Rosetta Stone V2: Thai Level 1 [OLD VERSION]

There are many different ideas on the best way for adults to learn a foreign language. Much depends on the student, their goals, and their self-discipline. Dealing with a tonal language, like Thai, or a language with a different type of script, also like Thai, the student need make some big decisions about how they want to learn, and how much.I learned Spanish as an adult. I am now fluent at a professional/business level.I learned to read Thai. I can write some, but my vocabulary is very small. 90% of my Thai came from taking private one-on-one classes while living in Thailand for 6 months.I studied some Tagalog, some Korean, and some Thai using Rosetta Stone.If you just want to learn some Thai to get around as a tourist, you probably want to use Romanized phonetics. Learning the script is not really worth your time. An immersion product, like Rosetta Stone, is probably not as useful because much of the vocabulary and context is not related to what you will want to know (do you really need to say the boy is under the soccer ball?).If you want to seriously learn the language to be able to carry on casual or business conversations, commit early and realize there is far more work. For me, I first needed to learn the alphabet. You CANNOT consistently pronounce Thai correctly using Romanized phonetics. T one rules are only consistent in Thai script. Among other challenges, the Romanization is wildly inconsistent. You learn it one way, and then another source using different phonetics mires you in confusion. The same is probably also true of Korean, as it is also a phonetic language. Learning Chinese will likely be different.Second, I realized for me, I need to take notes. As adults we want to take notes to help remember key points. If you take the notes in English, you are handicapping yourself. Learn the alphabet and take notes in Thai. Again, I think this is true for phonetic languages like Korean, or even Hirigana and Katakana for Japanese. I doubt this is viable for Chinese.Third, again for me, I knew learning translation would create a permanent handicap. Early on, translation is easier, later on translation must be unlearned as it stilts actual conversation and thinking. You just can't translate fast enough. Even now, being fluent in Spanish, translating gives me a headache and frustrates me. I either have a conversation in Spanish, thinking in Spanish, or I have a conversation in English thinking in English. If I know a word in one language and not the other, my whole train of thought is derailed. Avoiding learning translation is where Rosetta Stone shines.I like the idea of Rosetta Stone. If you are disciplined and do the lessons, you will expand your spoken vocabulary rapidly. You will remember what you learn. I doubt it will do much for reading and writing with non-Roman scripts. Like any learning tool, disciplined study will yield results.Rosetta Stone is very expensive. Competing products like L-Lingo or products using different methods like Pimsleur, TellMeMore.com, Assimil, or Fluenz (supposedly the best, but only in a few languages) are a fraction of the cost of Rosetta Stone. Many of the different methods will work better for some people than others. Assimil is translation based. Pimsleur is hard to describe, but has a very good fluency success rate (supposedly). Look up Fluenz also, as the method and reviews suggest it is very effective in the few languages they offer.Besides cost, what is the other drawback to Rosetta Stone?The drawbacks are legion.Version 2 is good. Version 2 is how Rosetta Stone grew into a powerhouse. Version 3 is a refinement of version 2 with improved continuity, a smoother interface, better quizzes, and the ability to get rid of the stupid "must have CD with you at all times" limitation.The real problem is Rosetta Stone dropped support for version 2. Even though they were selling version 2 from their own website in 2012, they dropped support. Mac users are especially impacted as Mac OSX Lion will no longer run PPC apps, and Rosetta Stone never ported the Version 2 application to Intel. So, if you bought version 2 in 2012 to use on a Mac, you were ripped off by Rosetta Stone. Join the crowd.Windows users should not be too smug about the situation, as the end of Version 2 support means your product will have all sorts of issues too, unless you downgrade to WinXP.Version 3 (never made for Thai) does run on current platforms, and is at least somewhat supported (to the extent Rosetta Stone supports any product). Given so many users prefer version 3 to version 4 though, don't be surprised if they pull a Microsoft and force you to their new product nobody wants.Total 4e (not an option for Thai), is a horrible retrograde of Rosetta Stone. The pinnacle is by far version 3. To be fair, if you are always connected -- literally 100% of the time -- and live your life via social media, Total 4e might be effective. Don't expect to use the highly touted iOS apps on your iPhone or iPad though unless you are connected either. The whole idea of quickly practicing while in line or waiting in an office...yeah, that doesn't conform to the Rosetta Stone licensing model.Speaking of which, Rosetta Stone now has two components and two licensing models. There is the online social media part, and the software application. The first is now on a subscription basis. You pay for every month you learn. You can still use the app on your computer, but you just paid a premium for online access you aren't using. Therein lies the reason so many people look at Total 4e and then try to find version 3 before supplies run out.How about another suggestion?Try L-Lingo. L-Lingo uses a substantially identical learning model as Rosetta Stone. The interface actually has more features than Rosetta Stone and you can customize the interface to use Roman phonetics or native script. They have a Thai program. They have iPad and iPhone/IPod Touch iOS apps which you can use on a plane or anywhere else, with or without Internet access. Best of all, all of their programs together (Win or Mac desktop, iPad, iPhone/iPod Touch) for Thai are less than half the cost of Rosetta Stone Level I Thai.L-Lingo specializes in Asian languages. They are probably a superior option to Rosetta Stone Total 4e for most users. L-Lingo offers a free trial for their desktop application, and also for their iOS applicastions for some languages.There are other good options listed above, particularly Fluenz and Pimsleur. Be sure to check them out before buying anything made by Rosetta Stone.

I have been learning the Thai language for just over 6 months now. I started off with websites, learning basic things about the language and a few phrases. Then I got this course hoping to become proficient in the language. Unfortunately I discovered that it's largely useless for the following reasons:1) It has automated exercises, but doesn't highlight the words as they are being said. If you have no idea of how the Thai alphabet works, the writing on the pictures is almost useless.2) Thai uses various tone marks and modifiers which are critical in Thai speech. The font used in the program is so poor that you can't make these special characters out.3) Like other Rosetta Stone products it allows you to go through typing exercises. That DOES break everything down into word clusters. The pitfall of this is that you only have the options to "drag and drop" entire words. This means you really don't learn how to type the words including the special tone marks and modifiers. This could be improved by offering both modes as an option. It also could make use of an onscreen keyboard since most people don't have a Thai keyboard.4) Now that I have many Thai friends that I communicate with, I have quickly found out that almost all the phrases are completely useless. They are full of redundancies and poor word choice.5) There is no option to slow down the speech of the previews of each slide. This means that as the phrases become more complex, you have even more trouble identifying the nuances of the sounds. Add to this that it's not clear how many words are being spoken because each word isn't clearly identified in some way as it's being spoken. Thai uses no spaces (or ALMOST none), but a way to highlight individual words as they are spoken would clear much of this up.6) You will at least get an idea of what Thai sounds like, but for that you are better off with a combination Improving Your Thai Pronunciation, Thai For Beginners, Thai for Beginners Audio CD, and some Thai music/videos.7)Making use of all the exercises would take far longer than suggested by Rosetta Stone advertising. In addition, any suggestion that this would be highly sought after by professional linguists or spooks is absurd.To learn basic phrases that are useful, you need a good book like Thai for Beginner's. It teaches tones, but only "in theory" so you will need to obtain the companion CD for this book. Also a copy of Improving Your Thai Pronunciation will be good - it's not extensive, but learning the sounds will help you a lot. To learn the Thai language you are best served by a high quality academic dictionary which can be aided by an online dictionary. You also will need a way to learn the grammar. There are redundancy problems with these as well, but the approach is more scientific and you can learn better variations as you make more Thai friends. You must also be selective about the online sites you use because you may pick up many bad habits and a good deal of inaccurate information. Most importantly you must put your knowledge to the test by making some Thai friends online or in real life (best option).Oh, for those of us not lucky enough to have a Thai keyboard, there are free onscreen keyboard programs available for download with no strings attached.Overall I would say that the price vs. the quality is very poor. However, buying this program was a stepping stone and good lesson about what not to do. From now on I will carefully read reviews of language products, using reputable sources, and avoid poor quality products (hopefully).

It depends on your learning style. Some people hate it but I like the "total immersion" style. Program is very good for learning sentences and phrases. It is extremely helpful with reading Thai which can be very difficult. Helped me with reading by word recognition versus trying to sound out the characters.

My first expwrience with Rosetta Stone Languages. I loved the ease of using it and how quickly I started picking up words in Thai.