Vietnamese Level 1 Win/Mac Personal Edition [Old Version]

Other products by Fairfield Language Technologies

Product Features

• This powerful tool uses advanced multimedia tools to immerse you completely in Vietnamese, as you experience the language just as a native-speaker would
• You'll enjoy 12 special activities with 92 lessons each -- all of them fun and interesting, and sure to teach you more about the language
• Key skills in listening comprehension, reading, speaking and writing are developed as you get a taste of Vietnamese culture
• Previews, tests and automated tutorials help you when you're stumped, so that your Vietnamese speaking skills never cease to grow!

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005APYW
• Item model number: 036-00
• Date first available at Amazon.com: July 8, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #6,716 in Software (See Bestsellers in Software)

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Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Learn a new language with the award-winning method used by the U.S. State Department to train diplomats. Proven effective by NASA astronauts, Peace Corps volunteers, and millions of students worldwide, the Rosetta Stone Language Library teaches new languages faster and easier than ever before.

We all learn our childhood language by associating new words and phrases with the world around us. The Rosetta Stone method replicates this process by presenting vivid, real-life images to convey the meaning of each new phrase. Instead of translating, memorizing, and studying rules of grammar, you actually learn to think in the new language. Vocabulary and grammar are integrated systematically, leading to everyday proficiency.

The Rosetta Stone Level I program offers a comprehensive course of study for beginning learners, leading to intermediate proficiency. The program contains over 3,500 real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons and more than 250 hours of mastery instruction in listening comprehension, reading, speaking, and writing. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. There are reviews, exercises, and tests for every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program. (Ages 6 and older)

Product Description

With the Rosetta Stone Vietnamese Personal Edition Level 1, you have the same new language-instruction techniques at your disposal that the U.S. State Dept, the Peace Corps and NASA use!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Which dialect of Vietnamese is taught?, June 19, 2005

By	W. Wu "WWW" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

My disclaimer: This is not a review of the software's useability. I am extremely satisfied with the software's ability to teach me the content as intended by the publisher.

However, if you are in the U.S. you may realize that a great majority of the Vietnamese population here is South Vietnamese. This is because during and after the Vietnam War, the majority of refugees was from the non-communist side (south). Therefore, if you encounter Vienamese speaking people in the U.S. there is a good chance that they will speak with a south Vietnamese dialect. Once you are done with the course, you will be able to speak moderate Vietnamese with a NORTHERN accent and dialect. The northern accent is quite different from southern (vastly more different than English with a southern vs. New York accent). Additionally, the vocabulary is 5-10% different. So you'll be able to get by, but if you go to Little Saigon in whatever city, don't be surprised if language is not exactly as expected. The U.S. population if Vietnamese ir primarily southern.

Now, if you are going to Vietnam, and want to learn the language for travel purposes, this program is probably quite adequate. Just like anywhere else in the world you will find different accents and dialects in the region.

Anyway - have fun learning Vietnamese - the software works. All the pro's and con's have been reviewed elsewhere - so I'm not going to be repetitive.

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great product, January 9, 2003

By	Rainer Blunck (Fremont, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This is a great way of learning a language and I highly recommend it. It works for me and I have fun doing so.
Remember that this is a software program and you have to sit at your computer. The small booklet that comes with it only contains the text of the course in its original language, there is no translation of the text. I suggest you also buy a dictionary (I bought Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary which I like).
If you are sure you want Level 1 then do NOT buy the Explorer. The Explorer contains a subset of Level 1. Unfortunately I was mislead because most people who bought Level 1 also bought the Explorer.

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Don't underestimate the dialect difference between the north and south!, October 30, 2005

By	T. Jenks (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a previous reviewer pointed out, there is a dialect issue here that can be very problematic since the lessons are taught with the northern dialect and most of the Vietnamese people in the US are from the southern part of that country.

After completing a couple of lessons, I felt ready to test my new language skills out on my native Vietnamese friend.... to my surprise I discovered that he had NO idea what I was trying to say! He asked me to try the sentence again speaking more slowly, which I did, but still he was only able to pick up 1 word. So I put in the CD and played the sentence I was trying to communicate to my friend and he could not understand the instructor on the CD either! The difference in the dialect appears to be even greater than someone from the US trying to understand someone speaking English with a deep Scottish or Irish brogue.

The teaching style of using just pictures and spoken word to teach the language is pretty good, but there are shortcomings with this. At times it is very difficult to understand the meaning of the sentence being taught just by looking at a picture (this is particularly annoying in lesson 6!). As was also pointed out in an earlier review... you will need a translation dictionary.

Overall, I like the program and in spite of the dialect issue, I plan to continue using it to become conversational in the language.