Japanese Level 1 & 2 Win/Mac Personal Edition [Old Version]

I wanted to learn Japanese, and for all the hype-dodging I do everyday, I somehow fell victim to this. I don't know how well this works for other people, but for me it wasn't enough. I had to use additional tools (other books and internet sources) to start to get even a basic understanding of the language. To begin with, how about teaching the fact that the word "mother" is different depending on whether you are talking about your own mother or someone else's mother? That wasn't included in here. It doesn't teach you the multitude of verb endings, it doesn't even TOUCH conjugation. It wasn't until I used another source that I realized that kanojo and kare weren't woman and man, but she and he. That's the kind of stuff people need to know to learn a language. The only reason I gave it two stars is because it did teach me new words. But I could have gone to a dictionary for that. This product is seriously over hyped. If you get it (which you shouldn't) you will absolutely need additional sources to actually learn anything useful.

I have already learned two languages to relative fluency, Spanish and Croatian, but had never tried Rosetta Stone. Perhaps learning with Rosetta Stone is easier for me because of already knowing how to learn a language through immersion, especially when considering the fact that Croatian has almost as little to do with English as Japanese does (although at least it shares an alphabet!). This having been said, it seems to me that this program allows you to pick up on vocabulary that would be far more difficult to memorize without this kind of medium.

I have never studied Japanese in my life, and yet after just a day and a half of doing the lessons, maybe two or three hours total, I have stored away at least 15-20 new words. This is pretty much unheard of for me, because since I'm a kinesthetic learner (meaning one learns best by doing with a mixture of seeing and hearing), I have a hard time memorizing words by reading alone, or from simple listening. I can understand the linguistic concepts but memorization has always been my weak point.

This program is not something to be used as an all-in-one, but generally I've found that a combination of materials and manners of study is always best for learning no matter the language. For someone like me, who has to put a huge effort into memorization, it's a relief to have a medium that makes it easy to put together the word with the image and the sound. Aside from making it much easier to memorize words by forcing you to read, look, listen and act at the same time (as well as write in some exercises), it allows you to begin to recognize the cadence of the language at a much faster rate as well. Normally one of the first difficulties of learning a language is differentiating between sounds. Already I can tell where one word begins and another ends by listening and reading the accompanying sentences.

This program is similar to immersion, in which one learns by piecing together what one sees and hears. It's definitely worth a try, although maybe it would be best for those who've already had some foreign language experience. Try repeating aloud each sentence the program says, or at least the key word, and that might help to speed up the memorization process and polish your pronunciation.

I think that this product is over-hyped and too expensive for what it actually is, but that it's still a strong program when used in collaboration with other materials. I would suggest it if you are serious about learning the language, but probably not until you're sure that you are. Perhaps you can see if they have it at your library first, try it out, have some patience, then decide whether it works for you.

I already speak Japanese, but don't have many opportunities to keep it current and fresh--this is a great tool to hear native speakers and make sure you've still got it!

As I have stated in other product reviews, Rosetta Stone is clearly overrated but solid.
The problem with the overall approach is that it requires that you spend your learning time in front of a computer, which is where you do everything else. Lot's of competition.
I prefer to do my language learning during my otherwise wasted downtime while I drive. If I study a language while driving, I win because I use otherwise wasted hours. I, like most Americans, spend more time driving than ever before. When I get home, I want to do other essentials.
My favorite car Japanese course is Behind the Wheel Japanese 8 CDs. This approach frees up your computer, saves your eyes, and allows you to learn to speak Japanese while you drive.Behind the Wheel Japanese: 8 One Hours Multi-Track CDs

This is an excellent way to learn a new language. It uses complete immersion to allow you to adjust to the language quickly, but it doesn't overwhelm you with the language. Most other systems would have you translating the new language back to English, but with Rosetta Stone you connect the new words and sentences to the pictures of actions and objects. This trains your mind to think in the new language, which is much faster than trying to translate it.