Rosetta Stone Dutch Personal Edition Level 1

Rating:
Summary: a fun way to learn some Dutch
Review: This is a clever use of a computer. The attempt is to put you in a "virtual" Dutch-speaking environment. To fully utilize the product, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, speakers, and microphone. There are about 3,200 images (many duplicates) shown in groups of 4. You select either mode-A, -B, -C, -D, -E. For mode-A, a native speaker says a phrase or sentence in Dutch, which you also see written on the screen, and you move your mouse into the one of the 4 pictures to which you think the statement applies. You click the mouse and get immediate feedback on whether you're right or wrong. For mode-B, you hear the native speaker's statement but get no writing on the screen (practice in aural comprehension). For C, you get the writing but no speaker (practice in reading comprehension). For D (you'll love this), you get the native speaker, and you repeat what he or she says into your microphone, and you get immediate pictorial feedback on the screen as to how closely your pronunciation matches that of the native speaker. For E, you get the native speaker and no writing, and you get to type in Dutch what he or she says using your keyboard, and you get immediate feedback on whether you're correct.

It's clever and a lot of fun if you enjoy studying languages. But ... there's no accompanying book to speak of, just a list of the 3,200 statements without translation provided.

Before buying this product, I had previously spent several months studying Dutch grammar (see my poignant review of "Colloquial Dutch" by Donaldson, a fine book by the way). Hence I already knew the rudiments and had a context in which to place those 3,200 statements and make sense of them. I had the fine Dutch-English dictionary published by Routledge, "201 Dutch Verbs" by Stern, and "Colloquial Dutch" by my computer to refer to. I found this course a painless way to review grammar, supplement my vocabulary, and learn to say some useful things by rote.

Is this Rosetta Stone approach good for a complete beginner with no prior knowledge of Dutch? Would such a user learn the rules of grammar intuitively by discerning patterns in the 3,200 statements? ... Naaah. I'm skeptical. My advice to a complete beginner is to start elsewhere with a good grammar book like "Colloquial Dutch".

I gave the product 4 stars instead of 5 because I have some doubts about accuracy. I found one error that I'm certain of: in one instance an "apostrophe-s" was used to indicate possession. This is good English but bad Dutch. When I called Fairfield to report this error, the employee didn't seem at all interested. He assured me that everything was corrected in the newer version (I bought this product in 2002), but he didn't record or even listen to my error report. Also, I found the word ordering in a sentence suspect in a few instances. Did they just grab 3 native speakers from the street or was there some involvement by a scholar of the Dutch language? I don't know.

There are many more examples of action verbs (running, walking, swimming, etc) than introspective verbs (thinking, remembering, etc) because the former are more easily conveyed in pictures. There are many more examples of third person verb forms than first and second person for the same reason.

One of the three native speakers has a strange pronunciation. She makes third person singular verb forms, which almost alway end in "t", sound like they end in "s". For example, "zingt" sounds like its English translation, "sings". I never heard this before. Is it a regional accent, or has she just been speaking English for too long? It's confusing, especially in mode-D.

This product isn't perfect, but I liked it enough to purchase Rosetta Stone Dutch Level II, which I am also enjoying.

Rating:
Summary: a fun way to learn some Dutch
Review: This is a clever use of a computer. It attempts to put you in a "virtual" Dutch-speaking environment. To fully utilize the product, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, speakers, and microphone. There are about 3,200 images (many duplicates) shown in groups of 4. You select either mode-A, -B, -C, -D, -E. For mode-A, a native speaker says a phrase or sentence in Dutch, which you also see written on the screen, and you move your mouse into the one of the 4 pictures to which you think the statement applies. You click the mouse and get immediate feedback on whether you're right or wrong. For mode-B, you hear the native speaker's statement but get no writing on the screen (practice in oral comprehension). For C, you get the writing but no speaker (practice in reading comprehension). For D (you'll love this), you get the native speaker, and you repeat what he or she says into your microphone, and you get immediate pictorial feedback on the screen as to how closely your pronunciation matches that of the native speaker. For E, you get the native speaker and no writing, and you get to type in Dutch what he or she says using your keyboard, and you get immediate feedback on whether you're correct.

It's clever and a lot of fun if you enjoy studying languages. But ... there's no accompanying book to speak of, just a list of the 3,200 statements without translation provided.

Before buying this product, I had previously spent several months studying Dutch grammar (see my review of "Colloquial Dutch" by Donaldson, a fine book). Hence I already knew the rudiments and had a context in which to place those 3,200 statements and make sense of them. I had the fine Dutch-English dictionary published by Routledge, "201 Dutch Verbs" by Stern, and "Colloquial Dutch" by my computer to refer to. I found this course a painless way to review grammar, supplement my vocabulary, and learn to say some useful things by rote.

Is this Rosetta Stone approach good for a complete beginner with no prior knowledge of Dutch? Would such a user learn the rules of grammar intuitively by discerning patterns in the 3,200 statements? ... Naaah. I'm skeptical. My advice to a complete beginner is to start elsewhere with a good grammar book like "Colloquial Dutch".

I gave the product 4 stars instead of 5 because I have some doubts about accuracy. I found one error that I'm certain of: in one instance an "apostrophe-s" was used to indicate possession. This is good English but bad Dutch. When I called Fairfield to report this error, the employee didn't seem at all interested. He assured me that everything was corrected in the newer version (I bought this product in 2002), but he didn't record or even listen to my error report. Also, I found the word ordering in a sentence suspect in a few instances. Did they just grab 3 native speakers off the street or was there some involvement by a scholar of the Dutch language? I don't know.

There are many more examples of action verbs (running, walking, swimming, etc) than introspective verbs (thinking, remembering, etc) because the former are more easily conveyed in pictures. There are many more examples of third person verb forms than first and second person for the same reason.

One of the three native speakers has a strange pronunciation. She makes third person singular verb forms, which almost always end in "t", sound like they end in "s". For example, "zingt" sounds like its English translation, "sings". I never heard this before. Is it a regional accent, or has she just been speaking English for too long? It's confusing, especially in mode-D.

After completing Level I, I purchased Rosetta Stone Dutch Level II, which I am now enjoying.

Rating:
Summary: a fun way to learn some Dutch
Review: This is a clever use of a computer. The attempt is to put you in a "virtual" Dutch-speaking environment. To fully utilize the product, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, speakers, and microphone. There are about 3,200 images (many duplicates) shown in groups of 4. You select either mode-A, -B, -C, -D, -E. For mode-A, a native speaker says a phrase or sentence in Dutch, which you also see written on the screen, and you move your mouse into the one of the 4 pictures to which you think the statement applies. You click the mouse and get immediate feedback on whether you're right or wrong. For mode-B, you hear the native speaker's statement but get no writing on the screen (practice in aural comprehension). For C, you get the writing but no speaker (practice in reading comprehension). For D (you'll love this), you get the native speaker, and you repeat what he or she says into your microphone, and you get immediate pictorial feedback on the screen as to how closely your pronunciation matches that of the native speaker. For E, you get the native speaker and no writing, and you get to type in Dutch what he or she says using your keyboard, and you get immediate feedback on whether you're correct.

It's clever and a lot of fun if you enjoy studying languages. But ... there's no accompanying book to speak of, just a list of the 3,200 statements without translation provided.

Before buying this product, I had previously spent several months studying Dutch grammar (see my poignant review of "Colloquial Dutch" by Donaldson, a fine book by the way). Hence I already knew the rudiments and had a context in which to place those 3,200 statements and make sense of them. I had the fine Dutch-English dictionary published by Routledge, "201 Dutch Verbs" by Stern, and "Colloquial Dutch" by my computer to refer to. I found this course a painless way to review grammar, supplement my vocabulary, and learn to say some useful things by rote.

Is this Rosetta Stone approach good for a complete beginner with no prior knowledge of Dutch? Would such a user learn the rules of grammar intuitively by discerning patterns in the 3,200 statements? ... Naaah. I'm skeptical. My advice to a complete beginner is to start elsewhere with a good grammar book like "Colloquial Dutch".

I gave the product 4 stars instead of 5 because I have some doubts about accuracy. I found one error that I'm certain of: in one instance an "apostrophe-s" was used to indicate possession. This is good English but bad Dutch. When I called Fairfield to report this error, the employee didn't seem at all interested. He assured me that everything was corrected in the newer version (I bought this product in 2002), but he didn't record or even listen to my error report. Also, I found the word ordering in a sentence suspect in a few instances. Did they just grab 3 native speakers from the street or was there some involvement by a scholar of the Dutch language? I don't know.

There are many more examples of action verbs (running, walking, swimming, etc) than introspective verbs (thinking, remembering, etc) because the former are more easily conveyed in pictures. There are many more examples of third person verb forms than first and second person for the same reason.

One of the three native speakers has a strange pronunciation. She makes third person singular verb forms, which almost alway end in "t", sound like they end in "s". For example, "zingt" sounds like its English translation, "sings". I never heard this before. Is it a regional accent, or has she just been speaking English for too long? It's confusing, especially in mode-D.

This product isn't perfect, but I liked it enough to purchase Rosetta Stone Dutch Level II, which I am also enjoying.

Rating:
Summary: a fun way to learn some Dutch
Review: This is a clever use of a computer. To fully utilize the product, you'll need a mouse, keyboard, speakers, and microphone. There are about 3,200 images (many duplicates) shown in groups of 4. You select either mode-A, -B, -C, -D, -E. For mode-A, a native speaker says a phrase or sentence in Dutch, which you also see written on the screen, and you move your mouse into the one of the 4 pictures to which you think the statement applies. You click the mouse and get immediate feedback on whether you're right or wrong. For mode-B, you hear the native speaker's statement but get no writing on the screen (practice in aural comprehension). For C, you get the writing but no speaker (practice in reading comprehension). For D (you'll love this), you get the native speaker, and you repeat what he or she says into your microphone, and you get immediate pictorial feedback on the screen as to how closely your pronunciation matches that of the native speaker. For E, you get the native speaker and no writing, and you get to type in Dtuch what he or she says using your keyboard, and you get immediate feedback on whether you're correct.

It's clever and a lot of fun if you enjoy studying languages. But ... there's no accompanying book to speak of, just a list of the 3,200 statements without translation provided.

Before buying this product, I had previously spent several months studying Dutch grammar (see my poignant review of "Colloquial Dutch" by Donaldson, a fine book by the way). Hence I already knew the rudiments and had a context in which to place those 3,200 statements and make sense of them. I had the fine Dutch-English dictionary published by Routledge, "201 Dutch Verbs" by Stern, and "Colloquial Dutch" by my computer to refer to. I found this course a painless way to review grammar, supplement my vocabulary, and learn to say some useful things by rote.

Is this Rosetta Stone approach good for a complete beginner with no prior knowledge of Dutch? Would such a user learn the rules of grammar intuitively by discerning patterns in the 3,200 statements? ... Naaah. I'm skeptical. My advice to a complete beginner is to start elsewhere with a good grammar book like "Colloquial Dutch".

I gave the product 4 stars instead of 5 because I have some doubts about accuracy. I found one error that I'm certain of: in one instance an "apostrophe-s" was used to indicate possession. This is good English but bad Dutch. When I called Fairfield to report this error, the employee didn't seem at all interested. He assured me that everything was corrected in the newer version (I bought this product in 2002), but he didn't record or even listen to my error report. Also, I found the word ordering in a sentence suspect in a few instances. Did they just grab 3 native speakers from the street or was there some involvement by a scholar of the Dutch language? I don't know.