Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 2 with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION]

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

 

 

I think this is a strong program. It has many useful sentences and phrases, and it pounds them into your brain. My only complaint is that its a little too easy in the beginning. I have only studied some spanish on my own, and I never used the first level of Rosetta. So if you know even a little bit of spanish, I wouldn't purchase level 1. It's probably too easy. Also, whenever you click the right answer, you hear the same sound effect over and over and over again. To me, if somebody is going to pay 265 dollars for a program, at least make some different sound effects in the program!

This is Anna Rivera editor of the Learning Spanish Products Reviews site and author of Anna Rivera's 1000 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Words (Spanish Edition) and Anna Rivera's 800 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Phrases (Spanish Edition).

Since so many of the readers of learning-Spanish newsletter have asked me to provide a review of the newest version of Rosetta Stone Spanish software, here's my review:

Good Points of Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 Level 2:

1. The interface of this software has been greatly improved by Rosetta Stone. The old software interface was very ugly and archaic looking. But this interface is much more attractive with contemporary photos.

2. Much more content is covered in this version than the previous version of Level 2. This version teaches indirect pronouns. The previous version of Level 2 did not teach indirect pronouns. This version does a pretty good job at teaching the proper use of "te" and "le", etc. This version also covers the familiar form of "you" or the "tu" form in Spanish. (As usual, I am omitting Spanish punctuation and other Spanish characters from my review because the Spanish characters often appear as strange looking characters/letters in my Amazon reviews.)

3. You will also learn the "imperative" or commands which is a good change from the previous version which failed to cover this topic.

4. Rosetta Stone Spanish Level 2 also does a great job of teaching the two forms of the future tense in Spanish.

5. You will also find that this software does a thorough job of covering the past tense in Spanish. Both the preterite and the imperfect tense.

6. They have also improved the software by adding lots of dialogs. The added dialogs will certainly improve the students' listening comprehension.

7. This version of the software is also a lot more interactive than the previous version.

Bad Points of Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 Level 2:

1. It is pretty hard to find any bad points about this software. I had to think long and hard. But one disadvantage that you will find is that it doesn't teach some of the topics that should be included in a Level 2 Spanish course, such as the "subjunctive." At the time that I am writing this review, I have not reviewed Level 3 of this software. So I do not know if Level 3 covers the subjunctive. If it does cover the subjunctive, then it probably fails to cover other important Spanish verb tenses, namely, conditional, past perfect tense, conditional perfect, present perfect subjunctive, pluperfect subjunctive, future perfect, etc. It would not be feasible to cover all of these intermediate/advanced topics in Level 3 when Level 2 hasn't even introduced the subjunctive.

2. The other negative about this software is that it lacks the type of interactivity that is required to reach a level of conversational proficiency. Although this version of the software is also a lot more interactive than the previous version, it does not have the type of interactivity that is needed to reach conversational proficiency in Spanish. You will find yourself clicking your mouse button more with this version than the previous version. But you will not find that this software has many exercises that require the user to speak out loud and then form her own sentences in Spanish. And that's what it takes to reach proficiency or fluency.

3. The other problem, as with the previous version of the software, the Rosetta Stone method is not the most effective method for an adult to learn a foreign language. (For a child this method probably can not be beat. )

Considering the drastic improvement of this software compared to the previous version, I am still giving it 4 stars.

I have taken many Spanish Courses over the years. I am finding this method the most useful.