Press Release

<< Back

Rosetta Stone Confronts Londoners with Language Gap Illusion

2010 June, 20

Rosetta Stone^® the leading language-learning company, will get people talking about the UK’s language gap when it confronts Londoners with a dramatic optical illusion on July 1st.

Two 3D chasms will appear to have split the ground at Victoria Station and the Thames walkway by Southbank Centre. There are reportedly more than 300 languages spoken in London, making it the ideal place for Rosetta Stone to challenge Britain’s poor reputation for language learning. According to the company, modern learning methods leave no excuse.

“We want to get people talking about how language learning has moved forward but, ultimately, we want to get people talking in another language,” said Sylke Riester, Managing Director of Rosetta Stone Europe. “It’s time to look at things differently: it’s not about whether one person or one nation is better at language learning than another. We all learnt our first language as children and technology enables us to tap into that natural ability.”

Rosetta Stone is an award-winning interactive language-learning program. It uses a systematic sequence of language and images, without translation, to help you rediscover your natural learning ability. By clicking, speaking, reading and writing, learners tap in to their natural language-learning ability, using interaction and intuition.

The 3D language gap artworks aim to grab the attention of the public but also to get people to visualise their limited language range as a void to be crossed. Visitors to Victoria Station and passing Southbank Centre (near the London Eye) can meet the artists and Rosetta Stone employees, who will be handing out free 24-hour trial access passes at Victoria Station, and will be helping people across the language gap at both locations.

Photos of the 3D language gap can be posted to the event page at Facebook.com/RosettaStone and tweeted to @RosettaStoneUK.

For more information go to RosettaStone.co.uk/press and www.facebook.com/RosettaStone

-ENDS-

Photo call: If attending to photograph, please confirm by contacting Claire Watson on 0207 819 1273 / 07545 610080 / clwatson@rosettastone.com

About Rosetta Stone UK

Acclaimed for the speed, power and effectiveness of its Dynamic Immersion^TM method, Rosetta Stone is a revolutionary language learning software program.

Rosetta Stone was founded in 1992 on two core beliefs: that the natural way people learn languages as children remains the most successful method for learning new languages; and that interactive CD-ROM and online technology can recreate the immersion method powerfully for learners of any age. Rosetta Stone (UK) Limited, a subsidiary of Rosetta Stone Inc., is based in London.

Rosetta Stone has created a 3D picture of a language gap, and a viral, to help people visualise where learning a language can take them: