CEO's Corner: Rosetta Stone's Tom Adams wants to change the world
Filed under: Company News, Columns
It's been called one of the hottest IPOs of the year and revolves around language: 31 of them to be exact. From English to Spanish to Irish Gaelic to Arabic, language learning software company Rosetta Stone (RST) has you covered. And in a global economy, the company may just have a hit on its hands.
In a recent analysis of the company's April IPO, Bullmark.com analyst Bill Martin said, "The desire, not to mention need, to learn other languages in a global economy means the company is looking at a potentially huge market." But Martin noted that the fact that "the company principally targets consumers represents the greatest risk to its business given consumer caution at present."
Tom Adams, Rosetta Stone's multi-lingual chief executive met with DailyFinance to discuss the company's recent IPO, the toughest language he's ever learned, and an upcoming offering that will allow for peer-to-peer learning and interaction with a language coach.
Well, the reality is we've all learned a new language successfully and we do it as children. It was natural -- we used our own wits to figure out the language and we learned the language in a way where we can use it and it became second nature.
The [Rosetta Stone] experience is all online as well as on a CD-ROM. And you'll experience successful language learning in the first few minutes of interacting with the program. And obviously that's just the basics. But over time if you learn more, you'll progress into having conversations first within the interactive format of the computer. And then over time as we roll out our extension of the offering in the online socialization module, you'll be also able to practice with native speakers
2. Please tell me more about the online socialization module?
What we're going to roll out is an opportunity to practice using VOIP technologies and allow you to practice with a native speaker and an employee of Rosetta Stone who is a conversation coach.
In addition to that, we're going to provide you with the opportunity to connect with peers where you'll be able to do an exchange where you can practice your Spanish, let's say, and then the person you're practicing with can then practice their English.
Rosetta Stone got started in the school business and for schools the number one offering is actually English [which helps] children of immigrants to the U.S. The second one is Spanish and that's the most important language for individual learners.
In addition to Spanish, for individuals we see a big demand for European languages like French and German and Italian. We've actually seen growing demand for Chinese and Arabic.
4. What was the hardest language for you to learn?
Chinese is very hard because it has four different tones: a formal tone, a rising tone, a flat tone and this kind of wave tone – like a word goes up and down -- to illustrate what that would mean. And so each tone affects the meaning of that sound and I found that really hard. I learned it after a while.
The other thing obviously with Chinese is the writing. But Chinese is pretty easy, quite frankly, from the grammatical perspective -- very regular. It's not like French which is very irregular or Arabic which is very complex.
5. How important of a role do you see Rosetta Stone playing as we continue to live in a more global marketplace?
We think that language is something that can change the world. If people are learning different languages, they will inevitably learn about different cultures and we think that that is very positive for society at large.
6. Why did you decide to go public during a virtually dead IPO market?
We were brave, but we were brave based on a very solid foundation. Sometimes companies are going public to raise capital because they need it to just keep going and this was not a case of this. We are cash-flow positive and plan on being cash-flow positive for a long time.
And we felt that the IPO was going to be very positive for the company and for the branding perspective and establishing in everyone's minds that Rosetta Stone means business in this space. We also wanted to open up the opportunity to the larger engagement with some of the big [federal agencies] and companies that we've worked with or hoped to work with.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
6-17-2009 @ 5:01PM
Iridium said...
Rosetta Stone is the worst software program I have ever come across. It is a complete fraud to scam people out of their money. The CEO should be arrested and thrown in jail. $200 for a program that is useless unless you have someone who actually speaks the language you are learning with you. I work for a Japanese corporation and bought the software to learn Japanese to help my career.
It is impossible to learn a language through the program. I have Rosetta Stone sitting on my desk. There is no English in the program. There are three books written in Japanese without an English reference. The menus in the program are also written in Japanese. When you do guess correctly there is no English reference to give you an idea of what you actually saw a picture of. You see a picture of a boy and a dog. Is it "Boy and his dog" or "Boy petting dog" or "Boy and his best friend" or just "Dog". You don't know because there is no common language reference.
At first I thought I was sent the wrong program, but that didn't make any sense. It would just be a program to help Japanese school children learn Japanese. Then it hit me, Rosetta Stone is not a program for someone who speaks a language to learn another language. It is an educational tool meant to supplement a teacher in the classroom to help young people learn their own language.
To pass this fraud off as a way for someone to learn a new language, and to charge a small fortune for it, is criminal. The worst part is that if I did learn anything from the program I would not be able to carry on a conversation with a Japanese person because the program teaches you the formal language rather than conversational Japanese.
When I did have someone from my company in Japan at my office I showed them the program. He laughed hysterically. I said, "what is so funny". He said, " That isn't how we speak at all, how much did you pay for that". I showed him th ethree books with no English and he said, "How do they expect you to learn a language if there is no reference to your own language. You wouldn't even know where to start."
So go ahead and reward this fraudulent corporation with a huge share increase. If there was any justice the IPO would have failed and the company would be bankrupt.
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6-19-2009 @ 12:04PM
Caleb Hogan said...
Hey man, sorry you got so frustrated with the program. I have actually used it and it totally transformed the way I learned Spanish.
I have actually talked to those people at the Rosetta Stone kiosks, who are pretty knowlegeable, and the thing is, while I thought it would make sense to have English words referenced in the program, all that does is teach you to be in a constant state of mental translation. (I know, because this is the only way I could comprehend what Spanish I already knew.) I was constantly having to process my words into English, then try to formulate responses (IN ENGLISH,) before I could translate it back into Spanish to speak.
When I began to use Rosetta Stone, very quickly I was able to start THINKING in the language, because it was not teaching me these new vocabulary words as equivalent of English, but rather associating them directly with the objects or actions they describe.
As far as the menu being in Japanese, you should change that back into English, which is very easy to do. I am just about to get proficient enough to change my menus into Spanish, but you should definitely start in English. I can see how that would have been intimidating - especially in Japanese!
So go talk to someone who can, in like 10 minutes, show you how to use the program. I got the demonstration before I used it the first time, or else I would have probably had some of the same questions you have.
As far as the formal dialect goes, Rosetta Stone gets native speakers who have the accent of a newscaster or politician in that country. These people are the ones who communicate with the broadest range of people, so this is the best way to go about it. Sure, not everyone is going to be that formal, but would you rather learn English from Barack Obama or Larry the Cable guy? Same principle applies, no matter what language you are learning. For instance, we in the US might not actually use the word "Hello" as a greeting that often in our speech, but everyone knows what it means and more people will relate to that than "What's goin' down?" or "Howdy!"
I hate to see you go and spend that money, and then not get to see how great what you've got is... It is the officially used language learning software of the US Army, the State Dept., and NASA, as well as over 10,000 schools and many Fortune 500 companies. These are all entities which do not have time or money to waste on something that doesn't work, so while you are frustrated, surely you can see that so many would not use it if it didn't work. Take that 10 minutes, and go let someone take you through how to use it. You'll be glad you did.
Oh, by the way, if you got it from Rosetta Stone, (not amazon or whoever else might sell it also,) you get a six-month money-back guarantee. This was a big deal for me looking in to the program. They wouldn't offer that if their product was useless and their CEO "belongs in prison." So if all else fails, get your money back. The only mistake you've made (and an understanable one,) is that you didn't know anything about how it works, and you got frustrated. Do yourself a favor and give it another shot.
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6-19-2009 @ 7:36PM
Jamie said...
Iridium is either lying and did not actually even buy Rosetta Stone or is just a very, very unintelligent person. First of all books have nothing to do with Rosetta Stone, if yours came with books they may be a bonus for you to explore once you've learned the language but they surely aren't the focus of your learning. Second, did he buy this under some pretense that Rosetta Stone was going to provide you with a Japanese person to talk to? What does that have to do with the program? There is no way you bought this program without hearing the word IMMERSION at least 11 times, it's the entire theory behind Rosetta's strategy! My entire family used this program to speak French and you know who was the quickest to pick up on it...? My 7 year old son. All I can say is this worked amazingly for 4 of us from 7 to 47. And it didn't just work to teach us how to say "where's the bathroom", I've since gotten a promotion and am training with my company to actually represent my company in France. That is honestly why I found this guy's post so frustrating, normally I wouldn't have wasted my time responding, but this stuff really did change my life. My wife bought it and I was completely against it....and I've never been more wrong in my life.
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7-13-2009 @ 8:56AM
Jon Webber said...
I Have not had a good experience with Rosetta Stone myself.
I tried to order the "Free" CD ,two different times a year apart. Both times the Operator wanted Credit Card Info. When I asked why they needed that info,I was told that the CD wouldn't be very helpful,and I needed to order the full course. I declined both times.
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7-31-2009 @ 8:26AM
W C Brunton said...
I have been interested in Rosetta Stone for a long time. However when I actually looked into buying it - too rich for my blood!
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8-01-2009 @ 7:50PM
Jerry Flynn said...
My niece speaks Japanese, English, Spanish. She is autistic and is relentless about such things.
But she teaches at Berlitz. She said their software is better but face to face is the best. Apparently expensive and you need to take the time but you will be speaking whatever language.
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