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Product Description
Platform: PC/Mac
Amazon.com
Develop your command of the language. From the simple to the complex, gain the confidence to share your ideas and opinions in your new language. Develop the conversational skills to plan adventures, care for your health and move abroad. Talk about government, work, movies, family, and more. Includes everything you need to learn at home and on the go.
What Will I Learn
This level will help you:
- Build your vocabulary and language abilities
- Read, write, speak and understand your new language
- Speak without a script
- Retain what you've learned
- Practice unscripted conversations in your new language
- Negotiate complex situations with confidence and accuracy
Sample topics include:
- The basics, such as age and family relations
- Questions, greetings, introductions
- Telling time, calendar terms, the weather
- Directions, locations, dining out
- Emotions, opinions, ideas
- Political, media, business terms
- Arranging home repairs
- Planning to move abroad
- Discussing the arts and tourism
- Careers and conducting interviews
- Problem-solving and commercial transactions
What Do I Get?
Interactive Software
Our award-wining version, complete with proprietary speech recognition technology.
Audio Companion
For your CD or MP3 player so you can review while on the go.
Headset with Microphone
For use with our state-of- the-art speech-recognition software.
Live Online Lessons 
Practice sessions led by native speaking tutors.
Games & Community
Language-enhancing games move you towards real-world proficiency.
Mobile Companion
Learning application for your iPhone or iPod Touch device.
Our Method
Recreate the natural way you learned your first language and reveal skills that you already have using Dynamic Immersion. This award-winning method has been adopted by countless organizations, schools and millions of users around the world.
Learn Naturally: Discover how to speak, read, write, and understand--all without translating or memorizing. Our award-winning solution recreates how you learned your first language, unlocking your natural abilities.
Speak Confidently: Perfect your pronunciation with speech-recognition technology. Gain the confidence in your new voice as you practice with other learners in our exclusive online community and participate in online sessions coached by native tutors.
Immerse Yourself: Be surrounded by your new language. From core lessons to online sessions, Rosetta Stone gets you engaged and interacting with others.
Stay Motivated: Experience accomplishment with each moment of achievement; with dedicated success agents you will never lose sight of your language-learning goals.
Your Natural Ability. Awakened.
Natural Discovery
Learning your first language is as natural as smiling. Effortless. Rewarding. Every step in Rosetta Stone feels like that. Clear, compelling images appear precisely, in juxtaposition, conveying meaning. Intuitively, you just know what it means.
- Our puzzle-like environments--a systematic presentation of sounds, images, and text--help learners absorb meaning intuitively.
Rosetta Stone's award-winning software, where you will interact by speaking, clicking, selecting phrases and writing.
Speech Activation
Rosetta Stone's proprietary speech-recognition technology provides immediate and ongoing feedback.
Build your confidence and polish your pronunciation skills with state-of-the-art speech-recognition technologies and success-filled dialogues.
- Our software provides immediate and ongoing assessments of your speech through Actionable Feedback, which helps you pronounce syllables, words and sentences correctly and easily.
- Based on a collection of literally millions of speech samples, our proprietary speech-recognition algorithms and speech models were engineered with a singular purpose--to help you communicate with accuracy, confidence and ease.
Native Socialization
Language-learning games will keep you motivated along the way.
Practice with native speakers in our live interactive sessions and our online community. Every conversation gives you the confidence to communicate in your new language.
- For many, traditional language-learning fails because it lacks real conversation. With Rosetta Stone you'll play games and chat with native speakers and other learners in our online language community.
- Hundreds of native-speaking tutors trained in the Rosetta Stone method are ready to help reinforce the language you're learning through live, online conversations. From Day One you'll be speaking your new language with confidence and ease.
Product Description
Develop your command of the language. From the simple to the complex, gain the confidence to share your ideas and opinions. Develop conversational skills to plan adventures, care for your health, and move abroad. Talk about government, work, movies, and citizenship. Discuss family and traditions, and celebrate success.
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
197 of 200 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC/Mac|Amazon Verified Purchase
I found out two months ago that my university was sending me to Italy in a year to teach for one semester. I'll be teaching in English, but my wife and I will need to live, shop, eat, travel, and deal with random problems in Italian, so we got Rosetta Stone to help us learn.
I've read reviews here and there by people who were disappointed in Rosetta Stone, but I have found it better than I expected. Having learned one language as a child, studied four more as an adult, traveled and at least briefly conversed in six, and taught one (Latin) to kids with my own textbooks (Schola Latina), I'm almost perfectly pleased with the way Rosetta Stone is helping us learn Italian.
As another reviewer points out, the program, while expensive, costs less than a semester of Italian at many a university, and you get a lot for the money. Each of five levels has four units, and each unit has four lessons; that's eighty lessons. Each lesson includes a core lesson of about forty screens, and from four to fifteen supplemental and review exercises of five to fifteen screens. That's about 10,000 screens of exercises in the main track of the program. In addition, you get fifteen months of free access to games, stories, and interaction with native speakers, all coordinated with your progress in the program. Each level also comes with four long CDs for repetitive drill.
Rosetta Stone's special angle is that the student doesn't translate. That is, you don't respond to words in one language with words in another language. Most of the exercises are based on pictures -- cleverly clear pictures. But the program is not all about responding to pictures by choosing words, as some reviews have suggested; different screens call on, exercise, and build different skills. Sometimes you respond to written words by choosing a matching picture. Sometimes you respond to a picture by choosing a matching written word or phrase. Sometimes you respond to a spoken phrase by choosing a picture, and sometimes you respond to a picture by speaking a phrase. (The program has voice-recognition capabilities and will tell you how close your pronunciation is. You can turn the sensitivity up or down in the settings, and you can visually compare your pronunciation with the program's by clicking to see an audio graph.) Sometimes you respond to a picture or spoken phrase by typing a phrase. And in screens covering grammar, you look at a picture and choose one of two or three choices of endings, words, or phrases.
In between sessions on the computer, you can practice repeating syllables, words, phrases, and sentences with the CDs. One reviewer called the CDs useless, but I must disagree. "Fluent" means flowing, and getting the words of another language flowing out of your mouth requires repetitive practice speaking familiar phrases, just as becoming fluent on a piece of music requires playing it repeatedly, even after you know the notes intellectually.
The program doesn't shoot straight to handy travel phrases like "Where's the metro station?" or "Do you have a vacancy?" Its goal is to give working knowledge of the language, so you learn basic vocabulary, grammar, and idioms before getting to travel phrases. They might be trying to get extra money out of you by "tricking" you to buy at least two levels, but I think the approach is appropriate if the goal is to learn to read and converse in the language. After all, if you only want to greet someone and ask how much the souvenir costs, you can get a Rick Steves phrase book for a lot less.
We've almost finished Level 1, and so far we've learned colors; household objects and rooms of the house; family members; animals; clothes; eating; numbers up to 69; being cold, hot, hungry, thirsty, tired, and well; how to say where you're from, where you work, and when you do various activities; occupations; basic shopping; how to ask questions; and quite a bit more. Could we travel with this knowledge? No. But what it allows us to do is practice spontaneously with each other all day here at home, because most of our time together is spent working, eating, putting on clothes, finding things in the house, and interacting with other members of the family or the pets. And now we have the means to talk about all these things in Italian. Clever program! The titles on Level 2 suggest that we're going to learn travel phrases and more tenses (everything is in present tense so far).
Now, the program is touted as the natural way to learn a language. But note that it is named after a discovery that allowed linguists to learn a forgotten language in a most unnatural way. And remember that learning a language by repeating stock responses to phrases and pictures is only the natural way to learn a language when you're two. You still need your mother to correct you constantly: "Not 'I goed outside,' Johnny. 'I went outside.' " The exercises in Rosetta Stone introduce the student systematically to grammatical gender, conjugations, declensions, irregular verbs and nouns, rules of syntax, etc., but you have to notice the details and draw up the rules yourself. The program doesn't say, "Notice that the last letter of the word for 'black' is one thing when you're talking about a cat and another when you're talking about a car. Remember that these words represent two different categories of words called 'genders,' and note the gender of each noun you learn." If you've learned other languages before, especially Romance languages (or their mother, Latin), you notice many of these details. But if not, you might be quite confused by what seem like random inconsistencies. In any case, we teach older kids and teen-agers (and my graduate students!) a systematic understanding of the grammar of our native language, and as an adult, you should probably supplement Rosetta Stone with another cheap program that has grammar lessons. It's good to hear the varying details and and work them in to memory by rote, but it's also good to read and learn a rule for why they vary the way they do.
But if you've spent $300-750 on Rosetta Stone, you can stand to buy another $20 book. We're happy with what we're learning with Rosetta Stone and have confidence that we'll be prepared for the immersion experience a year from now.
I've read reviews here and there by people who were disappointed in Rosetta Stone, but I have found it better than I expected. Having learned one language as a child, studied four more as an adult, traveled and at least briefly conversed in six, and taught one (Latin) to kids with my own textbooks (Schola Latina), I'm almost perfectly pleased with the way Rosetta Stone is helping us learn Italian.
As another reviewer points out, the program, while expensive, costs less than a semester of Italian at many a university, and you get a lot for the money. Each of five levels has four units, and each unit has four lessons; that's eighty lessons. Each lesson includes a core lesson of about forty screens, and from four to fifteen supplemental and review exercises of five to fifteen screens. That's about 10,000 screens of exercises in the main track of the program. In addition, you get fifteen months of free access to games, stories, and interaction with native speakers, all coordinated with your progress in the program. Each level also comes with four long CDs for repetitive drill.
Rosetta Stone's special angle is that the student doesn't translate. That is, you don't respond to words in one language with words in another language. Most of the exercises are based on pictures -- cleverly clear pictures. But the program is not all about responding to pictures by choosing words, as some reviews have suggested; different screens call on, exercise, and build different skills. Sometimes you respond to written words by choosing a matching picture. Sometimes you respond to a picture by choosing a matching written word or phrase. Sometimes you respond to a spoken phrase by choosing a picture, and sometimes you respond to a picture by speaking a phrase. (The program has voice-recognition capabilities and will tell you how close your pronunciation is. You can turn the sensitivity up or down in the settings, and you can visually compare your pronunciation with the program's by clicking to see an audio graph.) Sometimes you respond to a picture or spoken phrase by typing a phrase. And in screens covering grammar, you look at a picture and choose one of two or three choices of endings, words, or phrases.
In between sessions on the computer, you can practice repeating syllables, words, phrases, and sentences with the CDs. One reviewer called the CDs useless, but I must disagree. "Fluent" means flowing, and getting the words of another language flowing out of your mouth requires repetitive practice speaking familiar phrases, just as becoming fluent on a piece of music requires playing it repeatedly, even after you know the notes intellectually.
The program doesn't shoot straight to handy travel phrases like "Where's the metro station?" or "Do you have a vacancy?" Its goal is to give working knowledge of the language, so you learn basic vocabulary, grammar, and idioms before getting to travel phrases. They might be trying to get extra money out of you by "tricking" you to buy at least two levels, but I think the approach is appropriate if the goal is to learn to read and converse in the language. After all, if you only want to greet someone and ask how much the souvenir costs, you can get a Rick Steves phrase book for a lot less.
We've almost finished Level 1, and so far we've learned colors; household objects and rooms of the house; family members; animals; clothes; eating; numbers up to 69; being cold, hot, hungry, thirsty, tired, and well; how to say where you're from, where you work, and when you do various activities; occupations; basic shopping; how to ask questions; and quite a bit more. Could we travel with this knowledge? No. But what it allows us to do is practice spontaneously with each other all day here at home, because most of our time together is spent working, eating, putting on clothes, finding things in the house, and interacting with other members of the family or the pets. And now we have the means to talk about all these things in Italian. Clever program! The titles on Level 2 suggest that we're going to learn travel phrases and more tenses (everything is in present tense so far).
Now, the program is touted as the natural way to learn a language. But note that it is named after a discovery that allowed linguists to learn a forgotten language in a most unnatural way. And remember that learning a language by repeating stock responses to phrases and pictures is only the natural way to learn a language when you're two. You still need your mother to correct you constantly: "Not 'I goed outside,' Johnny. 'I went outside.' " The exercises in Rosetta Stone introduce the student systematically to grammatical gender, conjugations, declensions, irregular verbs and nouns, rules of syntax, etc., but you have to notice the details and draw up the rules yourself. The program doesn't say, "Notice that the last letter of the word for 'black' is one thing when you're talking about a cat and another when you're talking about a car. Remember that these words represent two different categories of words called 'genders,' and note the gender of each noun you learn." If you've learned other languages before, especially Romance languages (or their mother, Latin), you notice many of these details. But if not, you might be quite confused by what seem like random inconsistencies. In any case, we teach older kids and teen-agers (and my graduate students!) a systematic understanding of the grammar of our native language, and as an adult, you should probably supplement Rosetta Stone with another cheap program that has grammar lessons. It's good to hear the varying details and and work them in to memory by rote, but it's also good to read and learn a rule for why they vary the way they do.
But if you've spent $300-750 on Rosetta Stone, you can stand to buy another $20 book. We're happy with what we're learning with Rosetta Stone and have confidence that we'll be prepared for the immersion experience a year from now.
128 of 136 people found the following review helpful
By Lucas
Platform for Display:PC/Mac
Rosetta Stone is useful for some people. I consider myself to have learned a lot from Rosetta Stone V4 Totale. I do not work for Amazon, Rosetta Stone, or any competitor of these companies. I originally bought the Italian version because I wanted to talk to people in Italy on my next vacation, and I work in a winery so I thought it would be cool to converse with vineyard owners in Italy. I purchased this program with realistic expectations: I would probably not be fluent in Italian even if I completed all 5 levels.
1.) Expect to start off slowly and do not expect to learn the language overnight. I expected the program to last at least 6 months, and still not be fluent. The first lessons and level basically teach you to say, "the horse is running." "Il cavallo corre" It was not until I reached lesson 4 of level 1 that RS started to teach useful sentences such as "I would like to purchase some vegetables with a credit card." It starts very slowly, and you must have lots of time and drive to get through those first lessons.
2.) I purchased the Totale version and found the RS World feature to be fun and useful. I especially like the Simbio feature where you get to converse in English with a native Italian speaker and converse in Italian with them. You basically play games and can chat with them. This feature drives me to learn more vocabulary so that I can speak more clearly with the native speaker.
3.) The RS iPhone app is useful for repetition. To learn Italian, I found myself repeating the same phrases and words over and over again. Maybe 10X. Even basic phrases such as "the horse is running" because each noun has a gender and the verb has to correspond with that gender. The app is only helpful for repetition (memorization), not new learning.
4.) The RS CD's are pretty useless. Basically, you can listen to a native speaker repeating the same phrases over again in your car or iPod. I found this very boring and stopped using it. I switched the radio back to music.
5.) The RS studio feature allows you to take live lessons on the internet from a native speaker. The classes are 50 minutes long on the internet. I find them kind of nerve racking; however, you can use this for motivation to do your lessons (ie set a deadline for learning a certain lesson, so you force yourself into a time schedule). I study the RS iPhone app for repetition to get ready for a studio session. However, the native speaker only speaks in Italian, so it can be hard to follow directions since the direction are in Italian, and catches you off guard. Also, there are some minor audio glitches during the lesson, which are quite annoying.
Overall, I would recommend this product to those who are visual/audio learners; you must tolerate the fact that there are no translations only pictures, writing, and native speakers. RS is not for everyone and don't expect to be a fluent speaker even after months of learning. I believe only true immersion (living in Italy) will force you to become fluent. So, don't listen to a RS salesman who says you will be fluent. It is quite expensive; however, my sister goes to Mizzou and every credit hour costs $300. So, one semester of Italian at Mizzou will cost $900! So, RS expense has to be put in perspective and I'm sure that students at Mizzou who take one semester will not be fluent after one semester at $900. RS Totale is convenient for me because I live in rural Missouri and no junior college around me teaches Italian (only Spanish). That is why I like RS, even though it has many faults.
1.) Expect to start off slowly and do not expect to learn the language overnight. I expected the program to last at least 6 months, and still not be fluent. The first lessons and level basically teach you to say, "the horse is running." "Il cavallo corre" It was not until I reached lesson 4 of level 1 that RS started to teach useful sentences such as "I would like to purchase some vegetables with a credit card." It starts very slowly, and you must have lots of time and drive to get through those first lessons.
2.) I purchased the Totale version and found the RS World feature to be fun and useful. I especially like the Simbio feature where you get to converse in English with a native Italian speaker and converse in Italian with them. You basically play games and can chat with them. This feature drives me to learn more vocabulary so that I can speak more clearly with the native speaker.
3.) The RS iPhone app is useful for repetition. To learn Italian, I found myself repeating the same phrases and words over and over again. Maybe 10X. Even basic phrases such as "the horse is running" because each noun has a gender and the verb has to correspond with that gender. The app is only helpful for repetition (memorization), not new learning.
4.) The RS CD's are pretty useless. Basically, you can listen to a native speaker repeating the same phrases over again in your car or iPod. I found this very boring and stopped using it. I switched the radio back to music.
5.) The RS studio feature allows you to take live lessons on the internet from a native speaker. The classes are 50 minutes long on the internet. I find them kind of nerve racking; however, you can use this for motivation to do your lessons (ie set a deadline for learning a certain lesson, so you force yourself into a time schedule). I study the RS iPhone app for repetition to get ready for a studio session. However, the native speaker only speaks in Italian, so it can be hard to follow directions since the direction are in Italian, and catches you off guard. Also, there are some minor audio glitches during the lesson, which are quite annoying.
Overall, I would recommend this product to those who are visual/audio learners; you must tolerate the fact that there are no translations only pictures, writing, and native speakers. RS is not for everyone and don't expect to be a fluent speaker even after months of learning. I believe only true immersion (living in Italy) will force you to become fluent. So, don't listen to a RS salesman who says you will be fluent. It is quite expensive; however, my sister goes to Mizzou and every credit hour costs $300. So, one semester of Italian at Mizzou will cost $900! So, RS expense has to be put in perspective and I'm sure that students at Mizzou who take one semester will not be fluent after one semester at $900. RS Totale is convenient for me because I live in rural Missouri and no junior college around me teaches Italian (only Spanish). That is why I like RS, even though it has many faults.
47 of 49 people found the following review helpful
Platform for Display:PC/Mac|Amazon Vine™ Review
(What's this?)
I'm updating this review as I use the course, since waiting to provide a single, full review after I'v'e progressed through all the levels would likely take months. Since this is the newest version, I feel it's more important to update as I go along. Hopefully this is more benefit to you reading this now, rather than me waiting 6 months or a year to write the review, at which time Rosetta Stone might be on to a whole new version anyway.
My 9yo daughter is really excited about learning a new language, so I'll try to mix in her experience as appropriate as well.
What it comes with:
-1 program installation disc
-5 Language level discs (these provide the actual lessons). You can install them as you go or all at once.
-5 levels of audio cds, each level contains multiple cds (4 each level).
-Keyboard overlays, with both black and white overlays. These are stickers you can place on your keyboard keys to show the language's special characters.
-USB microphone/headset combo
-Quick guide
-Registration card (it's like a credit card but you scratch off the registration number and enter it when you install the software).
Installing:
Installation is simple, although it warns you that you cannot change the install location at a later date. I've heard RS is hard to get reinstalled and reactivated. Total size is about 2.5 GB of data plus a few other folders. Therefore, ensure you have about 3 GB of free space just for the program. If you rip the audio cd's to iTunes, mp3, etc, you'll need additional storage space for those.
The Headset:
The USB headset has been a bit buggy on my system. I had to reboot several times before my PC (Win Vista Home Premium) would properly install the drivers. Once that occured, it works fine, however it seems that any time my pc goes to sleep, when it wakes up the headset will not work until I do a full shut down and restart. Other reviewers have also had problems with sound only coming from one ear. Overall, I think it's just a cheap headset. The software does let you select which audio devices you want to use, so if you have a better one or just want to use speakers and a separate microphone, I believe you can do that.
Licensing:
As a watchout, you cannot later sell or reinstall this software. Don't plan on buying it thinking you could sell it later, as you might run into problems. It also detects if you make major hardware changes. For instance, when my computer's motherboard failed, I swapped my hard drive into a different computer, the software detected this and it wanted me to update the registration. It was painless in that it just popped up a screen with the activation code already filled in and I just had to click ok. Hopefully it'll be just as easy when I get my original computer fixed and swap the hard drive back into it again.
Creating Profiles:
You can create multiple profiles, so that more than one person can use the software. For instance, I created my profile and one for each of my children. You enter your name, age, and male/female. Note that you must supply an age over 13 to be able to access the online content. As you begin your lessons, you choose how you want to learn from preset options inluding speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Online Access:
Note that the online lessons are only available for 1 learner, and there's a note in the package that states you MUST start the online lessons within 6 months of installing the product. Plan accordingly, and don't expect that even though you can create multiple user profiles that you can then each utilize the online tutors. If you list a profile user as less than 13, it will not allow that profile to activate the online access. The software & website does give you the option to buy online access for additional learners with the price ranging from $25 for 1 month to $150 for 15 months.
Level 1:
Right away you're presented with the language. It's a multi-media experience right from the go. For instance, the very first screen shows a picture of a girl and another picture of a boy. The program speaks "Una bambina" as the words are shown above the picture of the girl. You then have to repeat the phrase, and repeat it correctly to move on. You can adjust the difficulty of speaking and how strict your pronunciation must be. It then moves on to the boy's picture, "Un Bambino". The next screen has a girl drinking and a boy eating, with the appropriate phrases.
As you move on, it presents you with scenes like a man drinking, woman eating, etc. The program is teaching you to recognize male vs. female, old vs. young, and the accompanying words to use. Additionally, the program starts to ask you to click on the right picture without seeing the written words.
In essence, you're hearing, seeing pictures, seeing words, and having to speak the words all in the same lesson. While they don't call out word gender, etc, you're being exposed to it. Then the next steps take what you've just learned a bit further. Each screen builds on the previous in a logical and natural way.
Audio Companion CDs:
Each level comes with 4 audio cds. Ripping them to iTunes in AAC format on the "iTunes Plus" setting results in each disc requiring about 300-400MB of space.
iPod/iPhone App:
I've installed it, but have yet to use it. Initially, when I tried to login using my credentials it just gives me a message saying "No languages available". I believe you have to initialize your online access first, then it will let you use the iPhone app with your purchased language.
General Program notes:
-It keeps track of where you are, and has a progress line at the bottom of the screen.
-Adjustable levels of speech recognition.
-Speech recognition considers male and female speakers.
-If you choose to buy the lower version with only 3 levels, you can upgrade level by level through the online interface. It said that with each upgrade you purchase you'll get the audio companion, a new cd, and a new headset. It didn't show me the pricing since I had all levels installed.
My 9yo daughter is really excited about learning a new language, so I'll try to mix in her experience as appropriate as well.
What it comes with:
-1 program installation disc
-5 Language level discs (these provide the actual lessons). You can install them as you go or all at once.
-5 levels of audio cds, each level contains multiple cds (4 each level).
-Keyboard overlays, with both black and white overlays. These are stickers you can place on your keyboard keys to show the language's special characters.
-USB microphone/headset combo
-Quick guide
-Registration card (it's like a credit card but you scratch off the registration number and enter it when you install the software).
Installing:
Installation is simple, although it warns you that you cannot change the install location at a later date. I've heard RS is hard to get reinstalled and reactivated. Total size is about 2.5 GB of data plus a few other folders. Therefore, ensure you have about 3 GB of free space just for the program. If you rip the audio cd's to iTunes, mp3, etc, you'll need additional storage space for those.
The Headset:
The USB headset has been a bit buggy on my system. I had to reboot several times before my PC (Win Vista Home Premium) would properly install the drivers. Once that occured, it works fine, however it seems that any time my pc goes to sleep, when it wakes up the headset will not work until I do a full shut down and restart. Other reviewers have also had problems with sound only coming from one ear. Overall, I think it's just a cheap headset. The software does let you select which audio devices you want to use, so if you have a better one or just want to use speakers and a separate microphone, I believe you can do that.
Licensing:
As a watchout, you cannot later sell or reinstall this software. Don't plan on buying it thinking you could sell it later, as you might run into problems. It also detects if you make major hardware changes. For instance, when my computer's motherboard failed, I swapped my hard drive into a different computer, the software detected this and it wanted me to update the registration. It was painless in that it just popped up a screen with the activation code already filled in and I just had to click ok. Hopefully it'll be just as easy when I get my original computer fixed and swap the hard drive back into it again.
Creating Profiles:
You can create multiple profiles, so that more than one person can use the software. For instance, I created my profile and one for each of my children. You enter your name, age, and male/female. Note that you must supply an age over 13 to be able to access the online content. As you begin your lessons, you choose how you want to learn from preset options inluding speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Online Access:
Note that the online lessons are only available for 1 learner, and there's a note in the package that states you MUST start the online lessons within 6 months of installing the product. Plan accordingly, and don't expect that even though you can create multiple user profiles that you can then each utilize the online tutors. If you list a profile user as less than 13, it will not allow that profile to activate the online access. The software & website does give you the option to buy online access for additional learners with the price ranging from $25 for 1 month to $150 for 15 months.
Level 1:
Right away you're presented with the language. It's a multi-media experience right from the go. For instance, the very first screen shows a picture of a girl and another picture of a boy. The program speaks "Una bambina" as the words are shown above the picture of the girl. You then have to repeat the phrase, and repeat it correctly to move on. You can adjust the difficulty of speaking and how strict your pronunciation must be. It then moves on to the boy's picture, "Un Bambino". The next screen has a girl drinking and a boy eating, with the appropriate phrases.
As you move on, it presents you with scenes like a man drinking, woman eating, etc. The program is teaching you to recognize male vs. female, old vs. young, and the accompanying words to use. Additionally, the program starts to ask you to click on the right picture without seeing the written words.
In essence, you're hearing, seeing pictures, seeing words, and having to speak the words all in the same lesson. While they don't call out word gender, etc, you're being exposed to it. Then the next steps take what you've just learned a bit further. Each screen builds on the previous in a logical and natural way.
Audio Companion CDs:
Each level comes with 4 audio cds. Ripping them to iTunes in AAC format on the "iTunes Plus" setting results in each disc requiring about 300-400MB of space.
iPod/iPhone App:
I've installed it, but have yet to use it. Initially, when I tried to login using my credentials it just gives me a message saying "No languages available". I believe you have to initialize your online access first, then it will let you use the iPhone app with your purchased language.
General Program notes:
-It keeps track of where you are, and has a progress line at the bottom of the screen.
-Adjustable levels of speech recognition.
-Speech recognition considers male and female speakers.
-If you choose to buy the lower version with only 3 levels, you can upgrade level by level through the online interface. It said that with each upgrade you purchase you'll get the audio companion, a new cd, and a new headset. It didn't show me the pricing since I had all levels installed.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
I still don't speak Italian... but that's probably my fault.
I've waited a very (VERY) long time to write this review because originally, I was hoping I'd be able to write it in Italian. I may have set my sights a little too high. Read more
Published 10 days ago by DynomiteWins
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent product
Rosetta stone is what it advertises itself to be--the best in the biz. I highly recommend Rosetta stone to anyone wanting to learn a language.
Published 13 days ago by Robert H. Oppenheimer
5.0 out of 5 stars
To truly learn a second language
The reason I decided to buy Rosetta is that it does not use any other language, you can not really learn a second language if you have to mentally translate to your mother tongue. Read more
Published 20 days ago by E. Conde
4.0 out of 5 stars
Best way to learn a language!
I haven't gone through it yet but hopefully, I'll be speaking Italian soon! Rosetta Stone is the best way to learn a language at your own pace!
Published 22 days ago by Sharon L. Fremont
5.0 out of 5 stars
Rosetta Stone Italian
I know I will love learning Italian; i'm just getting started. I wish I lived closer to relatives to practice. I hope to surprise them later this year at the family reunion.
Published 22 days ago by Rosemary G. Morris
1.0 out of 5 stars
Software ok. Customer Service and Tech Support horrible
I purchased Rosetta Stone Italian Level 1-5 set Last February. I personally think that the software works great and I am able to "recognize" a lot more vocab than I was able to... Read more
Published 24 days ago by B. Purcell
3.0 out of 5 stars
Fun vocabulary skills, but nada on grammar.
I think these programs are a lot of fun. I have a very hard time with languages in general and it takes me a long time to "catch on". Read more
Published 1 month ago by Rachel Himes
5.0 out of 5 stars
Love it
If you have to learn a language this is the one. I tried them demo version on line and felt very comfortable about this product and then bought it here
Published 1 month ago by T. Cecchino
1.0 out of 5 stars
Not worth the money!
Four months into this program and I still can't answer questions that are asked. I have an high IQ, so what's the problem??? Read more
Published 2 months ago by Italian Traveler
3.0 out of 5 stars
Just a brief comment about the audio
With the online software, they send you a headset with a microphone and for the speaking part, they say the words and you repeat them. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Charles
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Platform: PC/Mac
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