Rosetta Stone Japanese

Here's Our Review on Rosetta Stone Japanese Software

Those of you wishing you could learn Japanese and are concerned about the quality of pronunciation will be quite pleased with Rosetta Stone's stuff. We've used their software and it is slick. Note we didn't say cheap - $199 for level 1.

Make no mistake, between their interactive software that actually is fun to use and their voice print technology helps you speak like a Japanese by rating how close to a native Japanese speaker you are, this is a high end product for more serious students.

It also has a function where it actually tracks your progress and prompts you to review or re-study areas you struggle with. So in other words the product is interactive. Your progress (or lack of progress) causes the program to respond with further reviews etc. You'll be exposed to all areas, reading, writing and speaking. 180 day return policy if you don't like it. Make sure to read on because you might very well be taking them up on the return policy.

Rosetta Stone Japanese - What We Like About it

The fact that is quite an engaging software package was a nice change from more boring study formats. The software is easy to use, pretty slick and engaging. It minimizes memorization. But then again, those who don't mind this probably won't give a hoot about such a feature. It does a fair job though of attempting to simulate the way that you learned your mother tongue. It does a bang-up job of visual presentation. If you are a visual type learner then you'll love this stuff. If not, your money is better spent elsewhere.

Rosetta Stone Japanese - What We Don't Like About it

First off, give us a break on the whole "total immersion" concept. Although the software takes a somewhat impressive stab at the concept of "total immersion", it isn't total immersion.
We don't have such an issue with the price anymore. They reduced it drastically as product competition has pushed Version 3 The Japanese lifetime subscription includes levels 1-3 which we refer to as units 1-12.

Unit 12 is the final unit in the program.They cut it from $468</st to $139.99. Far more reasonable than what they were charging a few years back.
There are many other Japanese language services and software for way less than what these guys are asking.
Cultural elements are also ignored as they don't fit into the visual format so neatly. We also found a tremendous lack of depth in grammar explanations. If you are the type that needs to know why something is said the way it is, you'll be disappointed or worse than that you'll be ripping your hair out as you grapple with the "why???" type questions.
The amount of repetition is extreme and fast learners will be bored to tears with it and it sure as heck won't take 180 days to figure this out.

Rosetta Stone Japanese & The Bottom Line: Given their hefty price reduction and it makes good on its promise of being an engaging way of learning Japanese for beginners it is a solid contender in the market for visual related learning and will probably satisfy most students who respond to this type of study.

And in keeping with the times they now offer their boxed version in an online subscription based format a most welcomed change. They have tried to bring all that was in the original boxed version into the online subscription version.

However the product does fall short on the inability of delivering its primary goal of "total immersion". We say that your money is better spent elsewhere. You want total immersion? There is one way...the high road of high roads and it involves getting on a plane.

Given that it is still one of the few language learning software out there that teaches visually in an engaging way that is an original concept. We think it may be fine for beginners but should not be seen as a stand alone product but rather a product that has its place when used with other online products that attack Japanese from the grammar perspective.

Rosetta Stone Japanese - What Others say:
"If you're a beginner who is interested in learning Japanese and willing to dedicate short blocks of time to it on a regular basis, I think you'll really enjoy the Rosetta Stone package."

"It is a little TOO much based on repetition of the same pictures and phrases; interactivity could be more advanced."

"Awesome. Didn't think I could learn a new language. Glad I am. And it was possible because of Rosetta Stone."

"I don't think there's a perfect single system to learning Japanese. but I am finding that with Rosetta Stone as my centerpiece I am learning Japanese much better and more quickly than I expected."

"I recommend using this program in conjunction with the Genki textbooks and workbooks and devoting at least 45 minutes a day to study, and within a month everything will fall into place. I wish I had found this sooner because I've only been using it for a couple of weeks and I've made tremendous progress in speaking and vocabulary."

So Rosetta Stone Japanese has its place as a tag along product when used with other products like Japanese Pod 101. Which has just tons of free stuff, fully online, apps galore, and even native Japanese teachers who will e-mail you answer questions and tell you what you did wrong or right. (This is only available in their high end packages.) But even there high end stuff is considerably cheaper and they run bone crushing specials on life-time usage packages 2 or 3 times a year. On top of that there is metric tons of writing and reading practice available in all 3 languages - katakana, hiragana and kanji.