Rosetta Stone Arabic-compare Version3 vs Verson 2

by vicki
(san pedro, ca)

A couple of years ago, I requested a Demo CD in Arabic. For whatever reason, I didn't use it until 2 or 3 weeks ago, but I was very impressed with the method and the language. I had lived in Tunisia so although the pronunciation was a little different, I recognized quite a few words/verbs on the demo CD and decided I would purchase Levels 1-3 in Arabic. What arrived was Verson 3. I could hardly understand anything, and was absolutely perplexed at how the new version could be so unintelligible. I was a language major, have taught ESL, etc., and I couldn't believe why I was struggling with the very first lesson. Well, I called customer service and found out. Version 2, which I liked, is standard Arabic. Version 3 is Classical Arabic...which, in my opinion, no one speaks. Make no mistake, the two programs and the two languages (standard vs classical) are very different, particularly with the endings of the words. Standard Arabic pretty much drops the endings. So, for example, phonetically, if I say "beb" (door), classical Arabic would say "beb-boon." All those "oons" in Classical Arabic would drive me crazy. I am not going to torture myself with this program. I will return it early next week. Too bad.