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I attended a private school when I was younger and had 2 years of German language. Later, I switched to a public school and the language receded into my subconscious since I had no one to communicate with.

Throughout the years, I made several attempts to re-learn the language and gave up in frustration. I wanted to be able to think in German again, but the teaching methods created a translation process in my mind. Finally, I decided to give Rosetta Stone a try and have completed levels 1 through 3.

This program helps build a solid foundation of the language because you are learning through association, not translation. The lessons help you develop both spoken and written language. As I progressed with the lessons, the content made sense and I found the Adaptive Recall sessions to be extremely helpful in retaining what I had learned.

I also noticed significant improvement in my comprehension and understanding of the language. And, when exposed to German (outside of the software), I was naturally isolating unfamiliar words and determining the context to accurately interpret the meaning. (Which I later verified by looking up the unfamiliar words.)

The only negative that I found with this program is with the voice recognition technology. It works well for the most part, however it has not been perfected yet. It works by comparing sound patterns. So if the native speaker uses a different tone or speed for a particular phrase, you must replicate that exactly or the software won’t recognize that it’s correct.

Sometimes I pronounced a phrase precisely and had to endure several frustrating attempts for the software to acknowledge this. Other times, I said the wrong phrase, but the software considered it correct because the tone and speed matched the native speaker. (For example, the phrase was informal “Was machst du gern” but I said formal “Was machen Sie gern”.)

I was so pleased with the results of this program that I later bought Rosetta Stone Italian levels 1 through 3. I highly recommend Rosetta Stone for building a solid foundation of a language and if you would like to think in that language, rather than have a translation process in your mind.

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Please don’t take offense the title of this review. I just wanted to get your interest. I do not claim to be smarter than you, just more expert in foreign language teaching and learning. Full disclosure: I have taught French since 1967.

My first issue with this product is that the sequence of lessons, suitable for Romance Languages (I found Italian and Spanish very useful), works much less well for German. German is not Portuguese of French. It, like Latin, has three genders. Nouns are declined. The agreement of articles and adjectives with nouns is, initially, quite daunting. As a result, Rosetta Stone German lesson presenting elementary concepts frequently require the learner to employ more advanced words and forms with which he/she is unfamiliar. That makes a correct response practically impossible. A recipe for frustration? Obviously. Why do it this way? Because that order of presentation works so great for French, of course!

I have already studied German (that was 48 years ago, but I still recall a ton, although I don’t know where my keys are), so this program is fine for me. i know where the bodies are buried. This is by way of warning you that you had better have a firm grasp of English grammar, or be a language professor, or be exceptionally adept at language learning, or you will never use this application after an initial, disillusioning try.

Technically, I’ve found minor glitches during the first couple of hours of use: e.g., instead of the sequence prompt – time to answer – verification, one lesson has time to answer -prompt- verification. Minor, but initially confusing to me, who have written many language exercises. What would a novice would make of it? Not very much, you can be sure.

The worst thing about Rosetta Stone products is that the company sees itself as an adversary of language learners, not an ally. They are offensively defensive over their intellectual property. To study Italian, I had to schlepp around a fragile DVD from home to work to weekend home. Spanish was fine. But installing German has been pure torture: Rosetta Stone is not allowing me to install German in Princeton for weekend use. And Rosetta has intentionally or accidentally created an infinite loop: you are told that you can use some of the features without registering the product. Just try! Prepare to be enraged.

Rosetta Stone throws around nickels like manhole covers. Prices are way high. Substandard language teaching techniques abound. Hire a first-rate teacher for each language, not just clueless native speakers. Were I running the show, I would work much harder on making my software perfect and my customers happy. We’ve all seen how Apple does it.

Rosetta Stone is technologically on the right track. Pedagogically, not so much. These are computer people, not language teachers. Otherwise, they would never fail to approach each language as a unique challenge to learners; a cookie-cutter, one-size-fits-all approach respects neither the language nor the student.

I have no better suggestion than Rosetta Stone for learning materials for German. Beginners, buy only level one. If you can work with it, good for you! Buy the whole course. It’s wonderful to learn a new language. I seriously doubt, however, that one student in ten will be able and willing to stick it out to the end of the level. And that is a terrible shame.

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I love the Rosetta Stone system of learning German! The pictures are modern and they are combined with words and phrases in both a written and speaking format. There is also an audio companion to help practice using a CD player or IPOD. There are fun stories and games at all levels so you can practice what you are learning. I am really excited about it and feel I have already learned more with this system than with any other lessons that I tried. I would highly recommend the Rosetta system of learning a new language!

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