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 - Too long to get to basic conversational levelI really wanted to love this product. Perhaps at some point, one could get to a proficiency level. The great thing is that the software teaches you like one's parents would teach a child. The problem is that after 40 hours of instruction with Rosetta Stone, you have the language abilities of a three year old. I put a lot of time into the software (maybe 50 hours) and did not have the ability to speak even broken Spanish at a restaurant to order a meal. My friends wondered what the problem was given that whenever they called me, I was doing Rosetta Stone lessons. My friends who are fluent in Spanish, suggested that I take a conversational immersion class; I think that I'll take their advice. Rating:  - a software noteThis product is sold as licensed software. Users will NOT be able to load it onto more than one computer. This aspect of the product is not clear from the blurbing on the Rosetta Stone website. It is a "single-user" product. Don't think that you can share this with friends, or that it is appropriate for a lending collection. Rating:  - Works Fine With Windows VistaSome recent reviewers have claimed that Rosetta Stone software is NOT compatible with Vista. It is true that you can't just put the CD in and install the software.. Here are the instructions for Installing Rosetta Stone on a Vista equipped PC...plainly posted on the Rosetta Stone Support Site.. 1. Insert the Application CD 2. When the "Autoplay" window opens, close it by clicking the red "X" in the upper right corner 3. Click your Start Menu then click Computer 4. In the window that appears, right-click the CD-ROM drive labeled "RS_App" 5. In the menu that appears, click "Explore" to browse the contents of the Rosetta Stone Application CD 6. In the Explore window, right-click on "Setup" (or "Setup.exe") 7. In the menu that appears, click "Copy" 8. Go to your desktop and right-click on any empty place 9. In the menu that appears, click "Paste" to copy "Setup" from the Application CD to your desktop 10. After "Setup" is copied to the desktop, right-click on the icon for it 11. In the menu that appears, click "Properties" 12. In the Properties window, go to the Compatibility tab Select the checkbox for "Run this program in compatibility mode for:" 13. In the drop-down box, choose "Windows XP Service Pack 2" (may already be showing) 14. Click "OK" to save the changes and close the Properties window 15. On your desktop, double-click "Setup" to start the installation process 16. Click "Allow" to continue the installation 17. On the screen where you see the words, "The fastest way to learn a language," Click "OK" to install with instructions in English 18. Follow the remaining prompts to complete the installation. 19. Once the installation is complete, insert the language disk and launch the program to begin your study. 20. If you are having trouble starting Rosetta Stone, you may also need to change the compatibility mode of the program to "Windows XP" Rating: - Here's how I compare this to the other top Spanish courses on AmazonWatch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R1R6KJW73XNTYL Here's how I compare the three top Spanish courses on the market. 1. Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 -- still the best method out there for the visual learner but using this software by itself will only take you but so far. 5 Stars. 2. Spanish I - 2nd Rev. Ed.: Learn to Speak and Understand Spanish with Pimsleur Language Programs (Comprehensive) This is great for the traveler. You will learn monetary vocabulary terms such as "pesos" and numbers so that you will be able to count your "dolares" when travling to a Spanish speaking country. There are other courses that cover more vocabulary for the traveler but their method isn't as effective as the Pimsleur method. This method teaches the formal Spanish that you are likely to encounter in formal speech or formal writing. 5 stars. 3. Learning Spanish Like Crazy: Spoken Spanish, Vol. 1 (2 volume set) This is the course that I would recommend for someone that needs to immediately learn how to speak Spanish in order to communicate with Spanish-speakers that have recently arrived in the U.S or for someone that expects to be speaking to people in familiar situations in Latin America. This course comes closer to teaching the colluquial or familiar style of conversational Spanish that you will hear native speakers use among themselves. 5 stars. If you really want to see your Spanish take off, I'd say use all three of these courses. Which course you decide to use first or the order that you select to use these Spanish courses really depends on the type of learner you are and your needs for learning how to speak Spanish. I hope that my review has been helpful to other Amazon shoppers. Rating: - The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 Level 2 As the editor of the Learning Spanish Products Reviews (LearningSpanishProductsReviews) site, one of my responsibilities is to review learning-Spanish resources. I am also a native Spanish speaker from Argentina, and a professional private Spanish instructor. In addition, I am the author of two learning-Spanish products offered here at Amazon: 1. Anna Rivera's 1000 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Words 2. Anna Rivera's 800 Plus Most Powerful Spanish Phrases I will begin with an overview of the content of Rosetta Stone Spanish Version 3 Level 2. RSS V3 Level 2 consists of 4 Units: Unit 1: Travel Unit 2: Past and Future Unit 3: Friends and Social Life Unit 4: Dining and Vacation Good Points of Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 Level 2: 1. The interface of this software has been greatly improved by Rosetta Stone. The old software interface was very ugly and archaic looking. But this interface is much more attractive with contemporary photos. 2. Much more content is covered in this version than the previous version of Level 2. This version teaches indirect pronouns. The previous version of Level 2 did not teach indirect pronouns. This version does a pretty good job at teaching the proper use of "te" and "le", etc. This version also covers the the familiar form of "you" or the "tu" form in Spanish. (As usual, I am omitting Spanish punctuation and other Spanish characters from my review because the Spanish characters often appear as strange looking characters/letters in my Amazon reviews.) 3. You will also learn the "imperative" or commands which is a good change from the previous version which failed to cover this topic. 4. Rosetta Stone Spanish Level 2 also does a great job of teaching the two forms of the future tense in Spanish. 5. You will also find that this software does a thorough job of covering the past tense in Spanish. Both the preterite and the imperfect tense. 6. They have also improved the software by adding lots of dialogs. The added dialogs will certainly improve the students' listening comprehension. 7. This version of the software is also a lot more interactive than the previous version. Bad Points of Rosetta Stone Spanish V3 Level 2: 1. It is pretty hard to find any bad points about this software. I had to think long and hard. But one disadvantage that you will find is that it doesn't teach some of the topics that should be included in a Level 2 Spanish course, such as the "subjunctive." At the time that I am writing this review, I have not reviewed Level 3 of this software. So I do not know if Level 3 covers the subjunctive. If it does cover the subjunctive, then it probably fails to cover other important Spanish verb tenses, namely, conditional, past perfect tense, conditonal perfect, present perfect subjunctive, pluperfect subjunctive, future perfect, etc. It woud not be feasible to cover all of these intermediate/advanced topics in Level 3 when Level 2 hasn't even introduced the subjunctive. 2. The other negative about this software is that it lacks the type of interactivity that is required to reach a level of conversational proficiency. Although this version of the software is also a lot more interactive than the previous version, it does not have the type of interactivity that is needed to reach conversational proficiency in Spanish. You will find yourself clicking your mouse button more with this version than the previous version. But you will not find that this software has many exercises that require the user to speak out loud and then form her own sentences in Spanish. And that's what it takes to reach proficiency or fluency. Considering the drastic improvement of this software compared to the previous version, I am still giving it 5 stars.
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