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 enlarge | From: Rosetta Stone
Category: Software
List Price: $549.00
Buy New: $494.10
You Save: $54.90 (10%)
New (2) Used (1) from $365.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  71 reviews
Sales Rank: 7
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows Xp, Mac Os X
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Level 1, 2 & 3
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 6.5 x 3
Model: 20988
UPC: 794678209888
EAN: 0794678209888
Release Date: June 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
 Simple to set up; fun to use August 16, 2008
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed my Spanish classes in school 40+ years ago and I had frequent fleeting thoughts that I would like to refresh my memory. Then along came Rosetta Stone. Everything I needed is in the box: software, audio CDs so I can practice hearing and speaking away from the computer, and even a headset with microphone. The software installed quickly and easily.
Now I'm enjoying learning Spanish all over again, except it's more fun this time. It's also more intuitive with Rosetta Stone. In school, I began with the boring task of memorizing frequently used words, colors and numbers, and grammar rules. With Rosetta Stone, I'm learning Spanish the same way I learned my first language -- by hearing, speaking, using words in sentences and stories, and matching words with pictures. I expect the Rosetta way to stay with me better than rote memorization.
As you go through your lessons, your work is scored so you can tell how well your're doing. You can repeat lessons as often as you need to until you're satisfied with your progress. You also get periodic reviews of previous lessons.
With the included audio CDs, you can practice anytime, even when you don't have time to sit at your computer. Use them while driving, gardening or cleaning house.
The packaging says Rosetta Stone is addictive, and it really is. That's because it's fun, so much fun I want to keep going long after I really need to tear myself away from the computer.
What a Nice Way to Learn a Language August 12, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
It seems to me that Americans are pretty much known world wide for their lack of languages skills. When we travel, we seem to expect everybody to speak English. If they can't understand eggs over easy, then we come home and tell any and everyone who will listen, how backward those people in Japan, Spain, France or Sweden are.
And am I any different? I'm an educated person, but not a word of Spanish, Japanese or any other language do I speak. Well, maybe I can rectify that. I got an opportunity to get the Rosetta Stone for those languages and I told myself this would be a good hobby, picking up a couple languages. Well, I don't know that I'll ever be fluent, but at least I'll be able to get by if I ever make it to Spain or Japan.
First off, I wondered if I could possibly learn two languages at once, but then I thought back to college and I certainly was able to learn more than one subject at a time, so why not give it a try, make it a challenge, make it a hobby, make it fun.
So I installed both languages on my computer, but I don't do them back to back. I do Japanese in the morning, before I go to work, let it percolate all day. And I do Spanish at night, let it drift through my dreams. Is it working? Been doing it for three weeks now and I know some words. Plus I've made little labels and stuck them on just about everything in my house. Below the glasses in my kitchen cupboard are the worlds "koppu" and "vaso". I don't wait for the words to come up in Rosetta Stone, I've got dictionaries. But when the words do come up, I've got a head start and they put a smile on my face.
Back to the program. Level One is supposed to give you a foundation in essential vocabulary and it does, at least it seems from my point it gives you what you need to get around a bit. There is no translation, instead you learn by looking at pictures and hearing the words, much like a child growing up and let me tell you, sometimes I feel like a child as I work through the lessons.
Level two builds on the vocabulary, taking you from simple sentences to some that are a little more complex. That's where I am now and I have to admit, this isn't all that difficult. I do go back and repeat lessons and I've started tuning into some of those Mexican soap operas that seemed so funny when I didn't understand the words. I understand a few now and they're still funny. We don't have an Japanese TV, but even if we did, I think it would be much harder for me to pick out words and phases. The grammar is so different.
All in all I have to give Rosetta Stone five stars, because it's kept me occupied for a couple hours a day for three weeks and it looks like there's no end in sight. Well, let's hope there is an end someday.
Computer Instruction that Really Works August 8, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Let's face it: a lot of computer-assisted instruction is just plain lame or worse.
They can suffer from either being rote memorization schemes or over-glorified games or simply textbooks in electronic form.
Rare is a system that truly utilizes what computers can do best to solidly teach concepts.
Rosetta Stone delivers.
It teaches language using multiple sensory inputs (picture & voice) and multiple feedback mechanisms (your voice and hand-eye choices). It is able to adjust and compensate for your learning speed and strengths on the fly. It is engaging without being just a game. And it is able to effectively teach without English--- which is the closest you can get to a dedicated immersion course.
Bottom line: I am very impressed. My ten year old loves it, actually WANTS to do the lessons. I'm having fun with it too, even though languages are definitely not my strong suit. If you want to learn a language on your own, this is the best way I know to do it.
Sometimes an Old Dog Can Learn a New Trick or Two August 10, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Sara and I spend a lot of time in the Caribbean, actually we'd lived for several years on a sailboat between St. Martin and Venezuela and we dream of going back sometime in the not too distant future. In fact we've been looking at boats for the last couple months. Will we get back there, I surely hope so.
Sadly, when we were there we only spoke one of the Caribbean's three languages, English. I can't tell you how much greater the experience (not that the experience wasn't great, it was) would have been if we'd spoken Spanish and French, so when we got the opportunity to get the Rosetta Stone courses in the languages we so badly wanted to learn, we jumped at the chance.
These courses are expensive and sometimes you have to wonder when software costs this much, if you really do get what you pay for? The package is impressive, to be sure, but does the system work?
I'm thinking it does, but of course I won't know for sure for a couple months. I wish I had that much time to use the program, before reviewing it, but I agreed to get the review up as soon as possible. Anyway, I've been living with the program, almost married to my computer, for the last couple weeks and I really do feel like it's working. I did both programs for the first few days, but then set French aside, to concentrate on Spanish, but the learning process for both programs is the same.
You do a lot of listening, you read and listen, listen and read, listen and repeat, listen and learn. And I am learning, which is kind of amazing, because I've begun to think of myself as kind of an old dog, so I guess you really can teach an old dog new tricks.
Dynamic Immersion is Working for Me August 17, 2008
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I've been using Rosetta Stone for about a month now and I have to say that it really does simplify learning a language. Actually, it teaches you like you learned your crib language. Well, not quite, but it tries, sort of.
There are no English words in these lessons, you learn your new language by associating words in your new language you don't know (yet) with photos of things you know. The new word for run with the spoken phrase, pictured with a boy running for example.
You learn through Rosetta Stone's speech recognition system. You work on reading and pronouncing your new words and you get feedback immediately, which helps to make the new language sink in.
Rosetta Stone calls their learning method Dynamic Immersion and it seems to work. At least it's working for me, in two languages.
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