Like most things - good and bad... | Rosetta Stone German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion

Great language software. | Rosetta Stone German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion

software:


	• Rosetta Stone German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion Windows, Mac OS X \| Rosetta Stone, 2008 average customer review:based on 75 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Rosetta Stone German review

Please with product but it takes time and effort, there is no miracle overnight way to learn a language.

Like most things - good and bad...

I greatly enjoyed the review of "Psybearian" and agree vehemently with his/her opinion of the customer service. When I initially called to enquire about buying it, I reached someone immediately; when I later had to call technical support with a question in media res, I had to wait twenty minutes before someone answered! Terribly bad form to so obviously show you're only interested in the money and not the ultimate satisfaction of your customers. Aside from this issue, I have found that generally the clerks don't give me the impression that they are very knowledgeable. In these cases I usually resort to asking for a supervisor.
Now, I shall address the program particulars: Initially, I was not certain what response from me was required in a given screen, and felt that some written instruction would have been extremely helpful. Yet, there was none on the screen and what is in the manual is pretty useless, surprisingly.
I agree once again with Psybearian that the multiculturalism is an annoyance. Is this really an accurate reflection of the German population today??? This is what one wonders.
I also didn't like the microphone and its having to be re-activated each time I re-log-in to my computer. In fact, I decided I wished to forego the microphone altogether. I was able to manage this. The voice feedback system with volume lines indicating accuracy I found unsatisfactory and too nebulous with too wide a margin for error. I simply did not use it. Still, I have been told by native speakers with whom I work that my pronounciation is excellent. Here is what I did: I would listen to the native speaker, repeat slowly at first, then more quickly. But the key is, after first hearing the sentence - I said it WITH the speaker, not after. The synchronicity of my voice with hers/his really has worked amazingly well for me. And I repeat each sentence along with the native speaker four or five times. I feel that on a somatic level, I am training the musceles of my mouth to speak it correctly and that in future my body will remember on its own!
Another issue I take with this program is that on some screens the letters are tremendously small - miniscule! I see no need for this. And I would comment to RS, if I felt they cared about feedback. I think these small letters would be a strain especially for older people.
But my main worry with RS is the grammar! Their motto is that they teach one a language as he/she learned his first language. OK. But when I learned my native language ( English) I DID have to go to grammar school to learn the grammar. So, how do they expect their system to successfully teach the intricacies of German grammar, which by all accounts, is even more recondite than that of English?? At the time of writing, I have finished German level one. And I still have no idea when to use "der", "das", "die" etc. The articles, pronouns and prepositions are not at all as clear as I feel they would be if I had had a book and had read explanations and done conjugations. The RS system never told me that in German there are feminine nouns, masculine nouns, AND NEUTER nouns!!! Now, are we just supposed to guess? It was finally explained to my by a German colleague. So, at this point ( I am buying levels two and three), I am planning to acquire a German book as a suppplement to teach me the grammar, because I can't see that RS is doing this sufficiently.
My only previous experience learning a language was French in school the traditional way. I became extremely good at it - with a clear understanding of the grammar! Yet, of course this took place over years of prep school and then university.
But over all my objections, I will tell you that I had tremendous fun with RS. I loved doing it, and cannot wait for levels two and three to arrive. It took me only 2 1/2 to 3 weeks to finish Level one. There is not that much on it. I'm hoping there is more on the next levels. Still, I was working on it 4-5 hours a day, during the week. I found that after spending the day with it, I had German words, phrases in my head whilst I slept ( in between waking and sleeping) . This indicates to me that it is being absorbed by my subconscious and is, as has been said before, a subtle and subliminal way to learn. I will finish the entire German course and leave more feedback when I am done. Maybe the grammar will become magically absorbed in perfect construcion - miracle of miracles!

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Great language software.

Since I was in high school (I'm 41 now), I have been enamored with languages and have spent considerable time studying and learning Spanish and then later Japanese. I truly believe that my learning on those languages would have been greatly expedited had I had RosettaStone at the time. I have found the toughest part of learning a language is the first 500 - 1000 words (pronunciation, sentence structure, comprehension). After buidling a base the next 1,000 words come in 1/5 the time. RosettaStone enables the learner to effectively build a base in a very fun and exciting way. My wife, son and I all use the software and we find it to be fun to study.

I have never taken the time to provide a product review on Amazon, until now. This product's effectiveness completely floored me and I am excited to tell all about it.

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Expensive, But It Works

Let's start out by being very clear here -- Rosetta Stone is not cheap. If you want cheap, then you need to find another product. However, let me be very clear that you get what you pay for -- and if you NEED to learn a foreign language then this is the best investment you will ever make.

Rosetta Stone doesn't use the "school" way of teaching you a foreign language. You know, the memorizing words and such that dooms you to failure from the start. Instead they immerse you in the culture and activities of the country you are learning the language for and help you build your vocabulary naturally.

I've always wanted to visit Germany, but did not want to go without learning how to speak some German first. After spending 3 months with Rosetta Stone I am confident I could have a decent conversation with someone in Germany about everyday affairs and surroundings without having to stumble through it. It was a mind shift at first using their learning methods, but in the end it really paid off for me.

So yes, you can find something cheaper -- but you aren't going to find something better.

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HIT AND MISS

Of all the things that require dedication and persistence, the effort to learn a language has got to be somewhere in the top ten. Rosetta Stone (RS) is often regarded as the best in language software. We'll see . . .
This review covers German lessons 1-3 of the OS X version.

HITS:

1) Even in light of my criticism of RS, I think the software is worth the price. For one, there are not many language software programs that are OS X friendly. The ability to learn on your own time and at your own pace is a huge plus. Finally, there is a LOT of material here. Doing three "blocks" a day took me roughly 3 months to finish all 3 lessons.

2) RS tries different ways of getting one to use the language. But the method that works best is the one that RS was designed for in the first place--mixing and matching words with pictures. The READING, LISTENING, LISTENING AND READING, and VOCABULARY courses are great for learning new words at your own pace.

3) I found the REVIEW lessons useful in making sure that I didn't forget some vocabulary from a past lesson.

4) I had no install problems, only occasionally had bugs (screen freezes, etc.), and the user-interface is very intuitive.

MISSES:

1) SPEAKING and PRONUNCIATION. RS does not teach you the German alphabet. Instead, they have you learn different sounds in actual German words. I disagree with this method because what German I learned previously was mostly self-taught and I found that knowledge of the alphabet came in very handy when it came to proper pronunciation--not to mention the time I took my vision test at Brille Fielmann in Muenchen.
The Speaking portions are better, except when they expect you to repeat a quickly-spoken sentence that is not shown on-screen. If your short-term memorization skills are not up to snuff, you might have a hard time.

2) The voice recognition is terribly inconsistent. There were times I said a sentence EXACTLY as I have in Germany and was 100% understood by the locals, but the RS software insists I'm saying it wrong. There were times my occasional STUTTER got me tongue-tied and somehow I got the sentence RIGHT. You can change the "Speech Precision Level" but I found that even setting it to Easy didn't make matters better.

3) GRAMMAR. RS does a poor job of teaching Grammar. In fact, the only reason why I knew the answers to some of the slides was because of my previous knowledge of the Dative, split-verbs and other rules. RS only informs you that you got the question wrong, but it doesn't inform you at all WHY you got it wrong, why you would use the word "seit" instead of "vor" in the sentence.

4) WRITING. To give credit where credit is due, the ability to have your keyboard virtually become a GERMAN keyboard is way cool and earns many practicality points. However, the Writing lessons are very scarce (4 per Unit). When you do get to the Writing lessons, not even all the slides have anything to do with writing. So out of 7 slides, maybe you do some actual typing on 5 of them. What was most frustrating to me was this: You can stutter and butcher a spoken sentence and get it right, but God forbid that you forget to capitalize the "S" in "sie"--meaning you get the entire sentence WRONG--it doesn't matter if you spelled everything else correctly.
My last straw with the Writing lessons was this: You sometimes can't make out words in the sentence! Is the speaker saying "diese" or "dieser"??? Because the two sound awfully alike. And remember, if you forget just one letter, you get the whole thing wrong.

OVERALL: If you have never tried learning German I would pass on RS. Although it might help you learn a few basic sentences and vocabulary words, it will most likely frustrate you with the voice recognition, inconsistent grading standards and lack of grammatical explanation.
If you do already know some German, I DO recommend RS, but only as a SUPPLEMENT.
Finally, there are MANY ways you can learn German. Sign up for a German epal. Take other free online courses--they're out there! Listen to German music like Rammstein and Fanta Vier--their MFG song is great for testing out your alphabet skills!

Good luck with your learning!

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