Customer Reviews

Rosetta Stone V3: Vietnamese Level 1-3 Set with Audio Companion [OLD VERSION]

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

 

 

I agree with the other reviewer. The methodology for Rosetta Stone is great, however the Vietnamese modules only teach the Northern dialect.

My family is from Southern Vietnam (when it was 2 countries), and I wanted to learn more Vietnamese to better touch base with my roots. However, I was very disappointed when I demoed RS and found that the "teachers" all spoke the Northern dialect.

Not only can the Northern and Southern dialects be quite different in sound (when reading the same word), but the Southern dialect integrates both Chinese and French words in its everyday vocabulary which the Northern dialect does not.

It would be great if RS used speakers who were representative of ALL of Vietnam. This would allow customers to get a realistic view/ear for how all Vietnamese people really speak (especially when over half the country is being overlooked). Also, one of my Vietnamese teachers from Saigon pronounced Vietnamese in a more neutral way. It would also work if RS had a speaker who was dialect neutral.

As a Vietnamese American who came to the United States at 7 years of age, I bought Rosetta Stone Vietnamese version 3 to help me teach my children how to speak Vietnamese. This is my third Rosetta Stone product. A couple of years back, I bought RS version 3 Mandarin to learn to communicate with my in-laws who are originally from Taiwan. I also bought Vietnamese Version 2, the latest version at the time, for my kids. From personal experience, the methodology of RS version 3 works very well in teaching the language. I was able to pick up Mandarine and understand my in-laws (and kids). Version 2 was not as good with teaching my children Vietnamese. There is not enough repetition and clues as to what words mean. My kids, 4 ands 6 years old, already speak the language but I wanted to improve their vocabulary beyond what I usually use with them in everyday communications. Being a native speaker, I double checked Version 2 and found it to be correct in pronunciation and definition. As a matter of fact, they speak the same Northern dialect that my family speaks but more importantly they pronounce the words properly. I eagerly awaited the arrival of version 3 because I know its methodology works in teaching language.

Vietnamese Version 3 has been a big disappointment. After much frustration and effort to "make it work," I'm returning the product. While the methodology is great, same as Mandarin version 3, their pronunciation of words is INCORRECT! Vietnamese is a tonal language and their use of tones is incorrect even though they use native speakers who most likely currently live in Vietnam. How is this possible? For this we need a bit of a history lesson.

My parents emigrated south from Hanoi in 1954, when the country was divided into two, North and South Vietnam. We were Northerners who lived in the south. We are familiar with both the Northern and Southern dialect. These dialects generally differ in some vocabulary words and pronunciation of certain consonant but their use of tones is the same as dictated by the written language. In 1975, when the country fell, we left for the United States. From 1975 until recently, as a generalization, most people who could leave Vietnam did so. This is especially true for the intelligentsia. Hence, the Vietnamese people left behind who ran the country (into the ground I might add) were communists and their version of the Vietnamese language came from "the village." Their Vietnamese, the same in Rosetta Stone Version 3, is incorrect in its pronunciation of the written language because of its incorrect use of tones. Version 2 was correct in its use of tones.

I tried using the Version three for almost a month, always sitting with my children and pointing out the "mistakes," i.e. improper tones each time they used the program. The methodology of Rosetta Stone Version Three is very good at teaching my kids their version of the Vietnamese language. I, unfortunately, do not want my kids to speak Vietnamese this way. It is incorrect. As stated above, I will be returning this product and reluctantly going back to using version 2. If Rosetta Stone corrects this problem I will be the first in line to buy their new product.

As a side note, does anyone know of any other good computer program to teach the Vietnamese language?

Craig Nghiem

I was a language major in college, picked up Italian in 4 months well enough to conduct business negotiations, and can still read some Swedish many years after 3 months of twice a week lessons while studying in Stockholm. And I can still bumble my way through French a long time after two years of high school classes.

So when I needed to learn Vietnamese to communicate with my girlfriend's family, I was confident I would be able to pick it up. I chose Rosetta Stone as the method simply because I wanted to see what all the buzz was about. My take is that the methodology of total immersion to learn "like a baby learns" might be useful if I had a lifetime to learn a language. However, after going through the first disk I am baffled as to even the basic structure of the language. Having spent similar amounts of time learning other languages, I can confidently state I am nowhere near as far along in Vietnamese as I have been in other languages.

I am used to quickly learning the structure of a language (pronouns, verb formation, etc) and then layering on vocabulary using a total immersion methodology. Within just a few lessons I have been able to start basic communication. Rosetta Stone offers only the immersion, no structure. I would be completely embarrassed if I went to the nail shop with my girlfriend where she goes to practice the language herself.

Rosetta Stone may work well for other people's learning style. It does not work for me and I intend to return the lessons within the 90 day guarantee.

Learning a lot fast. I love the method of learning the language purely through photos. One caveat: to fully understand the nuances of a language, you will need to supplement your learning with other sources. Rosetta Stone is a great head start.

Rosetta Stone's "immersion" method is certainly helping me to learn a lot of Vietnamese words and phrases, but without providing the translation for what you are learning I don't know what I am saying most of the time. It is not clear what pronoun, what tense or what question is being asked by just looking at a picture. It seems like they would provide some sort of flash cards or dictionary. Plus the microphone / headset doesn't always seem to work properly.

Rosetta Stone V3 - Level 1-3 seem to have very limited vocabulary uses. Eventually it runs out of new vocabulary and basically recycle a lot of old stuff instead of trying to come up with new sentences and phrases. I also have a problem with its teaches of northern dialect words and not also teaching southern dialect words. The north and the south sometimes have different words for the same object and subject.

This is a review from a non-Vietnamese person...

I think the product is great because it's a lot more motivating to learn a language like Vietnamese than from a teacher. I've taken classes and though I put lots of effort into it, I put less effort but get more out of this product. Most of the teachers I had were southern immigrants who aren't familiar with the northern dialect -- so using this as a supplement is valuable but one needs to be confident in knowing that the southern immigrants are right but needs to be considerate of the official northern dialect, the true Vietnamese language. Fortunately, I have more northern friends than southern friends so I get less corrections from them on my pronunciation.

I know that many complain that the dialect taught is the northern dialect, but I'm actually glad Rosetta Stone focuses on the north since it's considered "true" Vietnamese (the south wasn't conquered by the Viets from the Cambodian group until 400 years ago!). However, I did notice that the people involved in providing the voices do have variation in their pronunciation.

Now the important part of the review:

1) The best part of the program is the speaking and the listening part section. Definitely put the effort to get the right pronunciations down.

2) The writing part is easy at first, but when you get to Unit 3 of Level 1, you would have to spell it out with a lot less help -- that's helpful in making me remember the spellings. However, there are two characters that are rarely used that needs to be fixed in this software edition (relating to character o and i). Quick fix is to switch between the two different Vietnamese keyboard layouts.

3) The fun factor is important for me in learning a language. Being busy with work, I don't have much time to drive 20 miles to a classroom and spend 1.5 hours while the teacher corrects another student's mistakes. Rosetta Stone's way of teaching Vietnamese is pretty interesting.

4) The memorization part: a part of the Rosetta Stone exercises involves going back to previous exercises from past lessons after completing certain exercises of the current unit (Level 1 has 4 units and multiple lessons within a unit). I think that's an excellent way of getting the Vietnamese words into your "long-term" memory areas of the brain. I am learning very quickly with this language and I am remembering words much better. My northern Vietnamese friends talk to me in simple Vietnamese and I'm able to respond to them with confidence.

I would give it a 5 star if the following were fixed:

1) Fixing the keyboard layout for the two rare characters
2) Perhaps adding letter pronunciation exercises in the software
3) Adding more units of exercises

Before I finished this comment, I do recommend 3 levels of Vietnamese if you want to get the "Beginner's level" of Vietnamese. I finished Level 1 Unit 3 so far (there are four units per level), and I am enjoying the product very much except for the complaints I have mentioned above. I will continue to finish using the product.

I would recommend people to purchase this because it's the best thing out in the market for busy people to learn Vietnamese. But buy it because you really, really want to learn Vietnamese; not to impress your VN girlfriend (which I don't have and never intended to do unlike all Vietnamese language learners I met in a language school).

Rosetta Stone still appear to lead the way in language learning, however, the Vietnamese package could have been better if it had included the southern Vietnamese accent as this is the accent spoken by the majority of Vietnamese living outside of Vietnam. Most of the Vietnamese I speak to are from South Vietnam and it can be a little awkward at times.

I just wish I had known in advance that the package I bought was not the latest version, which I believed it was. With this one exception I am happy with the product and service, As to service - Amazon was Amazing! I had my software in my home in Australia, in less than a week! Thank you Amazon.

Rossetta Stone is so paranoid about security that you can't install the language files onto your computer. You have to insert the language CD each time you use the program. This is a huge problem for most newer computers which have done away with CD/DVD drives. And, like any CD/DVD, too many scratches means you loose your investment since you cannot copy the language CD.