Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I was very excited to get this product "Spanish (Latin America) Versions 1,2,3" with the Audio Companion. The software is surprisingly unsophisticated, especially for the exorbitant cost. The verb tenses are not explained which is of course very important in Spanish. Yes, it's supposed to mimic how we all learned our first language, but the problem is, I'm obviously not 18 months old and really can't learn like that. Another problem is that within the lessons, there are no distracters. For instance: The user is presented with three phrases and three pictures and is required to match them up. One picture of a man, one of a woman and one of a boy all engaged in some kind of activity. The problem is that I can easily recognize the word 'hombre' for 'man,' so that's the obvious choice. Therefore I can choose the right answer without understanding anything about the phrase itself. There needs to be other similar phrases as a distraction so the user is forced to decipher the meaning without just picking the obvious choice. WARNING: The "Audio Companion" is completely useless! It's just the soundtrack to the lessons (no translation). How am I to know what the speaker is saying without any point of reference!? WARNING: DO NOT rely on this product exclusively to learn a language. You'll need to constantly refer to a translation website and (even better) a friend who's fluent in the language you're learning. Example: A picture of a child at the piano and the parents behind him. The phrase associated with it is, "Los padres están escuchando." "The parents are listening." But I had to get it translated because I didn't know if the verb meant watching, listening, teaching, etc. There has to be a way to reveal the translation within the program. OK... I am learning, but that's because I'm using Rosetta Stone only as a baseline. I am also using homemade flashcards, books and dictionaries, translation websites, patient friends who are native Spanish speakers and other free services. WARNING: R.S. has this product locked up so tight that it becomes detremental to its use. R.S. allows 2 'seats,' meaning it can only be installed on 2 computers. If a user uninstalls it with the intention to reinstall on another computer and does not first go through the 'deactivation process,' it's tremendously difficult to have it reinstalled anywhere else. The uninstall process does not warn users to deactivate first. I guarantee you will spend many days on the phone with tech support to straighten it out! WARNING: R.S. tech support is not available on the weekends when I assume most people will be using the product. Sorry Rosetta Stone... Not worth $500!!!