Cheap Rosetta Stone: Arabic Explorer (Software) (Windows 98, Windows NT, Windows XP, Macintosh, Windows 2000, Windows Me) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rosetta Stone: Arabic Explorer

Each section consists of a series of Listening, Reading/Listening, Speaking, and Reading exercises. The full version of this software consists of 19 units of 10-12 sections each.

In each exercise, you are given a series of activities consisting of a choice of four pictures and/or pieces of text and/or spoken dialogues (depending on which type of activity it is), and you must choose the correct picture/text/dialogue from the cues.

The exercises are very simple, suitable for children or for quick reviews. If you are new to Arabic, or refreshing your skills after a long period of disuse, the repetition will be useful in building your vocabulary (back) up. You are fed bits of grammar incrementally with each new unit. You start with simply identifying various people and objects, and then add a few adjectives, and then add a few verbs so you are recognizing simple sentences such as "The boy drinks some milk" or "The bird flies" or "This car is not red, it is white," etc. Each unit adds more pieces of grammar and more vocabulary, building up to more complex sentences, different verb tenses, and so on.

However, that is as far as it can take you. Diligently practicing all the exercises should expand your vocabulary and give you basic grammatical skills in Arabic. It will not bring you to the point of being able to carry on a meaningful conversation (unless your conversations are confined to describing objects and pointing at various people and animals and stating what they are doing), nor will it enable you to, say, read a newspaper.

For self-study, this software makes a good supplement to more robust texts and tapes. Don't expect it to bring you up to full proficiency. If you want to do more than recognize simple sentences and learn a lot of "everyday vocabulary," Rosetta Stone is insufficient. However, I do recommend it for the crucial repetition and "training your ear" that every language student needs, especially those doing self-study, if you are at a low to moderate proficiency level.

It is important to note that the text is entirely in Arabic script. You must be able to read Arabic before you can practice anything but the listening exercises. (Get a good book on Arabic script and learn it -- it's not that difficult, a serious student should be able to read the script fairly proficiently within a week.) Also, there are no English translations at all. This is not a bad thing -- the way the information is presented, you are expected to pick up the meaning as you go along, and if you practice the exercises seriously, you will. Just be aware that this software is based on the Audio-Lingual method, so you will find no glossaries or explanations of grammar.

Very useful as one element of your study.
The other reviews seem to me to be on the mark for the most part. One of my favorite features in this program is the option to display the Arabic script with and without all vowels. The voice recognition feature is extremely useful and allows the native speaker's voice to be played at natural, slow, and very slow speeds. The speech waveform of the native speaker and student are compared, and a meter rates the match. Lots of fun. After a short time working with this format I was satified enough to order the full Level One program. A relaxing way to put in many painless extra hours of study.

Fun and Easy
This program is very easy to use if you have a basic knowledge of the Arabic script (I would recommend "My first 100 words in Arabic"). There is nothing in English which leaves the learner to figure many things out independantly, but I learn better this way. The only problem I had with this program is that the content is not very practical. I can say that "the car is white", but I still can't say "How are You?" I do have a very basic understanding of the grammar, but mostly just a wider vocabulary and a better understanding of the script. A lot of self-motivation is required to learn to speak with this program because there is no recording studio or anything to require speaking. I am glad that I bought it, though, and I think it will be very helpful to me while I continue to learn Arabic.