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Rosetta Stone Level 1 Hindi (PC/Mac)
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| List Price: | £139.00 |
| Price: | £129.99 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Delivery on orders over £15. Details |
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
Dispatched from and sold by Amazon.co.uk
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #4002 in Software
- Brand: Rosetta Stone
- Model: 046-00
- Released on: 2004-06-18
- Platforms: Mac OS X, Windows 2000, Windows Me, Windows XP
- Number of items: 1
Editorial Reviews
Manufacturer's Description
With over 3500 real-life images and phrases in 92 lessons, Rosetta Stone Level 1 Hindi provides up to 250 hours of mastery instruction in Listening Comprehension, Reading, Speaking and Writing. Systematic structure teaches vocabulary and grammar naturally, without lists and drills. Previews, exercises and tests accompany every lesson with automated tutorials throughout the program.
Rosetta Stone Level 1 Hindi provides instruction in such categories as:
How it works
The Rosetta Stone's Dynamic Immersion method works by simulating the natural language learning process we all experienced as children. No translation. No memorization. No drills or lists. With instruction exclusively in the target language, you start thinking in the new language from the very first lesson. The association of pictures, native speaker voices and texts allows you to master basic vocabulary quickly. And this in turn acts as a foundation on which to build words, phrases, sentences, and grammatical structures, still in the target language only.
Within each lesson, choose from a variety of different activities that concentrate on listening comprehension, reading comprehension, speaking or writing:
Dynamic Immersion teaches you to link speech directly with meaning. Match the spoken phrase and the image correctly and the meaning is clear. No translation or memorization. The words have meaning. The image has a name.
Reading comprehension parallels the comprehension of speech. The Rosetta Stone develops reading skills by presenting written text without spoken-language support. Match words to image and the computer verifies the meaning.
Speaking a new language is the learner's most rewarding challenge. Speech Recognition records your voice and plays it back for comparison with the voice of the native speaker. A graded meter quickly assesses your proficiency and a voiceprint analyzes your pronunciation in detail.Dictation uses the computer to check your written work for accuracy. Click on the picture. Write what you hear. The program indicates errors and allows you to correct your work before you proceed.
Customer Reviews
works well
Works very well for memorising huge amounts of nouns but i would agree you need some seperate literature to back it up; verb tables etc.
Waste of time
What a waste of time this software is. The first part of the first lesson is ok, but after a while it is impossible to work out what the pictures mean. This is because the grammar is not explained in any way, and with Hindi the verbs and the nouns depend on the gender, which means that any new word introduced is difficult to understand due to not knowing if it is masculine or feminine. This is only part of the problem. It is impossible to know the exact meaning of a word because the picture is so ambiguous. Is the boy tripping over, falling over, jumping? Who knows? You could end up using the wrong word in the wrong context.
The speech recognition is accurate because I got a native speaker to try it out for me and he gets full marks, so it is actually possible to get full marks if you say it correctly. But get yourself a copy of Beginners' Hindi by Rupert Snell; it's a different ball game for a fraction of the price. It's fun, simple, and actually useful when you're in India, and generally much better.
Over-priced And Over-hyped
Intent on returning to travel more extensively in India, I decided to learn Hindi. Never having learnt a foreign language before, I was keen for something that was accessible, user-friendly, enjoyable and easily understandable; The huge marketing for the Rosetta Stone products suggests it is all of these things. My experience with it showed otherwise.
The entire course is taught principally through pictures and statements, with no English translation to guide. This is fine at first when you are learning simple words - 'boy', 'girl', 'car', etc - but as soon as the pictures becomes more complex, the system falls apart. Is the man CHASING the boy? Is he RUNNING after him? Is the boy running AWAY? Who knows! The only way to find out is to keep stopping and consult a dictionary, therefore rendering the whole "dynamic learning process" hyped in the Rosetta Stone marketing, as worthless!
This product falsely encourages people to think that there is such a thing as a "quick fix" to learning new languages. But in its determination to "immerse" users in their desired language, it leaves behind all the grammatical, spelling and contextual explanations which are CRUCIAL to gaining a full understanding. The fact is that learning any language can be a difficult, time-consuming, occasionally frustrating process.
I have since purchased a copy of 'Teach Yourself Hindi' by Rupert Snell. It is an excellent book which costs a tiny fraction of this product, but which is exhaustive, thorough, accessible and highly readable. Since doing so, my Hindi has improved immeasurably compared with what I learnt using Rosetta Stone. About the only good thing that I can say about the software is the unconditional six month guarantee.
A guarantee which I intend to make use of.
