Buy Rosetta Stone, Spanish (Spain), Version 4, TOTALe, Level 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 (Mac/PC)Rosetta Stone, Spanish (Spain), Version 4, TOTALe, Level 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 (Mac/PC) Product Description:
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32 of 34 people found the following review helpful.
Enough with the RS bashing. It's the best on the market..
By ReadyToRoll
Rosetta Stone gets a lot of unfair criticism on various review sites on the internet and it's usually from people who seem half-hearted about learning a language or expect it to be some magical pill that'll instantly give them the ability to speak another language. I wish some of these people would get real.Learning another language takes a lot of time and effort. Simply studying the first level isn't enough, nor should you expect it to be. What Rosetta Stone does well is demystify the language you're learning and present it in everyday situations using what is essentially an expensive visual flash card system, one that for me works better than other methods.I've nearly completed level two and feel that my Spanish level is improving all the time. I try and do an hour everyday, two if possible, plus watch some Spanish TV on the internet (Telemadrid.es is my favourite). Already, I'm starting to understand what's going on in some programmes and I've still got another three levels to go.Rosetta Stone isn't perfect, but you know what? No product on the market is. In my opinion, Rosetta Stone is the best there is right now, a conclusion I've come to after using many other products such as Michel Thomas, numerous textbooks, Linguaphone, part-time evening courses at a local college (never again), plus others. It's the only product that has kept me motivated.No product on the market right now is going to make you fluent in speaking your target language because they are all designed to improve your receptive skills (listening and reading). Only interacting with native speakers in the real world will bring fluency in speaking. I know after studying the first two levels that my speaking ability isn't going to be great when I've finished all five levels. This is simply because I don't have anybody to practice with and it's the spontaneity and thinking on your feet that unrehearsed real-life conversation brings that will ultimately improve my speaking fluency. However, I know that my listening, reading and pronounciation skills will be a solid intermediate level when I've completed all five levels. I can already read Spanish to a lower intermediate level with my listening skills not far behind.The online activities are good, if a little light on content and a tad pricey, especially considering how expensive the initial product is. I really like the stories with audio and wish there were more. Maybe there will be at the higher levels.It gets a little boring at times, which is when I'll watch some Spanish TV or listen to Spanish radio online to still keep me in the frame of mind of learning, without actively taking part. I'll then return to Rosetta Stone and this usually does the trick.It's a comprehensive package that will improve your Spanish, if you're willing to put the work in on a regular basis. To all those who criticise Rosetta Stone so freely, I say complete at least three levels, preferably all five levels, then give your opinion. If your Spanish still hasn't improved, then by all means, moan til your heart's content. I'm pleased with what I have experienced so far.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful.Great fun if it suits your learning style!
By Paul Madge
We already have the Rosetta Stone French, German and Italian so Spanish was next in line for us to try and get to grips with. I found the software loads and runs well on our HP Intel i5, 10Gb RAM, Win 7 (64bit) PC. I note the comments on this page that this is an expensive package. I too, feel over £300 is a great deal of money to invest, but, to be fair to Rosetta Stone, it's not just the physical package you're buying, it's obvious a huge amount of research into learning techniques and production resources have gone into this package.The box includes the discs for Modules 1-5 (Mac or PC) plus a quality headset with mic for the interactive element and access to a number of on-line practice sessions with a native speaker of the language concerned. Once you've completed a module you go to the "Studio" and select a time slot - the fact that you'll be conversing with a tutor is a great incentive to really get to grips with the module first! A cardinal principle of the Rosetta Stone learning process is that the tutors will only converse with you in the language you are studying - no reverting to English if the going gets tough! I find the online charging structure confusing (and that's why it drops a star)- the first 3 months are free, but, I'd like a clearer tariff regarding charges outside this period. You also get an "Audio Companion" to load learning material onto your MP3 player, and, there is also an IPad application which is I believe is free for the first three months.The learning methodology is clever and, in my opinion, very effective using a number of techniques including voice recognition, as well as interaction via the PC keyboard and games. The visual scenarios are all professionally staged with credible models and locations save the odd one or two which look a bit "photo shopped". It is an aspect of my personal learning style (rather than a shortcoming in the package) that I am less keen on the written (keyboard) aspect of the programme. The voice recognition seems to work quite well, without some of the hiccups referred to by other reviewers - I've had the odd issue where I've coughed, and, the software has tried to recognise it as a word but it's easily recoverable. I think anyone buying this package should think if this "immersive" learning style is right for them - in my case, it's effective, because, it fits with the way I gain confidence and learn. Others may have a different style of learning, which may need a different approach like a series of online "Skype tutorials" which may work better for them. The good thing is that this package really tries to teach you to speak a language naturally rather than the way I learnt at school in the 60s/70s.A message for Rosetta Stone is that we need a clearer tariff of charges outside the free service period, and, for a company whose core business is language studies, the sales/support websites need to be a bit less US centric. These issues however, don't detract from the fact that the core product is very good indeed. To the prospective buyer of this package I'd say, only you know your individual learning style, and, there are plenty of resources on the web where you can look at the Rosetta Stone approach (and others). If this "immersive" approach is right for you, then, I'd say this is a very good package, especially, if you've got to "shoehorn" your learning into a busy lifestyle.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Superb
By Mr. J. C. Kent
There is a reason why the Rosetta Stone language software is the market leader - it works! While the Level 1 products are a bit pricey for the amount of teaching, this full level 1-5 course justifies its price due to its level of depth. If you want to learn Spanish look nowhere else than at the Rosetta Stone Level 1-5 - its the best by far
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For Sale QNAP TS-559 Pro II 5 Bay Turbo NAS with iSCSI
Buy QNAP TS-559 Pro II 5 Bay Turbo NAS with iSCSIQNAP TS-559 Pro II 5 Bay Turbo NAS with iSCSI Product Description:
- 6USB
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6USB Raid 0,1, 5, 6,10, 5+spare, Hot-Swap
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.Nice
By Sergiano
I've bought this NAS about 2 months ago and it was very smooth experience so far. Number of features is vast and I don't think I'll ever use even half of them. But what I used/tried worked great.I've bought Kingston 2GB 1333MHz DDR3 Non ECC CL9 SODIMM (Item model number: KVR1333D3S8S9/2G) from Amazon, can confirm that it works grand. Was easy to install. However, I rarely see memory usage going higher 300-600 MB, so there is no point buying it unless you're planning to use many application services.Power usage with x5 3TB Hitachi CoolSpin (HDS5C3030ALA630 MEAO) between 42-52W depending on usage, and around 23W when drives go to standby mode (not spinning).One hard drive died after 4 weeks of usage (very annoying) the NAS was efficient in switching RAID6 to degraded mode and still works great while I'm waiting for the new hard drive.Fan noise on default low settings is very low, practically inaudible - can't hear it from 3 meters while working at night, this is very important for me. On middle setting can hear fan clearly but it's very soft sound, not disturbing at all, heard it once or twice during start-up and when I was playing with fan settings, all other time it stays on low setting.USB One-click-copy button is very convenient, more convenient than expected, I use it often.I had a problem with my old portable USB 2.0 HDD: it lost all data, file system was not recognised by NAS as per logs, and also was not recognised by Windows 2008 R2. I cannot blame the NAS as the computer that HDD was used last is quite dodgy, thus corruption could have happened there.However I have a suspicion that it could NAS' fault - I was not patient enough to wait for the NAS to be completely booted and plugged in USB HDD somewhere between "Loading drivers" and "Mounting volume" states. There is a chance that linux nuked the file system during start up, while all drivers weren't fully loaded. Anyhow I cannot be sure if this problem happened on NAS or dodgy computer. From now on I'm waiting for NAS to load completely before plugging in external drive and problem did not occur again.Minor negatives:1. Web file manager is not bad, but it timed out few times when I was copying few dozen thousands files (Possibly fixed in the new firmware, but I haven't checked it). Due to this problem I started using PuTTY and running "mc -a" (midnight commander, need to install Optware QPKG first) when I need to copy/delete many files in my NAS.2. Applying new file/folder permissions via web interface could take ages, process list shows very minimal CPU usage, and it does not seem do hummer hard drive too much either. Not sure why it's so slow. But maybe I have too many files in those folders.Overall it looks like a nice solid device, and hopefully will last years, only time will tell.
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Pricey for this level
