Rosetta Stone Personal Edition French Level 1, 2 & 3
By Becky Berenbon
In May and June 2008, we had a chance to review two of the Rosetta Stone Language Sets and we were really impressed. We found their software top-notch in teaching language and we highly recommend them. So, this month we had a chance to review Rosetta Stone French.
After using Rosetta Stone for Hebrew (in May 2008), I decided to try out the French version of the program. Installation was fairly quick and easy. The experience is quite similar. It uses the same ingenious system. Various simple exercises involving matching words to pictures and pictures to words teach the language in a fun, easy way. Instead of tedious translating like in traditional language learning courses, you begin lessons with educated guesses. New words are slowly added and you quickly build your vocabulary. It teaches you to speak French like you learned your first language, so that you can speak French naturally.
It uses most of the same photos from Rosetta Stone Hebrew and Japanese to clearly represent words, phrases, and sentences. The program features the voices of native speakers, which you constantly hear and repeat. It has speech recognition, so it can tell you how close you are to the proper accent. The box even includes a headset. The software reviews old material every once in a while so that you won’t forget important vocabulary. I really enjoyed using Rosetta Stone Personal Edition French. Au revoir!
Background Information
Rosetta Stone, a language learning software, is definitely one of a kind. The software calls its system Dynamic Immersion™, which models the way you learned your first language as a young child. Through images, intuition, interactivity, instruction, and immersion, you can learn a new language. There is absolutely no memorizing involved. Hard to believe? I wanted to see this for myself, so I tried out the program. The installation process took about 10 minutes, including actual installation and set-up. Before getting started, the software builds your course based on what you want to learn. For example, I had already learned the Hebrew alphabet, so I chose not to focus on learning this.
Each language program is divided into levels, sold separately or in bundles. And levels expand on what was previously learned. Rosetta Stone has just recently updated some of their language programs, including Hebrew, adding a third level to the series.
Each level has units, focusing on topics like “Greetings and Introductions” or “Work and School.” The units contain four lessons. New vocabulary is introduced at the beginning of each lesson, and then worked with during each activity. Once you have finished a unit, you’ll do the milestone, testing out your new language skills in an everyday situation, like on a camping trip or a bus ride.
The activities in the lessons are extremely simple and user-friendly, with no complicated instructions. Every screen incorporates sound and pictures, helping you associate them with the words and phrases. The activities teach different aspects of the language, including reading, writing, listening, grammar, pronunciation, speaking, and review. If you don’t do well, you have the option of retrying the activity.
Rosetta Stone boasts its Adaptive Recall™. Every so often you are given a scheduled review activity, making sure you remember what you previously learned. Unlike the other activities, these cannot be skipped.
The box includes a high quality headset with a microphone, which is used for the pronunciation and speaking exercises. The microphone is very helpful, especially for practicing everyday, back-and-forth conversation. And using the microphone, Rosetta Stone analyzes your pronunciation comparing it to the sounds of a native speaker, which ensures that you won’t end up speaking incorrectly, or even worse, robot-like. It also allows you to constantly hear words and phrases being said, training you to remember the correct pronunciation with accent, not just the words.
The system is easy, fun, quick, and sometimes even reminiscent of a video game. Instead of tedious memorization, you learn to “think” French. I can’t imagine going back to traditional language learning, which is hard, tedious, and requires much more time to achieve the same results. Rosetta Stone is an enjoyable and efficient way to learn a language. If you’re serious about learning Hebrew then this software will definitely help.
Rosetta Stone French Personal Edition Level 1,2 & 3 sells for a street price of $449.10 with a no risk 100% money back guarantee for six months. It will run on any multimedia PC, 1 GHz or faster processor, 512 MB RAM with Windows 2000/XP/Vista, 600 MB of disk space and a CD-ROM drive. It will also run on an Apple Macintosh, operating system 10.3.9 or later. For more information, or to order, visit Amazon.com.
Software Companies Mentioned
Rosetta Stone
Harrisonburg, VA
Phone: 1-800-788-0822
URL rosettastone.com
