Rosetta Stone V3: French Level 1 with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION]

by Rosetta Stone

Product Features

• Rosetta Stone teaches you a new language naturally, by getting you to think, live and breathe the language
• Innovative solutions get you speaking new words, right from the start
• Rosetta Stone moves forward only when you're ready--you drive the pace, you set the schedule
• With Rosetta Stone, you'll discover a foundation of key vocabulary that you'll use to build into a whole new language
• Audio Companion lets you take the Rosetta Stone experience anywhere: in the car, at the gym, or on-the-go

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001AFFPAE
• Item model number: 21115
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 9, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,966 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #19 in Software > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > French
  • #98 in Software > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Universal Translator

Product Description

Amazon.com

Rosetta Stone Personal Edition contains everything you need to give the voice inside of you a new language. The method used recreates the natural way you learned your first language, revealing skills that you already have. This approach has won numerous awards, and has been adopted by countless organizations, schools and millions of users around the world. Join the language revolution today. Only with Rosetta Stone.

The comprehensive language-learning solution that fits your life.

Learn Naturally
Learn your next language the same way you learned your first language. Dynamic Immersion empowers you to see, hear and comprehend without translating or memorizing. You already have this ability. Rosetta Stone simply unlocks it.

Engage Interactively
Get feedback to move forward. You learn best by doing, and you'll apply what you've learned to get to the next step. Rosetta Stone adapts to your individual needs and skills, because you drive the program with your progress.

Speak Confidently
Start speaking immediately. From the very first lesson, you'll speak. You'll begin with essential basics, which form the building blocks of the language. Soon you'll create new sentences on your own, using words you've learned.

Have Fun
Best of all, Rosetta Stone is addictive. With every entertaining activity, you'll feel success. You'll want to use Rosetta Stone to have that next moment, that next breakthrough. So you'll keep using it, and you'll learn more!

That's language-learning success.
That's Rosetta Stone.

No translation or memorization required.

The most effective way to learn a new language is to be surrounded by it. When you were an infant, your parents taught you this way, by intuitively associating words with images. That's the ultimate language lab, but most language-learning programs completely ignore this.

Think about all of the ways you've tried to learn a language: classes at school, tapes and cassettes, even software that uses your native language as a base for your next one. What do they all have in common? Translation and memorization.

Instead of taking a "direct flight" from your brain to your new language, translation and memorization connects you to your old language. You always have to "fly" from your brain, to your native tongue ... and then translate what you've memorized to communicate.

That might work for a few words, but what happens when you get to a sentence or phrase? When you have to change tenses? You're going to make a lot of "connecting flights." That's why those other methods are so frustrating ... and why they fail.

Enter Dynamic Immersion.
This method encourages you to think like a baby. You'll pair words with vivid, real-life images and make connections between things you know and the new language. Soon, you'll be thinking in a new language, stringing words together into phrases that you create.

Innovative technology.
Rosetta Stone places this Dynamic Immersion method at the core of a suite of software that works with you to develop your skills. The simple, intuitive interface helps to keep you engaged in the solution, while advanced speech recognition technology makes certain that you're speaking correctly and accurately. Best of all, Rosetta Stone never leaves you behind. You'll only move forward when you're ready, when you've become comfortable and confident.

Discover the building blocks of a new language: Level 1.
Your journey begins with a foundation of fundamental vocabulary and language structure that you'll need to begin to think, live and breathe in your new language. Rosetta Stone's solution will give you the confidence to master basic conversational skills. You'll be able to introduce yourself, say "Hello" and "Goodbye," ask and answer simple questions, go shopping and so much more.

Audio Companion
With Audio Companion, you'll enhance the Rosetta Stone experience wherever you go. You'll learn new skills on the computer, and then reinforce what you've learned with Audio Companion. Simply play the CDs on a stereo or download them to a MP3 Player. Each Audio Companion activity corresponds to a lesson in the Rosetta Stone software, so you can turn your travel time into productive language-learning time.

Inside the box, you'll find:

• Version 3 Personal Edition CD-ROM software for Level 1 (Windows/Mac)
• Headset microphone
• User's guide
• Audio Companion, a multiple-CD set to play or download to your MP3 player

Product Description

Foreign language learning with Rosetta Stone French Level 1 with Audio Companion includes everything you need to begin learning a new language—from grammar and vocabulary to basic sentence structure. It’s the foundation upon which your language-learning journey begins. Gain the confidence to master basic conversational skills, including greetings and introductions, simple questions and answers, shopping and much more. Now Rosetta Stone with Audio Companion allows the learner to take Rosetta Stone anywhere: in the car, the gym or on-the-go! What is Audio Companion? Audio Companion CDs are activities that correspond to the Rosetta Stone CD-ROM software lessons. The learner can listen to Audio Companion and practice what they’ve been learning on the computer, turning travel time into productive language learning time. Audio Companion lets the student access the power of Rosetta Stone lessons whenever and wherever they want, they can play the CD’s on a stereo, or download them to a MP3 player. It empowers the student and helps reinforce the lessons in any busy lifestyle!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

78 of 79 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rosetta Stone delivers, February 16, 2009

By 

D. Wood "Lifelong Learner" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: French Level 1 with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Being 63, I expected to have lots of difficulty learning a new language. Not so with the total immersion method of Rosetta Stone. I'm half way through the first level and have learned much faster than I did as a young student being subjected to the endless vocabulary lists and grammar exercises. This method is truly intuitive and much easier, at least for me. I listen to the Audio Companion just before going to sleep at night. Great reinforcement. Technically, the product is extremely interactive and easy to use, flexible and adaptive to individual needs. I was hesitant to spend so much, but I am thrilled with my decision.

121 of 130 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good Product But Does not Have Responsive Sales Team, July 8, 2008

By 

M. Tavakoli (Lake Oswego, Oregon United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: French Level 1 with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

This is my first language software that I have ever used, so I don't have any other product to compare it to.

But I am almost done with Level 1 and I actually really enjoyed using it since it is very interactive and the learning method they use (correlating images to words etc) seems to be working for me.

The only thing that i am slightly disappointed is that I only purchased Level 1 and decided to purchase Level2 and 3, but if you notice they don't offer this combination (Marketing scheme???). So I emailed their Sales rep through their website and asked if they offer any discount for level2 and 3 combined. Even though I received a confirmation email, however after a week I haven't heard anything back from them (I even sent them another follow up email a few days ago).

So even though I think the product is almost worth the price, but I really don't like the fact that they don't sell/market Level 2 and 3 combined (It should make sense that a lot of people would rather purchase level 1 individually and if they are satisfied with it then they will buy Level2 and 3). But why they don't offer that combination doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps if I don't hear back from them soon I will go with another software.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars There are better products out there, January 7, 2010

By 

The Tao of Netflix (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: French Level 1 with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

It pains me to give Rosetta a 2/5 star rating, but, I think it is justified. They obviously put a huge amount of effort into this product, and it shows. However, I do not agree with their essential assumptions regarding language learning are accurate. Rosetta is all about total immersion, teaching you a language through total immersion in that language, (in their view) simulating how your learned your native tongue as a child. This paradigm manifests itself in a key difference than how other language tools work - Rosetta is 100% in its target language (here French). Rosetta tries to teach you language concepts by giving you a limited number of learning concepts (say, for exe, vocab), and then requiring you to apply it to a given situation. For example, if its teaching you 4 words, you'll be presented with a screen of 4 images, each of which corresponds to one of the words, and you have to match word to image. So for learning vocab, its outstanding. However, the major failure is on grammar and usage. The same principle applies - it will present a grammatical construct, and use image mapping to teach you. The problem really arises on nuanced principles. When the verb is "to be", its easy to learn "he is..." vs "she is..." by looking at an image of a man vs woman doing something. If you take a harder construct, for example, how to form questions, it becomes very difficult for a set of images to accurately convey the real meaning. For example, asking a yes/no question involves "est-ce que...."; asking a "what" question involves "qu'est'ce que..."; I found that the images could not effectively help me understand the difference between these two constructs. The same applies to many other types of usage, such as the when to use il/elle est vs c'est. Bottom line is that you lose a comprehensive understanding of what you're learning.

In contrast, I have a lot of formal language training in Latin and Japanese. In both situations, you learn basics (e.g., verb conjugation), then apply them to situations. I think one of the problems with Rosetta is the paradigm - they assume that you can learn a language as an adult in the same way you learned as a child. I disagree. As a child, you have no learning framework yet, other than osmosis and mimicry. As you go through school, you learn learning structure and learn to hold information in a structured way in your brain. Rosetta doesn't do that.

In contrast, I just found the product Fluenz and absolutely love it. It inverts the paradigm and teaches French by relating it to what we know in English with good, highly detailed explanations of what and why.