Special Report: Talk the talk

Duane Sider, Rosetta Stone
"We learned a first language quickly, easily, and naturally and we believe you can learn a second one."

Duane Sider’s company sells one of these computer programs that promise to have you speaking a foreign language like a native.

They say it works so well U.S. diplomats and even NASA astronauts have used it.

So how well does it work? 7News put it to the test to find out.

The players:

Amy, a law student in Boston is giving Spanish a whirl

Tim, a Newton language teacher who already speaks five languages is tackling Chinese

And Vinny, a server at a Waltham restaurant hopes to dazzle his customers with some real Italian dialog.

After about six weeks...

Vinny
"I pagliacci indossando un cappello nero, the clowns wearing a black hat."

Amy
"El gato es blanco..that means the cat is white."

Both Amy and Vinny picked up many words and phrases although some were not the most practical.

Amy worked on her Spanish between studying for her law exams and Vinny put in about an hour a night.

Vinny
"I feel like I could become fluent at some point."

Amy
"I think that if someone were to actually speak a sentence in Spanish to me I'd have a better idea of what they were saying."

Tim
(speaks in Chinese) "Which is my hair is brown."

Tim who braved learning a language based on tones put in about 45 minutes a night and its paid off so far, however, he thinks the program could use a little tweaking.

Tim
"I would have loved to have been able to click on things sometimes and just look at an English definition to do a quick check as to what I am doing and then go back to Chinese."

But not being able to do that is what the company says makes their program so effective.

Duane Sider, Rosetta Stone
"You didn't learn a first language by translating it through a second language; you were immersed in the sound, the look of the language."

Amy, Tim, and Vinny all agree: they're far from fluent in their new languages but they say they’re encouraged to continue learning...

So what we found out simply the more time you put into the program the more you get out of it. Each language sells for around $200.

(Copyright (c) 2005 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)