Yup. Even Donald wears them.
That’s Uncle Scrooge.
Eh, they’re both ducks. 
I didn’t notice this thread until now even though I was the one, in a way, whose posts led to this thread.
Thanks toasty for your position. I understand your stance and appreciate your support for struggling students who need encouragement, not discouragement.
But I wasn’t overly bothered by ironlady’s and buttercup’s posts, because I recognize that they’re only stating their opinions and, while they may have considerably more expertise than me in teaching/learning/speaking foreign languages including Chinese, I’m still free to wholeheartedly disagree with them if I wish and, with respect to Rosetta Stone, I do. They looked at the program from their perspectives, as fluent mandarin speakers and critics of language programs. I look at it from my very different perspective, as a struggling beginning learner of mandarin who doesn’t know or give a damn about pedagogical theories, so long as something works for me. And, based on my actual, first-hand experience with Rosetta Stone, I believe the system appears quite promising and may help me considerably. So, I greatly respect their language skills, but I believe they’re overly critical (and wrong) about RS at least for me and some others on this forum.
As I said, I still have great respect for their language/learning/teaching abilities, and I have no problem with them voicing their opinions, even if they’re critical of something others approve of, but in this case I’ll simply disregard their comments and continue with the program (which I was doing a moment ago and will return to momentarily).
So, thanks for your support, toasty. Much appreciated, but mayo wente. 
Tell us in Chinese, when you’ve finished it. 