Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 3 [OLD VERSION]

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

 

 

I am now on the 3rd and final level of Rosetta Stone's Spanish (Latin America). I have been very impressed with the series. I do also use Pimsleur Spanish CDs in my car to supplement my learning. I'd recommend both to anyone interested in learning any language.

The whole series is a great companion to any formal high school or college course. I would say level 1 and 2 would be fine for first year college spanish, and level 3 is also very good. But may be more matched for second year spanish. The whole program is doable over 1 month if you spent 40 to 60 minutes a day.

It is one of the best way to learn conversational spanish. The goal is not simply to "complete" the lesson with 90% or better score, it is to listen to and repeat every phrases presented to you. It will take more time, but what you retain is much higher if you can hear yourself repeating what the native speaker say multiple times.

By the time you are done with a level, you would have repeated the same phrase over about 20 times.

Level 3 introduces more command styles (informal and formal), the subjunctive tense, possessive pronounds, and past participle. I believe that these are touched upon in first year college spanish, and practiced more in second year.

The program will help you memorize common greetings and common commands. Highly recommended. As close as you can get to an immersion program without leaving the country.

Rosetta Stone is a great product. The lessons are well organized. I can learn at my own pace and see results. I want to continue in more languages after I complete level three.

This version is sold as Vista compatible, however installation was not straight forward with Vista Ultimate as operating system. Once installed there is an error message as the file framedynos.dll is not found. We needed to copy it into the program directory. The activation program does not work with Vista, we needed to disconnect the PC from the internet and activate via phone. Neither of these two problems was listed in the manual. The good thing was that the phone service was available even late in the night. Once these two hurdles were overcome the program seems to be working well.