Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Dutch, Level 1 & 2

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

 

 

So my wife is Dutch and I have been using this here and there as I am moving in a few months. I get home from work I spend about 20 minutes every other day, but I have to say so far this product is helping me a lot. I get to surprise my wife here and there with what I have learned and she is helping me with the pronunciation as it is not quite right. I would recommend this for anyone who is just starting out. The hardest part is the fact that the Dutch have created a variety of words that only work in Dutch. You can not translate these words....

I ordered Rosetta Stone to learn Dutch because my fiance is Dutch and I want to be able to talk to his family. Rosetta Stone is very easy to use, and the way they present the material is great because you really remember it. It's not by memorization, but by association.

Before considering this product, ignore Rosetta Stone's advertising. Despite their claim, this is NOT a fast method to learn the language. However, it does have some merits, particularly version 2 (avoid version 3, which is completely worthless, see below!). You will learn a fair amount of vocabulary and some basic grammar. However, the progress is extremely slow. Most of the sentences are fairly basic, mechanical contructs that lack much in the way of abstract ideas or idiomatic, everday speech. By the end of level 2, however, I found the lessons quite challenging and rather useful. The last unit of level 2 finally contains some good representations of everyday speech.

The biggest complaint, however, lies with way Rosetta Stone uses a one-size-fits-all method to teach all languages. Because there is very little difference in content between their different language programs, you see very little idiomatic, everyday speech. It is also impossible in this method to highlight the pecularities of the particular language. For Dutch, there are no explanations given for the language's frequent use of modal particulates, adverbial pronouns, seperable verbs, or the unique rules of word order, all of which are unfamiliar concepts to English speakers. If you purchase this product, you will need to supplement your learning with a dictionary, a grammar textbook, and a verb conjugation reference.

So, I recommend this product with a qualification. Because there are so few good "Dutch as a second language" resources available in the US, any half-decent product is welcome. If you apply a consistent, concerted effort with this product, you will gain a basic foundation of Dutch... but fluent, you will not be.

Finally, because Rosetta Stone has released an updated version 3 of this product, I recommend you purchase version 2 before it becomes unavailable. Version 3, to be blunt, is absolutely worthless and a complete waste of time and money. It multiplies all the flaws of the previous versions and has few very few of the benefits.

I just received the Rosetta Stone Dutch V2, Level 1 and 2, which is labeled for Windows and Mac. The headphone was damaged upon receipt. I still have not been able to open the program - it installs correctly, but won't read the language disk. (There are separate application and language disks.) In fact, my Mac froze completely - the language disk must be damaged, although it appears okay. I accessed the online support FAQ and received technical directions beyond my abilities:
"If you are having trouble using current Rosetta Stone Version 2 software on an OS 10.5 Mac, please uninstall and reinstall the application. (Did that.) You may also need to boot from the Mac install CD to do a Disk Repair and Repair Permissions.(??)" And other such instructions.

So I think I'm packing this up to return to Amazon. This is the first product I've returned in nearly ten years of using Amazon regularly. From the television and other media ads, I never thought I would have technical problems using the program.

Well, I've only had this for a few weeks, but so far so good. My mother is from Holland and even she is impressed at how quickly and accurately I am learning to speak Dutch. I can't wait to carry on a conversation with my mother in Dutch!

I've done a few Dutch language courses - mostly audio for convenience. Linkword is fanstastic. Pimsuleur - sucks. I decided to start multi-media as Linkword essentially ran out at level 2 (and per the above - forget Pimsuleur) and the next set of material available was mostly multi-media. Given the way Rosetta Stone jumps into the material (as I have previous experience) I am confident I will be learning new things right away.