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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13 in Software
• Brand: Fairfield Language Technologies
• Model: 21185
• Released on: 2008-06-16
• Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS X
• Format: CD-ROM
• Original language: English

Features

• Rosetta Stone teaches you a new language naturally, by getting you to think, live and breathe the language
• Innovative solutions get you speaking new words, right from the start
• Rosetta Stone moves forward only when you're ready--you drive the pace, you set the schedule
• With Rosetta Stone, you'll discover a foundation of key vocabulary that you'll use to build into a whole new language
• Audio Companion lets you take the Rosetta Stone experience anywhere: in the car, at the gym, or on-the-go

Amazon.com
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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Customer Reviews

Best Language Learning Software Available
THE CONCEPT:

The concept of Rosetta Stone is simple - learn a language the same way our parents thought us through picture books. We are shown a photo and told what it is. We then say the word over and over until it is second-nature in our brain. When the photo comes up, we can easily identify it.

Unlike other programs, there is no need to memorize a ridiculously long phrase or sentence that doesn't mean anything to us at the moment. In Rosetta Stone, we start with simple objects and words. Then we build to phrases and sentences using those same objects that we learned about.

WHAT'S INCLUDED:

There is an included USB headset with mic so you can speak, analyze and compare your pronunciation with the voices on the program.

The interface is simple and easy. There is nothing to learn. You install the program, activate the levels depending on what you purchased and then create a user so that you can save and go back to where you left off.

Which means you work at your own pace.

The latest addition to Rosetta Stone learning software is the so-called Audio Companion. Unlike other learning software that simply comes in an audio CD that you pop into your vehicle to listen and hopefully learn, this Rosetta Stone Audio Companion is a supplementary to the program. Do not attempt to learn by simply listening to the CDs. These were created to assist your learning experience for words that have already been imprinted into your brain by way of visual association.

CONS:

Like all other programs, this also has it's short-comings. Because Rosetta Stone immerses you right into the visual process, there are numerous times where you are fed phrases and sentences which only leave you wanting to ask questions on why it was constructed that why or when to leave out a letter in pronouncing a word which has slightly changed.

I would want to be able to CHAT with someone on the other end to help me understand further before I go on to the next level of learning. Isn't that the same way when we were younger. We always asked WHY so we can understand the rules and be corrected for proper speaking.

When I repeat the word, Rosetta Stone says I am correct. When I speak the same word to an actual friend who is native to the language I am not understood as much. I need to know when to pronounce certain letters and when not to. The program simply spoon feeds me the words. I can repeat a million times the word and boost the volume until my ears bleed, but for a person who speaks another language I need to know if there is a silent letter involved or if the letter is in fact pronounced but only in a subtle manner. You will know what I am saying when you get into the program itself.

Lastly, despite the so-called Dynamic Immersion, you will not be able to learn as much and as fast if there is no one else you can converse with in the process of learning. Like your parents who were constantly speaking to you in a language you don't understand, your 24 hour immersion and constant questioning is what makes you finally understand. With Rosetta Stone and all other program, your learning and inability to ask questions is what makes learning a second language slow and limited.

OVERALL:

However, despite these I would strongly recommend Rosetta Stone as the only program to successfully make you understand another language in the fastest way possible. The price of the software is steep, but definitely worth it. It is there for you to learn and re-learn over and over.

Finally after installation, don't forget to check for software updates (if the software has not done so already).

Hope you enjoy learning a second language as much as I am learning right now with the help of Rosetta Stone.

Okay for French review but too expensive and audio companion is useless
I have this in the French version and the Spanish version (both are the newest editions). The software is good to review my French as I used to be fairly fluent as a child but have forgotten most of it. It supplements my French university classes well and I use it like a home language lab. Some of the language learning can be intuitive (based on immersion style learning like how a child would pick up a language) but it is NOT great for someone starting from scratch as it doesn't translate anything into English, it uses generic lessons and pictures (the same are used for every language, they just obviously change the words into that language) so it doesn't provide enough context, culturally or otherwise. The audio companion is BEYOND USELESS in my opinion, other than for working on your pronunciation and accent. Since there is no English translation even in the audio companion, you end up repeating words (such as in the vocabulary section) without any way to actually learn what it means. At least the software gives you pictures and other visual queues, but the audio companion has absolutely no context in which to teach you what those words and phrases mean in English.

My other major problem with this (and the Spanish version as well) is that there is no explicit grammar instruction (at least I haven't seen any). You may pick up some basic grammar implicitly but there is no explanation of grammar or word order or anything like that, you just copy the dialogue and hopefully after awhile you will learn some basic grammar without really knowing what it is or why it is used that way. I don't see how this software could ever teach the subjunctive, for example, or distinguish between different forms of past and future (such as passe compose and the imperfect) although I have to admit, I haven't really delved into that section much yet and perhaps another reviewer will be able to refute this.

All in all, the software would be worth $100-250 MAX. in my opinion for all three levels, but I wouldn't bother purchasing the audio companion. Also, it should be noted that you apparently have NO rights or legal ability to sell the software when you are done with it. In fact, I made the mistake of deleting the Spanish software off my laptop and I wasn't able to reinstall it without having to call customer service (which I haven't even gotten around to do yet) because they are really paranoid about piracy (understandable, but still very inconvenient). I think that if I'm spending over $600 for this package, I should at least be able to resell it used when I'm done with it to recoup some of my expenses, but Rosetta Stone actively search on craigslist, Ebay, etc. and will have listings of their used software removed.

Finally, it is important to note that Rosetta's satisfaction guarantee policy ONLY APPLIES IF YOU PURCHASE THE SOFTWARE DIRECTLY FROM ROSETTA. If you purchase it from Amazon or any other retailer, you do not have the option of returning the software.

To summarize: the software is OKAY as a tool in addition to a class and a decent grammar text (use it like a home CALL lab), but is not worth the price and I wouldn't recommend purchasing the audio companion.

Super Product
Before I purchased the Rosetta Stone package I did a lot of reading and read a lot of comments. I've had it for one month and I find it absolutely amazing. It is unlike any other system because as goofy as this sounds, its fun. I find myself wanting to do more exercises because of the way it is set up. It uses pictures and mixes up pronunciation, recognition, grammer, and all of that. It does take a while to go onto each step but really it should. It keeps bringing back stuff that you learned in previous exercises - thats how you remember it.

Some of the negative comments have been saying that they can't learn the immersion approach and I really call out their mind set. I've tried using the "lets break a sentence down approach first" or match the French (or whatever language) with what the English meaning is but when you do that you aren't really learning the language you want. All you are doing is converting it. Ok you've converted it or broke down the sentence. This isn't a puzzle, you want to build words and learn the language. Thats what this approach does, starts small and builds on what you have already learned. You don't realize that when you use the method they instill on you that you are learning without saying what is the English version. If you claim this is the wrong approach then I can guarantee you are not going to learn a new language anytime soon. The methods they use are not frustrating or in my opinion hard, its step by step.

This system does take a while but I don't mind because it makes me more confident that I have a better grasp of things, you can't just learn a language in a month. I feel at this pace I will be comfortable in about 3-4 months in a basic grasp of a new language. People hum and ha about it costing over $500 and it is expensive but if you told me I what I've experienced so far, its worth it. I know there were also issues about moving the program onto other computers but I just bought a laptop so it works out perfect. All in all, I highly recommend it