Still checking it out

I have to disagree with some of the people who are so critical of the program, and most of the stuff I agree on is kinda nit-picky. I took it in high school and college, and I must say I only remember the very basic stuff.

The overall agreement I have with everyone is that Rosetta Stone costs entirely too much. No software package should cost you around $500 unless you're going to make years of use out of it like you would with say a web or graphic design suite or you get multiple licenses for that fee. A single activation should be probably less than half that, and individual languages should definitely be less.

That being said I am still evaluating Spanish(Latin America) L1-L3. I do agree that it would be nice to have some basis of translation from your original language, but we didn't have that when we learned our original language, and it wouldn't help you much if you were instantly thrown into a place where you did not speak the language. You would learn basically the same way you do with Rosetta Stone and how you learned your original language. Someone would point to something and tell you what it is. It bothered me at first, then I was kinda not bothered by the fact that it's almost like starting from scratch.

I also don't think the sentences and and phrases are too easy. maybe in the beginning they are, but they get more complex as the lessons and levels go on. Of course this goes back to my earlier point about what if you had to learn the language outside of a learning enviroment? I'm pretty sure you'd start off with simple phrases and not have the best sentence structure, and if one is so advanced just skip a lesson or level.

Because everyone learns differently I will have to agree with the people here as well as other review sites. Rosetta stone likely is not best used as the only tool and it probably doesn't focus enough on grammar. I know one review site mentioned two small supplements that help with verb sense, pronouns, and prepositions.

http://learnspanishonyourown.com/rosetta_stone_spanish_review.htm

It could be better in helping you with your own sentences. But I'm sure when you were learning your own language you said things in the wrong tense and from time to time. You probably still do. I think what they need to do in future versions is have lil tips or lil balloon pop-ups that give you little reminders and grammar tips and maybe include supplimental information with the software.

In future versions they probably need to include a wider variety of images and video as well as some grammar tips. I don't think the program should just be thrown away. It's a good start and needs to be improved upon. maybe they could add little games to it too instead of just lessons to help with things like grammar