Rosetta Stone Personal Edition contains everything you need to give the voice inside of you a new language. The method used recreates the natural way you learned your first language, revealing skills that you already have. This approach has won numerous awards, and has been adopted by countless organizations, schools and millions of users around the world. Join the language revolution today. Only with Rosetta Stone. The comprehensive language-learning solution that fits your life. Learn Naturally
Learn your next language the same way you learned your first language. Dynamic Immersion empowers you to see, hear and comprehend without translating or memorizing. You already have this ability. Rosetta Stone simply unlocks it. Engage Interactively
Get feedback to move forward. You learn best by doing, and you'll apply what you've learned to get to the next step. Rosetta Stone adapts to your individual needs and skills, because you drive the program with your progress. Speak Confidently
Start speaking immediately. From the very first lesson, you'll speak. You'll begin with essential basics, which form the building blocks of the language. Soon you'll create new sentences on your own, using words you've learned. Have Fun
Best of all, Rosetta Stone is addictive. With every entertaining activity, you'll feel success. You'll want to use Rosetta Stone to have that next moment, that next breakthrough. So you'll keep using it, and you'll learn more! That's language-learning success.
That's Rosetta Stone. No translation or memorization required. The most effective way to learn a new language is to be surrounded by it. When you were an infant, your parents taught you this way, by intuitively associating words with images. That's the ultimate language lab, but most language-learning programs completely ignore this. Think about all of the ways you've tried to learn a language: classes at school, tapes and cassettes, even software that uses your native language as a base for your next one. What do they all have in common? Translation and memorization. 
Instead of taking a "direct flight" from your brain to your new language, translation and memorization connects you to your old language. You always have to "fly" from your brain, to your native tongue ... and then translate what you've memorized to communicate. That might work for a few words, but what happens when you get to a sentence or phrase? When you have to change tenses? You're going to make a lot of "connecting flights." That's why those other methods are so frustrating ... and why they fail. Enter Dynamic Immersion.
This method encourages you to think like a baby. You'll pair words with vivid, real-life images and make connections between things you know and the new language. Soon, you'll be thinking in a new language, stringing words together into phrases that you create. Innovative technology.
Rosetta Stone places this Dynamic Immersion method at the core of a suite of software that works with you to develop your skills. The simple, intuitive interface helps to keep you engaged in the solution, while advanced speech recognition technology makes certain that you're speaking correctly and accurately. Best of all, Rosetta Stone never leaves you behind. You'll only move forward when you're ready, when you've become comfortable and confident. Communicate and connect with the world: Level 1, 2 & 3 Set.
Rosetta Stone Level 1, 2 & 3 Set will take you on a journey from the basics to a whole new level of sophistication. You'll build a foundation of fundamental vocabulary and essential language structure. You'll quickly gain the confidence to engage in social interactions. Say "hello" and "goodbye," arrange travel, order food, go shopping and more! From there, you'll share your ideas and opinions, express feelings and talk about your life, your interests and more. You'll discover a voice. In a new language. Audio Companion
With Audio Companion, you'll enhance the Rosetta Stone experience wherever you go. You'll learn new skills on the computer, and then reinforce what you've learned with Audio Companion. Simply play the CDs on a stereo or download them to a MP3 Player. Each Audio Companion activity corresponds to a lesson in the Rosetta Stone software, so you can turn your travel time into productive language-learning time. Inside the box, you'll find: - Version 3 Personal Edition CD-ROM software for Levels 1, 2 & 3 (Windows/Mac)
- Headset microphone
- User's guide
- Audio Companion, a multiple-CD set to play or download to your MP3 player
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 Exceeded this former military linguist's expectations. This is a viable way to learn the basics or brush up on a language. |
| Review Date: August 21, 2008 |
| Reviewer: W. C. Bryant, Columbus, OH USA |
Color me impressed. I came in with relatively high expectations for Rosetta Stone, but I write this review after working with it for a month, and now holding a higher opinion of the product than I did before. I spent over a year at the Defense Language Institute in Monterey as a young Marine learning Korean. All the services were present, and DLI was good for dozens of languages. The approach was structured, and largely immersive, which is to say that my classes were taught by native speakers. There's a huge advantage to that, inasmuch you have instant and intelligent feedback and instruction when you need it. If all you hear and (try to) speak is the language, then it's being drilled into your head consciously and subconsciously. Surrounding yourself with native speakers, either through such an environment, or within the country itself, is going to be (for most) the absolute best way to approach foreign language mastery -- but what to do when that's not an option? Or what to do to prepare before doing so? This.
The software is intuitive, the approach is intelligent. You don't have that native speaker standing in front of you scowling because you're butchering the music of their language in the early going, but you do have the software giving feedback and similarly identifying where you might require a little more attention. The program constructs in the user a solid base of simple vocabulary, establishing a basic understanding of the mechanics of the language on which additional vocabulary and structure may be built. With regard to the interface, the absence of a tutorial (as far as I saw, though I didn't look hard because it was so easy just to start using) was a bit surprising, though it took a very small amount of time to get into the swing of things. The earliest exercises range from matching phrases to their appropriate pictures to out-loud (through a microphone) pronunciation tests to proper spelling and grammar training. The pronunciation recognization ability of the software is pretty sharp -- if you're off, it will tell you, but the program allows the user to improve before moving on to the next test.
Best of all, this is fun. I did enjoy the lessons (I have yet to complete all three levels), and continue to enjoy the process. You always feel like you're making progress, you always have visual cues in regards to where you stand in the process, and it almost becomes a game to try and move through it.
To be fair, I had a few years of French back in intermediate and high school, so I didn't come into this language pack completely unfamiliar. It would be very fun and interesting, I think, to try Rosetta with a language with which I have no familiarity, but that's neither here nor there. The overall point is that this is a fantastic way to start building a basic command of a language, it's fun, it's easy to use, and it's enriching. You're not going to be confused for a native speaker after completing this package, but you will be able to communicate, and that's the biggest and most difficult step towards mastery. The rest is (mostly) use and repetition.
Now I really want the Korean pack to brush up on all that's been lost in the 15+ years since I left DLI. And a new and unfamiliar language as discussed above to branch out a bit. Rosetta has a new and enthusiastic customer and cheerleader. |
La meilleure valeur pour argent
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| Review Date: August 21, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Simon Cleveland, USA |
For those of you who are seriously determined to learn more than just the basics of French in a short amount of time, well this is your chance. This product is not cheap at first glance, but when you add up all the costs for books, language lessons and time you'll spend in a community college or with a private tutor, you'll quickly realize the value of owning The Rosetta Stone.
The product itself contains several useful tools to help you get started. There are the three levels of CD-ROM software that can be installed both Mac and PC, a microphone (that can be used with many other applications), the guide and then the multiple CDs that you can play at home, in your car or anyplace you carry your MP3 player (I particularly enjoyed these).
Functionally, this product is exceptional as it allowed me to learn how to spell and write, speak without following a script, strategies to learn and retain what I learned for a long time. With simple practice, I learned how to ask what is your age, simple greetings, finding directions, telling the time of day and using correctly past, present and future tense. If you are as diligent as I am, you'll learn in no time how to order food in restaurants, express ideas and comprehend terms from the daily life, such as the news from the media.
I highly recommend this product and personally guarantee that you can walk away with a lot more knowledge of the language than you presently possess.
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Fun and effective.
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| Review Date: July 31, 2008 |
| Reviewer: J. Luu, Colorado Springs, CO |
I honestly have only completed about 1/2 of level one, but will write this review in the interest of time since it may take me a few months to complete the entire 3 levels.
I don't know French and am not previously familiar with Rosetta Stone software, but have used the Pimsleur and Fluenz programs in the past to learn Mandarin. Although there is no perfect way to learn a language, I have to say that I like this program the most. To me the program combines the best virtues of Pimsleur (repetition) and Fluenz (situation). With Pimsleur I find myself repeating and recognizing words almost on a subconscious level, but at the conscious level I don't learn effectively. Fluenz is a bit slow moving and I wish I had more repetition. Rosetta stone seems to hit the sweet spot between repetition and immersion through pictures and situations. I also find that speech recognition is fun. I can't say how accurate the speech recognition is, but it sure is fun trying to make that little circle turn green when it thinks you pronounced correctly. In the end, I think that having fun may be the most important part of learning. |
Great product - buyer beware
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| Review Date: June 25, 2009 |
| Reviewer: J. Marburger, |
Let me start off by saying Rosetta Stone is a great product and I'll get to the reasons why. There's also some things you should know about the company's policies that aren't so great:
1) Unlike almost every other software company on the planet, RS will NOT cut you a break on pricing for upgrades or enhancements. For example, if you buy the V3 levels 1,2&3 and they later release levels 4 & 5, you are expected to pay full retail price instead of the difference of the cost from levels 1,2&3 to the level 1,2,3,4&5 pack. To put this in real world terms: Say you buy levels 1-3 for $550 today and 7 months from now RS releases levels 4&5. You can either buy levels 1-5 for $700 (meaning you repurchase levels 1-3), or pay $420 for just levels 4&5. This means, if you bought early in the product life cycle, your cost will be $970 for levels 1-5 as opposed to someone who waited for all five levels and only paid $700. If they ever release levels 6-10, that means everyone who already bought the product pays more to complete the set than someone who waits. (If they release a V4, you pay full retail again for the new version with no upgrade discount.)
2) RS' license agreement forbids resale of their software, so you're stuck with it.
Now, here are the good things about it:
1) After taking French in college, I love that the product skips over all the drudgery and tedium of verb conjugation, vocabulary lists, etc! You will learn actual uses of language in a natural way. I found myself unconsciously formulating sentences in French after awhile.
2) When you start the program, there are numerous settings that control the focus on your efforts. Voice precision can be set from "easy" to "difficult", meaning you can either breeze through to get an idea of the language, move slowly to develop your pronunciation, or somewhere in between. The lessons can also focus on Reading/Writing/Listening/Speaking, an extended version or Read/Writing or Listening/Speaking.
3) You will also learn practical expressions that likely won't be taught in classrooms. It won't replace language practice with real human beings, but it gets you gets you moving in the direction of being able to speak with humans.
4) Chances are you will find all those dry reference books on language a little more interesting as there's something real to relate. One way to think of it is that RS plants the seed of a language in your head and it's up to you to keep developing it.
Overall, I recommend the product to anyone who wants to learn a language and caution them to beware the price & company policies that come with it. |
Superb Language Package
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| Review Date: July 23, 2008 |
| Reviewer: Kristi in Rochester, |
Rosetta Stone is a top quality language learning program that is truly impressive. The package of materials includes a computer program, USB audio headset with microphone, keyboard overlay for the standard French keyboard, a clear and detailed instruction booklet, and multiple CD's to reinforce your language learning program.
I'm very impressed with the clarity of the lessons, and the comprehensive nature of the course. For the cost of a single college credit (state or community college, really), you can get a thorough grounding in the language of your choice, with audio and visual materials far better than you'll find in most college classrooms. BTW, the accent is better than many local instructors, and the computer-based instructor has endless patience, too! |
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