Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Farsi, Level 1

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Rosetta Stone V2 Farsi Level 1 Personal Edition (Win/Mac) I bought this program about 2 years ago because I wanted to impress my wife by learning Farsi. She is from Iran and this is her native language. Rosetta thinks that you should learn all languages as when you were a baby. But the problem is that with each picture the word is written in the Arabic Script. This is OK, but it should also be written in the Roman Script like english. That way you can sound out the words. At least with other languages like spanish you can sound out the word and it helps you learn faster. The problem with this, is that when you listen to the audio it sounds like the speaker is saying something different. An example: I tried to say the word cat in farsi, and my wife had no idea what I was trying to say. Because I kept saying the word; "Corbe". When she ask me what I was trying to say, she said that it is; "Gorbe". That is just one example. My wife also took the time to explore the program and she agreed that I was not crazy. She said that the speaker is not saying the words correctly and she also agreed that the words should be written in the Roman Text. I contacted Rosetta Stone and told them about this. They responded with, Their product was the best there was to offer and if I wanted to learn farsi, then I needed to be able to read it in its natural form as well. I agree, but I also need to learn the simple basics. So I say; do not be fooled like I was. Don't waste your time or your money on this product. If anybody out there finds a better product then please write a comment and let the rest of us that want to learn farsi, know what product to buy.

I bought Rosetta Stone Farsi to teach myself and later used it to also teach my children Farsi. I have now finished the whole first level and am beginning on level 2.

Before I started using the Rosetta Stone I was using John Mace's Modern Persian, which taught the alphabet along with grammar. John Mace's book is hard to read, and nearly impossible to really see how to form the letters, so I used The Arabic Alphabet by Nicholas Awade & Putros Samano to see more clearly how to form the letters. Also you really can't hear a native speaker from studying a book.

Since I had already struggled through learning the alphabet, I found the Rosetta Stone very helpful. I also use a dictionary with the Rosetta Stone, so that I can look up the words when I am unsure of the meaning. The best dictionary for this (although it is difficult, but not impossible to read) is The Combined Persian-English and English-Persian Dictionary by Abbas Aryanpur-Kashani and Manoochehr Aryanpur-Kashani. Another good dictionary is An English Persian Dictionary by Dariush B. Gilani, although it only goes one way, not two.

Level 1 in Rosetta Stone sets the foundations for grammar constructions and Level 2, which I am now beginning teaches more conversational Farsi and I am finding it difficult to learn without really having a good grasp of the verbs. There currently is no "501 Persian Verbs" book out there. If there were, this learning would be much easier, because it is difficult to see a verb in the Farsi and know how to look it up in the dictionary, since it will be listed only under the infinitive or participle form in the dictionary and there are potentially several changes between a third person present progressive form and an infinitive in Farsi.

This last school year I was able to teach three of my boys, ages 10, 13 and 16, to read Farsi script using the other above mentioned materials and they have all made significant progress in the Rosetta Stone Farsi. Before they totally learned the script we were able to program the student management system of the home school program to just give them lessons where they were not required to read and write. Once they learned the alphabet, I programmed their assignments to begin reading and writing, also.

At the point were I am in the program, I am wishing I had some or those 'ole verb conjugation drills, especially for the irregular verbs. I plan on getting some other program to fill in a little of that, along with using Rosetta Stone which I still feel is well worth the money. Having a different script and limited dictionary helps just makes Farsi a challenging language to learn without a teacher!

We also used Rosetta Stone French level 1 for myself and my 16 year old. We had previously studied a lot of conversational French through Berlitz CDs but really didn't feel competent. The Rosetta Stone really brought it all together. After finishing Level 1 French I was at the point where I could, with a dictionary and 501 French Verbs, read children's books in French and translate verses from a French Bible.