Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V3: Latin  Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion

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For years I have spoken Latin where possible, but 'where possible' usually means 'where I am alone'. :-) With Rosetta Stone, I hear it spoken and get to speak it back. The pronunciation is classical, not medieval, which is a nice surprise.

RS reinforces in a friendly way what the Latin student learns from a good text like Wheelock's, for instance.

RS alone will not equip a student to read or write Latin with any relevance because most Latin read scholastically is not conversational. I also don't approve of the profusion of pronouns which would not be present in classical Latin. A plus this profusion offers, however, is that pronouns are reinforced.

Additionally, there are vocabulary errors, and the grammar is not spot-on.

Still I would recommend it as a supplement. But it is not a stand-alone course.

A friend of mine recently gave me a lovely present: Rosetta Stone: Latin 1, 2 & 3. While it is never proper to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially such an expensive one, I would like to put forward a review of this software.

Before I begin my evaluation, let me qualify what I say here. I am not a beginning student of Latin. In fact, I am a life-long student of this language, and I currently teach it at university level. The reason my friend got me this software was because it is hard to get Latin materials where I live, especially of the multimedia sort, and he thought it might be helpful to me. (If you happen to be reading this, I am really grateful!)

Over the past week, I've worked my way through Level 1. This was my first time using Rosetta Stone software, and I must say that I am quite impressed by the approach. I can imagine Rosetta Stone would do the job of teaching a modern colloquial language quite well, but it is my opinion that Rosetta Stone leaves quite a lot to be desired in its attempt to teach a classical language like Latin.

The direct method used by Rosetta Stone is to be commended. Linking images directly to Latin words without the interference of a "third wheel," meaning the student's native language, is refreshing. However, the content of Rosetta Stone's Latin course fails to take into consideration a beginning Latin student's long-term needs.

Generally speaking, a student who takes up Latin will be unlike the student who takes up a modern language in that he/she will often have an uncommonly well defined set of goals in mind. I mean it would be rare for, let's say, one to take up German only because one wants to read Goethe's Faust. More often than not, one will take up German because one wants to visit Germany--to order a bit of bratwurst in Bavaria. Latin students, however, very often have as a long-term goal the ability to read the Vulgate, for example, or Caesar's Commentaries on the Gallic War. So, in evaluating Rosetta Stone's Latin course, one must ask: how far is Rosetta Stone able to get the student toward this kind of goal? The answer is, well, not very far.

It is apparent that Rosetta Stone was designed for teaching modern languages, and it seems that what they have done is to develop a Latin course based upon the vocabulary and grammar that one would need to use in learning a modern language. This is not necessarily bad, but it doesn't really prepare the beginning student for what the vast majority eventually want to do with their Latin. For those few who, as a hobby, wish to learn some modern colloquial Latin, it is very nice, but Rosetta Stone doesn't make any of this clear. In fact, Rosetta Stone doesn't even appear to be aware that there is a difference between the two.

To give a reverse example, imagine a student in some non-English speaking country picking up--at very high cost--a software package that promises to teach English. Now, imagine that the software in question taught the student the English of Chaucer! You'd end up with the student making phrases like "thay myghte noghte" for "they might not," all the while totally unaware that all but a highly-trained few in the English speaking world would even know what he/she is talking about!

To give a few examples, in Rosetta Stone Latin I, the student is taught that the Latin word raeda means "car." The sentence "vir raedam gubernat" (the man is driving the car) is taught matter-of-factly. Of course, in modern Latin raeda can certainly be used to mean "car," but if one were to come across this word in Cicero, it would mean "wagon" not "car." The student is not made aware of this fact.

Furthermore, the student is taught that the Latin for "sandwich" is paniculus fartus. Overlooking the fact that the modern concept of a sandwich didn't exist for the Romans. (they would have understood meat and bread, even stuffed bread, which is what is meant by fartus--get your mind out of the gutter!) That being said, the folks at Rosetta Stone don't seem to realize that the modern Latin phrase for sandwich is actually pastillum fartum--at least that's what it is according to the Vatican where the official language is Latin. Inappropriate vocabulary to one side, there is also a small issue concerning pronunciation.

The pronunciation used in Rosetta Stone's course is, as far as I am concerned, quite alright. The one point I would raise, though, is that they teach the reconstructed Classical pronunciation without mentioning that this is only one of two systems currently taught today--the other being Ecclesiastical or Italian pronunciation. The difference would be comparable to the differences between American and British English. I don't say one is necessarily better than the other, but the student should be made aware of the differences in any case. Now that I have said that, there are a few places in Rosetta Stone where the Classical pronunciation isn't followed. In Rosetta Stone, the adjective magnus (large), for example, is pronounced mag, as in magazing, and nus, as in n+us. In both Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin, when "g" comes before "n," it is pronounced "ng," as in sing, so the proper pronunciation should by "mangnus." Of course, that is a minor detail; nevertheless, you would expect Rosetta Stone's Latin course to be more carefully prepared, especially given the premium price.

While I don't think Rosetta Stone is a good starting place for the would-be Latinist, I do think it is a nice way for the established Latinist to get his/her feet wet in world of Living Latin despite the courses occasional deficiencies.

In closing, I hope Rosetta Stone will continue to develop their Latin course and begin marketing it as a "modern colloquial Latin course," which it is, rather than marketing it as a good way to study Classical Latin, which it is not.

Try "Language Learning Latin SE - The Interactive Course" by "LP Laser Publishing Group" which is just as thorough and probably more detailed for a mere $11.

I studied Latin in high school and since college have used various courses, including the Cambridge series, to try to really learn the language. The experience has been like reading a book on Astrophysics - you understand it as long as you are studying it, and then...it fades pretty quickly.

Two things have made all the difference. Picking up the Latin versions of Harry Potter (you will be amazed!) and Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone made Latin come alive and it began to stick, once and for all. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, all are introduced naturally. Whenever I review in my mind, I see the pictures associated with the word or expression. Best of all, Latin is presented as a living language, and not some relic used to decipher Roman propaganda about military exploits. Latin is not dead just because there are no native speakers, anymore than an orphan is dead because he has lost his parents. Anybody wishing to adopt Latin as a second language and give it new life in the 21st century needs to invest in Rosetta Stone.

As for the Harry Potter books, sure you will need to develop a good background to start, and initially you will need to puzzle things out. But I was amazed how much Rosetta Stone and the books began to reinforce one another.