Rosetta Stone Italian Personal Edition Level 1

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Summary: Preety good
Review: A very good software but nothing is perfect language always takes a long time and this does not signifigantly shorten the time. But you still learn it faster

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Summary: Sometimes you get what you pay for...
Review: After trying two language programs before this and being highly disappointed in their performance I finally put out the money for this program. It is comprehensive and I have found it very valuable in it's method of teaching the Italian language. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: Sometimes you get what you pay for...
Review: After trying two language programs before this and being highly disappointed in their performance I finally put out the money for this program. It is comprehensive and I have found it very valuable in it's method of teaching the Italian language. I highly recommend it.

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Summary: Love Rosetta stone Italian software
Review: I have had some knowledge of the Italian language so I am not a total beginner, but pretty close to it. The reason I purchased this software is that I found myself loosing the little knowledge I had. How this program works is through picture recognition along with coinciding speech. For an example they will show you a picture of a bird in different sequences such as: flying, swimming, and the color of the bird etc... They also show people doing similar actions. By picture recognition, repetitive patterns, and hearing the words, you do learn the language. The pictures do build in a methodical way and eventually you do learn to form the words, and then into sentences. But, there is no explanation in the how and why the grammar works. The word "the" is different in Italian with respect to masculine, feminine, plural, and the program does not explain this aspect of the language. You learn merely by rote imitation. This indeed is how a child learns to speak a language. A nice feature to this software is that the native speaker does speak in a slow pronunciation, in some parts of the program you can really slow the speakers voice down and hear every syllable. The program allows you to record your voice so you can hear your progress. Learning in this way is fun and I do not find my mind wandering.

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Summary: Save your money -- avoid this product
Review: I strongly discourage purchasing this product because (1) the software is poorly and simplistically designed and (2) the content is a lazy assembly of stuff that does not promote learning. I ran the software on a 1.6 Ghz machine with 60 GB harddrive, so the performance issue clearly was not on my side. As far as the simplistic design, in the multiple choice select-a-picture section, for example, the answer would be in the same quadrant for a series of questions. This issue persisted throughout, leading to a lazy learning/teaching experience. Continuing with the shortcuts taken by this manufacturer, the photos designed to promote Italian language learning were not of Italian subjects. What a crime to charge $165 for this software!

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Summary: Userful for Learning Italian
Review: This will not work for you as the first or only program for learning Italian. It is great as a supplement to other methods of learning Italian. The method is entirely intuitive - there is no English anywhere, so you may also want to have a dictionary and a grammar book.

I have found Rosetta Stone language programs most useful for reviewing the information I have learned elsewhere, for brushing up on languages I haven't used for a while, and for expanding vocabulary.

It may not be the best choice for total beginners, but you can learn a lot by associating words and expressions with the images and occasional mini videos. I do consider it definitely a worthwhile purchase.