Rosetta Stone V2: Swahili Level 1

I could only progress so far with this program before I felt frustrated and had to purchase some Kiswahili grammar and conversational text guides to keep learning. Also, they don't offer much native visual or cultural context to the areas you might actually use this language in, which is something even my college-level Spanish and German courses stressed (for example,  Workbook in Spanish First Year ).Rosetta Stone also hasn't released an update or improved this product in any way (they've been on Version 2 for a few years now), yet they have raised the price by at least 5% since I purchased it in spring of 2008. I get the feeling that Rosetta Stone is lazily and haughtily leaning on its reputation and market share in the absence of other strong competitors. I would give this product 3 stars if it weren't for the increasing price on an aging product.I also should note that the DVD surfaces are coated with a heavy yellow paint which can cause an unbalanced disc and catching in some DVD drives. My disc gets caught every time I eject (on two different DVD drives now, one a Sony, the other a LITE-ON) and it scratched the foil clear through, affecting DVD performance. I contacted Rosetta Stone's customer service for a replacement disc, and they were quite rude and abrupt and told me they will not issue you a replacement disc unless you can prove you originally purchased it NEW (so don't count on any replacement of used versions purchased from used book stores or eBay). Thankfully, Amazon keeps records of your purchases online on your account, because I long since discarded the receipt that came with the box.Also note: Not surprisingly, you CANNOT purchase any 'used' versions on Amazon from other sellers...they're not made available on Amazon.

I can't really tell you how it works...because....IT NEVER DID!!!! I bought this program a few months before I left to live in Kenya permanently. Because Rosetta Stone has such a respected name, I sprang for it - an expense I would normally never even consider. In hindsight, I shouldn't have! I had to send for replacement cds 3 times, because they didn't work on my brand-new MacBook. Because I was in Kenya when I found that my second set of replacement discs didn't work either, I was stuck with useless cds until I returned this Christmas. Now back in the States, I've spent several hours on the phone with technical services and after uninstalling and reinstalling several times, making the issue even worse, they shifted the blame onto Mac and said I had programs missing! Even their top level techs couldn't resolve the issue - they just sent me an article on how to install some program. All-in-all, I'd never purchase another Rosetta Stone program - a private tutor is not expensive and works much better - I got a husband out of the deal :)

Unfortunately, Rosetta Stone has not updated its Kiswahili program in the way that it has done with more popular languages such as Spanish. As a result, this is a fairly short program that teaches a limited subset of the language. Also, this sort of point-and-click language learning cannot begin to address some of the harder aspects of Kiswahili grammar.However, it is good practice and a good introduction to the spoken language before diving into a more thorough text-based resource such as Teach Yourself Swahili, or Swahili: a Foundation for Speaking, Reading and Writing.

If buying used from Redemption Tactical think twice. Bought a year ago De ember 1 2021 used and was a waist of my money

Do not purchase this item if you think you are going to learn Swahili basics such as "hello" "please" "thank you", "how much" etc. This system is all about object identification, which is fine if you already have some basic language skills. As a tourist, I just wanted to learn commom words and phrases that could be used everyday in simple interactions. When I called Rosetta Stone the customer service agent told me I was wrong until she looked it up herself. I was very disappointed with Rosetta Stone and will never use any of their products again.

This software is easy to use. The only thing to make it more user friendly would be the ability to use it on a portable DVD player, to use when traveling, etc.

Rosetta Stone was a good supplement to my learning of Kiswahili, but I wouldn't use it as my only resource.

This is a great opportunity to give a much desired Christmas gift! Price discount and no tax gave a huge break that allowed the purchase. Thanks.

I hammered away at the lessons for quite some time, but made little progress. Part of the problem is that it is often not very clear what message the pictures are trying to convey. While individual nouns like "bird," "car," "woman", "man," "boy," or "girl" are obvious, once there are complete sentences it's not so obvious what the pictures are trying to say. At least provide some English translations somewhere to solve this dilemma. I started manually transferring the Swahili sentences to Google Translate to figure out what they meant because the photos were so unhelpful, but in the end found the hassle wasn't worth the effort and ditched it. I've since completed 2 separate language programs with Duolingo and find their process much more fun and efficient (and free) for learning languages so I'll wait for Duolingo to offer Swahili. Considering the price and claims that Rosetta makes, I find their program quite disappointing. In fairness, I haven't tried any of Rosetta's other languages so perhaps they may be better, but considering my experience with their Swahili program, I won't be risking my money on them.