Amazon.com: Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION]: Software

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206 of 212 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Looks impressive, but may not be the best solution for everyone, July 29, 2008

Sarah - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

Rosetta Stone has been around for at least fourteen years, and I remember an early version in my middle school Spanish classes. I had previously studied Japanese for two semesters in high school and five courses at a four-year university (I have a Japanese minor). I never had a chance to practice my Japanese outside of class, so six years after graduation, I was looking for a way to review what I'd previously learned. Rosetta Stone Version 3 has made leaps and bounds from those early versions that were criticized for their lack of interactivity, and includes such features as voice recognition (with visual pronunciation feedback) and audio companion CDs which can be uploaded as language podcasts for easy practice during commuting, etc. The stock photographs are high-resolution and colorful, and there are native speakers modeling pronunciation (with slowed-down exaggerated pronunciation available for most screens).

Rosetta Stone works on the theory that learning a second language can be approached via the same methods we used to learn our first language as infants: visual association (beginning with color words and simple objects such as liquids and fruits), intuition (fill in the blank based on previous models), and repetition.

Not everyone learns in the same way. Certain learners are visual: they have to SEE it to learn it. Rosetta Stone excels in this area, with its bright, clear photographs. Others are auditory, having to HEAR examples. There are very clear, native-speaker modeled digital recordings here, another plus. Some learners are kinesthetic: they have to use their hands or move in order to learn; Rosetta Stone is not as successful at addressing these learners, although some activities involve matching (via clicking) and typing. Despite the emphasis on "interactivity," Rosetta Stone's method still relies on the audiolingual method, where learners largely learn language by repeating pronunciation and grammar drills. Such repetition throughout the many exercises quickly grew redundant : match the pictures. Repeat about forty times. Move on to the next unit. Match the pictures. Repeat.

First, the good: Rosetta Stone features an extremely easy-to-use interface, with lesson tracking for completed lessons (complete with dates completed). The high-quality photographs are easy to discern, and using Krashen's i+1 theory (challenge the learner above and beyond their comfort level by utilizing context, accomplished in Rosetta Stone through the visual prompts contained in photographs). The voice recognition can be finicky even when set on "normal," but generally does a good job of eliciting accurate pronunciation. Rosetta Stone is split into three levels for each language (available separately), with each level containing four units covering everyday themes such as food, health, activities, friends, and dining out. Each level contains a core unit, as well as additional speaking, reading, writing and listening practice.

The grammar presentation is lacking in explicit grammar instruction; this is a huge issue with languages that are significantly different from English, such as Japanese with its subject-object-verb word order (think Yoda-speak: Children, apples (they) eat) and particles, and counters (there are different suffixes for counting animals, people, birds, buildings, etc.), and honorific speech, for example, and you'll find yourself longing for a more traditional textbook to explain the finer points.

Also problematic are languages that use alphabets that are different from English; in the case of Japanese, there are *three* unique alphabets used: hiragana (for words of Japanese origin), katakana (for loanwords), and kanji (Chinese characters). Rosetta Stone offers four options: Romaji (presenting Japanese words in Roman script), hiragana only, kanji only, and kanji with furigana (small hiragana above Chinese characters so that you can sound out words, since each kanji symbol can have several pronunciations). There are no writing/reading exercises that address the kanji readings (onyomi and kunyomi; Chinese/Japanese pronunciations), stroke order, or kanji combinations; when you type answers, you do so using your (English) keyboard, so Rosetta Stone may not be as helpful for kanji (although a separate lesson on the hiragana alphabet is provided).

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming for me was the lack of *culture* embedded in the lessons; you're learning the language, sure, but the stock photos feature people of different ethnicities and regional costumes that often have nothing to do with the language being studied (a bearded, brightly decorated Indian man saying "Sayonara" felt out of place). Although some traditional Japanese foods such as rice and tea are mentioned, I didn't find any mention of traditional Japanese foods such as kaiseki. The same applies for traditional Japanese dress (kimono), hot springs and ryokan hotels; if you want more information, you'll have to read up elsewhere (I originally studied Japanese using the Yookoso! Invitation to Contemporary Japanese Student Edition with Online Learning Center Bind-In Card and Genki 1: An Integrated Course in Elementary Japanese 1 series along with Kanji Cards, Vol. 1 (Tuttle Flash Cards) and Kanji Cards, Vol. 2 (Tuttle Flash Cards)).

Also, even though Rosetta Stone allows you to work on correcting your pronunciation, there are no real allowances for spontaneous conversation, an important step in truly becoming fluent in a language. Spontaneous conversation allows you to test out language hypotheses and to express creativity at more advanced levels; in Rosetta Stone, you're merely parroting back what the model has instructed you. In the later Milestone lessons, you're expected to recall material that was studied across the previous four units.

One last point to consider is that Rosetta Stone requires a fairly large investment of time and money. Each unit takes a minimum of several hours to complete, more if you do all the optional pronunciation exercises and if you don't skip the activities. This is not something that you can pick up a weekend before your trip to Japan, so don't expect be fluent in basic Japanese in any short amount of time. Also, the cost for the complete sets (Levels 1, 2 and 3) is close to $500; you might also consider enrolling in a language class at your community college for that price. However, if you're interested in a less-commonly-taught language such as Pashto, Irish, Indonesian or Welsh, Rosetta Stone presents a valid option. Rosetta Stone comes with the software (bundled together for all three levels), three separate Audio Companion CD sets (one for each level), and a headset with microphone. It would probably be very effective for children, since they are hardwired to pick up languages until early adolescence, but as an adult learner I found the activities to be too repetitive to hold my continued interest, and the lack of explicit grammar discussion (and the omission of Japanese culture) was also a disappointment. That's not to say that Rosetta Stone isn't effective, but it may not be the optimal language learning tool for everyone. Even so, it's one of the most impressive attempts at dynamic language learning on the market, and deserves a trial.

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107 of 109 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A skeptic convinced--Rosetta Stone lives up to its billing, August 7, 2008

Kathy Grace (Austin, TX, United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)

Most people would agree that immersion is the best way to learn a language--but let's face it, a lesson spent in front of a computer isn't really immersion. On the flip side, how can you teach a language so different from English without using English to explain the rules? I have to admit, Rosetta Stone Japanese has surpassed my expectations.

Let me spell out where I'm starting from and what I was hoping for, since this kind of product, more than most, will be rated largely depending on your expectations for it. I got interested in learning Japanese about four or five years ago, largely prompted by my pre-teen's interest. We bought some books on kana (the syllabaries), a dictionary, a book on kanji, even a couple of grammar books. And then got overwhelmed. The grammar is SO different, the syllabaries are easy to learn but written kana has no inter-word spacing, so without the familiar "word boundaries" a sentence is just one long string of symbols. We don't know any native Japanese speakers willing to descend to essentially a kindergarten level. And listening to Japanese spoken in movies or trying to read manga? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Fast forward to today. Pretty much all I remember is (part of) one syllabary. A, i, o, something, something, ka, ki, ku, something, ko, sa, shi, su, something, something, ta, ti, no that's not right, shi, tu? uhh ... well, you get the idea. Not much in the way of retention! Just enough, however, to dive right in to Rosetta Stone. Their premise, of course, is that you do all your learning in the target language. There are several mechanisms:

You see a picture, you see a written phrase, you hear it spoken. Repeat it correctly if you can (replay the audio as often as you please).

You see four pictures. You see and hear a phrase. Click the picture it names.

You hear a phrase. Can you choose the correct picture solely by hearing it?

... and so on. There are enough variations on this theme to keep your mind busy. The photos are colorful, attractive, professional (and very multicultural!) There are short lessons focusing on the characters and their sounds, but most of the learning is illustrated with these slick photos.

So, it should be fairly easy to understand how RS teaches vocabulary, pronunciation, even some reading. See a picture, see or hear the word, it's not that hard to learn it. But grammar? Japanese grammar is quite unlike English. The function of words in a sentence is determined, not so much with case and position like English, but rather with helper words called particles. [Subject] wa [direct object] o [verb] is a very simple example. The "wa" means "this is what we're talking about" and the "o" denotes a direct object. Or here's another: in English, we use noun phrases all the time... stringing together nouns where some of them act as adjectives. "Dog house" doesn't mean "dog and house," it means "dog's house;" "girl child" means "child who is a girl." Neither dog nor girl are adjectives, but they're used like adjectives, see? In Japanese, you can do that with the "no" particle, like this: [noun] no [noun].

Now, imagine explaining that without using English!

Well, they do it. You are given the photos and the phrases, and they highlight (with red characters) the parts that are different, or in some cases the parts that are the same. "Onna no ko" is girl child. "Otako no ko" is boy child. "Onna no hito" is woman. "Otoko no hito" is man. After you get familiar with the words for woman, man, boy, girl, you start on sentences like "the woman is eating," "the boy is running." Hey, where did that "wa" come from? Ohh, I see... Then they do simple sentences with direct objects: the boy is reading a book, the woman is drinking tea. The "o" particle makes its appearance. You infer the rules from the examples, just like children do. It's really rather nicely done!

I'm of course in no position to judge the purity or otherwise of the speakers' accents, but they're surely more helpful than reading about vowel sounds in a book. The voice recognition (VR) is adjustable (freer or more strict), although I'm not sure how well that's calibrated. I do know that the very first word you have to pronounce, konnichiwa, has a Japanese N, which is its own syllable--in other words, "ko-n-ni-chi-wa" is a five syllable word, not four--and the VR did NOT pass me when I tried to say it ko-ni-chi-wa (without the extra N). I'm surprised by how comfortable the speaking and listening is becoming--especially since those are my weak areas in language learning. The package comes with a headphone/mic set, by the way, so you don't have to buy one before starting. There is a set of "audio supplement" CDs, but as they're simply repetitions of the phrases you hear in each unit and lesson, I myself don't think they're worth the $$ difference.

On each screen, you have the option to see the kana (syllabary); kanji, the Chinese-based characters; kanji plus furigana, which basically means little hiragana over each kanji to tell you how it's spoken; and (shhh) romaji, which is Englished kana syllables. Try to avoid using the romaji, as nearly everyone says that it's a terrible habit and a habit you'll soon wish you had never started. In this respect, here's my advice: take a day or two to learn the hiragana before you start this program. There are fewer than 50 syllables, and even a rudimentary acquaintance with them will enhance your Rosetta Stone experience A LOT. Jimi's Book of Japanese: A Motivating Method to Learn Japanese (Hiragana) is a cute hiragana book with the bonus of little tidbits of cultural knowledge, and Kana Pict-o-Graphix: Mnemonics for Japanese Hiragana and Katakana is a pocket-sized book with effective memory cues. But back to the screen... whichever type of character display you select will be remembered until you change it again or quit the program. It defaults to kana, which is a sensible decision IMO.

A few other things about the interface: Reading the user guide made it look a lot more complicated than it is. Basically, there aren't too many controls you have to worry about. Just take the path they suggest through the program. I will say, however, that I'm repeating each lesson a few times, because I know my short-term memory is getting shorter every day. One oddity is that it will forward you to Lesson 2, then circle back to pick up some other activities from Lesson 1. They don't explain why, but I suspect this is an attempt at an SRS, Spaced Repetition System, which helps reinforce what you've learned and (in theory anyhow) help move it from short-term to long-term memory. If knowing this disturbs you, you can choose your lesson activities from a complete menu. Do them in any order you please, repeat them as often as you want, you're the boss. But really, you might not even notice that the Lesson 2 path contains Lesson 1 activities. After choosing my own path for a few lessons, I have now settled into their path without a problem. Each activity has a "you are here/navigation" bar at the bottom, showing the number of frames in the activity and which one you're on at the moment. A "grade" icon at bottom right will show you how many you got right and wrong and your percentage. If you revisit an activity, the frames you missed will be colored differently so you can go right to them.

Here's the organization of the whole program: 3 levels > 4 units/level > 4 lessons/unit > 9 activities/lesson. An activity ("listening and reading", "pronunciation," "vocabulary") takes around 10 minutes, sometimes 5, sometimes 15. You can see that there's quite a bit of instruction in this set.

Writing is probably the weakest link in the program. Obviously, Rosetta Stone has judged that the percentage of their users who have graphic tablets or some other touch device is too small to cater to, so "writing" means "looking at pictures of writing." Better than nothing, I guess, but if you picked up a pen and started trying to imitate those characters on paper, you'd probably benefit. Again, having a book on the kana, like one of the ones mentioned above, will be of use here, to teach you the stroke order (important for proper writing). The Kana Flashcards from White Rabbit Press would be a good alternative.

It's far too late to make this long story short, so I'll just say: If you're a beginner who is interested in learning Japanese and willing to dedicate short blocks of time to it on a regular basis, I think you'll really enjoy the Rosetta Stone package.

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48 of 50 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best instruction you're going to find outside of a personal tutor., July 17, 2008

C.J. Hustwick (Riverside, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I think that this is a superior way to learn Japanese compared to slaving over the "Genki" JapanTimes curriculum or other homeschool options. These lessons can be monotonous but at the same time you really wind up learning the intricacies of conversational Japanese. My wife is fluent and has been impressed with how I can express myself simply but effectively.

This reinforcement approach is particularly useful regarding essential grammatical concepts which your mind is better off just getting the hang of as compared to reading in a book. Particularly with Japanese & its particles -- plus the fact that it is such a "phonetically poor" language, one needs to hear native speakers and their emphasis as much as possible.

My only complaint about the Rosetta Stone course thus far:

It is a little TOO much based on repetition of the same pictures and phrases; interactivity could be more advanced. By the time you reach the "milestone" tests it can be a bit daunting with the complete immersion in real-world language confrontations. In other words, I routinely get 100% on the lessons until the final one where I get an 80%. That's a bit frustrating. And because there is only a single milestone test per unit, you only get one shot to strut your stuff -- if you retake it you will remember the answers and thus not be truly tested on your weak areas.

I don't think the program should be so sheepish about verbal drilling as not to offend one's "grade". It might be a bit humbling but also speed up the learning curve. People learn by making mistakes. But Rosetta Stone is really onto something here; with increased interactivity, maybe even the program being able to detect specific weak spots in a student's responses, this technique will be even better.

As a testament to how highly I think about this product -- it utterly surpasses the UCLA Extension language course I took for a semester (although that was for Latin). Yes it was good to have a teacher to answer grammar questions and the rest, but more often than not her answers wound up going over our heads and we were better off just plugging away and making little mistakes here and there. I am now a firm believer that you should not over-intellectualize learning a new language; immersion is the key.

(Incidentally, this was an item that became available through the Amazon Vine program, and as such now has many reviewers who obtained it for free, drove it around the block, and wrote relatively superficial reviews. I cannot believe that all of these others have spent the 40-50 hours that I have with the program. Japanese is a very complicated subject that requires a lot of dedication, and is not for the faint of heart.)

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