Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Thai Level 1

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I live in Thailand and have tried various phrase books, language media, as well as an English-Thai dictionary (which i still use for reference) and feel the need to give RossettaStone its just due. After reading the other reviews i could not understand what the problem was. RosettaStone does not use translation (which is the worst way to learn a new language!)but instead uses a "mothers tongue" or acquisition approach. This approach may take some getting used to but once the learner feels comfortable using the RosettaStone method one should see progress rather quickly. Yes Thai language is very different from English such as different sentence structures, lack of tenses, adjectives following a noun instead of preceeding a noun, a whole set of personal pronouns that change depending on the sex of the speaker, and then a whole seperate set for royalty, etc, etc. but this should not discourage a person from learning Thai. I will agree that to shell out the money for RossetaStone may not be practical if one is just visiting Thailand on holiday, a phrase book would meet this need just fine since you probably wont get the tones right anyway but hey its Thailand and Thais are very tolerant. If you are planning on spending more than just a holiday,( like if you live in Thailand)then RossettaStone can be of benefit as well as taking a formal Thai language course. It's also important to keep in mind that the RosettaStone programs are not designed to learn a new language in a week which would be totally unrealistic but more like several months to a year.

I'm going back to Thailand for vacation and wanted to learn a little more Thai this time around. I've tried several different things and Rosetta Stone was the worst.

Learning Thai from scratch requires a base knowledge of sentence structure and tonality rather than just vocabulary. Take tonality for example "maa" said three different ways, it can mean three different things. It can mean: to come, a horse, or a dog based on a slight tonal difference.

Thai sentence structure is "backwards" from most English, so I don't see how they could teach that either. For example in English you say "Is this your house? in Thai you would literally say "house you isn't it?" Asking and answering questions is simply different than how we speak English and this program doesn't teach those things.

Even plain vocabulary is difficult with this program. The local speaker speaks so quickly, it's difficult to catch on to what they are saying. A lot of the vocabulary is useless for day-to-day tourist interactions if you're just planning a visit there. So what if you learn "the man is riding a horse", or "the boy is under the table."

Thais also seem to shorten what they are saying and don't make long complete sentences like we would.

Pimsleur audio is another alternative, but after repeating what I learned on the CD to a friend living in Thailand he laughed and said, people don't talk like that here! Way, way too formal.

What's worked for me is Thai for beginners book, with the CD (I don't see how you could do it without the cd) as a guidebook. I then hired a thai tutor living in Thailand to teach me via voice chat online. Her hourly rate was very inexpensive, and I got loads more practical language skills than any software program.

Bottom line, don't waste your money on this program if you're wanting to learn for travel.

I do agree with the other positive reviewer in that if you are planning on studying Thai indepth, possibly to live there this may help build your vocabulary.

I've taught French for 30-odd years and have always wanted to learn an Asian language. No, I'm not looking for a compendium of useful phrases for travel, but rather a working knowledge of the language. Oh, and as a proud autodidact, I want to do it on my own. I've been at it for a couple of weeks now, using Rosetta Stone as my core tool. I've supplemented it with a grammar, a dictionary, and more patience than I thought I had. I'm finding the Rosetta Stone approach necessary but not sufficient -- it's much more useful for speaking and listening comprehension than for reading and writing, the Thai alphabet being what it is. the For the latter two skills, I'm in search of a tutor, not so much to teach but to fill in any ambiguities in the written texts. All in all, given the "at mother's knee" philosophy of Rosetta Stone's method, I cannot imagine the pedagogy being carried off any better. I wish only that there were level II and III versions!

This program assumes that you can already read Thai script. There is nothing that teaches you the individual characters and sounds; you are presented, from the gitgo, with whole words and phrases (Thai script does not uses spaces between words). For the first two lessons, this approach is OK, as you associate sounds with pictures. However, the third lesson expects you to associate sounds with written symbols, which cannot be done without a prior study of the characters and some sense of what they represent.

To use this program, you will need a dictionary and some kind of guide to the alphabet to begin reading. This is not exactly an easy task, as many dictionaries either use phonetic transliteration (using Roman characters instead of Thai), or have very small print.

Before buying this program, learn the alphabet, if you can find a good book. Printing out Wikipedia's page on the Thai alphabet may help, although the characters are very small and the differences between many of them are very minute.

I'm extremely disappointed with the overhyped Rosetta Stone approach, and cannot recommend it to anyone, at least not for an Asian language. However, if you already have some background and knowledge of the characters, this may help. Otherwise, you won't get past the first three lessons.

Even though i've only gotten to start a few lessons now, I think that this program is exactly what i've needed to learn Thai. Starting without explicit instructions, each lesson takes you through learning Thai in the way you learn your first language - pictures, sound, repetition, and associating words together through context instead of pre-determined vocabulary lists. The way they designed the program is genius! I highly recommend this instead of over-used language tapes and workbooks.

I am a life-long student of languages and have been living in Thailand for several years. I have tried to study Thai on my own and with language tapes and language CDs over the years, even before I came here to live. I am finishing Unit I of the Rosetta Stone V2: Thai Level One language course, and I find it very helpful to me--but with one very serious consideration: the program's use of the Thai alphabet throughout with no explanation of how to read it would be highly frustrating to someone who can't read Thai. Fortunately, I took the trouble some years ago to learn to read Thai. I think it is essential to be able to read the Thai writing system BEFORE getting the Rosetta Stone Thai. You don't have to know Thai vocabularly before getting this course, but you certainly do need to know how to read that writing system. Once you can read the Thai alphabet, the Rosetta Stone program will be beneficial in learning vocabulary and how to speak the language. Thai is a tonal language in which every syllable must be spoken on one of five different tones. The writing system makes it clear which tone goes with each syllable.

Several years ago, after trying two other books on how to read Thai, I came across "Thai for Beginners", by Benjawan Poomsan Becker. The course includes a CD,which is helpful. She made learning to read Thai almost a joy. She makes a steadily progressive and logical presentation of the writing system in easy stages. By the end of the book, you will be able to read Thai and have a good head start to make the Rosetta Stone Thai course work its best for you. That is my experience. When I bought Benjawan Poomsan Becker's "Thai for Beginners", I also bought her handy and easy-to-read "Thai-Englilsh English-Thai Dictionary". I strongly recommend both her books as prerequisites to the Rosetta Stone Thai course. I find the ability to read Thai and the occasional use of this dictionary essential for me to get the most out of the Rosetta Stone course. I hope there will be a Rosetta Stone Thai Level Two course available, soon. Note: "Thai for Beginners" and the dictionary are available at amazon.com.

I had four months of Thai in Thailand two years ago and have spoken "Tourist Thai" there for years. With this background I figured the first few lessons on Rosetta Stone would be a great refresher courses, but then I'd get into the good stuff and work on the critical pronunciation skills needed to speak Thai well.

I have wanted Rosetta Stone Thai for years, but at over well over $200.00 it was never practical. Then, I just did it. While this may work for Nike, it did not work for me. What I received was a 200+ dollar flaming yellow box of headaches.

The flaming yellow instruction manual is full of pictures - none of which match the 'pages' I am looking at on screen - except for the title at the top that lets me know I am truly on the correct screen and that life is just cruel. No worries though they have a Help Desk. Of course the it is open M-F when any semi - normal person would be at work. When I finally did get through the man asked about my purchase, then laughed at me and snotted off. I looked around for another $200.00 to have him beaten to a pulp, but alas I am broke.

Ultimately the Hyena behind the Customer Service desk gave me some token advice to make me go away (you know how you can feel it when someone is doing this to you). Of course nothing was fixed. I waited all weekend for Rosetta Stone CS desk to open again and got a helpful, friendly lady who got me set up despite my disks persistent desire to teach me Spanish. Se habla Thai?

Let the learning begin! Well, not really. You see I could barley keep up with the first lesson. Had I not already spoken Thai, I doubt I'd of been able to any lean Thai. Heaven help those starting from scratch. There was no introduction into the unique language issues around the specific language. I don't know how long you may practice inunciating the words casually before they bother to tell you the that if you are not perfect you will be riding a dog up the beach on vacation. Of course you have to get past the wrong screen issue in order ever practice pronunciation - I think. Who knows?

Wore yet, mid way through a first lesson (may be 20 minutes in) with long sentences like "The woman and the young boy are in the boat" I found myself suddenly being asked to match the `sentence' to one of several photos. No. There was no intropduction to the alphabe. No. There was no intro to small words. (I want my Tiger back).

For those unfamiliar with Thai, the letters look like swirled noodle. These long sentences look like a plate of spilled spaghetti. It is ludicrous to start where Rosetta Stone does! So why not skip that section and just feel like a looser, then move on? I tried. Believe me. I studied the manual, not Thai for an evening - that lead me back to all those screens that are not the same in the book as in real life. It is now another Friday. Costumer Service is closed and Hyena Man is off for the weekend. By the way - be prepared to live on hold trying to get thought to him. When I call on Monday I will be sitting on hold with my good old Thai Language school Flash Cards in hand, so technically I am guess learning Thai by owning Rosetta Stone.

I fully believe the dream is dead. The disks I wanted for years are a flaming yellow hole in my wallet. The only reason I have not returned this product is I purchased them just as I was moving and the receipt is A.W.O.L. I have tried for over 4 weeks of discouraging experiences to even get started using my Rosetta Stone Thai and it has been nothing but one negative experience after another. This is time I could have spent reviewing materials I already own - not being discouraged and having my limited time wasted. Adiós a mis amigos!

My mother is from Thailand, and I never was taught the language as a child. I picked up this software before a monumental trip to meet my older sister who does not speak english. I studied each chapter religiously, and attempted to really LEARN each and every lesson. It was amazing!! You must be very self disciplined to use a piece of software like this, but the rewards are worth it. I can now speak casual Thai with my sister, and I understand my little nieces when they say that they love me. It has truly helped me become more conversant in Thai. Since then I have been looking for a more advanced software tool but have not found one yet. I really hope that Rosetta can create a Level 2 soon!!!

While I initially enjoyed this product tremendously, its limitations quickly became apparent. Although it is a fine product for teaching such simple things as counting and how to say "boy" or "dog," its utility breaks down rapidly as such more-complex tasks (such as saying "There are many boys riding their bikes"). Although Rosetta's method may work sufficiently for other languages, there are a number of challenges inherent in the Thai language that do not lend themselves well to this type of program. For starters, the Thai alphabet is completely different and the program does not help at all (or very little) to understand how this alphabet functions. Further, the sentence structure is much different than in English (or French or Spanish - maybe it is a little closer to Chinese). And, to really make things difficult, there are no spaces between Thai words (who ever thought that was a good idea?!). True, these are difficulties that any student of Thai would encounter, but I feel that my chances of surmounting these problems with a personal tutor of whom I can ask questions would be much greater. I plan to invest in a good teacher if/when I move to Thailand. In any case, I do not recommend this program and, if you are planning to spend only a couple of weeks in Thailand, then this is doubly not the program for you.

I've been living in Thailand for more than six years and have a decent grasp of Thai, but not great. I wanted to learn more using the much-touted Rosetta Stone approach. What a nightmare.

I was constantly asking my wife what this meant and what that meant. I understood a lot of what was said thanks to my current level of Thai, but many parts of each sentence I had no idea what they were talking about. If you are learning on your own without the constant help of a native Thai speaker, this will not work for you. Take it from someone who has knack for languages.

Other readers have also commented on the lack of attention the importance of tones in the language. Someone who does not know this won't understand that there are five different tones in the language (hi, mid, low, rising and falling). Don't waste your money.