Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V3: Arabic Level 1-3 Set [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This course teaches Modern Standard ARabic. Bear in mind that MSA is essentially formal, textbook ARabic, used throughout the Arab world for formal situations, but it differs significantly from the Arabic spoken daily, especially in North Africa. I have been working with the software nearly everyday for 1-2 months, and have completed level 1, and started level 2.

The good: It works. I can read the full alphabet, have a decent understanding of the grammar, and I think my pronunciation is decent. I would guess I have an effective vocabulary of somewhere around 100 words, though the course has covered significantly more than that, I just haven't retained it all.

The bad: The software never gives you a translation. you must decode meaning from pictures. This is part of Rosetta's approach, but for me personally, an online dictionary to tell me what some of the smaller words (but, because, the question words) mean would be helpful and would probably speed my learning. I'd also like explanation of what cases the endings correspond to. I personally suggest picking up a book on Arabic grammar to accompany your study. Also, this software is really only for people who really want to learn the language, not just some survival phrases. IF you just want enough to get you through a few days of travel, just buy a phrasebook.

The ugly: The program appears to me to have memory leaks associated with some of the audio files, which means that the longer you run it, the slower it becomes, and eventually bogs down to a standstill, requiring you to shut the program down and restart. Not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but for the money, I'd think Rosetta could have fixed that.

I've been using this for about 2 weeks about half an hour a day. I just finished Unit 1 (out of 4) in Level 1. I can already read more than half of the letters, I know maybe 20 words of vocabulary, and I'm getting the hang of some grammar rules.
Maybe not impressive compared to a full time language learner, but this tool is great for the casual learner who doesn't have hours a day to spend learning a language.

Yes, this is really expensive. It comes with a headset/microphone of good quality, installation cd's, stickers of the arabic alphabet to put on your keyboard, and one (yes 1) activation code, which does mean that it can only be loaded onto one computer (you CAN, however, load it onto an external hard-drive and thereby be able to access it from other computers). All 3 levels together will take up about 1800MB (or 1.8GB) of space on your computer, which is pretty good, and once loaded, you don't need the cd's in order to access the program.

I've only been using the program for about two days, it's pretty tough (but also fun and addicting), haha. But I've gone back over the lessons until I've gotten 100% on each area and I'm surprised that I'm able to retain so much and learn so well by their immersion method. Crazy enough, it does work, but it takes practice. This is the type of thing that you're going to have to do every day and to really dedicate yourself to if you want to be any good at it.

Buy this. It's worth it.

PROS:
-The concept of Rosetta Stone is great as it does put you in actual learning as you did as a child.
-Software is nicely laid out, better than I have seen in other software

CONS:
-There are many (besides the cost)
-For Arabic or any other language software that does not rely on the Roman Alphabet, you need to have perfect hearing (which I do not) to understand what they are saying and your speakers should be top quality.
-The first lesson throws you right into the verbiage using the Arabic alphabet. Therefore, I am left going is he saying it with an 'N' sound or an 'M' sound?
-There is no dictionary(online, software or hardcopy) to suppliment these lessons which would also help the previous issue.
-It is memory intensive. Older computers may choke on the load time of this.

Overall Thoughts:
If you can...sit in a classroom, if possible. It will be more worth the money than this software. If you are made of money...use Rosetta Stone as a supplimentary or a refresher guide.

I have been Rosetta Stone user for at least a decade and this new version seems overly complicated and top-heavy, what my son would call "bloatware". This is one of those programs that has sacrificed elegant simplicity for graphic bells and whistles. It's much harder to navigate than the first two versions. Underneath, of course, it's still the same language-learning approach, one I've always supplemented with a printed dictionary and grammar, but which is basically very fine and effective. The bossy self-satisfied feeling of the current version is a bit exasperating though.

I have been doing Pimsleur Egyptian Arabic for the past few months to pick up on phrases. It has been working well and I've been able to chat with people BUT when I picked up "My first 100 words in Arabic" ... I struggled. Similarly, I struggled attempting to comprehend the squiggles, dots and dashes in my English-Arabic dictionary and I struggled attempting to understand the supposedly phonetic transliteration.

Rosetta Stone is a little different. It has you associate general photos with words. You hear them, and eventually you can see them too. You are able to go to their alphabet and click on letters to hear them and see them in different areas. This is important in Arabic because the letters change depending on their location in a word (beginning/middle/end). I am slowly learning to sound out words. I also tried a few freebie ways... like youtube-ing the arabic alphabet... I found a few overly boring videos... or various alphabet songs who were by authors who obviously couldn't agree on how to arrange the last few letters and would speed through the bunch leaving me baffled. The alphabet alone in this program is FABULOUS.

In comparison to my Pimsleur Arabic... words aren't really sticking. After I've learned to select the right picture, all of the words in the selection quickly disappear. It's nice being able to SEE the word wile hearing it because if I'm not sure on a sound, I can recognize the word pattern and attempt to listen for the slight distinction. Also, I can repeat loads of times, which is nice.

Lastly.. here's the other thing... I am reviewing the online version... using Windows Vista, my own headset, and on a computer with a weak wireless internet signal. I have had no trouble repeating words in the mic... and the program loads fast. In the beginning, I had some difficulties deciding how to start the program, but aside from that, no major problems. I made this decision because I felt it would provide me with more flexibility. A lot of people said when you install, you can only put it on one computer. So.. because I have the online version, I can use the computer in my room... the computer at work while taking a break.. etc. I can go to my boyfriends house and practice.

That being said... it DID NOT work well on my computer that's nearing it's 6th birthday. It's an old computer that was upgraded to windows XP. It was slow anyway. The program kept freezing on the web... and then it crashed.... So, that's something to keep in mind for old users.

Also, I consider myself to be an intermediate/advanced spanish learner. I do not believe this program would be useful for my spanish. I am kind of bummed because there are no demos of each language individually to see a class outline or something of each level separately. I have not seen anything regarding tenses early on. I am learning to say the basics. The girl is eating, the woman is eating, the man is eating, the boy is eating... And I'm learning to do the same with drinking and groups of people after Lesson 1. I can pick the right picture... But I can't remember how to say it-- and I never had a chance to write it down because the image disappears after clicking so quickly.

But as for this Arabic version, I might purchase the CDs themselves after my year subscription is up. It's a great program... kind of expensive, but useful for serious learners. My only concern with spending so much on a computer program is ... computers get old. I still have my Living Language CDs that were made for Windows 98. I loved them... but they are very much NOT compatible with Windows XP or Vista. Computers tend to "improve" a lot faster than oh say.. your DVD or MP3 players that recently upgraded from VHS and walkmen/discmen.

**UPDATE: THIS IS FORMAL ARABIC. I ATTEMPTED TO USE IT TO PEOPLE FROM VARIOUS ARABIC SPEAKING COUNTRIES (EGYPT... IRAQ... SAUDI ARABIA...) THEY ~KNEW~ WHAT I WAS SAYING... BUT SAID THERE WERE BETTER WAYS TO SAY IT. THIS PROGRAM IS ONLY GOOD FOR LEARNING TO READ ARABIC SCRIPT**

After studying Arabic in the classroom for one year under very frustrating circumstances (there was no formal text used and no attention was given to grammar), I decided to work through as much of Rosetta Stone 1, 2, and 3 as I could this summer, in preparation for my second year of study. Given that the entire package cost less than a single hour of tuition at my university, I considered it to be a good investment.

So far (I'm nearly through with level 1), I'm not disappointed. While it remains fairly basic, my classroom study was SO disorganized that we neglected certain essentials (e.g., common nouns, colors, etc), and much of the material has been unfamiliar.

As someone who has spent years learning to read dead languages, I found spoken Arabic very, very difficult. Rosetta Stone has helped me to ease into a new mode of language-learning; in particular, the "listening" exercises have helped me to move away from my dependence upon the written word.

I have a slight aural/speech disorder and the voice recognition software has given me no end of trouble, but this is something that I am determined to work on and have already noticed improvement. (Although I have decided to work through every exercise, I should note that I could have chosen to omit the pronounciation exercises, as one is permitted to personalize one's curriculuum to avoid - or focus on - weaknesses.)

I recommend this product as a supplement to a class or to some pre-existing experience with a language, but perhaps not as an exclusive resource.

I like it but part of the disk is faulty. some lessons are not there.

I have a Linux based system and this has been hard to set this product up on my laptop.