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Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion |  | From: Rosetta Stone
Category: Software
List Price: $539.00
Buy New: $458.00
as of 9/3/2010 16:30 CDT details
You Save: $81.00 (15%)
New (7) from $435.00
Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  173 reviews
Sales Rank: 174
Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS X
Genre: Childrens Foreign Language Software
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Level 1, 2 & 3
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.1
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 6.5 x 3
MPN: 20988
Model: 20988
ISBN: 1603916733
UPC: 794678209888
EAN: 9781603916738
ASIN: B001AFFZM2
Release Date: June 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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| Features:
| • | Rosetta Stone teaches you a new language naturally, by getting you to think, live and breathe the language | | • | Innovative solutions get you speaking new words, right from the start | | • | Rosetta Stone moves forward only when you're ready--you drive the pace, you set the schedule | | • | With Rosetta Stone, you'll discover a foundation of key vocabulary that you'll use to build into a whole new language | | • | Audio Companion lets you take the Rosetta Stone experience anywhere: in the car, at the gym, or on-the-go |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
Rosetta Stone Personal Edition contains everything you need to give the voice inside of you a new language. The method used recreates the natural way you learned your first language, revealing skills that you already have. This approach has won numerous awards, and has been adopted by countless organizations, schools and millions of users around the world. Join the language revolution today. Only with Rosetta Stone. The comprehensive language-learning solution that fits your life. Learn Naturally
Learn your next language the same way you learned your first language. Dynamic Immersion empowers you to see, hear and comprehend without translating or memorizing. You already have this ability. Rosetta Stone simply unlocks it. Engage Interactively
Get feedback to move forward. You learn best by doing, and you'll apply what you've learned to get to the next step. Rosetta Stone adapts to your individual needs and skills, because you drive the program with your progress. Speak Confidently
Start speaking immediately. From the very first lesson, you'll speak. You'll begin with essential basics, which form the building blocks of the language. Soon you'll create new sentences on your own, using words you've learned. Have Fun
Best of all, Rosetta Stone is addictive. With every entertaining activity, you'll feel success. You'll want to use Rosetta Stone to have that next moment, that next breakthrough. So you'll keep using it, and you'll learn more! That's language-learning success.
That's Rosetta Stone. No translation or memorization required. The most effective way to learn a new language is to be surrounded by it. When you were an infant, your parents taught you this way, by intuitively associating words with images. That's the ultimate language lab, but most language-learning programs completely ignore this. Think about all of the ways you've tried to learn a language: classes at school, tapes and cassettes, even software that uses your native language as a base for your next one. What do they all have in common? Translation and memorization. 
Instead of taking a "direct flight" from your brain to your new language, translation and memorization connects you to your old language. You always have to "fly" from your brain, to your native tongue ... and then translate what you've memorized to communicate. That might work for a few words, but what happens when you get to a sentence or phrase? When you have to change tenses? You're going to make a lot of "connecting flights." That's why those other methods are so frustrating ... and why they fail. Enter Dynamic Immersion.
This method encourages you to think like a baby. You'll pair words with vivid, real-life images and make connections between things you know and the new language. Soon, you'll be thinking in a new language, stringing words together into phrases that you create. Innovative technology.
Rosetta Stone places this Dynamic Immersion method at the core of a suite of software that works with you to develop your skills. The simple, intuitive interface helps to keep you engaged in the solution, while advanced speech recognition technology makes certain that you're speaking correctly and accurately. Best of all, Rosetta Stone never leaves you behind. You'll only move forward when you're ready, when you've become comfortable and confident. Communicate and connect with the world: Level 1, 2 & 3 Set.
Rosetta Stone Level 1, 2 & 3 Set will take you on a journey from the basics to a whole new level of sophistication. You'll build a foundation of fundamental vocabulary and essential language structure. You'll quickly gain the confidence to engage in social interactions. Say "hello" and "goodbye," arrange travel, order food, go shopping and more! From there, you'll share your ideas and opinions, express feelings and talk about your life, your interests and more. You'll discover a voice. In a new language. Audio Companion
With Audio Companion, you'll enhance the Rosetta Stone experience wherever you go. You'll learn new skills on the computer, and then reinforce what you've learned with Audio Companion. Simply play the CDs on a stereo or download them to a MP3 Player. Each Audio Companion activity corresponds to a lesson in the Rosetta Stone software, so you can turn your travel time into productive language-learning time. Inside the box, you'll find: - Version 3 Personal Edition CD-ROM software for Levels 1, 2 & 3 (Windows/Mac)
- Headset microphone
- User's guide
- Audio Companion, a multiple-CD set to play or download to your MP3 player
Product Description
As children, we gradually learned our first language through a process of associating mental images with words or phrases, accompanied by complete immersion in our environment. This approach was simple because it was natural and allowed the brain to adapt to increasing complexity. In learning a new language, Rosetta Stone replicates this process to provide the best and friendliest language learning software tool. Learn as many languages as you want!
Rosetta Stone Personal Edition contains everything you need to start learning a language. It's built around the award-winning Rosetta Stone curriculum, which has been adopted by organizations around the world including the U.S. Army, NASA, major corporations such as Deutsche Telecom, IKEA, Royal Dutch Shell, and over 10,000 schools worldwide--and is available in 31 languages spoken by over 90% of the world's population.
Proceed at Your Own Pace - Rosetta Stone is considerate of your time. Anytime, anywhere, you can learn a new language with Rosetta Stone. You learn comfortably without feeling pressured or overwhelmed. Rosetta Stone provides guidance to make your language learning effective, fast, and enjoyable with a process that is intuitive, interactive, and visually engaging. At the end of each lesson, you are given the opportunity to test your new skills. And, since Rosetta Stone automatically records your progress, you can easily pick up where you left off, when other priorities arise.
Dynamic Immersion - Rosetta Stone uses rich visual imagery to help you learn. You will be presented with sets of images to match correctly with a spoken or written phrase in the new language. You will advance to the next set of prompts once you've successfully matched words and images and pronounced the words correctly. With Dynamic Immersion, you learn by directly associating your new language with images--nothing is lost in translation.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 173
 This excerpt of a review best describes my feelings about the product! August 27, 2010
Reader2008
Pros:
Method - Rosetta Stone is a joy to use. Each lesson consists of matching captions to pictures. Sometimes it's by seeing the picture and clicking the right caption. Sometimes you hear a caption being read, and you have to click the correct picture. Sometimes you type, sometimes you speak. It's simple, and it offers a major feeling of accomplishment, which motivates you to do just one more lesson. At the end of each unit, you're presented with a 'Milestone,' which plays a series of pictures taken through the eyes of a Spanish-speaking person. When prompted, you speak as the person would speak. It feels really authentic.
Immersion - This is a major selling point of the program. It's in all the commercials and advertisements online. The idea is that you aren't learning to translate, you're learning the language. You see a man waving goodbye, and you see that it's dark out. He says 'buenas noches.' I don't know what that means, technically ("good night", most likely), but I know that it's a farewell greeting to be used when it's dark out. That way, I don't need to translate in my head. It removes the step of 'how do you say that in Spanish?' from your thought process while speaking.
Cons:
Word choice - Sometimes the program seems to teach things unnaturally. For example, I was watching a DVD with the Spanish subtitles on, and the word 'husband' was translated 'marido'. Rosetta Stone teaches it as 'esposo.' After doing some research, it seems that 'marido' is the preferred term, and is used much more often. It seems that the program teaches the more proper form of the language, like saying 'dine' instead of 'eat' in English. I don't know any native speakers with whom I can verify this, but I've noticed quite a few discrepancies between Rosetta Stone and other sources of Spanish. Another is 'nice to meet you,' which Rosetta Stone teaches as 'encantado de conocerlo' (for a man meeting another man). The easier, more common term is 'mucho gusto,' in my limited experience.
Limited options - Ideally, I would like to see a version of this program that also has supplemental material of a more standard variety, such as interactive worksheets and written explanations of grammatical issues. Unfortunately, this clashes with the ideology of the whole 'natural learning' system. Realistically though, you'll need to obtain this information from another source.
Language commonality - I've used Rosetta Stone in a couple languages out of curiosity. They're all exactly the same, which doesn't make sense. Spanish, for example, is very similar to English, except for "ll", "ñ" and a couple other letters. Does there need to be a pronunciation exercise in every lesson? They only go over sounds, like "vo" and "cho", to show you how they're different. Anyone from an English background could tell them apart without thought. I can see how something like this would be vitally important in Russian or Arabic, where you have to learn a new alphabet, but every language is treated the same way.
Conclusion:
Rosetta Stone stands alone, for better and for worse. The lessons and exercises are fun, but it isn't a complete, stand-alone learning solution as you would expect at this price. It's very useful for becoming familiar with a language and building vocabulary, and it's fun and rewarding. Unfortunately, it's held back by its narrow ideology.
 Never received it. Thinking the whole thing was fraud. August 24, 2010
Sharon Fisher (Houston, TX, US)
One month later I am still getting the runaround from Bently_West and Amazon. I doubt we ever see this product and will probably end up in Small Claims court for the $750.00. We have ordered our last from Amazon.com.
 A bit oversold, but still a great learning tool. August 19, 2010
D. Jensen
Rosetta Stone oversells itself a bit in its claim that it alone can make you proficient in a language. I think it is prudent to supplement it with some other materials, and better yet find a native speaker to practice with if at all possible. Nonetheless, I think it is an excellent program. Combined with some basic grammar workbooks like `Practice Makes Perfect Basic Spanish (Practice Makes Perfect Series)' and online reference tools it is working well for me.
What I like best is it forces you to learn the language by associating the words with images instead of with a translation. For example, rather than seeing on paper that `la casa' is `the house' you learn to associate `la casa' with an image of a house. I believe this helps me remember things better and not go through the English word `house' to get to the meaning of `casa' in Spanish, but more directly to the image of a house. In other words, I'm not doing translation in my head every time I hear a Spanish word.
I also like the voice recognition feature which helps you learn to pronounce the words correctly. There are lessons that break down the words into individual syllables to help you learn the pronunciation one step at a time. Since Spanish is very consistent in pronunciation, this is very helpful. If I am having trouble getting it right, the ability to compare my sound wave pattern with the native speaker sometimes helps me correct the problem.
Some reviewers have commented that it is too easy to use logic to determine the correct translation to associate with an image. That is, you may be presented a phrase that includes a recently introduced word with only one image to associate that includes that object. By elimination, it is easy to figure out which is correct. However, this does reinforce the learning and it is often used to introduce a new concept. For example: After learning that `mujer' means woman you may be presented with the phrase `La mujer corre' (The woman runs) and three pictures of men doing other activities along with one of a woman running. Having just learned that `mujer' means `woman' it is quite easy to figure out which image is correct, but in doing so you've also learned the new verb `corre'.
The Audio Companion CD's are nothing special--just native speakers repeating the words and phrases presented in the lessons with pauses for the listener to repeat. I use them during my commute to reinforce the previous day's lesson. No translations are presented, but I find that I remember almost everything and hearing and thinking about the lesson again the next morning is helpful in retaining what I learned.
The biggest disadvantage is that no background or formal grammar is presented. I think this makes learning some concepts more difficult than necessary. A good example is the use of the familiar/polite forms of `you' (tú /usted). In order to present this concept, the software shows images of people who are clearly friends in an informal setting, or adults speaking to children along with the phrase `¿Cómo estás' (Familiar/informal `How are you?' with `tú' usually implied by the form of the verb used) This is followed by people in a business setting and wearing suits with the phrase `¿Cómo está usted?' (Polite/formal `How are you?'). This is done repeatedly and you are somehow supposed to reason out the difference. For me, it was more effective to just read an article about this topic and move forward.
The same would hold true for conjugation of regular verbs. Rosetta Stone claims this is a `feature' that is not needed to learn the language at a basic, conversational level. Perhaps this is true, and eventually one would probably get an instinct for how to conjugate verbs without even understanding there are actually `rules' for doing so, but I prefer to understand the rules and patterns of the forms and so I've studied them on the side.
It is important to not rush through the lessons too quickly. I have learned to pause the lesson and take more time to study the words, phrases and images carefully before moving to the next item. I replay the sound track for the more difficult words or phrases several times. Each day, before starting a new lesson, I redo the previous one to help better retain what I've learned. It is also important to do at least a short lesson every day.
Is Rosetta Stone a do all/be all program that will make you fluent in a new language? No, and there is no software or set of CD's on the market that can. Is it an effective tool for learning a new language to the point of being able to communicate and have a foundation for additional learning? If combined with a few extra resources such as grammar workbooks I think it is and highly recommend it.
Going full throttle to learning Spanish... July 3, 2010
J. Leonard (Chandler, AZ)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First, I must clarify that I am currently in the midst of using this program. I am just now finishing up Level 2 out of 3.
Second, I also own Rosetta Stone v2 - German level 1. By throwing myself into German culture--listening to music, looking up translations, reading a book here and there, having a friend speak fluent German--I still know more German than Spanish. It's the language I'm most passionate about because that's where my distant family is from. Working in retail, is it practical in Arizona? No.
So I have begun going full throttle with learning to speak fluent Spanish. I can't imagine the enthusiasm I will have when I can easily answer questions from a Spanish speaking customer. Finishing level 2, do I feel at all comfortable dealing with spanish guests? No. Beyond saying "¿Necesitas Ayuda?" and telling them to hold on one moment while I get a native who works at the store--I'm helpless. I focus on this program, and I understand almost every term taught to me; anything I don't understand, I find a translation and review the lesson.
Three can't inform me much more, especially considering the fact that level 2 contained Shopping/Retail situations.
I am not disappointed with Rosetta Stone, however. I don't have the confidence to easily speak, but I feel that day is approaching. It won't begin with the end of finishing level three, however. Immersing yourself into everything Spanish is a must. Combine this was some vocabulary cards (or use open source mnemosyne), read a book, youtube some spanish shows, find some children's spanish books, etc. Learning a language seems less about taking steps up, but rather filling your "pond" of knowledge. Rosetta Stone contributes quite a bit of water, but it alone cannot come close to filling the pond.
So far, so good June 28, 2010
NJL
I have so far gotten about a quarter into level one, so it might be a little early to make a review, but here it goes:
The individual assignments are 5 to 30 minutes long. I am missing a pause button to use if the phone rings in the middle of one of the assignments (there is one between screens, but not if the program expects a response from you).
There are so far lots of repetitions which is good when you are trying to learn a new vocabulary. So far I have not come across word additions that I have not been able to understand, so the system with avoiding translations seems to work fairly well, too. Best of all is the feedback on pronunciations, where the screen tells you which word in a sentence is wrong, and you can click the built in recording to hear it again, so you can improve.
The audio companion does provide additional repetitions, but here you lack the feed-back which is a great part of the program part.
Cheers
NJL
Showing reviews 1-5 of 173
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