Review by J. Friedman

Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: The Rosetta Stone method is much, much better than the Pimsleur method. I’ve done Pimsleur in Spanish and Italian and a little bit of German, but this is the first time I’ve tried Rosetta Stone. It beats the Pimsleur aural method hands down. Pimsleur comes at you on a one-way street. They repeat phrases over and over again and you try to repeat them back. You can’t even see the words you’re trying to say. You just listen and repeat. If you don’t have a fantastic ear for language, you’re going to have no idea whether you’re even coming close to repeating the original.

That being said, this is much more expensive than one Pimsleur set. If you can afford it, then go with Rosetta Stone; if not, then try the Pimsleur. In fact, before you buy Pimsleur, see if it’s available in your local library. Take it out and try it before you plunk down the money for it. Personally, the visual cues, variable targets and pacing, and voice recognition for speech perfection in Rosetta Stone make it worth the extra money for me.

I took one semester of German in college, 34 years ago. That gave me a little familiarity with the language structure. That was then reinforced by 15 years of working for or being associated with German-owned companies, and the 30 or more trips to Germany I’ve made over the years. I picked up some of the language, but it was a pidgin version of German, interspersed with a lot of English words and helped a lot by the very courteous way in which my German colleagues helped me get a little closer to saying things the right way.

So I had some background. But when I sat down with the Rosetta Stone/German package, it was the first time I felt immersed in or surrounded by verbal cues, visual cues, and instantaneous translation. This really worked for me. I don’t learn that well by just listening.

I have to admit I also had a lot of fun with this. There was an interactivity and pacing that was much more engaging than either Pimsleur recordings or even classroom language learning. I also liked that it recorded my progress within my goal set. I highly recommend this product.