Review by Truth Teller

I originally became interested in Italian when I visited there a couple years ago. At the time, I just wanted to learn enough to get by in the event that I was in a situation where there wasn’t an English speaker. So, I purchased the drive time italian audio CD’s and tried to learn from them. I was very unimpressed with them and felt like ten hours of CDs got me little more than the ability to say hello and goodbye.

Being in Italy spurred me into wanting to actually learn more of the lesson, so when Rossetta Stone 3 was made available I jumped at the chance to go further. So far, I can say that this is leap years ahead of the drive time italian course.

This product allows you to customize it to your goals (read, write, listen, speak) through a very simple startup screen (which can be setup for different users) and then it automatically builds the lessons for you.

I find the lessons to be enjoyable and very useful. The speech recognition aspect is awesome. It lets you even customize how precise you want the software to grade your pronunciation.

Aside from the computer aspect, this product provides a whole set of CDs that complement the main software. This is great for reinforcing your learnings when you aren’t in front of the computer.

The downsides of the product do NOT outweigh the upsides in my opinion. However, I should list a few for you. 1) It is pricey. 2) It doesn’t allow you to run it on more than one computer (you can move it to a new computer, but you have to uninstall it from the first computer). 3) The included headset is a bit flimsy.

Bottom Line: If you are wanting to learn the language, excel when presented with multiple ways to learn it (visual, auditory, and written), and want to do it at your own pace, I really think this is a great option and can recommend it. If you are only wanting to pick up the bare minimums for surviving travel in Italy and are on a budget, find another product that focuses on getting you into the basic phrases you’ll need. Overall, a great product.