ศาลาชุมนุม

[Jimmy Dunne]

My Thai wife is using the Rosetta Stone Fnglish course and seems to like it. Does anyone have experience with their Thai product? Thanks.

[Aya]

Um...my students do not like it at all and as a Thai language instructor, I think it helps with pronunciation. Other than that...it's entertaining.

[George]

It's terrible. There is NO english, so half the time you're just trying to figure out what you're supposed to be learning from the picture. Check out some of the reviews on Amazon.com. For such an expensive product I was disappointed.
Most of what I learned came from this website and the Pimsler Thai tapes.

[HTWoodson]

I've been using it for a while now, and am about half way through the lessons. I have to admit that I didn't pay full price for it; I have a less than genuine copy, so I can't be too picky. If I had paid full price I would be very upset with the quality though. There are lots of errors and things that are unclear. Every lesson or two there is a picture that is wrong. Things like, "The boy has a glass of milk" and in the picture he has a glass of water. If I didn't already know the word for milk I would be very mixed up.

I think if you are a beginner then RosettaStone Thai is awful, but if you are more of an intermediate learner then you will actually get something from it. You really need to be able to read Thai to use it, but if you can already read and you understand the basics of Thai grammar, then RosettaStone is actually pretty good practice. You just have to be able to look up the new words so that you can double check the meaning.

One other thing though, my Thai friend says that many of the words I've picked up from RosettaStone aren't used anymore, have been replaced by loanwords or are too formal. So it's just like an AUA course.

I'm not encouraging anybody to buy pirated copies, but I think it's worth picking up if you can get it at a (heavy) discount, to use when you reach a more advanced beginner / beginning intermediate level. I wouldn't buy it at full price though. Maybe if they put some effort into an update, fixed the errors, and changed the pictures to Thai scenes instead of all the Chinese stuff. Apparently RosettaStone thinks all Asians are the same.

[tod-daniels]

I think the Rosetta Stone Thai Language program does have value, in fact quite a lot BUT. . ..

I believe it’s more suitable for a high beginner or low intermediate foreigner. This is a person who already has a grasp of basic Thai as far as being able to comprehend spoken Thai and to a lesser extent read Thai script too.

For a brand new Thai language learner, there are far more choices available in C/D or program form which would teach high frequency vocabulary, and high usage “phrozen-phrases”. I don’t believe Rosetta Stone provides a good “bang-4-the-baht” (real value in terms of cost) in this regard..

Even buying a boot-leg version at Pantip Plaza or MBK; the kind which has 9 or 10 different languages in addition to Thai for 300baht isn’t that useful for a beginner just starting to learn the Thai langauge.

Anyway, that’s my two satang’s worth. .

Good Luck
Tod Daniels

[cClark]

The newer versions of Rosetta Stone are quite good (Version 3+). However, the problem with Rosetta Stone is that it can't be used completely by itself. You would think it would be an all-in-one language-learning solution since all five levels of certain languages cost $500. Nope. With Rosetta Stone, you are thrown into a course in which absolutely no English is present. You must learn by looking at the pictures given. About all it helps with is the absolute, absolute basics - along with pronunciation. Rosetta Stone also actually teaches you like a baby, just like they promise in their advertisements. You will learn how to say "man", "fish", and "juice" before you know how to say "How are you" or "I am good, thank you."

Rosetta Stone currently offers only one level (Level 1) of Thai, and it is Version 2. I have this version, and don't like it very much. I use it, but it's not worth the 150 bucks I payed. Websites like this one (thai-language.com) have turned out to be much more helpful, and are absolutely free.

Conclusion: Rosetta Stone doesn't focus on conversational skills in the beginning. If you have the money, and want to give it a try - by all means go for it. If a newer version of Rosetta Stone Thai comes out, I will definitely be giving it a try - but Version 2 just isn't worth the space it takes up. If you are going to spend 150 bucks on learning Thai, go to Amazon and buy some books. They will end up being much more valuable than Rosetta Stone.

[Jarvis1000]

I haven't used Rossetta Stone for Thai, but I version 3 for Spanish

For the price you are not going to be getting what you think. It is a good source for helping you hear and get used to the sound and manerism of a language.

I didn't pay for mine, I got mine free of someone who was upset with theirs and gave it to me, because he was going to give it away anyway. So I can't say I can vouch for it's price. I like the non-english aspect, because it does help you gather meaning with out dependancy on English. It is not a Full language course and is not good enough by itself. I don't think i know of any full language course out there that can and I wish they would stop advertising it.