Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

In my opinion, the most important part of learning a language is communicating with another person. The TOTALe online component was great for this in that you could set up two 50 minute sessions in advance, but they had to be in two different levels. Now, unfortunately, the two session limit remains while the sessions have been cut to only 25 minutes. While I like 50 minutes and I can see others only being able to fit in 25 minutes it would be best if Rosetta Stone allowed 4 sessions and two consecutive in the same level. After calling their support line I got connected to India where I was transferred 4 times with a lot of hold time for the representative to tell me that they've essentially cut back therefore further limiting their customers after we've paid and committed to a TOTALe subscription. The software is okay, but you really need supplement material for French in particular and the ad-libbing of a live teacher that the 50 minute sessions offered some help in that department. To that point most adults do better when they learn the rules of the language and French has many. The use of many prepositions, liaisons, enchainment, etc. are important parts of the French language. Without knowing any rules and being left to figure them out on your own is a little like being a caveman who sees fire for the first time and trying to recreate one yourself in another location - good luck to you. If you have language learning experience you might be able to catch these things and then reference a grammar source of some kind, but I believe that rules make it easier for adults to take command of a language and just giving examples of grammar does not work for French. There are many people that felt Rosetta Stone was insufficient on its own. Here are just a couple of examples that RS French needs better grammar lessons: http://www.amazon.com/review/R34TO3WKLD972/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm http://www.amazon.com/review/R1WWB1JEY48WFH/ref=cm_cr_pr_perm?ie=UTF8&ASIN=0307478432&linkCode=&nodeID=&tag= In conclusion, the two-star rating is due to the cost to value ratio. If the price were lower and the marketing wasn't "all you need in one package" I would likely revise. UPDATE: Rosetta Stone now limits you to two 25 minute sessions per month with your subscription. It's insulting after all the money you spend to buy their software! Now that I've finished working through Rosetta Stone French completely, I invited anyone to comment with questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Also, I recently posted the following review on another website: I own three complete Rosetta Stone programs and have worked through all of them with various problems and have some feedback. Rosetta Stone is not great for many reasons including: 1. It's far more expensive than other methods that are are more effective 2. The software and its license itself become a technical and management issue for many (just ask someone who has had a computer crash and needed to talk to India to re-instate their license). 3. Children learn by immersion better, while adults have more complex brains. Translation and LOTS of supplementary material is needed. 4. After a bit it's BORING due to the lack of any personality the program has (no character to follow, no human investment). Other programs are much more fun and add humor. 5. You need to SPEAK to a native speaker regularly to make progress. Speaking to a machine or to Rosetta Stone's instructors for 25 minutes per month won't do you any good. And woe to the person who has connection problems or if Rosetta Stone has technical problems - which they have ofter. 6. The marketing makes it look as if your success will require little from you except for sitting down and working through the program. I could not disagree more - it's hard work and takes effort and dedication. 7. Writing and building a language reflex (speaking) are lacking enough to require a good deal more of supplementary material. 8. When you do have the Rosetta instructors, they barely correct your mistakes leading to bad grammatical habits. Grammar instruction is necessary. Most languages have very different structures from one another. Even languages such as French and Spanish are different and you really need to rely on someone to tell you your mistakes. That's how we all improve. Imagine going through grades K-12 and having no one to correct your mistakes. It would be as if we all graduated from Los Angeles Unified public schools (yes, I mean to be snarky!) I won't name other programs in this post since my intention is not to promote any particular product, but look for dual language (English-French for example) conversational approaches that will walk you through natural and semi-complete dialogues with grammar points.