Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-2 Set 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: 1.7 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001AFFYZK
• Item model number: 21795
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 9, 2008
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,452 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #52 in Software > Education & Reference > Foreign Languages > Asian

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 and begin your exploration: Levels 1 & 2.
You'll learn a foundation of fundamental vocabulary and language and gain the confidence to master basic conversational skills. You'll move forward and learn to give and get directions, involve yourself in basic social interactions, dine out, use transportation, tell time and 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 Levels 1 & 2 (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 Japanese Levels 1&2 with Audio Companion you build a foundation and navigate your surroundings. Begin learning fundamental vocabulary and essential language structure, from greetings and introductions to simple questions and their answers. Gain the confidence and enter the intermediate level where you will be able to talk about your environment; give and get directions, tell time, dine out with self-reliance, shop, enjoy basic social interactions 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

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Huge improvement over version 2, December 1, 2008

By 

Daniel Robertson (Coeur D' Alene, ID) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-2 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

version 3 of Rosetta Stone Japanese is hugely improved over version 2. I always thought that v2 was a decent product to reinforce learning through other methods, and for building vocabular. However, I would never have recommended v2 as a primary tool for learning the Japanese language. This is because v2 had some big drawbacks. For one, there were no explanations of anything whatsoever. You were presented with a picture and the phrase, both spoken and written, and you had to match the picture to the phrase. After a while, you simply memorize which picture goes to which phrase, and sometimes you're not really sure what exactly in the picture is being referred to. Is it the skateboard? The skateboarder? The verb skateboarding? I'm still not sure to the answer to that question, even after searching the internet to try to find out.

Another drawback of version 2 is that the grammar of the language is not explained, and the Japanese language is structured in ways that is often difficult for westerners to grasp.

V3 has improved greatly in both these areas, although they have not completly been solved. There are still no explanations or definitions or anything like that, so you are still expected to grasp it intuitively. However, they have added more variety and interactivity to the lessons. This makes it easier to intuitivly grasp these principles. For instance, in v2, you were given a phrase that contained both a question, and the answer to the question, and you were given a picture that goes with the phrase. You simply had to remember which picture went with the phrase, and the next time you were presented with the phrase, just recall which picture went with it before. In v3 the phrase given might ask a question, and you would have to select the correct answer yourself, requiring you to actually think about what is being said instead of recalling a memorized answer.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars much improved -- but know your purpose, June 8, 2009

By 

T. Korpi (Bemidji, MN) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-2 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I first used Rosetta Stone about 11 years ago to learn Dutch after I'd emigrated to the Netherlands. It was a good kick-start then, but the bad thing was that I'd worked my way through an entire level in about two evenings (or so it seemed) and I felt a little cheated for my $85 (on sale).

So this time I was planning for a trip to Japan and had a generous offer as a birthday present to get a Rosetta Stone and I thought it would be perfect. I thought I'd better get levels one and two, as I had a month to go. I almost got halfway through level one before I left, doing about seven hours a week-- It's VASTLY improved over what it was originally, you will get a lot out of it. At least from the perspective of understanding. I never did get spontaneous speech out of myself, but that may have as much to do with me as anything.

Here's the nitty-gritty: What I did helped me a huge amount in understanding things that were going on around me, helped me to be able to recognize Japanese characters and generally helped me feel less... lost. I even was able to read a few subway stops (not that you need to read them in Tokyo, everything's in Roman characters as well in most places), but it was nice and I felt empowered. I really wish I had had time to finish both levels before I went.

In general, the program will teach you in an intuitive way, you learn the language not through memorization and translation, but through actually doing and hearing and it's great for that. You really have to relax and make mistakes (that's what it's all about!) and flow with it. In that, you learn a language as an innate part of yourself, not as a series of translated codes. Rosetta Stone is the only thing I've used that does that, with the exception of an experimental program I used a long time ago (to learn Dutch, in which I am now fluent) that was essentially the same thing; look at the picture and hear it described. After dozens and dozens of different pictures your understanding of sounds becomes more and more refined and meaningful.

This program is expensive. No doubt. But if you really want to learn, it's worth it. If you just want to get a few words under your belt, you can go a lot more cheaply. Get a driving CD or something. And if you really want to learn Japanese, you'll need this PLUS a book on Hiragana and Katakana so you can learn the characters. Those, I'm afraid, you'll have to memorize.

It's fun, though...

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not the best way to learn Japanese, August 8, 2009

By 

J. Atkins "Mother Effingby" (Greatest Satan on Earth) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Japanese Level 1-2 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I used to be a big fan of Rosetta Stone....for about 2 lessons, and then the boredom would take over, and the lack of explanatory notes just mired me in a swamp of confusion.

The problem with Japanese, and learning Japanese, is the amount of protocol involved in speaking the language. Also, it isn't the best thing for Japanese to introduce the boy - girl man-woman patterns to the neophyte. Here is what it becomes in romaji:

Girl and Boy: Onnonoko to otokonoko....go ahead....try saying it.
Woman and man onnohito to otokohito....just try. Give it a chance.

No. The best way I am learning, is to learn the absolutely necessary polite phrases first, and introduce grammar bit by bit, and increase your vocabulary...always and always...remember, politeness is everything in Japanese

I also had a problem with Rosetta Stone's Arabic program....one of the words is dog, and dogs are taboo in Muslim culture...also, Rosetta Stone has unrelated sexes intermingling, also a taboo.

In addition...too damn expensive. You are better off compiling good materials. If your library has Rosetta Stone, and many do, ours does, check it out before you buy it. You won't regret the free spin, but you might regret the price you wind up paying for it, without knowing about it completely.