Rosetta language modules submerge you, in deep

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Product: Rosetta Stone language course
Website: WWW.ROSETTASTONE.COM
System Requirements: Online connection, sound system. Windows or Mac OS for CD version, Shockwave plug in
Price: $50 a month - or Hindi Level 1 includes 92 lessons at $195

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I'M IN MY SECOND year learning Hindi part time, and have been aware of Rosetta Stone for a fair while. So I contacted the firm and asked to be given a chance to review the Hindi version - it kindly gave me online access to the first eight modules for a month.

The approach to learning a language with Rosetta Stone is quite different from other language courses, or the way you learnt or didn't learn languages at school. It claims its "Dynamic Immersion" is similar to the way you learned your native language when you were a baby - that is you picked it up, including script, syntax, speech and writing by context. Your reviewer is no longer a baby except in his ability to throw his toys out of a pram, and going through the course was an interesting experience.

Essentially, Rosetta Stone offers modules such as reading, writing, dictation and listening which it claims are built in a progressive way. Perhaps being no virgin to Hindi rather skewed the way I approached this one month experiment - it's undoubtedly true that I did learn stuff by putting some time into using the method, but on the other hand, some of the modules weren't useful to me personally, because I'm already familiar with the Devanagari script used in Hindi.

Here is an example of Rosetta's method. You are presented with four pictures, the word concerned, and a native speaker pronounces the word. In this case, the Hindi word is admi - which can mean one man or many men. If you choose the wrong picture, you get a sound signal telling you that, and can have another shot at choosing the right one.

You have a target to reach for each module - if you're successful the master Rosetta Stone page shows that in green - if that module is shown in yellow, it means you need to have another crack at it. The pictures are designed to give you visual clues that subtly change so that you gradually learn words you didn't know as you go along - this worked pretty well although sometimes ambiguities mean that you click the wrong picture.

The dictation modules involve the program reading out a word or a sentence in Hindi which you then have to repeat. The wave pattern of your response is shown on screen, while the little metre on the screenshot below tells you whether you've mimicked the sound successfully.

This technique works quite well - there is a time limit involved but as I progressed through the course, it became more and more difficult to remember all the words in a sentence to repeat them. This is intentional. You can always click the little speaker icon to have it repeat the sentence.

With the writing module,. you have to pick the words to match the sentence that goes with the picture. As I already knew the script, this wasn't too tough. But I wonder how easy it is for someone totally unfamiliar with the script to get her or his head round this. While I can't remember learning to speak and understand English when I was a baby, I can remember learning to read and to write. I have the feeling that approaching a new script for a language will prove more of an obstacle than the speaking and understanding modules of Rosetta Stone.

I completed over 15 hours using the Rosetta Stone over the Christmas period, and there are elements of the program that impressed me very much. Learning numbers, verb forms and new words were very useful supplements to the course I'm taking. I also found the combination of different native speakers used in the modules I completed most useful for both pronunciation and for comprehension.

Learning a language can be a difficult slog and one of the best aids is you actually wanting to, or having to learn. I doubt there's any real substitute for living in a country and learning at the same time, but Rosetta Stone may be the next best thing. The biggest advantage is that you can take it at your own speed, while the Internet version lets you access it from different locations if you're one of thae road warrior types. ?

The Good
Take things at your own pace
Excellent native language speech
Good choice of images to build up vocabulary

The Bad
Text and sometimes pics are too small for an old person, you'll have to adjust your screen res

The Ugly
Foreign scripts are likely to be a bigger obstacle when learning

Bartender's Report