Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V2: Vietnamese Level 1 [OLD VERSION]

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

 

 

My disclaimer: This is not a review of the software's useability. I am extremely satisfied with the software's ability to teach me the content as intended by the publisher.

However, if you are in the U.S. you may realize that a great majority of the Vietnamese population here is South Vietnamese. This is because during and after the Vietnam War, the majority of refugees was from the non-communist side (south). Therefore, if you encounter Vienamese speaking people in the U.S. there is a good chance that they will speak with a south Vietnamese dialect. Once you are done with the course, you will be able to speak moderate Vietnamese with a NORTHERN accent and dialect. The northern accent is quite different from southern (vastly more different than English with a southern vs. New York accent). Additionally, the vocabulary is 5-10% different. So you'll be able to get by, but if you go to Little Saigon in whatever city, don't be surprised if language is not exactly as expected. The U.S. population if Vietnamese ir primarily southern.

Now, if you are going to Vietnam, and want to learn the language for travel purposes, this program is probably quite adequate. Just like anywhere else in the world you will find different accents and dialects in the region.

Anyway - have fun learning Vietnamese - the software works. All the pro's and con's have been reviewed elsewhere - so I'm not going to be repetitive.

This is a great way of learning a language and I highly recommend it. It works for me and I have fun doing so.
Remember that this is a software program and you have to sit at your computer. The small booklet that comes with it only contains the text of the course in its original language, there is no translation of the text. I suggest you also buy a dictionary (I bought Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary which I like).
If you are sure you want Level 1 then do NOT buy the Explorer. The Explorer contains a subset of Level 1. Unfortunately I was mislead because most people who bought Level 1 also bought the Explorer.

As a previous reviewer pointed out, there is a dialect issue here that can be very problematic since the lessons are taught with the northern dialect and most of the Vietnamese people in the US are from the southern part of that country.

After completing a couple of lessons, I felt ready to test my new language skills out on my native Vietnamese friend.... to my surprise I discovered that he had NO idea what I was trying to say! He asked me to try the sentence again speaking more slowly, which I did, but still he was only able to pick up 1 word. So I put in the CD and played the sentence I was trying to communicate to my friend and he could not understand the instructor on the CD either! The difference in the dialect appears to be even greater than someone from the US trying to understand someone speaking English with a deep Scottish or Irish brogue.

The teaching style of using just pictures and spoken word to teach the language is pretty good, but there are shortcomings with this. At times it is very difficult to understand the meaning of the sentence being taught just by looking at a picture (this is particularly annoying in lesson 6!). As was also pointed out in an earlier review... you will need a translation dictionary.

Overall, I like the program and in spite of the dialect issue, I plan to continue using it to become conversational in the language.

The Rosetta Stone products are great. I have bought Vietnamese level 1 and Japanese level 1 and 2. I consider vietnamese to be a much more difficult language to learn since it is a tonal language.
This software helped me a lot and now I am even able to chat on the internet with vietnamese people. However, don't think that this software is all you need to learn the language. Since there are no translations(it is only based on pictures, sounds and text in vietnamese) I had to use several dictionaries to help me through the lessons. In this page is a nice and free dictionary for ...And I also recommend a dictionary such as The Rough Guide Vietnamese dictionary where at the beginning is a reference to the basics of the language. This is where you might want to start before studying the lessons in the RS Vietnamese I.

The format for Rosetta Stone is that the software shows you a picture, a native speaker describes what's going on, and you practice saying it. But there is no study guide or dictionary. So when they say "The man is on the train" you have no idea which word is "man" and which word is "train", making it very difficult to learn the vocabulary or extrapolate from that image to other things you might want to say, like "the man is on the plane". In addition, you are not learning how to have a conversation because you are not learning pronouns or how to address people. So, you will learn to say "The man bought a train ticket" but you won't learn how to say "I would like to buy a train ticket" or "Here is my train ticket". And the lesson content was disappointing for me, there was very little that is practical for the traveler such as "How much does this cost?". But it did have a picture of a dog jumping over a fence. And somewhere half through the first disc it had a picture of a clown with red hair and a blue suit so that it could introduce colors. That was about where I lost interest. Beyond that, given that the images are central to this program's learning style, I was surprised at their really low quality - I have seen sharper images from camera phones. This made it difficult at times to tell what is going on. Anyway, I went to Vietnam after this, had a great time, and I am going back again this year. I am actively searching for a different language program while my $200 worth of Rosetta software discs gathers dust.

So far so good for me. I am about 1/2 through the first disk and am quite satisfied and having a blast learning a new language. I am still having trouble actually speaking, as I find the words/tones/phases simply difficult to pronounce and therefore recall. For example I have a far easier time remember a word that sounds like an it could be an English word or sounds like an English word, than words that have no similarity to English. No is no fault of the program of course. In regards to to the software I wish there was an option to turn off the written sentences as like other have said it is easy to cheat once you understand a little. But if are are honest with yourself and what you want to learn this is ok. Each lesson says it takes about 30 minutes. For me I find I have to go much slower than this and do the lessons repeated times to really absorb and understand what they are teaching me. While it is a good program I am using it as the cornerstone of my own made up my own little Vietnamese language program. I find I learn a lot more with the external support of dictionaries. I also have other little phase applications on the iphone and have ordered a workbook. (I'll post an update when it comes.) I also practice quite a bit, I try to do at least an hour a day and have made flash cards I often use on the train to and from work. I have had a little opportunity to try it out on native speakers and so far they seems to think I am doing not so poorly. They have understood me, although depending on whom I am speaking to I do get some blank looks sometimes. I think it will be very helpful to practice with native speakers and I plan on cornering more of them as I can. There seem to be some words that are not used or recognized. Or maybe it is just that this program is teaching a more formal style than is really being spoken. When trying to speak to someone I often get something like "Yes, I suppose you could say that be we really say this instead..." Anyway I actually love it despite the shortcomings. It is a bit expensive but considering now much an actual language class would cost it's probably not so bad, although I probably should have just gotten a crack. It is certainly no magic bullet, but I sure can understand and speak more Vietnamese than I could two months ago and I plan on continuing up to and probable after my trip to Vietnam. Good stuff.

Please note! This software teaches the northern Vietnamese dialect. Try talking to your Vietnamese friends in the U.S. (who are mostly from the south) and they will look at you funny.

It becomes clear early on in the lessons...... Yes is "Vang" northern dialect... "U" southern dialect. And from there it goes down hill.

If you plan to communicate with people from the north, you will be good to go. Otherwise, think long and hard before buying this program as you will spend some time "unlearning" some language concepts.

I purchased this software because my wife if Vietnamese and at home they speak to each other in Vietnamese, which is a difficult language to speak because of intonations and phonation. The software does a good job with multiple quizzes, pictures, and sections. I need to use the vocal practice section (use a microphone and reiterate phrases spoken in native tongue and get a rating on your performance) more. I wish that there could be greater clarity when the man or woman speaks on the program; many times it's hard to hear exactly what they're saying. Also, it would be nice to have a translating program from English to Vietnamese, where you can type in a word or phrase (in English) and the program translates it both orally and written. Overall, it's probably one of the best language learning programs for Vietnamese.

First, the biggest downside with the product is that you MUST use the language disk whenever you want to use the program. There is no way to copy lessons to the hard disk, and a copy protection scheme very effectively prevents you from creating a disk image for use with CD-ROM emulation software. So if you want to use it on an ultralight with no built-in optical drive, you have to connect an external drive.

Beyond that, the system, even with the entry level course, provides no explanation or instruction. You start by matching pictures to phrases. I already know a bit of the language, so I could get through the first lesson by guessing the words I don't already know. For a total beginner, however, this program would be completely useless.

I'm a student in Vietnam. Vietnam being so cheap to live in, this was my most expensive investment in the first month that I was here. My plan was to use Rosetta to compliment my Vietnamese language class. I was using the online edition, which is this minus the disc.
- 2/3 of the time it never loaded, even on the broadband connection (that is only slightly slower than the one I have back home).
- This teaches Northern Vietnamese. My teacher giggled at me when I used the different pronunciations and words. The North, South, and Central accents are more different than the accents between England, America, and Australia.
- Too expensive! If you go to the Vietnam National University School of Social Sciences in District 1 you can get a tutor for $6/hr. For the price of the online edition, you can get 8 on-on-one lessons with a native, experienced tutor. For the price of the Rosetta Stone, you can get almost 30 hours of a private tutor. Having done both, you learn more with the tutor than the disc and it's more cost effective - how many of us are really going to need this after we've acquired all the vocabulary within it?