| Rosetta Stone Version 3: Spanish (Latin America) Level 1, 2 & 3 Set with Audio Companion | 
 enlarge | From: Rosetta Stone
Category: Software
List Price: $549.00
Buy New: $450.00
You Save: $99.00 (18%)
New (3) Used (1) from $365.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  69 reviews
Sales Rank: 11
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows Xp, Mac Os X
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Level 1, 2 & 3
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 6.5 x 3
Model: 20988
UPC: 794678209888
EAN: 0794678209888
ASIN: B001AFFZM2
Release Date: June 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Rosetta Stone a good way to learn a language September 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have always been terrible at learning languages. Although I am still in the early stages of learning Spanish this method seems to be working very well.
 technical problems mar an otherwise reasonably good experience September 13, 2008
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
There's a lot of good things I can say about the Rosetta Stone Version 3: Spanish software. It's helpful, I like the review battery that it puts you through, it's vibrant enough to keep the interest of my 9 year old son, and the speech recognition software is decent. To top it off, I went to Mexico after getting through Level 1, and I was at least able to get around, order food, and generally have a good time. As a point of interest (and humor), a fellow American saw me speaking in Spanish to someone else, expected that I did not speak English, and started making wild gesticulations while speaking very slowly and loudly.
That said, a number of things really destroy the experience and make it not worth the near-$500 price tag: 1) Repetitious pictures, phrases, and situations. You get to see the same pictures of the same ~10 people A LOT. They always seem to be either eating rice or handing each other flowers. It's not my biggest gripe, but this could be changed to make the experience more immersive. 2) Depending on what anti-virus program you have, several of the files packaged with the retail product and with the patches provided online are identified as being infected (EXP/Flash.Gen on the installed components, Dialer/Generic on the update). Rosetta's support on their site for this topic is worthless - they recommend updating Flash. This seems to occur on some versions of Norton and Avira. In my opinion, for an expensive software package, this kind of thing is unforgivable. 3) Sometimes the sheer amount of review present in the lesson plan gives you the feeling that you aren't progressing, and since the review is really just taking things from previous sections and presenting them to you again, it's a frustrating and BORING experience.
 Absolutely a pleasure September 7, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have studied French, German and Russian the traditional ways: in classrooms and using books and tapes. I decided to tackle Spanish with Rosetta Stone even though I find the cost a bit high. In less than two weeks I have learned more and am more comfortable speaking Spanish than after months of studying the other languages the traditional ways.
This is absolutely the best way to learn a language. It keeps your interest, as it simultaneously gives you aural, spoken, written and visual activities and imagery. I think Rosetta Stone needs to find a way to reduce the cost without compromising the quality of the program.
I don't want to mislead; the program alone won't give you complete well rounded language. You have to be motivated to use it and study it outside of the program, as is true in any learning method. But Rosetta Stone does indeed give the immediate immersion it advertises, making me feel comfortable actually using Spanish from the very beginning.
I am truly impressed with this program, but reluctant to shell out the big bucks for the next levels. Perhaps the increased advertising I see is an effort on Rosetta Stone's part to greatly increase sales volume which would allow them to bring down the price. I hope so, if they do I will be buying Levels 2 and 3.
The only problem I had with it was that I used my own headset at first, and through that, the program had trouble recognizing my voice. It kept telling me I say saying it wrong no matter how I tried to get it right. When I switched to the headset supplied with the program that problem was solved.
 Not The Best Way to Learn! September 7, 2008
I was very excited to get this product "Spanish (Latin America) Versions 1,2,3" with the Audio Companion.
The software is surprisingly unsophisticated, especially for the exorbitant cost. The verb tenses are not explained which is of course very important in Spanish. Yes, it's supposed to mimic how we all learned our first language, but the problem is, I'm obviously not 18 months old and really can't learn like that. Another problem is that within the lessons, there are no distracters. For instance: The user is presented with three phrases and three pictures and is required to match them up. One picture of a man, one of a woman and one of a boy all engaged in some kind of activity. The problem is that I can easily recognize the word 'hombre' for 'man,' so that's the obvious choice. Therefore I can choose the right answer without understanding anything about the phrase itself. There needs to be other similar phrases as a distraction so the user is forced to decipher the meaning without just picking the obvious choice.
WARNING: The "Audio Companion" is completely useless! It's just the soundtrack to the lessons (no translation). How am I to know what the speaker is saying without any point of reference!?
WARNING: DO NOT rely on this product exclusively to learn a language. You'll need to constantly refer to a translation website and (even better) a friend who's fluent in the language you're learning. Example: A picture of a child at the piano and the parents behind him. The phrase associated with it is, "Los padres estan escuchando." "The parents are listening." But I had to get it translated because I didn't know if the verb meant watching, listening, teaching, etc. There has to be a way to reveal the translation within the program.
OK... I am learning, but that's because I'm using Rosetta Stone only as a baseline. I am also using homemade flashcards, books and dictionaries, translation websites, patient friends who are native Spanish speakers and other free services.
WARNING: R.S. has this product locked up so tight that it becomes detremental to its use. R.S. allows 2 'seats,' meaning it can only be installed on 2 computers. If a user uninstalls it with the intention to reinstall on another computer and does not first go through the 'deactivation process,' it's tremendously difficult to have it reinstalled anywhere else. The uninstall process does not warn users to deactivate first. I guarantee you will spend many days on the phone with tech support to straighten it out!
WARNING: R.S. tech support is not available on the weekends when I assume most people will be using the product.
Sorry Rosetta Stone... Not worth $500!!!
 Quality product with some flaws September 5, 2008
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
The Rosetta Stone V3 is well crafted and useful but...
I initially had some technical problems with it's operation on my Apple. After many weeks and calls, I finally had to reload the whole program. I still have to restart it every so often when the voice recognition software starts hiccuping. My main complaint is that I spent a substantial amount of time with the program but still haven't developed the confidence to converse while in Latin America. This is because this program's concept is immersion but you are not told why one answer is correct and another is not. There is no technical understanding of pronouns, adverbs etc. Also, they have no available printout of the words you learn so you can review them at a later time.
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