Rosetta Stone

Did you use Duolingo? No.

When I learned a long time ago, I used Rosetta Stone.

Oh, okay.

And that gave me enough to get by when I first went.

just in that one area to speak the language.

Even if I were to practice on Duolingo or Rosetta Stone, it's really hard because I could be saying one word, but it'd be a completely different word in the wrong way.

They don't have like Navajo community night at Harvard or,

Find me another Navajo that's Navajo speaking.

That's what you're limited to.

That's why also when you look at Duolingo, look at Rosetta Stone, some of the other language models that are out there, it's a great start, but how do we get that more mainstream? And those models, they're great, but they're still very one-dimensional because they're still focusing in on teaching you a language from a standpoint of just speaking a different language.

It's not teaching you the cultural identity part of it.

It's not teaching you the other part of that language.

I haven't actually used them, but I've heard about them.

Rosetta Stone, Rosetta Stone I have used.

Duolingo I have not used, but I've heard about it.

These will basically give you the phrases you need to be a good tourist.

But if you actually want to learn French or German or Italian or whatever, properly, when I say properly, I mean you want to be actually able to read a newspaper article in this language.

Or if two people are having a conversation on WhatsApp or, you know, let's say you're a spy, you're eavesdropping and you've bugged the room and you're listening to a conversation between two German speakers, then Rosetta Stone, et cetera, they're not going to get you anywhere.

In fact, worse yet, they will give you a false sense of confidence with the result that you will feel you know, which you don't know, what we call in Arabic, which is even more dangerous than not knowing.

So anyway, so practice does not make perfect, practice makes permanent.

So he works primarily with the Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana to help them revitalize their once dormant language.

Daniel earned his PhD in linguistics from the University of California, Santa Barbara, and prior to g- graduate school, he worked for Rosetta Stone's Endangered Language Program to create language learning software with Native American language communities.

Daniel lives in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

So once again, Danny, welcome to the show.

Yeah, I, um, I became interested in that in undergrad when I was doing field work in Kenya.

I'd always been interested in East Africa, and then I discovered there was this whole movement to document minority languages and try and, um, help revitalize them before they disappear.

And so I started taking an interest in that in undergrad, and then I had an internship with the Endangered Language Program at Rosetta Stone.

They make that language learning software.

This could be anything.

This could have been Rosetta Stone.

This could have been Duolingo.

This could have been any single app.

You need an app.

Like they have the Rosetta Stone and Babbel, helps you translate.

You need a, like a woke app.

So you can, when people say, "This is a, the..." And you have to, what did he say now? Colonize your, decolonize your mind from the hetero patriarchy.

Sure.

What was it? Was it Rosetta Stone? Was that the one that everyone used for a long time?

Yeah.

And there was disks.

And it can't help me.

It just says, "Nah, that's not it."

But those, those, like, Rosetta Stone disks, they were like, uh, like 350 bucks for a set, you know? It was crazy.

Buddy, that's almost like- ... uh, like sat nav level costs.