Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Danish Level 1 [OLD VERSION]

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

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised after receiving this a week ago, about how easy it is to use and learn the language. My mother-in-law who is a native, was amazed at how much we had learned in the week since receiving. I also speak some Spanish and learned it the traditional way, but think this has been better and will probably look to purchase that one later on to refresh my skills.
My only complaint is that there is no alphabet tool to help understand how some of the letters are pronounced.
But overall, I think that the program is worth the money and will get us speaking Danish on our trip to Denmark next year to visit the family.

Plain and simple. It only works if you seriously try it. If you just do an exercise once and don't REALLY make an effort or get into it, it would be REALLY annoying. But if you make the little effort to understand, it works like a charm.

I got this for christmas, went into my room during lunch, popped it into the computer, and twenty minutes later I went back downstairs and was saying very simple sentences in Danish. It works.

While I don't actually have the Level 1 software yet, I do have the 'explorer' version, and am looking into buying the level 1. So far I have really enjoyed it. Yes, it can be frustrating when you have no idea what types of words (genders, colors, etc) are being presented and you need to select the corresponding picture, however I have found myself actually thinking in Danish instead of in English (associating the pictures as I see them with the Danish words and not the English), a profound difference from high school and college level German classes that I have taken. I do believe that their approach does simulate the natural way you learn your first language and look forward to learning many languages through rosetta stone software! If you're uncertain I would certainly recommend the Explorer version software- I believe its under $10 on Amazon and should give you a good idea of what to expect!

Before I start let me make it clear that I haven't purchased this item yet and I doubt that I will. Rather I wisely decided to check out the demo available on the Rosetta Stone website. In retrospect I'm glad I did so because I realized that this method is not for me. First of all, the lack of any English texts is very frustrating. Instead you're supposed to infer what each word means from the context and the pictures. It wouldn't be a problem if the pictures were clear and definite, but often they are blurry, distant and old-looking photographs that leave you in doubt about what they're talking about. For example I've lost count of the number of times I got "kvinden ---" wrong because the women look exactly like men. I also got "dreng" and "pige" mixed up because the boys either look and dress like girls and vice versa, or their faces and motion are blurred and I haven't a clue what is going on. This, coupled with the fact that every answer, right or wrong, is accompanied with a very annoying beep, is extremely frustrating. Furthermore, I didn't learn any pronunciation from the lessons, it focused more on identifying the pictures than on being able to say things yourself, which I thought was supposed to be the whole point of language learning. In short, Rosetta Stone Danish is completely inadequate for a complete danish user. The only reason I did not give it a lower score is that other people with a little danish background might find it more useful and easier to navigate.