#No1: Language Learning Software Best for You.

Save Rosetta Stone Version 3: Japanese Level 1 With Audio Companion

I've been using Rosetta Stone almost every day for the past month and I love it! Using pictures with no translation is a great way to learn the language! Yes, there are times when I don't understand what's trying to be described by the picture, but there are plenty of different pictures that are used for the same situation, so eventually you understand what is being said.

The audio companion is also a great tool. I use it when I have downtime at work. It's a great way to reinforce what you're learning with the program. It doesn't cover everything that you learn in the lessons, but it's a good way to review most of the important things.

The one downside with this program, for the Japanese language at least, is the writing portion. You don't really learn how to write in Japanese, you just learn to recognize the characters. So if you're looking to learn how to write hiragana, katakana, and kanji, it's better to take that up on your own. There are plenty of free web sites that can assist you.

Overall, and I'm completely satisfied with this program and I am planning on continuing with Level 2 and 3.

Discount Rosetta Stone Version 3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 1 With Audio Companion

All in all, we love the product, but find the customer support to be severely lacking.

I purchased this product for myself and kids to learn Spanish over the summer. We have not had a good experience with phone support. After several calls, we are still unable to resolve a simple issue with product activation.

You know the story...bounced around from tech support to customer support...and back again....hours waiting in a phone queue only to reach yet another agent with the same canned answers. Another barrier is the fact that phone agents do not speak clearly in English. Ultimately, we still have the problem after all the effort. I guess we'll have to brave it again tomorrow and hope we can reach someone who can actually understand and help, but I'm not optimistic.

It is unfortunate that such a great software product has such poor customer support. Beware if you buy, you won't get much in the way of support.

Rosetta Stone Version 3: Chinese (Mandarin), Level 1,2 & 3 Set With Audio Companion

I've never used a computer program for language development. While the product seems well put together and comprehensive I found it hard to get myself in the right mindset. Probably the same reason why I was never very enthusiastic about playing chess on/with a computer. I think I'd still prefer using a textbook and interacting with a person for the acoustic part but perhaps I'm old-fashioned. In addition the language selected might have also contributed to the impediment since I did not find it easy to learn.

Buying Instant Immersion German Deluxe V3.0

The Instant Immersion German Deluxe v3.0 (IIGD) is great. We saw a live demonstration of Rosetta Stone software in the mall and the IIGD software seems to give you way more bang for your buck. IIGD lets you click on a word and hear it in German so you can practice repeating it. It also lets you look up the word's english meaning on the same screen. We like this feature because you do not have to go to different places in the software to practice the vocabulary and hear what the words sound like.

If you are serious about learning German I would heavily suggest getting a few textbooks in addition to this software. I would suggest getting a book that covers verb conjugation (i.e. "The Big Yellow Book of German Verbs") as well as a dictionary that includes the phonetic spelling of german words.

The voice recognition part of the software is done in the same fashion as other language software. I.e. the software does not recognize actual sounds but instead recognizes tone/inflection. In other words, the software does not ensure you create the correct sounds but only that you use the correct inflection. The user can practice creating the proper sounds by repeating the spoken vocabulary included in the software. To my knowledge this is the same method used by other language software programs.

The audio CD sessions are as follows:
1: Greetings, 2: My Name Is..., 3: The German Alphabet, 4: Special German Sounds, 5: Spelling Your Name, 6: German Numbers 1-10, 7: German Numbers 11-20, 8: Numbers Beyond 20, 9: Pronouns and the Verbs "To Have" and "To Be" / Learning Nations and Nationalities, 10: The Verb "To Come" / Forming Questions, 11: Gender of German Nouns / The Nominative and Accusative Cases, 12: Present Tense Verbs / Small Talk with Colleagues, 13: Telling Time / Modal Verbs, 14: German Nouns in the Dative Case

Cons:
Two of the audio CD labels were mixed up. That being said, the labels aren't good for much as they don't really tell you everything that is on the discs. There is a lot more covered in the discs than their label says.

Rosetta Stone Version 3: Italian Level 1, 2 & 3 Set With Audio Companion

Like other RS products this one uses full immersion for the language-learning portion of the program. It is easy to use and allows you to "jump around" if you feel like you need to go back and review an earlier section. RS's approach is to "immerse" you in the language so you are learning it the way a native speaker would. There is no tedious memorization and, before long, you find that you begin to understand the language first and then you begin to be able to speak it--it almost sneaks up on you. This all makes the program fun to use, particularly for people who learn best by seeing or hearing but make no mistake--it is also a lot of effort. The program does create a very nice positive feedback loop where success begets success and failure circles you back until it becomes success. In short, if you stick with the program it is hard to fail.

Cheap Rosetta Stone Version 3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 1,2,3,4 & 5 Set With Audio Companion

I rated this program five stars, and that rating is based solely on the quality of the product. Rosetta Stone is really fun, and it's wayyyyyyy more useful than most of the Spanish classes you'll come across. As far as helping you remember words and pronounce them correctly, Rosetta Stone is awesome. I am currently taking a Spanish class at my college, because I figured if I doubled up I'd have the best chance at learning how to speak (and write, ug ug ug) Spanish. The class is a good time, and my professor is a riot, but I must admit that the computer program is more effective. My feeble brain doesn't want to deal with verb tenses and formal and informal usage of words, and all that stuff that makes my attention wander away until I'm gazing out the window and not paying attention at all and writing really long run on sentences that end in ellipses... You see my point. The Stone is also cool because it makes me think of Sesame Street, which makes me feel sort of nostalgic and happy. Clicking on the brightly colored pictures takes me back to simpler times, sigh. And yeah, it is an expensive product, but pay for a college course and a Spanish book and guess what- you end up spending even more money, and maybe you'll get stuck with an unattractive professor who rants, and waves his arms around, and throws pieces of chalk at your head when you are gazing out of the window, and not paying attention. There are cheaper computer programs for learning Spanish, and you guessed it, they totally blow. I ought to know because I wasted upwards of forty-five dollars on such junky products. I would like to know how Rosetta compares to that other popular language program... Pilsner or Plodner or Pimsleur or whatever.
Rosetta Stone is also known for having crappy customer service, and apparently if you try to resell one of their programs they will hunt you down like a dog and there will be a public stoning. Sometimes greed is so shameful that it becomes hilarious. This is the case with Rosetta Stone, and I guess that's too bad, but it gives people a chance to one-up the greedy buggers! Share the product with as many people as possible and then it will be as cheap as free! After all, it seems that many folks are just in a tiff because they can't get any money for a used product. For shame, you are being just as greedy. Give your copy of Rosetta Stone to some poor, sick kid who has always wanted to learn a bit of Spanish but never had the means.

Rosetta Stone Version 3: Italian Level 1, 2 & 3 Set With Audio Companion

What a terrific way to learn a language! I've used the German and Italian so far and have thoroughly enjoyed both. I received this set of CD's and everything else that comes with them in excellent condition. The shipping was quick, and I believe the seller is reputable In fact, I would absolutely buy from this seller again. As for learning a new language...I haven't found a better system than Rosetta Stone. It's easy and fun, and I was surprised at how effective their programs are. If you want or need to learn another language, I would recommend that you buy the introductory CD set for that language. It's hard for me to imagine that anyone attempting to learn a language would not benefit from this style of teaching. Not only are you learning effectively, it's really a ton of fun!! If you don't like it...that's too bad, but at least it's not a huge investment. In my opinion, if you want or need to learn another language, you can't go wrong with Rosetta Stone. Enjoy!!

Rosetta Stone Version 3: French Level 1, 2 & 3 Set With Audio Companion

I have now worked my way through most of Rosetta Stone's French and Arabic courses (all three levels of each language) and must record a sense of disappointment with the system, especially given its high price. Let me briefly record my misgivings.
First, the directions for doing the exercises are frequently confusing.
Second, several of the pictures are unclear, so one does not quite know what is happening.
Third, one's grip on the grammar (especially of a complicated language such as Arabic) remains infirm; after quite a bit of work and guessing you can extract the main rules regarding words and syntax of the material in the course, but it can be difficult to extend this to fresh material, because there are always exceptions, many of them important.
Moreover, I am not sure that this method of learning a language, allegedly in the manner one learnt one's mother tongue as a child, is necessarily the most efficient for an adult. As Professor Horace Lunt of Harvard said of such a method: "Do you really want to spend five years learning to speak like a child of five?" This "Child(like) route to language learning" ignores two key differences between a child and an adult learner of a language. One, the adult already knows a language, and thus can learn a new one more easily by comparing its grammatical rules with those of the one he already knows. For example, an adult knows what a verb is, and he also knows how to negate a verb in, say, English, by putting "not" in front of it. He needs to be told only that to negate a verb in French one puts "ne" in front of the verb and "pas" after; he doesn't need to divine this from endless repetitions of negative phrases. This sort of thing becomes even more complicated in Arabic, where negating past, present, and future phrases requires different moods of the verb. A rule and some examples would suffice. Two, the adult has acquired the ability to think abstractly; he can therefore easily be taught grammatical rules as generalizations.
Fourth, in the Arabic course, I was a bit startled to hear a male speaker sometimes pronouncing the "j" sound as a "g" sound. This is the Egyptian colloquial pronounciation, not the modern standard (which is the one being taught). The female speakers were consistent in the use of the modern standard.
At the prices charged, Rosetta Stone could do better. One suggestion is to provide a booklet with a summary of the grammar. Those who felt insecure about having correctly derived the rules from the pictures could refer to it; those who did not see this need could ignore it. 

Buying Rosetta Stone Version 3: German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set With Audio Companion

You're really excited about that trip you're taking to a foreign country. You want to speak the language and talk to the natives. So you dive right into Rosetta Stone and in the very first lesson learn how to say "The boy is sitting on the airplane" and "the girls are jumping." And it doesn't get very much more conversational from here until well into the program.

Save your money, get Pimsleur or Fluenz, which both teach you really useful phrases from the beginning, such as "do you understand English?" Or Living Language, which I believe is out of print for some languages but you'll be able to find used.

Oh, by the way, you won't be able to resell your Rosetta Stone software once you're finished with it, so YOU ARE STUCK FOR THE WHOLE PRICE! FOREVER!

Rosetta Stone V2: Swahili, Level 1

Rosetta Stone has a good program to learn languages. I know I will learn Kiswahili with this program!