Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Thai Level 1 [OLD VERSION]

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4 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(4)

 

 

I bought the Rosetta Stone program before I went to Thailand, and I guess I picked up a few basic words. I was, for example, pretty proficient at saying "the boy is under the airplane" (a phrase with which the course designers evidently had a troubling obsession as they tested me on it approximately 10 times per lesson).

Even the basic words, though, are in fact almost never used by Thai people, or at least that's what my native Thai girlfriend tells me. For example, RS teaches you "suneck" for dog but the Thai always say "maa,"; RS teaches "chay chera" for old man, but the Thai always say "chay gaeao."

And the grammar lessons are simply ridiculous -- there is no way to extract any real meaning from them because the verb phrases are not broken down into individual components. For example, they show a picture of two girls jumping and then a voice intones "dekdekpooying gamlangcrohdhotganyu." So I think "jumping" is "gamlangcrodhotganyu," which seems like a very long and very unmanageable verb, and I despair; only later do I learn that "crodhot" is "to jump" and "gamlang [verb] yu" means to be doing it right now, and that "gan" is something you stick on a verb when more than one person are doing the action together. Oh! Ok! NOW I get it. But this was NEVER made clear in the program.

One last comlpaint: It's use of pictures is problematic. For example, it uses a picture of a kid skateboarding to teach "hok loam," which means to fall down. But it doesn't look like he's falling, it looks like he's just, well, riding a skateboard. I only learned the real meaning of hok loam after I moved here.

My advice: Save the money unless you want to have some laughs with a Thai friend. To learn the language, the best thing I bought was a pocket book call "Thai Without Tears" by Dennis Sigaller, which gives really useful grammar and has the easiest tone signs of any of the books I've used.

When I first used "Rosetta Stone Thai," I was very disappointed. To quote another reviewer, "$180.00 guessing game." But I gave it a chance on account of how expensive it is. I used it everyday for a week. That was enough for me. I put it away and didn't touch it again for another year and a half.
The software basically tells you a phrase in Thai. It shows a selection of 4 pictures. One of which, the phrase is describing. You have to pick the right picture. There are several variations of this game on the software-- plus it has writing exercises and a voice recognition application. If this does not sound fun or (more importantly) if you think this is not a way for you to learn Thai effectively, don't throw your money away on this software.
I give "Rosetta Stone Thai Level 1" two stars because after I had learned some Thai (by using another method), I could use this software to quiz myself on uncommon phrases... such as, "The boy is under the plane."
I have said some foul things about this software. BUT! This program is fairly effective for intermediate learners. This is decent supplementary program especially for reading Thai. Learners can read a phrase then hear the phrase spoken by a native Thai speaker to see if they read it correctly. For the most part, the phrases used in this software are not useful in everyday conversation. Yet, the phrases are uncommon enough that it may help a learner comprehend Thai better. Even when the phrase uses familiar vocabulary, it could help with listening comprehension because the words combinations may be different from what the student is accustom to.
If "Rosetta Stone Thai" cost $20 or less, this would not be a bad program.

Boy was my tail waging when I received the bright yellow box containing my 92 lessons of Rosetta Stone Thai Level 1. Wow...92 lessons! I'll be fluent at last! Every advertisement I recall for this product indicated an "entry level" Thai teaching tool, and since I had visited Thailand twice before -- and already had a few key words and phrases in my pocket - and, even studied spoken Thai in Bangkok for a few weeks -- I installed the software the first day and, excitingly, got started on lesson 1.

What, no English??

That's right: 92 lessons of Thai, with Thai speakers blazing through their native language at record speed - describing little pictures -- without offering even a single breath of spoken or written English anywhere.

After 5 or 6 lessons of these picture-type guessing games, I started to get good at picking the right answer, but realized that learning the actual language ran along the same lines as hitting the lottery. I finally put the bright yellow box -- and all it's very expensive contains - up on the self for a while.

Total immersion (yea right),
Rosetta Stone claims, "We all learn our childhood language by associating new words and phrases with the world around us."

True. But this product communicates through vague-little pictures on a screen - not "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."

No it doesn't.

The fact is, a child will sit and listen to a language for 2 years without saying a bloody word [slang]. And when he finally gets the nerve up to say something it's something primitive like, "ma ma...da da." Then, over time, and with constant parental encouragement (every waking moment of a child's life) and with all the people around the child playing funny little word association games, a child begins to make sense of the language, and begins to use the language to get what it wants.

On the other hand, I'm 42 years old. And I speak and write in my native language perfectly already. I therefore have a unique advantage over a child at learning a language because I have my native language to compare the new one to. I can also focus my attention, use a computer, repeat something a few times till I get it right, take suggestions, and wake up the next day and do it all again.

What I don't have, and what this software blatantly doesn't offer at all is something along the lines of a simple English explanation.

I don't read Thai script either, but I would love to. Guess what? Everything in the software is written in Thai script without a single English translation.

Let me ask you a question; does a child just start reading English? Or, does a teacher introduce the child to each letter, one by one, and then explain to the child what each letter is called, and what sounds each letter makes?

Of course the latter is true, but the good folks at Rosetta Stone seemed to have missed it.

Rosetta Stone needs top get off the high horse and listen to its learning public. Everyone whom buy this software says the same thing, "it's not for beginners."

Make a software that has a built-in tutor; one that you can refer to in English, one that explains grammar and proper word order, and you got a winner. Then, and only then, would this software be amazing for any level student.

Someday I'm going to dust off that bright yellow box and figure out what the hell they're saying. But for now, and without making this sound like a competitor trying to pitch a different product, I'll just say that I'll be sticking with a course that offers a proper English translation.

I have lived in Thailand for a year and a half now (Peace Corps) and speak a decent level of Thai. I seem to be understood fairly well in Central Thailand but I have difficulties in my assigned region in Isaan (mostly because they make little effort to listen to someone who is obviously not a native speaker. They prefer I eat my som tam and tell them it is arroy or sap u). They do this with me when I speak Isaan as well which I have also learned quite a bit of. Anyone can get the amusing chuckle by learning a few Isaan phrases but their eyes tend to glaze over when I speak more in depth.

I picked this up hoping it would help with my speaking abilities. The system that monitors your voice seems to operate at random. I tested this out with my tutor and he thought I did better when I was in the red areas than in the green.

I am glad that I did not have this program when I first started out as I would have thought there was something wrong with me and not this program. While I still have a lot to learn I will not be doing it with this program.
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Almost every volunteer that has tried to use this program walked away from it after 1 or 2 lessons. This is not a good way to learn Thai. For beginners use Pimsleur Thai Comprehensive (not the ten lesson one) combined with Poomsan Becker's beginner Thai book with CDs (sold separately). If you want to understand the grammar use the one by Higbie.

Good luck with this tough (for westerners anyway) language. By the way, why is the previous reviewer reviewing a product by admission they have never used? Studying Thai and studying Spanish are nothing alike (I have studied both thoroughly). After 5 weeks in Spanish class in Guatemala I felt very comfortable speaking in almost any situation. After over 1 1/2 years I still have lots of limitations. Thai is a tonal language and is completely different that western languages. Please stick to reviewing products you have actually used and can constructively help people with their purchases.

I was highly disappointed in this course, after having read all of the hype. It consists of auditory word recognition, using photos, but has no English (in my case) translation to clarify some of the meanings. It has "word construction" lessons, but it gives you no clue about what letters of the alphabet have what sounds, etc. There is a lesson book that is written all in Thai, but no English guide to help you learn the meaning of what you are reading. It's a loser, if you ask me. Sure, you can learn the words of common things like man, woman, boy, girl, cat, dog, etc., but you will never learn to converse with this course. Buy Pimsleur, if you want to learn to actually talk in another language.

I bought both the Thai and Indonesian versions at the same time. Each came with their own separate application cd you could install on your computer, along with another cd with the actual language course. Well, since they were different versions, Rosetta Stone makes it immposible to install both application cd's on the same computer. In a nutshell, they expect you to install and use only one at a time. If you want to switch to another language, you have to uninstall the previous one first and then install and run the other. It's also very cumbersome and confusing since they don't label which application cd goes with the different language cd's. For $600 USD, you'd expect them to work at the same time (Why does it demand 2 separate cd's for each course anyway? It's not too big for one disc). Anyway, to add insult to injury, I called Rosetta Stone early in the morning for support and was told there were 4 people ahead of me and to leave my phone number for a call back as soon as it was my turn. 48 hrs later, they have never called me back. Think twice about shelling out $295 USD to a company that doesn't care if it's product works or whether or not the customer is supported. "Talk now" cd's are decent and only set you back $40 USD.

This learning series really helped me learn how to listen to the different annotations and accents of the Thai langauge. The speakers are native Thais including men and women. The CD-Rom is very interactive using different learning methods for each lesson. The lessons include listening, reading, and speaking. The exercises are composed of 4 pictures which the narrator describes and you choose the appropriate activity. None of the lessons include an English translation which can be a bit confusing.
Overall this is a great buy for learning how to speak Thai correctly.

I have been learning the Thai language for just over 6 months now. I started off with websites, learning basic things about the language and a few phrases. Then I got this course hoping to become proficient in the language. Unfortunately I discovered that it's largely useless for the following reasons:

1) It has automated exercises, but doesn't highlight the words as they are being said. If you have no idea of how the Thai alphabet works, the writing on the pictures is almost useless.

2) Thai uses various tone marks and modifiers which are critical in Thai speech. The font used in the program is so poor that you can't make these special characters out.

3) Like other Rosetta Stone products it allows you to go through typing exercises. That DOES break everything down into word clusters. The pitfall of this is that you only have the options to "drag and drop" entire words. This means you really don't learn how to type the words including the special tone marks and modifiers. This could be improved by offering both modes as an option. It also could make use of an onscreen keyboard since most people don't have a Thai keyboard.

4) Now that I have many Thai friends that I communicate with, I have quickly found out that almost all the phrases are completely useless. They are full of redundancies and poor word choice.

5) There is no option to slow down the speech of the previews of each slide. This means that as the phrases become more complex, you have even more trouble identifying the nuances of the sounds. Add to this that it's not clear how many words are being spoken because each word isn't clearly identified in some way as it's being spoken. Thai uses no spaces (or ALMOST none), but a way to highlight individual words as they are spoken would clear much of this up.

6) You will at least get an idea of what Thai sounds like, but for that you are better off with a combination Improving Your Thai Pronunciation, Thai For Beginners, Thai for Beginners Audio CD, and some Thai music/videos.

7)Making use of all the exercises would take far longer than suggested by Rosetta Stone advertising. In addition, any suggestion that this would be highly sought after by professional linguists or spooks is absurd.

To learn basic phrases that are useful, you need a good book like Thai for Beginner's. It teaches tones, but only "in theory" so you will need to obtain the companion CD for this book. Also a copy of Improving Your Thai Pronunciation will be good - it's not extensive, but learning the sounds will help you a lot. To learn the Thai language you are best served by a high quality academic dictionary which can be aided by an online dictionary. You also will need a way to learn the grammar. There are redundancy problems with these as well, but the approach is more scientific and you can learn better variations as you make more Thai friends. You must also be selective about the online sites you use because you may pick up many bad habits and a good deal of inaccurate information. Most importantly you must put your knowledge to the test by making some Thai friends online or in real life (best option).

Oh, for those of us not lucky enough to have a Thai keyboard, there are free onscreen keyboard programs available for download with no strings attached.

Overall I would say that the price vs. the quality is very poor. However, buying this program was a stepping stone and good lesson about what not to do. From now on I will carefully read reviews of language products, using reputable sources, and avoid poor quality products (hopefully).