Cheap Rosetta Stone V2: Japanese, Level 1 & 2 [OLD VERSION] (Software) (Windows Vista, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Mac OS X) Price

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Customer Reviews of Rosetta Stone V2: Japanese, Level 1 & 2 [OLD VERSION]

Glad I bought it!
The other reviews for this product were "spot on". There is no hand holding in this learning process which makes it entirely up to you to learn the language. But I did start learning right away. And that's what I wanted in the first place. Don't forget to purchase a cross-translation dictionary, because it will help you to determine exactly what you are saying. Good luck!

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Both more and less effective than I had anticipated
One thing I couldn't figure out before buying the product was how they would manage the writing practice. In case others are curious, here's the deal. For most exercises, you can toggle between romaji (transliterated Japanese using our alphabet), kana (the phonetic syllabaries), or kanji (the way Japanese is really written, a combination of Chinese ideograms and kana). There are some writing exercises where you can just type in the romaji. There are others where they give you panes with different characters on them and you have to click the correct characters in the correct order to create the sentence (you can opt to do either kana or kanji for these). It's a little tedious--I get frustrated spending so much time just scanning the lines for the correct character to click on. Obviously you will never learn how to truly write with correct stroke order or anything from the software, so I definitely recommend a supplemental workbook or two if that is important to you. But, on the bright side, my kanji recognition / reading has dramatically improved. <
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>Also, I thought from reading the system requirements that I would have to buy my own microphone so I ordered one ahead of time. I was wrong--it is included with the software. <
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>Otherwise, I've been both impressed and a little disappointed with the software. It is definitely considerably more interesting than most types of studying, which helps me to use it more often and for longer periods of time. Also, it builds on the vocabulary you have already learned in a really helpful way. Review is naturally built in, so by level 8 you know the vocab from level 2 a lot better than before, rather than having half-forgotten it by that time. There are a variety of options so you can customize the way you study to your learning style and goals--and switch it up somewhat to keep yourself interested. There are some things that I learned quite quickly using the software that I just could not get to stick in my head using other methods (like flash cards or classroom repetition). <
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>On the other hand, I definitely agree with the other reviewer who suggests a dictionary. It can be difficult to follow even with a dictionary sometimes (I may not know the dictionary form of a verb, for example). Sometimes it's easy and/or fun to figure out what phrases are matched to the pictures they show you, but other times it's quite challenging and no translation is ever provided. There has already been at least one time when I thought I was saying one phrase when I was actually saying another. I had to rather painfully unlearn what I thought I knew. I have mixed feelings about the "immersion" method--I'm all for thinking in the new language as soon as possible and not forcing awkward translations into English that don't really work or trying to make sense of everything in terms of grammatical rules that often have a bunch of exceptions anyway. But, on the other hand, as adults already fluent in one language, we're inevitably going to translate phrases into English in our heads regardless, and it seems like it would be useful to be able to check that we're translating them as accurately as possible. And I've heard the theory that the one and only advantage adults have over children in terms of language acquisition is that we can understand abstract rules and systems, so we might as well take advantage of that by learning and applying some grammar rules. <
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>Also, the software isn't as smart as I thought it might be. I had hoped it would remember my strong and weak areas and customize the questions it asked me based on my progress over time. Unfortunately, it only does that in a very limited way and only while you're doing an exercise of one particular type. As soon as you finish that exercise, it forgets everything. There is a test function and you can look back on your scores from past tests, but you have to be careful to log on--the default setting is to study as a "guest," in which case it won't even remember your test scores. <
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>The voice recognition analysis I find to be pretty useless. Most times it gives me the same abysmal rating regardless of whether I'm doing my most precise mimicry of the Japanese I'm hearing, or simply humming monotone or speaking gibberish (I've tested). Sometimes, if I have no other programs running, have no background noise, have the microphone positioned just right, etc., etc., it gives me real readings, but it almost always seems to be those other factors it's rating rather than my actual pronunciation. However, just hearing my recorded voice repeated back to me after a native speaker is really useful and I think has helped me to improve. <
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>Overall, I am pleased with the software--my Japanese is getting better, which is what matters. <
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