Rosetta Stone V2: Korean Level 1 [OLD VERSION]

by Fairfield Language Technologies

Product Features

• This powerful tool uses advanced multimedia tools to immerse you completely in Korean, as you experience the language just as a native-speaker would
• You'll enjoy 12 special activities with 92 lessons each -- all of them fun and interesting, and sure to teach you more about the language
• Key skills in listening comprehension, reading, speaking and writing are developed as you get a taste of Korean culture
• Previews, tests and automated tutorials help you when you're stumped, so that your Korean speaking skills never cease to grow!

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005APYQ
• Item model number: 038-00
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 26, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,476 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Learn a new language with the award-winning method used by the U.S. State Department to train diplomats. Proven effective by NASA astronauts, Peace Corps volunteers, and millions of students worldwide, the Rosetta Stone Language Library teaches new languages faster and easier than ever before.

We all learn our childhood language by associating new words and phrases with the world around us. The Rosetta Stone method replicates this process by presenting vivid, real-life images to convey the meaning of each new phrase. Instead of translating, memorizing, and studying rules of grammar, you actually learn to think in the new language. Vocabulary and grammar are integrated systematically, leading to everyday proficiency.

The Rosetta Stone Level I program offers a comprehensive course of study for beginning learners, leading to intermediate proficiency. The program contains over 3,500 real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons and more than 250 hours of mastery instruction in listening comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. There are reviews, exercises, and tests for every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program. (Ages 6 and older)

Product Description

With the Rosetta Stone Korean Personal Edition Level 1, you have the same new language-instruction techniques at your disposal that the U.S. State Dept, the Peace Corps and NASA use!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Product is awful, October 24, 2003

By 

J. Chen (New York, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

Two main flaws which caused me to return the product:

1) Interface is shoddy at best. I was never able to start a drill lesson in the middle by skipping pages. If I returned to a prior lesson, I had to click on answers in order to advance, instead of being able to move forward as the interface supposedly should work.

2) Much more importantly, there were grammar mistakes in the product. My wife is native Korean. During the first lesson, the product tries to teach you the words/concept of "above" and "underneath". My wife and 4 of her friends who are also native Koreans all listened to the drill and they all said that the phraseology would never ever be spoken by a Korean. They said that the phrasehology was actually incorrect.

Other than that, while I echo the other comments about the navigation being unclear, I did think that the drills would help one learn vocabulary words.

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars dedication is key, February 20, 2007

By 

M. Zlotoff (LA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

Rosetta Stone Korea is a very helpful program for immersing yourself in the subtleties of the Korean language. Lessons are split in to reading, listening, and speaking, and are best completed through the guided exercise. There are about 11 units consisting of about 10 lessons each. Each subsequent lesson builds upon knowledge learned in previous ones...so if you learned "car" before, you might learn "red car" in the next, and "there are two red cars" in the following. It is a very interesting method of teaching, because by the time you see the words for the third or fourth time, you associate with them as if they are your own language.

This, however, comes with a few major drawbacks:
1) This program involves a god-awful level of clicking. If you have any sort of tennis elbow or carpal tunnel syndrome, stay far away from this. You have to finish the lessons in one sitting, there's no save to go back later. Each sublesson takes about an hour for the guided exercise (an hour PER subsection, like reading, listening, speaking). It gets very repetitive and very tiresome.

2) As said above, it takes a very long time to complete each lesson. If it takes an hour per sublesson, you'll probably spend about 350 hours total on this program from start to finish. Considering you spend an hour a day, that's about a year's worth, considering you actually do it once a day. Quite a commitment.

3) I had a lot of trouble discerning some of the pictures. Lessons are taught with digital flashcards, but in a lot of cases, you have no idea what the flashcards REALLY mean. You have to guess in many circumstances. Usually it's obvious, a girl running means "the girl is running." But it can get VERY confusing, like if the same picture of the girl running is used, but there are about six more words than from before, you can get very turned around...and sometimes associate words incorrectly. You WILL need a dictionary by your side when you get to the higher lessons.

4) The program just seems a little cheap for the price spent. It could have really used a slight graphical upgrade to look aesthetically more pleasing. In addition, I would have appreciated the ability to have each digital flashcard translated into English so I could better understand word order and exactly what they were saying.

I strongly suggest anyone who uses this program first research the Hangul alphabet and letter sound. Also, read up on a few of the most usual grammar rules so as to make the transition go a little better. This is a high quality program and if you can really stick with it, you WILL have a considerably high knowledge of conversational Korean. The biggest problem with this program is that it is just too repetitive and not very helpful. But if you're devoted, there's nothing that'll stop you, right?

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Marginal Interface and Hard copy Materials, November 7, 2002

By 

Patrick Bostwick "picky buyer" (Lubbock, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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

This program completely lacks a structured approach to learning the Hangul alphabet and completely lacks the ability to teach ANY Hangul using the keyboard. Some of their other programs have this ability, but not the Korean one.

Also, the teaching approach is completely by example using photos with no explanation of sentence structure, culture, etc. If you wanted to use it and repeat the lessons over and over and over you could probably learn the material, but the overall interface on the thing is lacking.