I ran the numbers. How should YOU learn a language?

Rosetta Stone asked me to review their new product, Sapphire. I used to work there, and I'm known for brutal reviews. I pulled every word and sentence out of the Italian, Hebrew, and Persian courses and measured them against real benchmarks and against Duolingo, Routledge, and the old Version 2. Some of what I found surprised even me. Get 20% off Rosetta Stone Sapphire with my affiliate link: https://www.rosettastone.com/buy/aff-20 👉 Join the waitlist for my course, the Language Learning Accelerator: https://www.languagejones.com/acceler... Disclosure: I worked at Rosetta Stone from about 2008 to 2013. They asked for this review but did not pay me for it. Some links in this description are affiliate links, so I may earn a commission if you buy through them, at no extra cost to you. ⏱️ Timestamps: 00:00 Rosetta Stone asked the wrong guy 01:48 A short history of Rosetta Stone 03:32 Version 3, TOTALe, and Sapphire 06:22 Language learning and benchmarks 09:00 Italian: how Sapphire stacks up 13:16 Hebrew 17:53 Persian 21:32 The big picture across all three languages 22:11 Why none of these will make you fluent 22:53 The best realistic stacks 24:55 When to use Sapphire, and when not to 26:40 The price, and my verdict 📚 Resources: Arabic: Arabic All the Time: https://arabicallthetime.com/?ref=lan... Al-Kitaab 1: https://link.amazon/B0h15bKOm Al-Kitaab 2: https://link.amazon/B0cI9eUQc Italian: Routledge Colloquial Italian 1: https://link.amazon/B0g3sBhJF Routledge Colloquial Italian 2: https://link.amazon/B0alp2GzG The Ultimate Italian Review and Practice: https://link.amazon/B06ftFue1 A Frequency Dictionary of Italian: https://link.amazon/B0hfWQiLm Nuovo Vocabolario di Base (free PDF): https://www.giuliotortello.it/l2/nuov... French: Routledge Colloquial French 1: https://link.amazon/B00OtsjUE Routledge Colloquial French 2: https://link.amazon/B0dLmGx3r The Ultimate French Review and Practice: https://link.amazon/B07JG0CZH A Frequency Dictionary of French: https://link.amazon/B09k1Ot3B Spanish: Routledge Colloquial Spanish 1: https://link.amazon/B06OJAA9m Routledge Colloquial Spanish 2: https://link.amazon/B07KmPZ4H The Ultimate Spanish Review and Practice: https://link.amazon/B03smobcj A Frequency Dictionary of Spanish: https://link.amazon/B0dK1ayAI - EDITED BY: https://www.presage.media 👋 If you're new here, welcome! I'm Dr. Taylor Jones. I have a PhD in linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania, and on this channel, we explore the fascinating intersections of language, culture, and science. 💬 LEAVE A COMMENT: 💬 Have you ever used Rosetta Stone, any version? What stuck with you, and what didn't? And which deep dive do you want next: the Hebrew errors, the Persian register problem, or the full Italian grammar matrix? 🔔 Subscribe for more linguistic deep dives: [@languagejones](   / @languagejones  ) Support the channel on Patreon:   / languagejones   #LanguageLearning #RosettaStone #HowToLearnALanguage #LearnItalian #LearnHebrew #LearnPersian #Duolingo #Linguistics #Sapphire #Italian #Hebrew #Persian