Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V3: Portuguese (Brazilian) Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Note: The product I purchased did not include the "Audio Companion", but the product had all 3 levels.

The product's long suit is pronunciation. The computer analysis was good at getting the pronunciation better.

However, I consider the course nearly a waste of time and money. (Based on the company's reputation, I assume other products are better.)

As an alternative, I recommend Sonia Althoff's Portuguese (both the book and the CD) as the best product to get off the ground. (It is only available on her web site: http://www.sonia-portuguese.com/index.htm.)

For more advanced work, I recommend "Brasil!: Língua e Cultura". ("Brasil!" may be overwhelming for beginners.)

The amount of vocabulary in Rosetta Stone was low. I learned basic words in the very first screen of Sonia's CD and the very first page of Brasil! that never were presented in any of the 3 levels of Rosetta Stone.

Rosetta Stone made no attempt in English to explain how Portuguese grammar works. Due to the number of verb tenses (over 30), the rules for regular conjugations, the large numbers of exception patterns (mainly for the basic present tense), and the significant numbers of exceptions (again mainly for the present tense) that fit no pattern, I stayed paralyzed by inability to figure out what the rules were.

I also was mystified by the complex pronoun rules (pronouns of all things!) -- especially the contractions of prepositions with pronouns and the rules for appending pronouns to verbs.

The program bogged down my (admittedly older) computer. (There were times when I first bought the program when the program would crash. Then a fix came out and the program no longer crashed, but ran slower.)

Finally, when I finally finished all the lessons, I decided I wanted to cruise the written exercises to transcribe some of the useful examples for my notes. I discovered I could only review one exercise and the program would crash. Tech support claimed I had a corrupted progress database. Based on the timing of the problem starting, I am dubious.

I had 2 yrs. spanish in high school, and a 40 hour (tutored) refresher course while stationed in Honduras. I've had tutored classes in Italian, Croatian, Finnish, and Japanese.

After 1 week of daily study with Rosetta Stone Portuguese (Brazilian), I speak and more easily remember the Portugese language THAN any previously studied language I had. I used books, CD's, etc. for the previous languages, BUT NOTHING works for me like this product. I WILL be ordering other languages, by Rosetta Stone, as time goes by.

Rosetta Stone claim that the best way to learn a language is the way native speakers learn their first language as children, omitting the obvious problem that children have about 15 years of 24 hour immersion in their native language and that children's brains are specifically geared to picking up language quickly, a skill that the brain loses once reaching adulthood.

The Rosetta Stone support rep informed me over the phone that upon completing level 3, I would be at the level of a university student of the Portuguese language. I was skeptical yet curious, I figured if it is this expensive there must be something good about it. Upon finishing the courses and memorizing all of the vocab, I found that I could say a handful of phrases (such as "the boy is in the house") but was still clueless about forming my own complex sentences because I had not been taught any grammatical rules. It is ridiculous to suggest that Level 3 is the equivalent of a university level, university students will no doubt be reading and commenting on works of Portuguese Literature, not simply saying "the boy is in the house"!

Rosetta Stone uses pictures instead of translations, i.e. instead of telling you that the `cavalo' means `horse', they just show you a picture of a horse. Whilst this undoubtedly saves them money because they do not need to produce separate versions for users of different native languages, it makes things that much harder for the user because you then have to interpret the pictures and determine which part of the phrase refers to the picture. For example, when the software introduces the verb "to have", it was always accompanied by a picture of a cat: "I have a cat", over and over again! This leaves the user bewildered as to whether the word for "Eu tenho" means "I have" or "a cat". Granted this is a simple example, but nowhere in the software are sentences broken down word by word. The pictures used are clearly universal stock photos that they use for all their different language software, for example there are pictures of Japanese people eating sushi, but no pictures of Brazilians playing football on the beach. If I am paying half a grand, you would think they would at least provide culture specific imagery for that language!

There was no early lesson on the numbers, numbers were thrown in at random, so that you might learn the number 4 at one stage but would not come across the numbers 3 and 5 until much later.

Also the audio recognition was very inaccurate, you could say the word into the speaker totally wrong and it would still come back saying you were correct. I had some fun with this, saying completely different words and it would still say I got them right.

What many adult language learner's fail to accept is that learning a new language takes a huge amount of dedication. It's about memorizing the rules of grammar, and then memorizing heaps of word lists. That is the only way to truly learn a new language! You are kidding yourself if you think you can just pick up a copy of Rosetta Stone and then just sit back and listen and then *poof* you have picked up a foreign language.

At least with a more traditional language learning method, you will learn the basics of grammar and can then begin to form your own sentences, and that is a solid foundation on which to build. And the traditional methods cost about 1/10th of the price of Rosetta Stone.

The learning process is effective. I have no problem learning but it does require real concentration. Expect to have your mind expanded. The initial lessons proceed by introducing a word with an associated picture. Your job is to match the correct picture. The lessons proceed to phrases, gender, and multiple vs single items. New items are often introduced with no explanation, you just use the hints provided by previously introduced words and ideas. It is very effective. I can't wait until I get to level 2 to see what happens.

On the negative side is the upper level interface. You are left guessing as to where to find out what you need and even how to exit properly. The user guide must be downloaded. You need to have an internet connect while installing otherwise the installation requires you to connect before the product can be registered. At one point I had to call customer service to complete the registration.

As a software engineer I can see improvements at interface and in word recognition. I was asked a few week ago if I would be interested in working with them. Wish I could but I am not going to Virginia. It will be interesting to see where this company is going.

Be aware, this NOT standard Portuguese! It is Brazilan... which has a VERY different pronounciation and words. As Amazon listed several different Portuguese products, some labeled "Brazilian" and some not, that clearly indicated that the ones that were not labeled Brazilian should have been standard (continental) Portuguese. Extremely misleading by Amazon. They should immediately label all of these products with a "Brazilian" label. I am very surprised they didn't do this after the very first compliant.

In reading another reviewer, I am shocked to see they contacted Rosetta Stone and they didn't even offer standard Portuguese! After seeing the dozens of languages they offer, I can't believe they are mis-representing the Portuguese language that way.

I just received it today and will be sending it back immediately, unopened.

This is the BEST language program available. As a language teacher, having a program that does not translate into your native tongue is vital. It's all visual with the target language. This is the best way to learn any language. (BTW, it's BRAZILIAN Portuguese... it doesn't look like it from the picture, but it is)

A fun way to learn another language. It feels more like a game than a lesson. The product works very well and progress comes quickly enough to keep it interesting.

In preparation for a two week trip to Brazil, I used Rosetta Stone for a number of months before going and found myself pleasantly surprised by my ability to get by in the country during my time there. The key phrase is "get by"--one reviewer mentioned that he had been told that completing all three levels would be equivalent to a university-level program of study--this is not the case, so set your sights accordingly. However, in terms of "survival Portuguese" this program allowed me to easily navigate the typical situations encountered by a newcomer to the country: asking questions, expressing needs and desires, and stating facts necessary to eat, travel, etc. across Brazil. As someone who is rather busy, I found the ability to do as little as 5 or 10 minutes at a time, and at times that were convenient to me, extremely valuable.

Whether you like Rosetta Stone will ultimately boil down to your thoughts on their "virtual immersion" methodology. As someone who has learned languages through both immersion methods and typical classroom settings, it is obvious that immersion is the more effective route to fluency. However, most people do not have the luxury of spending weeks, months, or years in a country that speaks the target language. For me, I found Rosetta Stone's methodology to be an effective compromise because it enabled me to speak and listen in Portuguese without "translating" in my head to and from English, and the variations introduced in the lessons along with the effective use of voice recognition software encouraged my mind to be able to "think creatively" in Portuguese instead of just regurgitating a set number of phrases. I will admit that I "cheated" and bought a dictionary and grammar book because, as others have noted, there are times when it is unclear what exactly a word means, or how a pronoun is used, or what exactly a verb tense signifies without some extra guidance. But to me, these are the kinds of "fact-checking" activities that can be easily done on one's own (after all, it takes this kind of initiative if you want to learn a language, no matter what the methodology) ... it is the simulated immersion environment that one cannot create on their own, which I found to be a unique attribute of Rosetta Stone.

For that reason, I would disagree with the reviewer that said that this methodology is best for someone who lacks experience or ability with regard to learning foreign languages precisely because nothing is explicitly explained to the user; having learned a language will help (as you know first-hand both the details as well as the big picture of what language acquisition entails) and at least some familiarity with Romance languages will help as well. Think about it, a complete novice might not get past the first lesson, as it entails something completely foreign to the modern day English language: grammatical gender and gender agreement.

That said, this product is not perfect. As mentioned, you will probably want to have supplemental materials. I agree with other reviewers that it seems lazy to use generic photos instead of more Brazil-specific ones. And yes, it is BRAZILIAN Portuguese; I find it a pity that some have decided to downgrade this product when it is clearly marked as Brazilian Portuguese (and when it is not, it is the fault of Amazon, not the producers of Rosetta Stone). The voice recognition system is good overall, but especially once you get to saying complete phrases you can mess up pretty badly and still be "correct" (however, there is a sensitivity setting that I did not play with: that might force you to be more accurate, perhaps?). Vocabulary is more limited than it needs to be. One obviously cannot ignore the price either; I was able to use the product for free at the university I attend, but as much as I liked this program I'm not sure I'd shell out $500 for it. But in the end, I found it to be effective and surprisingly fun as well. Despite its warts, I'd give this program 4 stars as ultimately it made my trip to Brazil a lot easier and a lot more fun, as it allowed me to interact with the locals to a level I would not have been able to had I not tried the program or if I had used more traditional methods given the limited time that I had to devote.

It is deceitful not to say whether Portuguese course is Brazil or Portugal version. It seems that if some are labled Brazilian version, and others not, some will purchase the others and be deceived.

Also, I think Rosetta is best pitched to people who have no knowlege of a foreign language, perhaps with limited skills or talents to learn foreign languages. It may be excellent for high school students or maybe first year college students to supplement other language studies. The approach assumes an immature mentality. An adult pitched course would not teach it as if it were one's first language rather than one's first foreign language.

Lastly, beware if your computer crashes, or for some other reason you need to download it again. Rosetta Stone does not allow you to use it at home, and also at the office, or to download it again and again if you have computer problems. Of course you can always pay again and again to overcome computer problems.

It think one should use Pimsleur in conjunction with another program, along with grammar books and a good dictionary with examples of usage, to include differences between Brazil and Portugal versions. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find Portugal Portuguese programs anywhere, except for the first level of Pimsleur; Pimsleur has three levels of Brazilian Portuguese. This is because there are perhaps 11 times as many speakers in Brazil as in Portugal.

As you know, Spanish, French, and some other languages are more popular than Brazilian Portuguese, thus a relative shortage of learning materials. However, through Amazon, you can get Pimsleur, which is excellent for learning the most basic vocabulary and to talk with a good accent. It is the best for that. And you can find adequate Brazilian Portuguese programs on Amazon, as well as dictionaries and phrase books which should be used in conjunction with Pimsleur. Many criticize Pimsleur for its minimal grammar. Altho it lacks enough grammar, that is not what Pimsleur is designed for; other materials available on Amazon provide that. So such criticisms of Pimsleur are unfair.

It may be helpful if you have someone you trust and know well to rate Rosetta. I think someone experienced in languages will agree with me; those who like Rosetta so much are new to languages, I believe, so they haven't made a fair comparison.

First of all, great product. I received it within the specified dates and have been really pleased with what it offers. I am able to go at my own pace and work on my Portuguese. Rosetta has a unique mixture of grammar, writing and offers the ability to practice the language which has proved to be very helpful.
Rosetta Stone Version 3: Portuguese Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion