|
From:Rosetta Stone
|
See Product Page
|
User Rating: Amazon Sales Rank:#121 |
| | Page: << 1 2 >> |
11 of 11 customers found the following review helpful:
 The Best Software Tool For Building Spoken Fluency, 2008-04-18
Rosetta Stone products are expensive, far more expensive than most of the language learning tools you'll find on Amazon or in a bookstore. But Rosetta Stone is well worth the price.
Without a true immersion experience (visiting a foreign nation or cloistering yourself at a very expensive university program like Middlebury's where you must pledge to speak only the language you're trying to learn) it can be quite difficult to build speaking skills. Reading skills develop, but speaking, and listening, tend to lag pretty far behind.
Rosetta Stone's French isn't as useful as a summer in Paris, but it's the next best thing. The lessons are exceptionally well-designed for a software immersion program and it's possible to begin to build real fluency if you stick with it and practice frequently.
Some folks may find the program more useful if they supplement the lessons with a good textbook to garner an understanding of the grammatical concepts introduced by the software. This is particularly true if you find you are more a "book learner" than a "visual learner."
If you need a two week cram session before visiting France for a week, go with Pimsleur's beginning CD course. It's more geared to travel survival French (and it's far cheaper). If you are more serious about learning French, and you want to invest some pretty serious time, Rosetta's products are well worth the cost.
6 of 6 customers found the following review helpful:
Immersion learning...., 2008-04-10
I didn't know what to expect when I ordered Rosetta Stone French Level 1.. I was pleasantly surprised by the ease of installation, the precise instructions, and the provided USB Microphone Headset that is needed to "talk back" at the lessons. I am still working my way through the lessons, reading, learning, and speaking. Beware.. if you don't say the phrase correctly, Rosetta Stone knows! A great way to learn any foreign language. Learn, hear, speak..
4 of 4 customers found the following review helpful:
 Amazing, 2008-03-13
It's amazing how this product works. It's so effective and easy. I say anyone who wants to learn a new language, pick this item up, it's better than any thing I learned in language class in school.
14 of 15 customers found the following review helpful:
Mac User Follow-up, 2008-02-02
I hesitated on purchasing this program based on the review by the Mac user. I have a MacBook Pro and it didn't sound like it was worth all the trouble. Luckily I purchased it in spite of that review and had absolutely no problems with installation. I double-clicked on the software application and the install went exactly as the instructions described. I can't give a thorough review on the benefits of the product yet because I've only had it a week, but I like the format and ease of use.
50 of 54 customers found the following review helpful:
Excellent Learning Experience, 2008-02-01
A little about me - I studied Spanish in college and was a 4.0 student who was selected for a foreign exchange program in Uruguay because of my academic performance, so I think I know a liitle about learning a foreign language. Many of the reviews I have seen of Rosetta Stone deal with it's difficulty of installation on a Mac or other technical issues. I think this kind of criticism, while perhaps valid, is not the most pertinent information a potential language student needs. Rosetta Stone V3 Level 1 French has been an excellent tool for my son and me to learn basic French, and though we installed our copy on a PC (not a Mac), we have had no technical issues; it could not have been simpler to install. I learned Spanish 30 years ago, before there were computer applications to assist with learning a language, but I am very impressed with the method Rosetta Stone uses, and it is quite similar to the total immersion method by which I learned Spanish all those years ago, albeit with a live instructor and by listening to tapes of native speakers. If you just stay with the program, things that you don't necessarily understand at first become clear as you move through the exercises. I will say that at some point you will want to acquire a French verb conjugation book like 501 French Verbs or equivalent, and probably a used French college textbook, but I estimate that 95% of what is presented can be learned by simply doing the exercises Rosetta Stone presents. One of the best things about the program is the immediate feedback it gives you on both pronunciation and correctness of sentences, and another excellent feature is the "native speaker speech comparison" (that's probably not what RosettaStone calls it); in this feature you can play a native speaker's rendition of a certain French phrase, and then you repeat the phrase and Rosetta Stone evaluates your pronunciation graphically.
Anyway, although I was initially dismayed by the cost of the program, I now feel it was worth every cent.
|
| Page: << 1 2 >> |
|