Rosetta Stone Version 3: German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion |  | From: Rosetta Stone
List Price: $539.00
Buy New: $479.99
as of 11/21/2009 19:26 CST details
You Save: $59.01 (11%)
New (6) Used (2) from $429.00
Seller: Global_Software
Rating:  68 reviews
Sales Rank: 154
Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows XP, Mac OS X, Windows Vista, Windows 2000
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Level 1, 2 & 3
Operating System: Mac OS X
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 6.5 x 3
MPN: 20585
Model: 20585
ISBN: 1603916539
UPC: 794678205859
EAN: 9781603916530
ASIN: B001AFFRM0
Release Date: June 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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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 68
 Excellent Way to Learn a Foreign Language November 2, 2009
Mr. Bey (Riverside, CT United States)
I had heard a lot of great things about Rosetta Stone so I jumped at the chance to review it myself. After using it for a few hours I can definitely say that it's worth the money. It's a great product.
Rosetta Stone looks impressive from the moment I opened the package. It comes with a bunch of discs and a headset for the audio stuff. Each level of Rosetta Stone is very in depth and full of repetition so that it's easier to remember the words. I found that the combination between picture, words, and dialogue worked wonders in helping me to learn the language. Obviously I haven't really become fluent in German but I remember most of the words that I have learned so far. The headset is great because it really forces you to get the accent right and catches even the smallest mistakes. German is a lot different than English so this really came in handy when I had to pronounce the words. The three levels are really in depth and will provide you with enough German to get by if you plan on visiting the country.
Obviously there's no better way to learn a language than to spend a few months in the country but that's not always practical. Rosetta Stone provides you with a great way to learn a new language without having to uproot your whole life. This set is pricey but it's well worth the money. No other product I've ever used to help me learn a language comes close to how good this product is. Finally the advertisements are right, Rosetta Stone is the real deal.
 not worth the price October 26, 2009
CAW (Middleboro, MA United States)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
You're really excited about that trip you're taking to a foreign country. You want to speak the language and talk to the natives. So you dive right into Rosetta Stone and in the very first lesson learn how to say "The boy is sitting on the airplane" and "the girls are jumping." And it doesn't get very much more conversational from here until well into the program.
Save your money, get Pimsleur or Fluenz, which both teach you really useful phrases from the beginning, such as "do you understand English?" Or Living Language, which I believe is out of print for some languages but you'll be able to find used.
Oh, by the way, you won't be able to resell your Rosetta Stone software once you're finished with it, so YOU ARE STUCK FOR THE WHOLE PRICE! FOREVER!
 Good base, but Rosetta will only get you to a beginning level for a language October 24, 2009
N. Weeks (Washington, DC)
I was lucky enough to get the online version of this product for free through work. I am up into level 2 of the German and will likely update this review once I have completed all three levels.
The one major point I would like to get across is that Rosetta will help you learn a language, but it will only get you to a base proficiency level. In total, Rosetta levels 1-3 offers about 72 hours of course material. While I think it provides a very good base, I feel it is important to indicate its limits for anyone wanting to buy this very expensive software.
Pros
- Very easy to use
- Excellent format that is mildly addictive. Each level has 4 units that have 4 core lessons each with 3-8 sub lessons. The breakout makes it very easy to through the material and also provides useful positive reinforcement.
- Uses only native speakers so you only hear correct pronunciation.
- Allows for speech feedback. Though the speech recognition is somewhat inconsistent, it is very useful to get constant feedback and an opportunity to speak.
- Immersion method seems to work well. I took a year of German about 10 years ago and always found myself having to translate everything I saw into English before speaking. With Rosetta, at least initially, I feel that I can think in German versus English and then German.
-Good but not amazing production values.
Cons
- Expensive. There are some free language programs and cheaper alternative available if your budget is really tight. Consider those. This product however is not a waste of money, it might just not be worth ~ $500 to you.
- Fairly limited content. I might change my mind after I finish level 3, but as a reminder this only offers around 72 hours of material. It would be nice if they had levels 1-5 for German too. Oh well, I guess a limited market.
In conclusion, Rosetta is a good product that is expensive and will only help you establish a base in a language. That being said, I wish this had been available when I first tried to learn German 10 years ago.
Rosetta Stone Version 3: German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set October 21, 2009
Larry (Lilburn, Georgia United States)
Being of German descent I have a desire to keep learning the language. That is why I have taken the Goethe Institut German language courses and used Pimsleur and Sybervision courses, among others. The Pimsleur / Sybervision language courses cost over $300 each. They each have their benefits and strong points as well as weaknesses, however, I will not go into them here. This is about the Rosetta Stone Version 3: German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion. I have been using Rosetta Stone Version 3: German Level 1, 2 & 3 Set for over a month now and believe it is a very good way to learn a language.
With the Rosetta Stone German you are immersed in the language. It is a totally different way of learning. Pictures are shown which have you match the correct word or phrase. Pronunciation is practiced using the included headset and microphone. You begin to associate the correct words and phrases with the situation. Having studied German previously has given me some appreciation for this course. The method is easy to understand and use regularly. The included audio CD's are useful to practice speaking what you have learned.
Technically speaking, installation of the CD software was easy on my Macbook, although somewhat time consuming. Once installed it needed to update, of course. Setting up the program is easy. I do continue to have to turn the headset and mic on every time I use the program. As others have mentioned in their comments, the software only has two activations and after that you have to call RS for support. One suggestion for RS is I think they should have had more German "looking" pictures in the coursework, and less multicultural photos.
I don't think you can do much better for the price but, you may find you need to add something to your learning experience. I would recommend you use a coursebook such as Themen neu 1, Coursebook.
All in all, the Rosetta Stone German lessons are a worthwhile learning companion. Finishing the Rosetta Stone Version 3: German Level 1, 2 & 3 course should give you the ability to speak and understand German.
Great product with shoddy licensing regulations September 24, 2009
Ravenskya
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Where to even begin - First my major frustration.
I have drooled over this software for years and when it finally arrived I tore open the box to install right away. The box is nice, the included booklet and materials are also nice, well made and useful. The installation went well, no trouble at all, until after completing the install from the disc and moving on to the update from their website. The update downloaded and started to install - then froze. Confused I discovered that Windows had ignored my telling it not to automatically download Windows updates and had instead downloaded one and was attempting to reboot my computer in the middle of my Rosetta Stone install. I sat for over an hour telling Windows not to reboot the computer while waiting for the Rosetta Stone update to complete. Finally I had to go make dinner and left the computer to its own devices.
When I returned my laptop was dead - completely... so I called Dell and they did some magic to tell me that my hard drive was kaput. I now had to wait 3 days for my new hard drive to arrive (thank goodness for Dell's Warranties). Once I had the new hard drive and had put my computer back together, I tried the Rosetta Stone install again. This time it went much faster, and the update went off without a hitch. Then I read in the agreement that the software can only be installed a total of 2 times. So I called Rosetta Stone - The told me that it was indeed true, that heaven forbid I buy a new computer, I cannot move it to the new one without contacting them ahead of time to deactivate the registration on the old computer. I was upset because I had wanted to also install it on my children's computer so that they could try it as well - but I was informed that unless I mailed them proof of purchase and leapt through a few other hoops, that they could do nothing for me. If my current hard drive dies - I am out $500 software. That fact alone would make me as a consumer very hesitant to shell out the kind of money they are asking for.
Now on to the product -
I like it. I set up 3 students on it; me, my son, and my husband and only myself and my son have tried it. He loved it but could not do the speaking recognition since not only has he picked up a strong southern (read "redneck") accent - but he's also 8 years old and it had a hard time recognizing anything he said.
What I like:
1) There really isn't any English in the program, you start it up and boom - there's a picture of a little girl with the word in German above it and a lady saying the word out loud. There is a lot of clicking to identify what is being said to you, picking out the picture that matches the words or repeating what has been said to you.
2) The pictures are very pretty; the flow of the material is presented in a very attractive manner.
3) This is incredibly easy to use; my 8 year old went along for a while using it and having a blast with no trouble or instruction at all until he hit the speaking part.
4) Others have complained of the headset - this is the only one I have ever had for the computer and it hasn't given me any trouble at all. It even survived a road trip with quite a bit of abuse.
5) This method of teaching me the masculinity/femininity of the articles and different words actually seems to be sticking. Which is funny because I've taken (and failed) German classes and had a hard time remembering them before.
What I didn't like:
1) The biggest one is the issue with only installing it twice - ever.
2) The speech recognition was going great for a while, but then would suddenly not understand me in a simple syllable. I spent 3 minutes trying to pronounce "com" the way it wanted, ending with a string of curses and lots of beeping in my ear - perhaps I have a southern accent as well.
3) I would really have liked for the pictures to have gone with the culture of the country whose language I am trying to learn. Why am I learning the German word for Woman while looking at a picture of a Chinese Kabuki Dancer? I understand the multicultural aspect and that they probably just have stock pictures used for all of the languages - but for the money they want for this product, put pictures from German speaking cultures in it. When I buy the Mandarin version THEN give me the Kabuki pictures.
4) I personally don't believe that I will be fluent in the language through this method without finding a German in real life to converse with. I am currently almost done with phase 1 and although I now recognize the words, I don't know that I will be able to formulate conversation through this method. I will update when I complete the entire program.
It is my belief that this software will allow you to probably pass German 1 and 2 at a college level with at least a "B." I also think that you could go over to Germany, be able to order a meal, ask for directions and get around with little to no problem. I DON'T think that you will be able to discuss politics or pass as a native.
Is it worth the money? If you take out the install limitation - the software itself is great. I do recommend it, but you have to know ahead of time how badly do you want to learn the language and how much are you willing to pay to learn it. The cost is about the same as a college class and would cover both German 1 and 2 at the college level so in theory it's cheaper then taking the two classes in it. If you have a hard time in classes then this may be the way to go.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 68
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