Amazon.com: Rosetta Stone V3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 1-5 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION]: Software

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3.1 out of 5 stars (57 customer reviews)

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283 of 291 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, August 23, 2009

Jerold (Washington State University) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 1-5 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

* Important Note at Bottom *

I own the Latin America Spanish version of this software (Levels 1 - 3) and have used it extensively for the last 6 months. I used it while studying abroad in Costa Rica concurrently as I took an intensive language track consisting of 2 years of college level spanish (4 semesters) condensed to 1 semester.

What I found amazing right off the bat is that the levels of this software match exactly to that of each year of college spanish. For example level 1 covers the exact same material you will learn in 2 semester of university level language. This is great for students as they will know which level to start off on depending on their previous language experience.

Having used Rosetta Stone helped me tremendously in my classes and I could see the dramatic difference as I progressed much faster than the other students in my class. My wife, who was also taking the same language classes, was struggling at first but picked up quickly after using the software. The same went for the other students who soon began 'fighting' over using my laptop before and after class.

The software is extremely easy to use and the approach it takes is so intuitive. It replicates the experience of immersion so well but in such a friendly and un-intimidating fashion. The most wonderful feature of this software is the confidence it gives you in speaking and understanding which helps break the ice in initiating actual conversations, which is hands-down the BEST way to improve your language skills (especially at a bar because your shyness is also inhibited after one or two). After three or four days of using this I went from nervously giving directions to taxi drivers and store clerks to having full-on conversations.

Rosetta Stone basically works by starting you off in a completely immersed environment with zero translation. This sounds intimidating but because it starts with such basic concepts it really is not at all. For example, the first thing you will see is two pictures; one with a person approaching you and another with a person in a car leaving and waving. The native speaker will say to you either 'hola' (hello) or 'adios' (goodbye). You then choose the appropriate picture. If you get it wrong, no problem, it will pop up for you again after a few other basic words and you will remember.

The great part about RS is that it slowly gets more and more advanced and does so in such a simple and logical fashion that you soon are flying through entire sentences with no problem. The voice recognition is amazing (most of the time) and does a FANTASTIC job of helping you with proper pronunciation. Again this starts off very forgiving but as you progress gets more and more demanding. Once in a while the voice recognition gets a little weird but re-running the mic setup wizard (very quick and easy) fixes it in a jiff.

RS breaks down the language learning into mini-modules that focus on specific task (speaking, listening, reading, writing, vocabulary, etc) and uses repetition with slight modification to teach new concepts; such as learning different language tenses (such as past, present and future, etc). For example, once you have learned the word for swimming (by seeing a person swimming in a pool), the next go round it will change the picture to a wet person drying off in front of a pool and change the word to the past tense for swimming (english - swam). It helps you (at first) to be successful by showing the other pictures with a man, for example, and then saying SHE 'swam'. You can guess the right one by eliminating the men pictures (because it already taught you man and woman). It uses variations of this concept to teach you new ones.

- Ok I just realized how long this review is getting so I'll sum it up (sorry) -

Bottom line THIS SOFTWARE WORKS. In addition to Spanish, I have used German, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic. I tried these to basically compare the effectiveness in learning a language I was not already familiar with. I was so surprised when within an hour or two or was WRITING simple sentences in Arabic and Mandarin, two languages I had zero previous experience with, and have been told are quite difficult. Though my wife looked at me a little funny when I was saying into the mic "The women are drinking coffee" in Arabic after an hour, I was grinning ear-to-ear.

If you are afraid of the price - don't be. The cost is so low in comparison to taking college classes and is quite honestly so much more effective. Unless the choice was between taking an intensive language course in a foreign country and this I would choose Rosetta Stone in ANY other situation. Compared to taking a standard university class (boring, ineffective and WAY too slow) RS is a miracle. You can learn a semester of foreign language in as little as a week or two and have a much better grasp on the language. Even while studying abroad, I was having such a difficult time learning and remembering the advanced tenses of spanish (subjunctive, etc) and it just didn't make sense until I went through them in Rosetta Stone.

I apologize for writing such a LOOOOONG review, but I truly love this software that much. It is absolutely unbelievable and amazing. Before using this I would have never ever consider spending this much money on a piece of software. I'm a college student (read poor) and would sacrifice every luxury for the semester again in a heart beat to make sure I have this software.

* Important Note * While I'm writing this review the price listed for Spanish Levels 1 - 5 is at $599. Even though this is worth every penny at this price - I have noticed that a couple of times this year (for example last fathers day) they have had this on sale for $399. If you can afford to (or can't afford at this price for that matter) maybe wait and see if this sale hits again.

Seriously - if you have ever dreamed of speaking a foreign language and can't afford to live in that country for 6 months to a year while taking language classes... GET ROSETTA STONE!

PS: No I don't work for Rosetta Stone or know anybody who does. Buen suerte!

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74 of 77 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This set is worth the money, if you can afford it..., January 1, 2010

Pinetree "Pinetree" (MI) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 1-5 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

Rosetta Stone is a great product, especially for those who have had formal spanish education - it can help you go from knowing the rules to speaking fluently. However, for folks who know nothing of spanish - it is a poor choice to start out using by itself. In conjunction with formal spanish class or text book, it is a great program. I would suggest buying a spanish work book like the Schaum series to use in conjunction with this program if you have no knowledge of spanish. The homeschool version has very little excercises and drills. You still have to supplement your children's class with another spanish source. Even if you printed up the worksheets and test, I think it is woeful inadequate to teach conjugation or the irregular verbs well. Or consider a didactic program like Fluenz. Once you have mastered Fluenz (which is as boring as sitting in a class), you can switch to RS or a fun program like Bueno Entonces. If you have a choice between buying RS personal edition vs. RS homeschool edition, the homeschool edition gives you more bang for your bucks. You can chose to print up the included worksheets, tests, and quizzes from the extra material enclosed. The set is identical, except the installation disc is different. Once installed, the homeschool edition works just like the personal edition, except it tracks your progress.

Beware of pirated softwares. They are packed, boxed, and look identical to the real RS. The only thing different is their price and they will not run without installation of a "crack". Trying to update these programs will cause your software to lock up. They do not match the "going rate" [...]. The going rate is the contracted rate which ALL authorized retailers must sell at. If you find advertisement on Amazon.com or Ebay for an "authentic" rosetta stone set for hundreds of dollars less than the "going rate", you are buying pirated softwares. Pirated softwares can be downloaded for free (at a risk for a fine or lawsuit), purchased directly from China, or downloaded from "OEM softwares" sites for less than $50. But you get what you pay for, just don't pay $200 or $300 for pirated softwares. They can not be installed without a "crack", and can not ever be updated. Many folks have be scammed, and they blame it on Amazon.com. No, it is the dealers on Amazon.com that are illegitimate. Look at their ratings before you buy.

TIPS FOR USING ROSETTA STONE SPANISH:

1. For beginners, who know squat about spanish, curl up with a beginning grammar book and do it along with RS level 1. You should repeat each word, and each sentence as the native speaker say them. This is a must for the imprinting process. It is not enough to click on the right answer and score 100%. It is much more important to repeat, repeat, and repeat. RS works because by the time you finish level I, you would have repeated each noun, adjective, and verbs at least 60 times. Especially if you chose NOT to do all the required reviews. While if you took a college class - you cram before each quiz and test - then pass with an A, yet know nothing of pronunciation and the word will disappear quickly from your mind. The hard-wiring only takes place with repeated exposure. Beginners must do level I at least twice, or to do repeated written drills in grammar workbooks to be FULLY familiar with the infinitive form of the -ar, -er, and -ir verbs. Only once you can recognize a verb by its native form, can you advance to level II. Level II will introduce you to the past tense, and a few command forms. Without knowing the original stem of the verb - getting into the past and subjunctive of level II and III will totally mess you up. Scoring 100% doesn't mean squat in your learning process with RS. Make sure you focus on the accents of the endings. Hablo - means I speak (without accent on o), or he/she spoke (with the accent on o), Hable means I spoke (with accent on e), and also means !Speak! - a command, or may be someone speaks (subjunctive) when used without the accent on e. Speaking spanish is like singing a song, and the same sentence has a different meaning depending on how you sing it. Spanish is a very screwy language with multiple meaning for the same words (ve - means see, and also means go, a command), past tense (preterit) rules are funky - and if you don't have the basics down, you will get lost later. So a good grammar book or formal spanish course is very important beyond RS level I. Don't expect learning spanish to be as easy as the commercials tell you. A child will also have alot of adults telling them how to use their verbs!! You will need a book to be your parent.

2. For folks with prior spanish like at least a good 1st year spanish course - starting at level II will review your past tense and future tense. Repeat each sentence and words as said by the speaker - even if it is not required for the lesson. This imprints the grammar and structure in your brain. Level III will review some subjuntive, some conditional, and some advanced tenses. Level IV and V will do more of the same as level III, with more complex sentence structures, indirect and direct pronoun usage, and alot more subjunctive and contrast and comparison of the preterit and the english equivalent of past progressive tenses. Level III, IV, and V is the equivalent of a good second year college spanish class. A good spanish verb tense book is handy (I use "teach yourself spanish verbs" - a concise to the point verb book), or a program called Lexibase express - a free dictionary that came free with a cheap Spanish CD on amazon - which let me look up a conjugated verb to find its infinitive form.)

3. For folks with advanced spanish and just need a review - going through level 3 through 5 will give you a quick brush up on spanish without having to review boring grammar texts. There are enough irregular verbs drilled to make you speak fairly fluently. I see a spanish speaking patients about once a week, and they note that my spanish is fine. One could do one or two of these levels before a trip, and it will refresh your brain very quickly. Something that reading a book, watching spanish TV, or watching spanish dubbed films can not do. RS really does make your brain work.

4. Tips for all users: Before you let the program jump to the next exercise, click on the "answer" button on the left lower hand corner. This will allow you to reread all the sentences, analyze the spelling, grammar, and endings of adjectives and nouns. This will also allow you to practice more pronunciation CORRECTLY before moving on. It is too tempting for children to simply earn a proud "100%" and move on thinking he/she is best in the class. It is better to repeat and review each lessons carefully, than to move on with a "perfect" score. There are alot of straight A highschool and college students who can not speak Spanish because they equate a 4.0 with having learned a language. Yes, you can minimize RS so you can go on the internet. There are several free spanish conjugation sites that allows you to reverse lookup a conjugated form of a verb (which are not found in most dictionaries) to its original infinitive form. This is helpful if you can not recognize a verb (look up "ve" in your dictionary to test if it is adequate - it should stem from 2 different verbs - ir and ver). Learning to speak a language takes alot of work, and that means about 4 times the effort one will need to earn an A in a college class. You can go through RS once and earn a perfect 100% without speaking much spanish, but if you repeat every word that RS said, you will learn 10 times as much without getting that perfect 100%.

5. Tips on using RS in noisy environment: like the TV, dishwasher, and the barking dog. Use a headset with microphone - this will pick up your voice better than the laptop built in mic. Built in mic are fine for quiet environment - barely - as some RS voice files are not very good, and you might not be able to activate the "correct" green sign with it. If you are using the newer 3.4.5 RS engine, make sure you set up the microphone in a NOISY environment, so that it will self set itself to a "gentler" voice recognition mode to make up for the dirty noise in the background. If you set up RS in a quiet environment, and the noise kicks in - the voice recognition will be too sensitive and will not let you move on. Earlier RS engines have manual voice recognition setting, and you set it for low sensitivity for noisy environment and high for quiet area (expert vs beginner - beginner for noisy, and expert for quiet).

6. Voice recognition will not work well in a noisy environment with the older RS engines and weak computer processor speed or an overutilized processor. The older engines will not run voice recognition well if default computer maintenance activities are running in the back ground (click ctrl alt delete to see how much processor power is being utitilized and what maintenace programs are running). If your antivirus, anti-spyware, windows update, spyware update, and all other mundane maintenance and upgrade activities are running - RS will not run well. Therefore, a desktop computer with low processing power can run well when no background activity is going on, but even a fast high speed computer with tonnes of RAM might not do well at all - if you just turned it on - and it default to automatic update (windows update, adobe update, viral scan update, and viral scanning) - you might not have enough processing power to run voice recognition. You might have to leave your computer running for at least 1 hour to finish its tasks (windows upgrade, etc) before doing RS. Or if you are computer literate enough, hit CTRL ALT DeL all at once, and shut down noisy background programs. That is why folks who brings their... Read more ›

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123 of 134 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Dificil de utilizar, May 9, 2010

Randall Sparks - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Rosetta Stone V3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 1-5 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION] (CD-ROM)

I am also an army officer. We get Rosetta Stone for free. I just moved to Miami so I thought I'd try it.

I've been using it about 30-60 minutes a day nearly every day for about 5 weeks. I just finished the first of the five levels. I want to be fair because it seems that people like to leave criticism of the criticism. That's a crock!

I have learned some espanol from RS but not without pain. At times I want to pick up my laptop and throw it across the room. The milestone sessions in particular are extremely difficult. You watch a slide show of an exchange between a few people involved in some sort of transaction, then... You're supposed to guess what the next slide is intended to say. It might be something like "Hola" followed by (in English so you get my point) "Yes, I would like to buy some flowers". I would look at the pictures and have no idea what question or statement (even in my own language) that I'm supposed to come up with. I just sat and stared and eventually I said (in english for clarity of this criticism) "I would like to buy some flowers." But no, Rosetta Stone just gave me the bell of failure. I was supposed to say "I want some flowers. Do you sell flowers?" I made that up just now, but that's the sort of thing that has me ticked off at my laptop and it's not my laptop; It's Rosetta Stone. I can't even get to the next level until I get past the Milestone event. In order to do that, I have to memorize the answers. This is not a lerarning event, but rather a memorization event.

Any of the speaking parts, where I'm supposed to come up with the words all on my own are way too difficult. If I miss even one word, the software starts beeping at me. It doesn't even give me a chance. Sometimes I want to study the scenario a bit before I speak. But no, it starts beeping at me. Then because it beeped at me, I get an "x".

RS introduces words and sometimes the explanation is not even clear. Examples are "cumplo" and "queda". I finally figured them out via other methods, but it shouldn't be a chore on my part. Sometimes, a word cannot even be found in a spanish dictionary because of the word form. Why can't I just pause the lesson, click on the word and get a definition and a usage?

Speaking of pause - you better be damned quick on the pause button at the end of a slide or you don't even get to pause. And why do we have to wait till the end of a slide to pause? Why can't the pause be available at all times?

Another issue I have with Rosetta Stone is continuation of lessons. Some lessons are pretty long. A core lesson is about 30 minutes, but longer if you're like me. I take time outs to look up definitions and usage of words, so we're talking 45-60 minutes for a lesson. Then something happens like the neighbors come over or something. So I have to stop 3/4 of the way through the lesson. Then the next day when I decide to resume, there is no resume. I have to start over at the beginning of the lesson. What's that all about? Why doesn't RS have a progress tracker that starts you out where you left off? On a 5 or 10 minute lesson, fine. But, on the big lessons this is unacceptable.

RS is free to me so I'll continue to use it, but I'm going to look around for proper language training.

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