Great program but has its flaws

by Jim
(MS)

No single language program on its own is going to teach you a language, no matter what the gushing commercials say. A good program, and I consider Rosetta Stone a good one, will give you a good basis, or foundation to continue learning, by reading books, periodicals, online, watching foreign language TV, and talking to native speakers, etc. I've tried several cd-rom programs and have found Rosetta to be the best, with Tell Me More a close second. Yes, Rosetta has its flaws, such as no translation; Immersion is a great way to learn, but sometimes translation is a big help, despite what R.S. claims. Also, there's no cultural content because all the different language programs have the same pictures, with different speech and text. Rosetta's licensing policies are very restrictive; you can't resell your copy, and can only use it on one PC at a time. To move it to another PC, you must uninstall it from the first and reinstall it with help from R.S. support. Despite these problems, R.S. is an effective program, at least it was for me. I enjoyed Spanish, level 1 and finished it in just over 2 weeks. Levels 2 and 3 took progressively longer but still held my interest. When levels 4 and 5 were offered I bought them too, and just finished them. I am about to begin Portuguese, since it is a closely related Romance language. I couldn't help but notice that a lot of commenters on this forum who haven't even tried the program are posting negative comments about it after reading all the bad reviews. This is ridiculous. Many others say they started the program and didn't like it, so it sucks. How can they review a course they haven't even done?