Rosetta Stone

Product Review: A

For Christmas, I got the Rosetta Stone  in hopes of being able to speak a little for my upcoming trip to France.

I have had about three years of classroom Spanish, along with making an effort to learn it on my own. I have learned more French in 3 weeks with Rosetta Stone than a year I took of Spanish in a classroom setting.

Ease:The program is self-learning and goes at the pace that you want. This is great if you are really trying to learn pronunciation, spelling, or if you just want to review certain material a couple of times. It corrects your pronunciation (which is big – because you no longer have a need to be in a class with a teacher to correct you) and you are able to keep repeating certain steps that are relevant to you. The program teaches you in the same basic way you learned language as a child. It shows you a picture of a cat, tells you the word cat, has you say the word cat, and then write it. It is really fluid in the transition from teaching the single nouns and verbs into creating full sentences. It is also helpful to people who don’t have the time to go to a class, you can do it at your own pace and still get maximum return on your time.

Cost:The software is more expensive than some, but it is worth the money. I have purchased tapes and books that are less, but I don’t get much out of them. It is still cheaper than most classes you will find.

Software: The only downfall to the program I have run into, and why I gave it an A instead of an A+ was the software. Since I have been using it I have had one software glitch where I had to start the program over. I may have been able to contact customer support and had them help me, but I didn’t want to take the time and it hasn’t happened since. The software comes with a headset and speaker, which broke after 2 weeks. I called customer service and they had another one shipped to me that day. They were friendly, helpful and quick, so it was somewhat of a non issue.

If you are looking for a way to begin learning a new language either for business or your own pleasure, I would highly recommend this. After trying everything from in-person classes to self-taught books and tapes, this teaches well at a personal pace and level.

Au revoir!

Tags: language, learning, Reviews, rosetta stone, software