili, or Mandarin. How about Latin, or Russian? Hebrew, anyone?
The only problem is that Rosetta Stone is ludicrously expensive! Being diligent home schoolers, however, we started a fund to purchase the program.
Move along two years. We are almost ready to buy this program.
Then I heard through the internet grapevine that Rosetta Stone is available free through some Public Libraries. Specifically the Chattanooga Hamilton County Bicentennial Library offers Rosetta Stone free to all its patrons. The best part is that the CHCBL offers an online membership to anyone in the world for $30US. This online membership allows access to Rosetta Stone.
For $30 a year, my children can learn a myriad of languages from an excellent program that is exactly the same as the purchased program, but for a fraction of the cost. So we went ahead and purchased a membership. It worked wonderfully.
Then late last year, our own local public library began offering the online Rosetta Stone courses. If you live where we live, you can go to the front of the library website and click on the little picture of Rosetta Stone. Set up your account and start learning!
If you don’t live where we live, check the databases available at your own local library.
If that proves fruitless, mail in your membership to the CHCBL!
C’est bon!
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thank you so much for posting this!! I found your page totally by accident while ineptly trying to compare Rosetta and another language program. I am getting that library membership today.