I'm sure most of you are familiar with Rosetta Stone, the language learning software. They offer coursework in many different languages including
Arabic
Chinese
Danish
Dutch
English (American)
English (British)
Fillipino (tagalog)
French
German
Greek
Hebrew
Hindi
Indonesian
Irish
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Latin
Pashto
Persian (Farsi)
Polish
Portuguese (Brazil)
Russian
Spanish (Latin American)
Spanish (Spain)
Swahili
Swedish
Thai
Turkish
Vietnamese
Welsh
Do you see what is not on that list? Serbian is not on that list. After making several inquiries to Rosetta Stone about creating a Serbian program, I was told, "If we receive enough inquiries, we will create the program. At this time there is not enough demand for Serbian." Really? There was enough demand for Swahili or Polish? They did not specify what qualifies as "enough" demand, so I can only guess. But I do know this: The more people who request it, the better chances are of getting Serbian!
I know that I *really* need to learn Serbian. Thanks to Axel, my ties to Serbia are growing every day. My plans for the next year are being mapped out as I type. I know there are people lurking in the background of my blog who want to learn Serbian as well. Please go here, fill out the request, and add your voice to mine and the few others who have requested Serbian.
Randy is currently using it to learn Russian. It is a really good system.
ReplyDeleteYour blog is hard to read on your pretty green background. Sorry!
ReplyDeletei sent a request to rosetta stone hope it helps
ReplyDeleteYour new pretty green background makes it hard to read your blog. Sorry!
ReplyDeleteDone. I think I should do a similar campaign for Hungarian. (Except we all know that Rosetta Ston's approach won't work with Hungarian, Estonian or Finnish without redoing the whole thing from scratch, so no wonder they are not offered.)
ReplyDeleteI think the difference is that there are around 7 millions of people in Serbia and 38 millions in Poland :) It makes a difference as I would think that there are more people with Polish background wanting to learn their language :) And yes, my native language, Finnish, is not offered either ;)
ReplyDeleteRosetta Stone is also big in the Uk - where there has been a massive increase in the Polish population over the last 5 years or so. This probably explains why Polish is offered as you hear it everywhere you go here!
ReplyDeleteWill request Serbian on your behalf :)