i looked into the program for giggles a while ago. it is true the sessions are expensive. if i remember correctly, there are three sessions per language? each one rather expensive. i felt that for $1500... i could take a night class at a community college or other and probably get a better understanding (than looking at pictures and only learning 'survival' words/phrases).

but i haven't really experienced it. so i suppose my opinion isn't entirely fair.

I would recommend trying it out first before unloading all your money on it. If someone you know has it, even if it's for another language, test it out first. Or utilize the internet. Even a demo or something.

I've personally tried Rosetta Stone before, just to screw around with it, not studying any one language. I'm not sure which version it was, so I don't know what changes they've made since I tried it. I honestly wasn't that impressed. I didn't like the lack of explanations when I wasn't sure what something meant, or the lack of grammar, if I remember correctly. German grammar can suck major ass, and you definitely need the boring textbook explanations sometimes, or you'll get nowhere in constructing sentences. You'll learn something from it, and maybe get some basic phrases, but it's never going to make you anywhere close to fluent. Even if you take classes for years, you're probably not going to become fluent, so don't get your hopes up too high, regardless of how dedicated you are. Fluency comes from living in a country speaking the language, and is very difficult to do otherwise.

If you're going to get a computer program, I would personally recommend the Tell Me More ones. They cover off on a bit of everything--vocabulary, grammar, listening, writing, speaking, etc. It combines the game type of stuff with the textbook stuff. Tell Me More won't make you fluent either, but it'll give you some sort of foundation that you can expand upon later, if you're really serious about it.

I borrowed the French version from my local library last summer.

All it does is throw you into a lesson with pictures.

My husband managed to get the Rosetta program for free through his work and is learning Japanese..Its a great program but dont kid yourself that it will be perfect.. It doest teach like normal college classes..where they tell you the word in English then in the new language..Rosetta stone shows you a picture..Okay when your learning the word apple..HARD when your trying to figure out WHAT a picture full of people, the great outdoors and like a million household items means (or which thing/person/place they are talking about)..It can be maddening..I would hire a tutor or get some translation books to go along with it..cause they dont offer a help line or similar service and trust me..you will get stumped with no teacher to fall back on.. Best of luck!

My mom has the French program. She loves it.

I've requested a couple of languages (Finnish and Croatian) and am waiting for those to come out. :P

It's not a bad program, but... It's effectiveness really depends on the learning style of the user. They go with what they consider the ''immersion'' method, which is... Basically what everyone else's been saying, it's a picture followed by a word or a phrase. I have two discs, Chinese I and Japanese I, and it's... Certainly not a perfect method, but it can give a decent base for learning, such as low-level constructions, counting, writing, pronunciation, and all that stuff, but, it's certainly not a ''be-all, end-all'' for language-learning. Before considering just getting Rosetta Stone, do some research online or through a book, or some other source, first. Then, after you've gone through a bit that way, decide whether or not you still want to try the Rosetta Stone program.

Really, the only true way to become immersed in a language is to, well, as some have mentioned earlier, actually be surrounded on all sides by that language. Not really something one can just do on a whim, but, it's... The only real way to efficiently gain a grasp on a language. ...Then again, though, I'm Captain Use-The-Internet-To-Study-Languages, so, I don't have much room to talk, here. Ah, yes, Good Luck with your endeavors in German and Italian, whatever methods you use!

If your native tongue is English, German will be easier for you to learn than, say Russian or Hebrew. Rosetta stone is nice, but I prefer that if t he language you want to learn is closer to your own, it is better to take classes in it. It should be faster and more streamlined.

Oh and don't worry about German grammar, it really is not that bad. Pretty much all the conjegations of the verbs follow the same order and there are not really any exceptions. It's also a phonetic language unlike English. Plus the amount of words in the language is not that much, but there Germans do make their own. The gender of the nouns is always the base which simplifies things a LOT.