Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: French Level 1-2 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

The Rosetta Stone language learning system is based on the idea that foreign languages should be learned the same way as children learn their very first language - not by learning words isolated from their content and later putting them into sentences using painfully learned grammar rules, but by direct association of words and sentences with visual images. The Rosetta Stone contains no instructions in your mother tongue. If you bought German, the program communicates with you only in German. The only means which the program uses to explain you the meaning of the foreign words are pictures. You may not understand the meaning of the new word or phrase immediately. However, the program will use this word over and over again, and soon you will get an idea what it means. Remember how parents teach their children to talk, repeating the same thing again and again in different combinations? This is what Rosetta Stone does to you. You do not get a translation - insted, you get an image, an idea, a feeling.

I purchased French, but all 24 languages supported by Rosetta Stones use the same software and the same or nearly the same structure of lessons and images. The program works as follows. Once you have chosen a lesson out of a list, you have a selection of several modes of learning. In one, the program tells you phrases, and you have to choose one of four pictures which fits the phrase. In another, you see a picture and chose one from four written words/phrases. In the third, you chose the written phrase which matches what you just heard. In the fourth, you see a written word/phrase and match it with one of four phrases read to you by the computer. The program keeps on making new and new combination of the words and phrases for as long as you need to start feeling confident. If you want to practice your writing, Rosetta Stone will offer you either to put together sentences by dragging whole words with a mouse, or will suggest you to type them in from scratch and will correct you mistakes along the way. Finally, another part of the program works on your pronunciation and intonation. It not only records your voice as you repeat after a native speaker, but also provides graphical analysis of the patterns of your speach, thus helping to identify mistakes. This part of the program requires a high quality headset..., a cheap computer microphone will not work.

This program costs much more than the other programs on the market, but it also has a lot more to offer. Levels 1 and 2 combined contain over 200 units, and each unit may take several hours (depending on your age and language learning ability) to master. A great advantage which helps to make the buying decision is that Rosetta Stone offers a fully functional demo version of the program, which can be downloaded from their web site (rosettastone.com). This demo differs from the real thing in that you can try only 5-6 units out of 210 in any of the languages. This is sufficient to get a very good idea of how you like the program, as well as to understand how the level matches your prior knowledge of this language. Actually, I must say that Level 2 goes pretty far, I was surprised how advanced the sentences were when I opened one of the level 2 units in a language which I learned before.

In French which I bought each level came on 2 CDs, one with the software, the second one with the language library. Probably as a heritage from 1993, when the disk space was scarce, the program reads language data straight from the CD instead of copying them to hard disk. One has to keep the language library CD in the CD-drive, where it starts spinning every half a minute or so. With a noisy 40x drive it is rather annoying. The program runs on any Windows version after 3.1 (including XP) and on the Mac.

Besides CDs, the program comes with a manual (how to install and run the program) and a booklet with cirriculum, which contains a list of all words and phrases used in the program. There is no booklet on grammar, and no dictionary because any of these items standard in adult learning would contradict the spirit and the method of The Rosetta Stone. Both the manual and the booklet can be downloaded in PDF format from The Rosetta Stone's web site (another good way to evaluate how much you can expect to learn if you buy the program).

The developers claim that the program covers 5-year middle/high school program and includes around 2500 words. I had several other language programs in the past, and there is no doubt that Rosetta Stone covers a lot more language than any other program I saw.

Overall, it is a good learning tool, fun to use. It is not cheap, but if you divide the price by the number of hours of patient instructions which you get from your computer, you will end up with a cost which is way, way lower than any teacher would charge per hour for individual or group lessons. All of us used The Rosetta Stone method of learning between the ages of 1 and 7 and keep on using it when teaching our little ones. The fact that the developer remains in business for over 10 years and keeps getting new awards shows that it is also good for adults. I liked it. Check out the demo version, you probably will like it, too.

This is a great product for learning French, but it is not a complete solution.

I have been working on the French language for the past year and have tried many products. Assuming that many people who are looking at this product are just beginning to learn French, I will share my experiences and recommendations on various products.

There are two products that are fabulous for getting you started.
* French for Dummies
* Rosetta Stone French

Please note that these two products will not actually teach you to speak French, but they are an excellent introduction to the language. These products will get you ready for the real work which begins when you get face to face instruction with an experienced French language teacher.

I am completely convinced that the best way to learn French is in a classroom. I have found no other method that works for me. All other avenues can be useful additions, but classroom instruction is what it takes to make progress.

Notes on Products:

* French for Dummies. This is the most clear and accessible source for an overview and introduction to this strange and challenging language. I got this book after a couple of months of French lessons and the book provided a huge number of aha's. Things that were just a mystery to me where simply explained in this book. Highly recommended.

* Rosetta Stone French Level 1. This is an excellent acclimation to French. You can easily tune your ear to the sounds, pick up rudimentary vocabulary and learn basics of sentence structure. I still use it for practice drills and to check my pronunciation. (which is always a challenge)

* Movies. You may not know this, but many DVD's have multiple languages on the disk. You can rent DVD's, set the language to French and the subtitles to French and then learn the language. Start with movies with a simple dialogue. Something like Shrek, simple is good. Look on the back of the DVD case for a list of included languages.

* Tell me More French. Complete dog, never worked right on my computer. The concept is great, execution is awful.

* Pimsleur French Audio. Decent set of audio instruction. Useful for memorizing phrases and listening for pronunciation.

* Berlitz French CD Pack Audio. I didn't like this as well as the Pimsleur audio, but it's OK.

* Berlitz Virtual Classroom. Berlitz has a program where you work with a live person over the internet. You talk on a headset and share a whiteboard on your screen. It's OK for people who have a tough schedule and can't get to in person training but it is far inferior to a classroom setting.

* Berlitz Classroom Training. One-on-One and class room training. Quality is inconsistent, completely depends on which instructor you get. My experience was poor to medium. The best part of Berlitz is their printed material. The Berlitz verb, grammar, and phrase books are my favorite references.

* L'Institut de Langue et de Culture Françaises de Paris (ILCF Paris). I did a one month course at ILCF in Paris. Six hours of French classes for one month. After struggling for months with books, tapes, programs, phone work etc. I finally got to learn French. My instructor was excellent. The class was intense and very very productive. I know many people will not be able to take a month off to go to Paris and learn French, but this is the ultimate in learning the language. There are dozens of school in Paris that teach French at all levels. ILCF is the only one that I have experience with.

My summary of how to learn French:

1. Spend several weeks with the Rosetta Stone French system and the French for Dummies book as an introduction.

2. Then enroll in a classroom for as many hours per week as you can manage. Use the Rosetta Stone material for supplement and maybe another tape set for more practice.

3. Watch lots of movies in French.

4. Schedule a visit to France and practice.

J'aime Paris.
Bonne chance.

Nothing I've seen comes close to this program. It's an entirely different level. But do yourself a favor before shelling out the $300. Go to the rosettastone.com web page and ask for a demo cd. They'll send you a sample with every language they offer included. It gives you a very good sense of what it's all about.

Overall the Rosetta Stone language program is very good. Arguably it is the best that's out there. You can read the other reviews and get a feel for the features of the program; You can also visit their website.

What you need to know:
You will pay a lot of money for this program, this is what you get: 1) An install/application disc which is the base program. This disc is the same disc that will come in all the Rosetta Stone programs. They are interchangeable. 2) You will get one CD that holds all the data for French One and Two. 3) You will get two workbooks, one for level I and the second for level II. Basically these workborks are a verbatum index of what is presented on the software. I would be surprised if you use them, in fact you can get better workbooks from your local bookstore for less than $15. Summary: You are getting one CD of data and two cheap workbooks for a good bit of money. THAT IS IT!

Finally, as the Fairfield lawyer explained to me, if you are not an authorized dealer, do not try to resell their software espicially on Ebay. If you don't like the software after you purchase the software, give it away or throw it away but don't sell it on Ebay. To do so would violate Fairfield's copyright. I learned the hard way when my Ebay item was removed.

Recommendation: 1) Shop around 2) Request a free demo CD from their website, know exactly what you are buying 3) Shop around again

I already speak pretty fluent German, which I learned in the traditional ways: I took classes, I studied the grammar, I did vocabulary flash cards. I then moved to Germany for two years of study. It wasn't until I arrived that I discovered I had the vocabulary of a 5 year old, and that my pronunciation was pretty awful. It was very frustrating, until I allowed myself to simply watch, listen and learn. Just like a 5 year old does.

The brilliance of the Rosetta Stone approach is that it skips right to the idea of watch and listen. The program starts by showing photographs, showing you the word, and letting you hear the word. You're then shown, for example, a picture of a boy, a girl, a cat, a dog, and you see and hear "une fille". You then click on the picture of the girl, and it takes you to the next set of images. (If you get wrong answers, it will repeat them later.) Later you'll see a picture of a girl running, one jumping, etc., and you'll learn to construct sentences in the same way.

The cleverest part of this program is the way it teaches you new words, since everything is in French (or whatever language you're studying). You'll get the pictures of a boy, a girl, a cat, and a car. You then see and hear "une voiture", a word you've not heard before. Since "car" is the only image you haven't seen before either, you now know that car is "voiture". This accomplishes two things: 1) you learn new vocabulary by reasoning, rather than memorizing, and 2) you are NOT learning by translation.

Retaining vocabulary when I was first learning German was the most difficult part for me. Since doing the Rosetta Stone French program, I have remembered every new word I've learned, even weeks after having last seen it.

It's worth the money, if you're serious about learning a foreign language. It is true, if you need to learn correct speaking and writing for business or other professional endeavors, that you'll eventually need supplemental grammar and vocabulary training, but after finishing these courses you'll be able to do that on your own, and probably even entirely in French, if you wish.

Hi,

I bought this program because I am married to a French Canadian and we never taught our kids to speak french. The last visit we had with her parents was the straw that broke the camels back for me, so I did a little research, saw that this program was used by NASA, the State Department and the Peace Corps and decided to go ahead and spend more on any one piece of software than I have ever spent before. I couldn't be happier!
I told the kids, (16 and 14) that I wasn't going to make them use it, it was up to them. Granted, they are probably a little more motivated than most, but the program is fun. I speak a little french, but it is always me translating everything in my head, this program works completely differently than any other that I have ever heard of. There is no english at all, and as you go through you find yourself not translating as much but just answering the questions. Other reviewers have done a better job than I ever will, but my 14 year old figured out the first lesson the first day, and he has never had any french at all. I cannot say enough about it, and if it is the price that is holding you back, all I can say is what is it worth to you to learn french, to learn it faster than you probably could otherwise and to have fun as you are doing it? For me it would be a bargain at twice the price.

Thanks

This is an outstanding learn at home language system. The set up is easy to use and follow and done in a manner that makes it fun to stick with it. The idea behind the Rosetta Stone system is to teach French (or whatever language you choose) in the manner we initially learn our native language - from hearing people speak it and applying what we hear with what we can see that the speaker is talking about. For instance, in your first lesson, you start out with pictures of a boy, a girl, a man and a woman and hear the French words for each. You must match the word with the picture. Later you will see a picture of a man running, a woman running, a boy walking and a girl walking. You will hear "l'homme court." Based on already learning that "l'homme" means "the man," you can figure out that "court" means "runs." Of course, as children, this is the manner in which we would have initially learned to say "the man runs" in our native language, by hearing the words and applying those words.

The system is set up so you learn and apply what your learn in different methods. Each chapter has you apply your knowledge by both hearing the words spoken and seeing them written, by hearing them spoken only, by seeing the written words only and also testing your speaking ability and finally by requiring you to type the words yourself. Each of these sections offers self tests in a few different formats. The system will even record your voice and allow you to see how your voice print matches that of a native speaker. This certainly helps be sure your inflections and emphasis are properly spoken.

The system does a superb job of repeating and reinforcing what you learned in previous sections. This both helps building on previous materials covered and insuring that the material is committed to your memory.

One of the best features for me is that the pictures are bight, colorful and interesting. The colorful pictures coupled with the systems format makes the program fun to use. This (at least for me) is critical. Learning a new language requires a lot of dedication and time and the system must be interesting enough for the student to stick with it. The Rosetta Stone system certainly meets and exceeds this standard. It is fun to use and easy to remain dedicated to using.

The downside is that there in no education beyond the learning and applying new words from the pictures - i.e., no direct grammar lessons. I believe that some grammar is necessary to build on what you are otherwise learning. For instance, the system never tells you why it is "l'homme" and not "le homme." A comparable example in English, as a child you may learn to say "a house" and "an egg," but it isn't until you learn some grammar do you correctly learn when to use "a" and when to use "an." So, I do recommend using Rosetta Stone along with another program to be sure and get some grammar instruction. (I have been using the Assimil "New French with Ease" program for that purpose.)

The Rosetta Stone web site offers you a free trial download of its program to test out to see if the program is to your liking. I highly recommend going there and trying it out. And I am convinced that after you do, you will agree that the system is fun to use and that it works. There is short version that only shows a portion of the first lesson. Go beyond that and download the longer version which gives you several of the lessons. Try it out and see if the system is for you. I tried it this way first and discovered how fun and interesting the program is and decided to order it.

First of all, the concept is superb. It is superior to everything I've seen so far and most likely nothing will help you master the language more quickly, except maybe living in France where people speak English rarely.

But, and this is a capital but: This thing looks old. I bet it has been programmed no later than 1997 and the fact that you have to keep the language CD-ROM in your drive suggests that it has not been changed since then, when storage space was expensive. Of course, you could mount an image, but this is 2005 and my current hard drive is actually bigger than 1 gig.

The exercise where a phrase is spoken and you have to write it down: the keyboard layout is French! Trying to type in "animal" would give you "qni;ql". This is just ridiculously absurd and I haven't found a way to change it. I wanted to learn French, but this goes just too far...

I still think the concept is unbeatable and it helps a lot, but for almost 300 bucks I expect them to improve the product from time to time so that it matches the state of the art of at least the current decade. They seem to rely on their reputation, so think about wether it is worth to spend that amount of money.

I struggled with whether to give Rosetta Stone the 5 stars it deserves for its excellent language-learning method, or to be a bit snarky and take a point off for the surprising profusion of rodeo clowns and cowboy pictures the program uses. (The cowboy is on the horse; the cowboy is falling off the horse, etc.)

The product description and the other reviews explain very well why the Rosetta Stone method works, and how comprehensive it is. I couldn't agree more with their recommendations. Here's one word of warning: If you're anything like me, you're apt to become bored and cranky at the Harrisonburg, VA depictions of everyday life (here's where the cowboys come in). This software features hours and hours and hours of instruction, teaching the user to identify french words, phrases, and sentences with the corresponding visual images. Sadly, there is a complete lack of variety in the images presented. Not only will you see no French or Francophones, you will see the same Virginians OVER and OVER and OVER. (I assume they're Virginians. They're definitely not French.)

Taking for granted that most people aspiring to learn French probably have some interest in French culture, art, cuisine, style, and architecture, I am surprised not to have read any similar reviews of this product. Does Rosetta Stone recycle the same photos for each of its language programs? If I want to learn Mandarin, will I be subjected to the very same Woman In Khaki Pants With Glasses* and Fat Child Jumping Into Swimming Pool*? Over and Over and Over? Just wait until you learn La Voiture Blanche--you've never seen so many Saturns and Fords!

All in all, I don't think there is a better program out there for learning a foreign language. I've used this software to complement my college French classes, and it's been a big help to my pronunciation and comprehension of spoken French. I just hope that Rosetta Stone will come out with a French 3 someday, and that it will feature images of (gasp!) FRENCH PEOPLE and FRENCH STUFF. I can't imagine how much more interest this software could command and how much more successful its costumers would be if only the product was as visually interesting as it is comprehensive. That would make it unbelievably effective!

Bonne Chance!

This product is helpful in many ways, unhelpful in others. Here are the unhelpful features:
1. While there is adequate learning of vocabulary and grammar, there is little opportunity to learn conversational French the way it is really spoken.
2. Typically, the product offers the learner panels of four pictures from which to choose the one correct response to a given statement or question. But frequently the choice is obvious--e.g., the statement or question has to do with horses, but only one of the four response panels shows horses. So one can guess the right response without really understanding what is being said or asked. No learning is taking place here. In the example cited, it would be better if all four response panels concerned horses so that the learner would really have to understand what is being said or asked in order to give the right response.
3. The breakdown of each level into lessons, units, and exercises is somewhat confusing, and navigating among them is awkward.
4. When moving from one four-panel section to the next, the native speaker's voice in the new section is often clipped off so that the first word or two is unheard. Hearing the entire phrase, of course, can make all the difference in understanding what the speaker is saying and is critical to giving the right response. The manufacturer has twice shown us how to adjust our computer's audio mechanism to fix this, but the fix still does not work very well. This is a fault in production of the software disk.
5. The software on the disk cannot be downloaded into the user's computer, meaing the user must insert the disk each time and wait for it to upload for use.

In general, this product is useful for beginners or near-beginners. If one already has some skeleton grasp of vocabulary and grammar, a higher level of learning is indicated.