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

by Fairfield Language Technologies

Product Features

• Greek language learning software for beginner and advanced students
• Up to 550 hours of mastery instruction in listening, reading, and speaking
• Over 8000 real-life images and phrases in 210 lessons
• Previews, exercises, and tests with every lesson; tutorials throughout
• Illustrated user's guides and curriculum text books included

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0002YO0UK
• Item model number: 261 ¿ 12
• Date first available at Amazon.com: October 12, 2004
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,778 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #6 in Software > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Greek

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Our complete set offers beginner through advanced instruction with over 8000 real-life images and phrases in 210 lessons. Greek Levels I and II provide up to 550 hours of mastery instruction in listening comprehension, reading, and speaking. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. Previews, exercises, and tests accompany every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program. Some of the covered topics include:

• Greetings and conversation
• People and talking
• Travel, transportation, and transactions
• Directions: how do I get to...
• Food, eating, and drinking
• Family relationships
• Telling time
• Numbers to one hundred
• Clothing and dress
• Vehicles, furniture, and instruments
• Shopping and dining out
• Common social conventions
• Calendar conventions
• A complete reference section of commonly used terms

Greek Level I and II, Personal Edition set comes complete with illustrated user's guides and curriculum text books.

Product Description

Rosetta Stone Greek Levels 1 & 2 lets you learn a language, just as easily you learned your own native language. This Rosetta Stone Level I & II Greek set offers beginners advanced instruction in the Greek language. Features over 8000 real-life images and phrases in 210 lessons.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

70 of 72 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Good as a vocabulary builder...nothing else., November 13, 2005

By 

G. Rayner "GJRGJR" (Westport, CT) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V2: Greek Level 1-2 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I have been involved with languages all my life. I am a translator, I teach languages at a school that teaches languages, I have taught languages at an Ivy League university. I speak a number of languages extremely well from being self-taught. I am not saying this to blow my own horn but to illustrate that I am a living example of learning and teaching foreign languages.

If your goal is to learn the language, function in the country, perform in everyday situations, this course does not do it. If you want to pick up just some vocabulary, I guess it would be ok, but there are other ways at a much cheaper price.

Here are the major flaws of the approach:
1) Lack of real life situations
You start out as you should, you see images, you learn through repetition, you don't worry about grammer. But then as you progress, you begin to wonder where you will be taught about practical situations. How do I say "Hello", "Thank you"? How do I order in a restaurant? How do I make a phone call? How do I buy a new shirt? Yes, on the surface, it makes you feel like you are covering these topics - but all you get is WORDS. As far as I can tell, you never learn how to even say, "YOU" to someone else, never learn to express abstract concepts like "important" or express opinions. You have repetitions of key words..like an obsession of what people are wearing or whether the boy or the man or the women are running..But how do I pay for a hotel or even say HELLO to the person at the front desk? None of this is covered. Just sentences like, "The girl is not wearing yellow"

2) The no-grammar approach does not work. Well, it works if you live in the country and are exposed to the same patterns thousands of times. NOT if you are learning on your own. Take the past tense. In Greek, it can be very complicated. Thus, we have the girl running, trekhi and then she "ran" - etrepsa - So how can you ever learn how to get the right verb stem for a verb? You are given just a few examples of this. Other topics are brought up quickly but give the learner no basis to ADAPT the knowledge.
What if I want to say, "I sang" instead of she "ran" - there is no basis to apply the knowledge.

3) Complete and utter lack of any cultural context. Let's just translate univerally translatable phrases into all of the languages we do. This could take place in any country. I absolutely do not have a problem with the fact that the people shown are not Greek but a diverse, multi-ethnic community but what I do mind is that there is nothing about Greek life, nothing about Athens or Greek culture, none of the realia of Greek life. The French course can be exactly like the Greek course, except for the translation.

4) Feeling of detatchment. You feel that you are describing a world on a screen. The women are eating! The hat is yellow! But you never learn how to feel a part of what you are doing, that you are the language too. You never get a view of what Greek people think, never have a way to express your own emotions, never feel invited to step in and create your own sentences in a real-life dialogue.

5) Dealing with foreign characters. I knew some Greek before I started, so I was able to read. But, um , what if this is completly new. How do you get help learning how to read a different alphabet?

All in all, disappointing.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An excellent second course, October 3, 2005

By 

Larry Whitted (Lodi, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V2: Greek Level 1-2 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

The Rosetta Stone Greek Level 1 & II is an excellent second course if you want to increase your vocabulary and develop the kind of feel for the language that a native speaker develops as a child. The course is entirely in Greek, with no instruction in English and no explanation of Greek grammar.

If you want to learn conversational Greek for travel, then I recommend that you start with the Pimsleur Greek I course. Unfortunately, there is no Pimsleur Greek II course, so I recommend the Rosetta Stone course for your second course. You may also want to buy a dictionary for the occasional word that you will not be able to understand just from the pictures in the Rosetta Stone course. You may also want to purchase a book on Greek verbs to supplement the Rosetta Stone course.

One advantage of the Rosetta Stone course is that it will help you to increase your fluency at reading the Greek alphabet.

21 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good With Pimsleur, December 14, 2005

By 

Nichelle Jette "Nektaria" (Salt Lake City, Utah) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V2: Greek Level 1-2 [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

This program is okay and it does teach some important concepts and will greatly enhance your reading and listening skills. However as another review mentioned for faster and more applicable Greek start with Pimsleur 1 and then use Rosetta Stone.

The two compliment each other very well, and after doing just half of each program I was able to jump directly into a second year university Greek course with very little trouble even though I had missed the entire first year. Although neither will teach you complete fluency, if you do both courses you should be able to hold a conversation.