Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone Spanish Explorer (Latin America) [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

I want to give this product 5 stars for approach, and 1 star for scope and fair product representation. Please read the entire review.

This is probably the best approach I've encountered for language instruction. The organization of material is quite clever. After you learn a set of related words, these words are then used as reference points to help you learn the next set of words. The process is quite enjoyable and amazingly effective. You start with the most basic types of words... boy/girl/man/woman, primary colors, shapes, types of clothing, etc., expressed as simple phrases. You then work up to some full sentences.

BUT....

Here's the catch: The "Explorer" CD only contains the first 2 lessons from the company's 8-lesson Spanish Level I package (which you would have to buy separately). To complete the company's full Spanish program (and to reach material necessary for meaningful adult conversation), you would also need to buy the 8-lesson Level II package. If you decided to buy the entire 16-lesson "real" offering from the company's own web site, you would have to pay more per lesson than the Amazon price for this 2-lesson "loss-leader" product.

The Amazon review and product description are quite misleading. Through this purchase, alone, you will only be able to learn a subset of a 4-year-old's vocabulary and grammar.

I've used The Rosetta Stone for a few years, now, quite successfully. From my experiences as a Language Acquisition Tutor, and 11+ year Language Learner, I've found that students who have struggled immensely in the past, whether in classes or on their own, find much success with The Rosetta Stone.

As far as grammar goes, it's true, The Rosetta Stone doesn't teach much. But that's the point! Grammar is one of the hardest aspects of a language for most people, and when you think about it, you were fluent in your native language before you even set foot in a school, or knew what a "transitive verb" was.

The Rosetta Stone teaches language, to paraphrase their ad copy, like you learned your first language. By the time you finish a Level I course, you'll be able to understand a good portion of what native speakers are talking about, whether it be in casual conversation, a radio program, or a movie.

I'd recommend not buying the Explorer course, but going to http://www.NetLLR.com/rosetta-stone.html to read more about the courses, then going to the Rosetta Stone website and trying the free Online Demo to see if it's right for you. If it is, don't throw away your money on the Explorer course, but instead get a Level I, or I & II course. You'll learn far more, and spend less money over time.

In conclusion, Rosetta Stone is perfect for almost anyone wanting to learn a language well, and participate in the daily happenings of the culture surrounding that language.

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Rob Hillman is an 11 year Language Veteran, and has spent the last two and a half years teaching Language Acquisition Techniques privately. He is also the Founder and Site Administrator for www.Learn-A-Lang.com , a website that is currently taking pre-registrations for a new Language Book, and will soon be the home of reviews of Language Courses, tips, tricks, and help for learning a language.

Though I've bought many things from Amazon, I've never been moved to write a review. Until now. This product is wonderful. I'm using it in conjunction with a Spanish class at my local community college, but it would work equally well as a stand alone way to start learning Spanish. You practice all skills: reading, writing, speaking, listening, but this program makes it feel like a game. The Rosetta Stone is like having a built-in study partner available at your beckon call. Studying has never been so much fun.

I bought this program for my 8 year old son who will start Spanish next year in school. I am so pleased with the content and presentation of this software. There are bright vivid pictures that correspond to the words and phrases that are being taught. There are several methods provided for learning each lesson. The user has the options to hear the word(s) verbally, verbally with text, etc. I LOVE the recording feature where the user's voice/speech is analyzed and graded for pronounciation. Another fun addition to this program is the option to try other languages such as Chinese, Latin, French, etc. I ordered books, tapes, and cd's to teach my son. This was the best product by far.

This software is lots of fun. It uses a unique method of learning where you associate pictures with words. I guess that's how we learned to speak English or our native tongue. Mom or dad would point to a tree and say that's a "tree" or point to a car and say "that's a car." And by associating the word with the image, we learned English - or at least we learned English vocabulary. But there's more to the English language than vocabulary. In fact, there's more to any language than just vocabulary. There's this thing called "grammar." All languages are composed of both vocabulary and grammar.

Of course, it's possible to communicate without knowing an abundance of grammar and just vocabulary. You can walk into McDonalds and say "fries, hamburger" and I am sure the person behind the counter will understand you. But you would be able to communicate more effectively by knowing how to say all of the following: "I would like a hamburger and fries," "may I have a hamburger and fries," "could I have a hamburger and fries, please," "think I'll have a hamburger and fries" " or even "I want a hamburger and fries."

Rosetta Stone is the type of course that will teach you how to say "hamburger, fries." That's not enough for me. I don't want to sound like a cavewoman when I place an order. I wish to sound like the well-educated person that I am. I sensed that Rosetta Stone was giving me the vocabulary but not the grammatical tools to effectively use the vocabulary. It would be unfair to say that Rosetta Stone Spanish doesn't cover any grammar. It does cover some grammar. But the "grammar" is introduced in such a manner that I would consider it "additional vocabulary" as opposed to "rules" of how words and their component parts combine to form sentences. In order to communicate effectively (or at least sound as if you have more than 8th grade education), you need a decent grasp of the word formation and the structural relationships of the Spanish language. That's something that Rosetta Stone Spanish lacks.

And now to compare Rosetta Stone with the competition. From reading the reviews on Amazon, it seems that most people are either fans of Pimsleur Spanish or Learning Spanish Like Crazy. Thanks to a very kind neighbor, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to try both free of charge. Pimsleur is undoubtedly my favorite. The Spanish is very formal and somewhat close to Castilian Spanish. Castillian Spanish is what I require because I travel to Spain every opportunity I get. Learning Spanish Like Crazy is an excellent course and is second only to Pimsleur Spanish. Learning Spanish Like Crazy is suited more for the person that wants to learn Spanish to communicate with Latinos for business (employment) or personal/intimate (dating) reasons. It would have probably been my favorite if I had wanted to learn Spanish to communicate with Latin Americans as opposed to Spaniards.

In any event, I prefer both Pimsleur Spanish and Learning Spanish Like Crazy over Rosetta Stone. Unlike Rosetta Stone, both courses not only teach the student Spanish vocabulary but they teach the student (without the student ever realizing it - which is the beauty of it) the rules and mechanisms required to combine words and form sentences in Spanish.

I bought this program for my 7-year-old neice and opened it up to "try it out". Well, I enjoyed it so much that I kept it myself and had to buy my neice another copy. The use of photographs and the spoken word make it easy and enjoyable to learn. Some people may be intimidated by the thought of a "total immersion" approach to language learning. But this program is not intimidating at all. It is engaging and fun. It feels like you are playing a game (and learning at the same time). It has inspired me to enroll in a local Spanish class. I also plan to purchase the entire Rosetta Stone Spanish series. (This program covers lessons 1-22 only.) You won't regret buying this program for your child (or yourself)!

this program is very deceptive. it is only an introduction with two lessons broken down into 11 parts.

the company wants you try it and then spend a small fortune on their full length spanish program.

I like the program but it is way too basic...If you already know some Spanish then most probably this program isn't for you. I downloaded a shareware program called buensoft...and it has more advanced phrases to learn.

i boutht this program thinking i would brush up on spanish...at least to get back to the point i was at in a beginning spanish class in college. i was excited at first; but i soon hit the ceiling of the program after working with it for about an hour. i thought maybe i missed something so i put it away and came back to it later (a few months). i hadnt missed anything. the program is just shallow. it's good for a child who wants to say a few things but dont expect to learn spanish from this program..

this program will teach you to say something like. "the kids are jumping on the table", "the lady is on a horse"....things like that. you'd be better off checking out language tapes from the public library.

This CD has basically 21 mini-lessons divided into two areas and is worth about one tenth of its charged price. I would not recommend buying it. If you would like to learn Spanish, and get much more for your money, you should look into a book tape purchase. I wish I could send this back. I will surely try.