Cheap Rosetta Stone Thai Level 1 Win/Mac Personal Edition (Software) (Windows Me, Mac OS X, Windows 2000, Windows XP) Price

Related Products

Customer Reviews of Rosetta Stone Thai Level 1 Win/Mac Personal Edition

Skip this one
I have lived in Thailand for a year and a half now (Peace Corps) and speak a decent level of Thai. I seem to be understood fairly well in Central Thailand but I have difficulties in my assigned region in Isaan (mostly because they make no effort to listen to someone who is obviously not a native speaker. They prefer I eat my som tam and tell them it is arroy). <
> <
>I picked this up hoping it would help with my speaking abilities. The system that monitors your voice seems to operate at random. I tested this out with my tutor and he thought I did better when I was in the red areas than in the green. <
> <
>I am glad that I did not have this program when I first started out as I would have thought there was something wrong with me and not this program. While I still have a lot to learn I will not be doing it with this program. <
>0 <
>Almost every volunteer that has tried to use this program walked away from it after 1 or 2 lessons. This is not a good way to learn Thai. For beginners use Pimsleur Thai Comprehensive (not the ten lesson one) combined with Poomsan Becker's beginner Thai book with CDs (sold separately). If you want to understand the grammar use the one by Higbie. <
> <
>Good luck with this tough (for westerners anyway) language. By the way, why is the previous reviewer reviewing a product by admission they have never used? Studying Thai and studying Spanish are nothing alike (I have studied both thoroughly). After 5 weeks in Spanish class in Guatemala I felt very comfortable speaking in almost any situation. After over 1 1/2 years I still have lots of limitations. Thai is a tonal language and is completely different that western languages. Please stick to reviewing products you have actually used and can constructively help people with their purchases.

---

Translation defeats the whole purpose of immersion.
This is in response to Mr. Conte's review where he's complaining about having no English anywhere in the program. Hello! The whole point of the program is to begin thinking in Thai and not have to worry about translating or memorizing. How could you possibly have thought about immersing yourself in Thai while still having everything available in English as well? It just doesn't make any sense. <
> <
>I have the Spanish version of the Rosetta Stone and I can tell you from personal experience that this method works and it works rather well. You just have to stick with it and not complain about no English. Now I know that Spanish is a lot easier to learn than Thai is, so perhaps it's not quite a fair comparison, but the point here is that immersion idea is a good one. <
> <
>Is the program perfect? No, of course not. But compared to audio CDs and phrase books, it's outstanding. The whole picture association with words process is a real winner that's impossible via other methods. <
> <
>Besides, if you were so stuck up on being able to know the English translation to whatever you were learning, you could have just downloaded the English version of the text on their website. I didn't do that because I wanted to think and grow in my Spanish, but I can understand why some people find it useful. <
> <
>Anyway, I hope this helps to clear things up regarding Rosetta Stone's method. I'm sure it's a bit more difficult learning Thai than learning Spanish was for me, but if you have enough patience and you don't immediately give up, you should be able to learn quite a lot with this program. <
> <
>Adios!

---

Anyone for guessing games?
Boy was my tail waging when I received the bright yellow box containing my 92 lessons of Rosetta Stone Thai Level 1. Wow...92 lessons! I'll be fluent at last! Every advertisement I recall for this product indicated an "entry level" Thai teaching tool, and since I had visited Thailand twice before -- and already had a few key words and phrases in my pocket - and, even studied spoken Thai in Bangkok for a few weeks -- I installed the software the first day and, excitingly, got started on lesson 1. <
> <
>What, no English?? <
> <
>That's right: 92 lessons of Thai, with Thai speakers blazing through their native language at record speed - describing little pictures -- without offering even a single breath of spoken or written English anywhere. <
> <
>After 5 or 6 lessons of these picture-type guessing games, I started to get good at picking the right answer, but realized that learning the actual language ran along the same lines as hitting the lottery. I finally put the bright yellow box -- and all it's very expensive contains - up on the self for a while. <
> <
>Total immersion (yea right), <
>Rosetta Stone claims, "We all learn our childhood language by associating new words and phrases with the world around us." <
> <
>True. But this product communicates through vague-little pictures on a screen - not "the world around us." <
> <
>"The Rosetta Stone method replicates this process by presenting vivid, real-life images to convey the meaning of each new phrase." <
> <
>No it doesn't. <
> <
>The fact is, a child will sit and listen to a language for 2 years without saying a bloody word [slang]. And when he finally gets the nerve up to say something it's something primitive like, "ma ma...da da." Then, over time, and with constant parental encouragement (every waking moment of a child's life) and with all the people around the child playing funny little word association games, a child begins to make sense of the language, and begins to use the language to get what it wants. <
> <
>On the other hand, I'm 42 years old. And I speak and write in my native language perfectly already. I therefore have a unique advantage over a child at learning a language because I have my native language to compare the new one to. I can also focus my attention, use a computer, repeat something a few times till I get it right, take suggestions, and wake up the next day and do it all again. <
> <
>What I don't have, and what this software blatantly doesn't offer at all is something along the lines of a simple English explanation. <
> <
>I don't read Thai script either, but I would love to. Guess what? Everything in the software is written in Thai script without a single English translation. <
> <
>Let me ask you a question; does a child just start reading English? Or, does a teacher introduce the child to each letter, one by one, and then explain to the child what each letter is called, and what sounds each letter makes? <
> <
>Of course the latter is true, but the good folks at Rosetta Stone seemed to have missed it. <
> <
>Rosetta Stone needs top get off the high horse and listen to its learning public. Everyone whom buy this software says the same thing, "it's not for beginners." <
> <
>Make a software that has a built-in tutor; one that you can refer to in English, one that explains grammar and proper word order, and you got a winner. Then, and only then, would this software be amazing for any level student. <
> <
>Someday I'm going to dust off that bright yellow box and figure out what the hell they're saying. But for now, and without making this sound like a competitor trying to pitch a different product, I'll just say that I'll be sticking with a course that offers a proper English translation. <
>