Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Dutch Level 1 [OLD VERSION]

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

 

 

This is a clever use of a computer. The attempt is to put you in a "virtual" Dutch-speaking environment. To fully utilize the product, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, speakers, and microphone. There are about 3,200 images (many duplicates) shown in groups of 4. You select either mode-A, -B, -C, -D, -E. For mode-A, a native speaker says a phrase or sentence in Dutch, which you also see written on the screen, and you move your mouse into the one of the 4 pictures to which you think the statement applies. You click the mouse and get immediate feedback on whether you're right or wrong. For mode-B, you hear the native speaker's statement but get no writing on the screen (practice in aural comprehension). For C, you get the writing but no speaker (practice in reading comprehension). For D (you'll love this), you get the native speaker, and you repeat what he or she says into your microphone, and you get immediate pictorial feedback on the screen as to how closely your pronunciation matches that of the native speaker. For E, you get the native speaker and no writing, and you get to type in Dutch what he or she says using your keyboard, and you get immediate feedback on whether you're correct.

It's clever and a lot of fun if you enjoy studying languages. But ... there's no accompanying book to speak of, just a list of the 3,200 statements without translation provided.

Before buying this product, I had previously spent several months studying Dutch grammar (see my poignant review of "Colloquial Dutch" by Donaldson, a fine book by the way). Hence I already knew the rudiments and had a context in which to place those 3,200 statements and make sense of them. I had the fine Dutch-English dictionary published by Routledge, "201 Dutch Verbs" by Stern, and "Colloquial Dutch" by my computer to refer to. I found this course a painless way to review grammar, supplement my vocabulary, and learn to say some useful things by rote.

Is this Rosetta Stone approach good for a complete beginner with no prior knowledge of Dutch? Would such a user learn the rules of grammar intuitively by discerning patterns in the 3,200 statements? ... Naaah. I'm skeptical. My advice to a complete beginner is to start elsewhere with a good grammar book like "Colloquial Dutch".

I gave the product 4 stars instead of 5 because I have some doubts about accuracy. I found one error that I'm certain of: in one instance an "apostrophe-s" was used to indicate possession. This is good English but bad Dutch. When I called Fairfield to report this error, the employee didn't seem at all interested. He assured me that everything was corrected in the newer version (I bought this product in 2002), but he didn't record or even listen to my error report. Also, I found the word ordering in a sentence suspect in a few instances. Did they just grab 3 native speakers from the street or was there some involvement by a scholar of the Dutch language? I don't know.

There are many more examples of action verbs (running, walking, swimming, etc) than introspective verbs (thinking, remembering, etc) because the former are more easily conveyed in pictures. There are many more examples of third person verb forms than first and second person for the same reason.

One of the three native speakers has a strange pronunciation. She makes third person singular verb forms, which almost alway end in "t", sound like they end in "s". For example, "zingt" sounds like its English translation, "sings". I never heard this before. Is it a regional accent, or has she just been speaking English for too long? It's confusing, especially in mode-D.

This product isn't perfect, but I liked it enough to purchase Rosetta Stone Dutch Level II, which I am also enjoying.

I found this product to be easy to install, but clumsy to use do to the continued reliance on both the CD and a set of applications installed by the product on my PC. I also found it to have limited applicability to my needs - it turned out to be oriented more toward basic conversational Dutch (the kind you might use standing outside a coffee shop in Amsterdam) rather than the words and phrasings that would be commonly found in business communications (which is what I was looking for). Perhaps this comes up in later Levels of the product, but given the price I paid for Level 1 Dutch, I'm not throwing good money after bad to find out.

I used this product a month before studying abroad in Belgium for 4 months and after I was there. It allowed me to understand some basic Dutch and to survive in a foreign country. I really enjoyed clicking through the software and learning the new vocabulary. Knowing some basic Dutch really added to my international student exchange experience. I had no previous knowledge of Dutch or German before using the software. I highly recommend this product.

My parents got this for me after I met my Dutch boyfriend online. That was 8 years ago. I never made it all the way through this program.

And here's why:

First, I got bored easily.
Second, I got frustrated easily.
And Third, It was teaching me words... but not how to converse!

I think this program IS a good way to learn vocabulary. It makes it difficult to forget what you learned, because you learn to associate words with pictures. The problem is, it's not ALWYAS clear what the picture is trying to portray. For instance, De vrouw wijst. Well.. I finally gave up on that one and looked it up on an online translator. I didn't know whether it meant frowns or points! She was doing both! Turns out, it means points.

The first few lessons only taught me what my Dutch speaking boyfriend already had. And when I wanted to get through the parts I already knew quickly, I got bored by the extremely repetitive content. It is certainly lacking in "funnage." And if you can't enjoy what you're learning, or get immediate satisfaction from it, it makes it hard to continue.

My biggest problem with the course I discovered when I started learning Spanish. With my Spanish program, I was learning CONVERSATIONAL Spanish, so, with just a few lessons, I could speak whole sentences in Spanish! (My Spanish program is an audio program, NOT Rosetta Stone.) But with the Rosetta Stone program, the only sentences I could say in Dutch were "De blauwe auto is oud." Or "De meisjes rennen de jongen achterna" Not.. very.. conversational.

I will say, that the few lessons I did do with this program have helped me to better read Dutch, but, as I've said, I've had personal help with that as well. So, all I really learned from it is some vocabulary, and maybe some Dutch grammar, but certainly not anything you couldn't learn from simple immersion. I have not learned how to construct sentences or have personal conversations. All I could tell you about is the horse I saw jumping, or the man falling off of the horse.

I'm not sure how the astronauts on the Space Station learned Russian from this program, as the commercials imply. They must have had a lot of outside help. What good is talking about horses, and dogs, and old cars on the Space Station, anyway? Couldn't Rosetta have taught us a simple "Hi, How are you? My name is..?" What it should have included is "I don't speak Dutch."