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Rosetta Stone Version 3 | ||
Tags: Rosetta Stone | Usefulness | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6152 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes  Speaks: German* | Message 1 of 15 15 February 2008 at 5:30am | IP Logged | ||
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I know there is a similar topic here already, but apparently nobody has compared Rosetta Stone Version 3 with Version 2 from personal experience so far. I apologize in advance if I'm wrong.
I'm thinking of buying this product, and I wonder if there are any real changes in the teaching method and the content and its presentation or if it is all about copy protection and advertising. Maybe someone who has actually had the opportunity to use both versions could give us the low-down? Any information is highly appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MerryHearted Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6756 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 2 of 15 15 February 2008 at 2:31pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just ordered the Spanish v3, so I'll know soon. I do know that they've changed their order of language presentation and it looks much more sensible.
i.e. in V3, lesson 1 doesn't just introduce random nouns but also Hello/Goodbye. Which seems logical, but V2 doesn't. lesson 2 introduces how to ask questions (What is this? Is ___?), lesson 3 introduces asking someone what they are & what they are doing (Are you a doctor? What is he doing? what do you have? what are you drinking?) I'm almost through the first unit in V2 Spanish and we haven't learned anything question-wise except "Is ___" (Is the cat black? Is the man on the roof?) and then only very briefly. So I think v3 will be better. I'm also looking forward to seeing if the Audio CD to practice in the car will be useful. I pinged the RS Support to ask if v2 and v3 were compatible -- i.e. if you did Level 1 in v2, can you pick up Level 2 in v3 and continue? The answer is NO. The language progression is completely different between the two, so once you start a language in one version you should continue in that version. Still hoping to hear from someone who has actually used V3. It's such a big chunk of cash, especially since RS is actually supplementary material and not something to use as a primary learning material. (imho) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6152 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 3 of 15 16 February 2008 at 1:49am | IP Logged | ||
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MerryHearted, thank you very much for your help. So the differences are larger than I expected.
I used V 2 two years ago, and although I quite liked it as a supplement to Assimil, I thought it lacked useful colloquial phrases (which weren't introduced until the end of Level 1). It's good news that this has changed now. And it's interesting news that they offer an additional Audio CD with V 3. I'm very interested in any other changes you may stumble upon as you progress through the course. It really is a lot of money they ask for, and information on their website is very sparse. Thanks again, your comment has been very helpful! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MerryHearted Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6756 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 4 of 15 20 February 2008 at 8:02pm | IP Logged | ||
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I just wanted to come back and say -- the program is completely different. It doesn't look anything like v2. I really like how they have it set up now -- the UI is way easier to use and the program is less boring.
I'm only at the beginning, but so far here's what I really like: 1) greater focus on grammar, right from the start. They make you pay active attention to verb conjugation and using the correct article for feminine, masculine, and plural nouns. They do this by offering multiple choice fill-in-the-blanks for these. I'm only in the first unit, of course, so I'm not sure if they have other tricks up their sleeve for more advanced grammar. But I like that they offer incorrect choices along with correct ones, and make you choose the correct one. 2) Integrated skills. In v2, you focus on one skill at a time, which gets boring really quickly. In v3, you start with an integrated introduction to the vocabulary & grammar of the lesson -- some screens are aural only, some speaking, some reading, etc. Then you go through individual skills, but in a more varied way than before. i.e. not every screen is "here's 4 pictures, click on the correct one". 3) It feels more interactive because of the integrated speaking portion. Which seems to work really well, by the way. I didn't have any trouble with it recognizing and "passing" me on my speech. You still have sections where you repeat after them, but also sections where you verbally respond or "fill in the blank" with the correct word or phrase. Maybe they have that later on in v2, but they didn't in the very beginning, where speech production was all about repeating the words/phrases after the native speaker. 4) V2 started with present progressive (is swimming / is jumping). V3 starts with simple present tense - he swims, she eats, they run, etc. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| matumic Groupie United States Joined 6242 days ago 60 posts - 60 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 5 of 15 20 February 2008 at 9:38pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was just wondering if you've had a chance to try the "Audio CD" that came with the Spanish V3 I think, right? If you have, what do you think of it? Whats all on it and how many hours of content are on the CD?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| MerryHearted Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6756 days ago 22 posts - 23 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Spanish, Mandarin | Message 6 of 15 20 February 2008 at 10:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Guess what? NO AUDIO CD. I was wondering where the heck it was, and went out to the RS site -- and they have removed all references to it off their site. I was scratching my head, thinking -- did I imagine that??? But I did a Live Search on "Rosetta Stone audio cd" and sure enough, Live Search provided me with the cached page from a couple weeks ago off the RS site, where the "Audio Companion" is prominently featured in the titles & descriptions of the products. I quote from their site: "Introducing Audio Companion! Rosetta Stone has just introduced Audio Companion, a convenient way to continue your language learning when you are away from your computer and have CD or MP3 player access. Audio Companion exercises mirror your progress in the software course to further improve your language learning experience." Why did they pull it? Beats me. I'm a tad annoyed because I was looking forward to be able to practice in my car on the way to/from work. In the meantime I'm going to ping RS product support and ask them if it's going to be released at some point or if it was dropped altogether. You know what's weird? I just saw they now have RS "eSchool" for Spanish v1. Classes of 4 people online with broadband and headset microphones practicing their conversational skills. Hmmm. http://www.rosettastone.com/personal/languages/spanish-latin -america-level-1-eschool Edited by MerryHearted on 20 February 2008 at 10:32pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| matumic Groupie United States Joined 6242 days ago 60 posts - 60 votes Studies: Spanish | Message 7 of 15 23 February 2008 at 9:53pm | IP Logged | ||
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How's the Rosetta Stone Version 3 treating ya? Are you getting bored of it yet, or does it seem to keep your attention well? Was it worth every penny, or as what you can see of it so far? I am thinking of purchasing the program because I want to build my vocabulary up and I heard RS is a great program for that. What do you think?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6152 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 8 of 15 25 February 2008 at 4:34am | IP Logged | ||
That sounds really interesting. In my opinion, the lack of integrated speech training was the biggest drawback of V 2. It took a lot of determination to wade through all that boring speech repetition. Do you think that RS has finally become a full-fledged training course instead of being just a useful additional learning tool? 1 person has voted this message useful |
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