3 stars (Decent but horribly overpriced) - The Rosetta stone program is an immersion style learning package that, while thorough and technically adequate, fails to deliver enough value to justify it's lofty price tag.
My recommendation to anyone interested in this software is to go to the Rosetta Stone website and sign up for a month of access to the online version. You will have access to the entire package contents and can make a determination as to whether it is something worth making such a large investment in. Personally I found it immediately boring and not much better than a glorified flash card program. Yes it has audio which is definitely valuable and what is there is good but I can't imagine anyone, after spending a month or two with this software, wanting to spend three hundred dollars on it.
4 stars (Best Dutch program I have found.) - This Rosetta Stone Dutch program is by the far the best program to learn Dutch. I have tried many and have found them very basic. Some were good but you only learned how to order food and introduce yourself, etc. My wife is Dutch so I was wanting a program to help me along. I have completed Level I and am working on Level II now. When I listen to my wife's family speaking Dutch I can really understand what they are saying and can have limited conversations with them. I notice I learn better when I use the typing portion of this program. I only wished that they would include a help book on the "word order" of Dutch. Some words like "anndoen", you will put the last part of the word "doen" in the first part of the sentence and the first part "ann" at the end of the sentence. It would be very helpful to learn why it is done this way. It is difficult for my wife to explain this. This is a very time consuming program but is much more in depth that any other program I can find and I have bought about 6-7 different ones. If you want to learn Dutch, or any other language, it seems that this is a very well thought out program and is fun to use. It reminds me more of a college level course compared to the other programs I have bought. The pimsleur program is good but is only 5 cassettes and once you get to Holland and say your "Hi's and Bye's" you have spoken all of the Dutch you were introduced to. Maybe if they had the complete 3-Level program like the one for German you would learn more. This Rosetta Stone program is so much more in-depth. Since very few colleges teach the Dutch language in the United States this is about as close as you can come to having a college level course. |
